5 Best Sega Genesis Fighting Games That Still Hold Up Today

The Sega Genesis launched during the heyday of the fighting-game craze in arcades. That was helpful for players at home, as many developers decided to bring their hit arcade fighters to the Genesis to double-dip and reach a new audience. While some of those attempts fizzled out, several of them turned out to be massive successes. The genre has come a long way since then, but if you want to see what it was like to be a Genesis kid back in the ’90s with several great fighters at your fingertips, you’ll want to check out the games below.

Here are five Sega Genesis fighting games that still hold up today.

5) Eternal Champions

I know I just spent a paragraph talking about how developers ported over arcade games to the Genesis, but Eternal Champions was actually created for the console from the ground up. Sega decided to make an in-house fighter that could capture fighting-game fever and bring it home.

Eternal Champions does have a few unique features, including a larger emphasis on its story mode. You can also reflect projectiles and use a force field to protect yourself. Heck, Sega even added a training mode to make it easier to learn how to fight. To its credit, Eternal Champions performed well critically and commercially, spawning one sequel and two spin-offs. If you want to see a fighter specifically made for the Genesis, there aren’t many other options.

4) Primal Rage

Primal Rage is a weird game because it was essentially created to sell toys. Just like cartoons in the ’80s, the video game was almost secondary to the merchandising that came out around this game’s release. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it’s worth noting that most of the other games on this list are technically much better than Primal Rage.

Still, it doesn’t get more ’90s than dinosaurs fighting each other. It’s a rad premise, and the Genesis version is a solid port of the arcade machine. Of course, if you could find a cabinet, that’d be preferable, but most critics rated the Genesis version much better than the SNES port. Unfortunately, the planned sequel never happened, but if you want to know the story, Atari did put out an original novel to satisfy fans.

3) Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

There’s an argument to be made that Mortal Kombat 2 is the classic MK game to play on the Genesis. However, I’m going with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. What you don’t want to do is play normal MK3. That version is missing most of your favorite characters and doesn’t have all of the features and mechanics you want.

In some ways, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is the most feature-complete classic MK game. Not only does it bring back classic characters that were missing from the main game, but it also adds several gameplay updates that help balance combat. Toss in two new modes, including the novel 2-on-2 mode and an eight-player tournament, and you have the best way to play classic Mortal Kombat on the Genesis.

2) Samurai Shodown

Samurai Shodown was the first fighting game from SNK to make weapons important. We’ve seen other weapon fighters, but there’s always something special about a good SNK game in the ’90s. Of course, Genesis players had a long wait before they got to get their hands on it, and it absolutely wasn’t as good a port as the Neo Geo version.

Regardless, it’s still a fun version. You are missing out on Earthquake and her stage. Plus, there’s no camera zoom to help keep the characters as detailed as possible. Despite some of the shortcomings, most critics agreed that the Genesis version is better than the SNES port. That partially comes down to the awkward controls on the Super Nintendo, but you’ll still want to play this version of Samurai Shodown if you aren’t hopping onto the arcade or Neo Geo versions.

1) Street Fighter II: Champion Edition

There are a few different versions of Street Fighter II to choose from, but it’s fair to say that if you want to play a Genesis fighting game, you might as well start with a version of one of the best fighters of all time. Street Fighter II lit the arcade on fire when it launched, and it was equally successful on the console market.

For my money, Champion Edition is the one to get. It adds the four grand masters as playable characters and lets you jump into mirror matches. Plus, Capcom did another pass on character balance, making this one of the better versions for competitive play. Like almost every Street Fighter game of the era, it was a hit critically and commercially, making it an easy choice for the top of this list.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

7 Most Difficult Sega Genesis Games Ever Made