11. Time Killers

Mortal Kombat is usually the game that is credited for bringing video game violence to the forefront, but the brutality of Midway's creation pales in comparison to Time Killers. The button configuration was quite different — five buttons corresponding to the two legs, two arms, and head — but it was when you pressed all five buttons that something incredible would happen: your character would attempt to decapitate his or her opponent. Meanwhile, you could also lop off their limbs. My personal favorite was Rancid with his chainsaw.

10. Fighting Vipers

Yes, Sega was back at it again. Enjoying the success of Virtua Fighter, they applied the same 3D engine to Fighting Vipers, another arena-based battler with some rather colorful characters. There are two main reasons why Fighting Vipers deserves mention. First, the armor system was interesting, because you could target specific body parts and they'd bust open after considerable damage. Second, Fighting Vipers introduced destructible environments and there was nothing more orgasmic that busting your opponent through the wall.

9. Virtua Fighter

Traditional fighting games are two-dimensional and typically use hand-drawn character sprites. Sega turned this on its head with Virtua Fighter, a fighting game that featured 3D polygonal characters, ushering a whole new era of fighting games. Arguably, it was Virtua Fighter that paved the way for future titles like the Tekken series and the Dead or Alive series. Sure, the gameplay wasn't the best in the first Virtua Fighter and the polygons were huge, but man alive was it innovative for its time. The ring out concept was pretty creative too.

8. Primal Rage

Pretty well every other fighting game at the time featured human combatants, but Atari's Primal Rage had ballistic dinosaurs and overgrown apes that released golden showers. The control scheme — which involved holding buttons and then doing a control stick motion — was a considerable departure from the norm as well. This may have been one of the most under-appreciated fighting games of our time. Who could forget playing caveman volleyball?

7. X-Men vs. Street Fighter

Tag-team fighting that combined two of my biggest obsessions, X-Men vs. Street Fighter gave us the chance to do two super moves at the same time. It was absolutely explosive to see Cyclops perform his gigantic optic blast alongside Ryu performing his Shinku Hadouken, filling the screen with a massive wave of energy. Wolverine was a natural favorite as well. X-Men vs. Street Fighter was truly original for its time and it ushered in a whole era of "versus" games, like Marvel vs. Capcom and Capcom vs. SNK. It's called fusion, my friends. Fusion.

6. Fatal Fury 2

Andy Bogard, Terry Bogard, and Joe Higashi are probably the most recognizable characters from this SNK-developed versus fighting game, but it was when Fatal Fury 2 was released in 1992 that we were introduced to Mai Shiranui. In many ways, Fatal Fury (in all its different incarnations) was a rip-off of Street Fighter II. The same can be said about Art of Fighting, also an SNK title. But you know what? Mai is way hotter than Chun-Li will ever be, and this difference can be summed up in just two words: "Me bouncy!"

5.Guilty Gear XX

Oh come on is Guily Gear

4. King of Fighters '94

3.Tekken 3

2. Mortal Kombat II

Flawless victory. Fatality. The first Mortal Kombat got soccer moms crying to the government and adolescents scampering to the arcades. Instead of using character sprites, Mortal Kombat actually video taped their characters, making for some of the most realistic graphics to date. Unfortunately, the first MK suffered from some pretty bad lag… but this was fixed in Mortal Kombat II. We also got a bunch of new characters, including Kitana, Baraka, and Kung Lao. The introduction of Friendship and Babality finishing moves was quite surprising.

Great games that did not make to the list

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1. Street Fighter II

You must have seen this coming. No list of best fighting games would be complete without some mention of Ryu, Ken, and the rest of the Street Fighter franchise. Perhaps the most difficult decision, however, was picking which Street Fighter game was the absolute best and I had to go old school and kick it with Champion Edition. Hyper Fighting got too frantic, whereas Street Fighter Alpha (Zero) and Street Fighter III added little in terms of originality.

Champion Edition let us control Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M.Bison and that made it all worth it. No super fireballs or gigantic sonic booms; just straight strategy and skill. It doesn't get any better than Street Fighter II: Champion Edition.