What is your ONE favourite one v one fighting series?

[speedlolita]

Street Fighter III: Third Strike, obviously.

[J0e Musashi]

Real Bout 2 is all kinds of awesome.

[eastyy]

killer instinct though with the older games will admit as a fighting game it is broken to hell but i played it a lot

Really wish weaponlord became a series though

[QualityChimp]

Tekken is my favourite, but I've not played it since Tag.

I remember Nina in 3 doing a multi-part throw on me and I was amazed! I looked up who had the most moves and I've played as King ever since.

[chojin]

Streetfighter there are no other contenders!.. Turbo II on the SFC was my favourite as a kid, recently gotten into Third Strike which is a whole new ball game.

[Yakumo]

For 2D none Street Fighter I'll go with Fatal Fury Special. I just love that game.

For 3D I'll go with Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast. The quest mode on that added a lot plus there's so many extras.

[Anpanman]

Tekken for me.

[speedlolita]

Streetfighter there are no other contenders!.. Turbo II on the SFC was my favourite as a kid, recently gotten into Third Strike which is a whole new ball game.

Yes it is, a magical ball game. lol

I walked into one of the last surviving arcades in London recently, Last Vegas in Soho. To my delight, there was a few Pony cabinets, one with Third Strike on it and a guy sitting at it playing! I went around to the other side of the cabinets to challenge him and what was I met with? II Turbo. The cabinets weren't connected. I was absolutely gutted.

[jonathan_ingram]

Yes it is, a magical ball game. lol

I walked into one of the last surviving arcades in London recently, Last Vegas in Soho. To my delight, there was a few Pony cabinets, one with Third Strike on it and a guy sitting at it playing! I went around to the other side of the cabinets to challenge him and what was I met with? II Turbo. The cabinets weren't connected. I was absolutely gutted.

Didn't realise there was anything other than the HOG and what lurks around the remains of the Trocadero in terms of London arcades.

I can't pick one fighter, I'm all over the place between SF2 Dash/CE (I know it's unbalanced, but the nostalgia!), Garou, KOF98 and SF Zero 2/Dash

[samanosuke]

Grrrrrr.... I don't want to say it but it has to be Street Fighter as a series. SF2 was a seminal title, CE being my favourite, and then it saw further improvement in IIX. But it is SF3: TS that is the pinnacle of all fighters, with a huge learning curve and seemingly infinite depth. I love all the new characters in it despite hating them to begin with, and once I became accustomed with them I found them to be a lot more interesting and varied than the cast of previous titles in the series. And the parrying... Once you go parry you never look back. So frustrating when playing the likes of SF4 or SFZ3 you find yourself hitting forward mid-air and getting punished for it.

Wish it didn't have to be the SF series as I lovr, and I mean LOVE the KOF series. Also love SamiSho 2 and the FF series, particularly Garou MotW. In fact MotW was my favourite fighter until I finally decided to - quite recently I might add - persevere with 3S. I love its simple yet deep fighting mechanics, I just find the Just Defend system a little less intense, and with it a little less exciting, than 3S's parrying.

[QualityChimp]

I really wish I'd bought that PS2 Hokuto No Ken game. It looked proper bonkers!

[Asura]

I think anyone would struggle to say anything other that Street Fighter. It's so long-lived and consistently brilliant that it's almost objective to say it's the best one-on-one fighter by most measurable means.

So many of the others have either fell by the wayside or had mis-steps. I really liked Soul Blade, Soul Calibur and 2 - but then every one since has just got worse and worse in my eyes. I love Virtua Fighter too, but it's just not relevant anymore (it's been that long since the last major iteration; I mean it isn't even played at Evo these days).

I've never been the biggest Tekken fan. I think that's because I grew up on VF. I dislike that Namco see Tekken as their "serious" fighter and Calibur as their "crazy, kooky, anything-goes" fighter (kinda like Capcom with Street Fighter and Darkstalkers). I would much prefer to see Tekken and Soul Calibur's situations reversed, and Namco just treat Tekken as the experimental one.

Main thing I miss though is variety. On the PS1/Saturn/N64 there were loads of random fighters; Kensei, Fighters Destiny, Shaolin, Rakuga-Kids... Yeah, most of them were crap, but it was interesting to see new takes on the genre. Occasionally you got surprises like Bloody Roar that made it worth it.

[samanosuke]

Crap, how did I forget SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millenium in my honourable mentions? The best portable fighter bar none.

[speedlolita]

There is nothing, nothing, that feels as good as fully parrying a super in Third Strike. At that point it almost becomes a rhythm game. Reading that you gave it another chance and discovered that special layer is great.

[samanosuke]

There is nothing, nothing, that feels as good as fully parrying a super in Third Strike. At that point it almost becomes a rhythm game. Reading that you gave it another chance and discovered that special layer is great.

QFT. Also red parries and mid-air parry juggles are pretty special. It's what separates 3S from its peers.

Hey, wouldn't a 3S vs MotW crossover be amazing? The fighter to end all fighters potentially. Just think of the matchups... Remy vs Freeman, Hokutomaru vs Makato, The Griffon vs Hugo, Alex vs Kevin and Ryu vs Marco. Now that would be amazing!