UPDATE: Guilty Gear -Strive- won Best Fighting Game at The Game Awards 2021!
Fighting game may not be the most mainstream or contentious award category forThe Game Awards, but 2021 was a surprisingly good year for some of the niche corners of the fighting game community. While mainstays likeStreet FighterandTekkenare still going strong, despite being well into each game’s lifecycle, several excellent new fighting games released in 2021 as well. Particularly for fans of anime or anime-esque fighters, games likeGuilty Gear -Strive-andMelty Blood: Type Luminareinvigorated some of the most popular and long-standing franchises in the genre, even if they were at one time considered obscure to the mainstream audience.
This year, there are five nominees for the “Best Fighting” category for 2021:Demon Slayer -Kimetsu No Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles,Guilty Gear -Strive-,Melty Blood: Type Lumina,Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, andVirtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown. This year showcases a variety in fighting game types similar to past years, showcasing a multitude of anime fighters, a platform fighter, and the revival of a classic 3D fighter as well. Oftentimes it’s inherently difficult to quantify what’s the “best” fighting game in any given year because of the breadth of different fighting games, but in terms ofThe Game Awards, there’s a pretty clear winner for this year.
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Demon Slayer -Kimetsu No Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles
Generally speaking, anime arena fighters have never really been considered competitively deep experiences. Most of the time, these games are casual-oriented fighters that don’t emphasize a high execution level from players.Much like the manyNarutoandDragon Ball3D games before it,Demon Slayer -Kimetsu No Yaiba- The Hinokami Chroniclesvery much falls into the same category.
Developed by CyberConnect2, the same team behind theShipuddenseries,The Hinokami Chroniclesbrings the same casual arena fighter styleto theDemon Slayerseries in a largely medicore fashion. Many came to criticize the game’s lacking roster, as well as a lack of meaningful updates on the formula that CyberConnect2 has been employing on the many arena fighters based on anime its developed. Players did, however, praise the game’s vibrant art style as being true to its source material.Demon Slayerfans looking for a casual experience will obviously find a lot to love withThe Hinokami Chronicles, but beyond that, there’s not much here for fighting game fans.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
One of the many new titlesiterating on the formula pioneered bySuper Smash Bros., Nickelodeon’s brand of platform fighter got many players excited leading up to release. Gathering together characters like SpongeBob Squarepants, CatDog, Danny Phantom, and Nigel Thornberry together into one fighter madeNickelodeon All-Star Brawlan exciting prospect.
While conceptually exciting,Nickelodeon All-Star Brawlwas ultimately a bit lacklusterin execution. Gameplay-wise, the game was largely excellent, melding some of the classic mechanics ofSuper Smash Bros.with the many quirky Nickelodeon characters on its roster. However, aesthetically speaking, the visuals and animation were the only bits of character exemplified from these iconic characters; no voice acting, little to no interaction between characters, among other issues that amounted to a lack of polish for the game. While it certainly looked like a Nickelodeon-fueled platform fighter with solid gameplay,Nickelodeon All-Star Brawlhad surprisingly little character.
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Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown
Virtua Fighteris a classic Sega fighting game franchisethat’s been around for decades, even if it’s not the most popular 3D fighter among the likes ofTekkenorSoul Caliburis today. This year brought a re-release of the fifth game in the series withVirtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdownon PS4, of which the original game was a well-received entry in the series from 2006.
Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdownreinvigorates the original releasewith updated graphics, utilizing Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Dragon Engine (fromYakuza,Judgment) to enhance the visuals significantly. Outside of that, significant improvements to the online experience were appreciated by the competitive community, even if that meant the game utilized delay-based netcode instead of rollback netcode. However, these multiplayer improvements came at the cost ofUltimate Showdown’s singleplayer offering. Outside of the basic Arcade mode, there’s not much on offer inUltimate Showdown, which was never a huge deal for modern competitive fighting games anyway.
Melty Blood: Type Lumina
In terms of the most obscure fighting games, theMelty Bloodseries has always been the face of the meme for niche anime fighting games. Based on a Japanese visual novel series calledTsukihime, theMelty Bloodgames are 2D anime fighters to the very core: An eccentric anime artstyle, unique and in some cases absurd character designs and movesets, alongside a fast-paced gameplay style that emphasizes players' technical prowess.
While theMelty Bloodseries has been around for years, it hasn’t been the most mainstream success compared to other anime-inspired fighters likeGuilty Gear,BlazBlue, or evenUnder Night In-Birth. However, withMelty Blood: Type Lumina, the series received a modernization that remained true to its origins, while simplifying some of its more obscure mechanics.Type Luminaintroduced Rapid Beat auto-combos and the New Moon meter systems that simplified the previously different playstyles associated with Moon choice. Along with systemic modernizations like rollback netcode and a new lobby system,Melty Blood: Type Luminawas an excellent sequel.
French Bread brought back the series after just about a decade since the last entry, andMelty Blood: Type Luminawas well-received by fans. However, given the game’s fanbase remains relatively niche, and the fact that some criticisms were weighed against the game’s implementation of rollback,Type Luminadoesn’t come quite as close to the best fighting game of the year. One frontrunner for the award pretty clearly stole the show on launch, and has remained popular since release as well.
Best Fighting Prediction: Guilty Gear -Strive-
Of all the fighting game nominees for this year, it’s clear thatGuilty Gear Striveis the frontrunner for this category in nearly every regard.Guilty Gearas a series had become very popular withGuilty Gear XrdandRev 2, and sawrenewed success with the rollback update forAccent Core +R, butGuilty Gear Strivesaw an explosion of popularity across the whole fighting game scene. Casual and competitive players, whether they were fans of the series or anime fighter newcomers, flocked toStrive.
Arguably the biggestmainstream achievement ofGuilty Gear Strivewas its innovative implementation of rollback netcode, which many praise as an excellent evolution for online fighting games as a whole. While continued gripes withStrive’s lobby design/matchmaking design are understandable, the actual mid-match gameplay experience online remains extraordinary, which has helped improveStrive’s staying power with fans. Other aspects of praise forGuilty Gear Strivewas for its visual design, which was stylistically animated for a flashy and smooth aesthetic design.
Guilty Gear Striveis certainly not perfect, especially in the competitive balance department (a point of contention for fans), but it’s easily the best and most popular new fighting game from 2021.Arc System Works' latest anime fighter is a landmark achievementon multiple levels; from its incredible online match stability, to its unique and flashy visual design.Guilty Gear Striveis an easy contender for the best fighting game experience released in 2021, and would make sense as the winner of the award.
The Game Awardsceremony premieres on July 04, 2025, at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.
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