The Xbox managed to amass a solid range of classics. Halo launched the machine into the stratosphere, while games like Jet Set Radio Future, Jade Empire, Ninja Gaiden, and the Splinter Cell series either made Microsoft’s green and black box a classic or had their best ports on the machine.
The console even managed to get a good amount of fighting games around the time that genre fell out of popularity. Still, the original Xbox is over 20 years old now. Some games on the system are going to feel antiquated compared to today, so here are the original Xbox’s best fighting games ranked from dusty to evergreen.
10 Bloody Roar: Extreme
Eighting’s brawler series caught on through its fast gameplay and animal transformations. After starting on the Playstation, the company decided to give the other machines some love with Bloody Roar: Extreme. It first came out on the Gamecube as Bloody Roar: Primal Fury. Then the Xbox got an improved port with a new intro, extra characters unlocked by default, and a hidden character from the Bloody Roar manga.
It was the penultimate entry in the series, and the only one to reach non-Sony machines. It still brought the brawls and transformations everyone liked but was criticized for its PS1-era gameplay and recycled material even on its original release.
9 Mortal Kombat: Deception
Deception was a vast improvement over Deadly Alliance. The gameplay was touched up, the roster was expanded, and everyone got at least two fatalities and a Hara-Kiri to avoid shame. There were even side activities, like the Konquest Mode, Chess Mode, and Puzzle Kombat.
Deception did new things like using 3D movement, yet, while the gameplay has its fans, the stance switching style wasn’t as engaging as the traditional 2D-style. The poor character animations and designs didn’t help either. Hsu Hao is no longer here (unless players used Action Replay), but Dairou, Kobra, and Darrius were there to disappoint everyone instead.
8 Marvel Vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
Marvel Vs Capcom 2 got released on nearly every machine in the early 2000s, with just Nintendo missing out. The PS2 and Xbox ports are slightly rarer than the others because they came out right when Capcom lost the video game rights to Marvel’s characters. This deadline is said to be why the whole game looks a lot worse than its predecessor.
The 3D stages are generic, the music is lovely but ill-fitting, and all but the newest characters are reused sprites. Darkstalkers sprites from 1994 clash clumsily against ones from 1998. Thankfully, while the gameplay is infamously unbalanced, it’s still fast, wild, and fun for newcomers and veterans alike.
7 Capcom Vs SNK 2
This classic crossover between the two top fighting game companies is more tailored towards fans than beginners. The super combos are more dialed down than Marvel’s giant laser beams, but the gameplay is more in-depth with its variety of grooves, features, and modes. Capcom even made new sprites for most of the cast.
The SNK side is new anyway, as are some Capcom characters, but the game still reuses Street Fighter Alpha sprites for many of them. Morrigan is still using her Darkstalkers sprite, and it clashes worse here than in Marvel Vs Capcom 2. Still, the development team did give them new animations for certain grooves.
6 Hyper Street Fighter II Anniversary Collection
For the franchise’s 15th anniversary in 2002, Capcom decided to celebrate Street Fighter 2…which came out in 1991, making it more of an 11th Anniversary celebration. On one hand, Capcom was just recycling sprites and stages from across 1991 and 1994. That’s ancient by video game standards. However, it does use them in a new way.
The game has characters from SF2’s ports fight each other. The faster Super Turbo characters could take on the stronger World Warrior versions. While the sprites are older, they don’t clash like in Capcom Vs SNK 2, or Marvel Vs Capcom 2. It also came with Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, which was an Xbox-exclusive addition in Europe.
5 Guilty Gear XX #Reload
Yes, that’s the game’s actual title. It would only get more ridiculous with Guilty Gear XX Slash, XX Accent Core, and Accent Core Plus R. There are almost as many versions of Guilty Gear XX as there are Street Fighter 2 ports, though XX #Reload was the only one to reach the original Xbox in 2004 and improved upon its regular edition in a number of ways.
Some characters were redesigned from the ground up with new moves and looks. The gameplay was rebalanced, the number of Missions in Mission Mode was boosted to 100, and Survival Mode had an eye-watering 1,000 levels to get through. It was the freshest 2D fighter on the market at the time, with bigger, bolder, and fresher graphics than any of the other contenders.
4 DOA Ultimate
Team Ninja’s Tomonobu Itagaki was good friends with Xbox designer Seamus Blackley, so giving his machine an exclusive 3D fighter was a prime opportunity. The series had been going on for 5 years at that point, with previous games cropping up on the Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, and both Playstations. Thus, DOA Ultimate was made in 2004.
It compiled the Saturn version of Dead or Alive 1 alongside a remade version of Dead or Alive 2. It improved upon its earlier ports with tweaked gameplay, free movement, online play, and an extra character in Dead or Alive 3’s Hitomi. It ended up being the best way to play the series’ second outing as a result, and it's even backward compatible with the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
3 Def Jam: Fight for NY
AKI Corporation’s brawling engine has endured over the years. It produced classics like WCW/nWo Revenge and WWF No Mercy. AKI was going to update it for a new WCW game, but, once that company fell, they had to retool it for a new license. Enter Def Jam Records.
Def Jam Vendetta caught on with its cast of hip-hop artists out-grappling each other. Def Jam: Fight for NY improved on it with multiple fighting styles and environmental hazards. There was even a story mode where the player’s created character could take on Snoop Dogg, Sean Paul, and Flava Flav among others. When people clamor for a new Def Jam game or re-release, this is the one they want to see.
2 Soulcalibur II
The advantage fighting games have over other genres is that their gameplay ages quite well. The best examples from the past still play as smoothly today as they did back in the past. It’s why Tekken 3 is still a bundle of fun, and Mortal Kombat 4 isn’t despite both being released around the same time.
Soulcalibur II’s gameplay is as smooth as its later entries, with less fluff compared to SC4 and 5. Still, it was just one of three main ports, each with their own guest character. Xbox owners got Spawn from Image comics, while the PS2 got Tekken’s Heihachi, and the Gamecube got Link from The Legend of Zelda. Each port plays identically to the other, so which is the best depends on the guest character that individual fans like the most.
1 Dead or Alive 3
After ping-ponging between Sega and Sony’s machines, the Dead or Alive series found its new home on the Xbox. It kept the tweaks Dead or Alive 2 brought to the table, then improved upon them. It replaced sidesteps and sidewalks with unrestricted 3D-axis movement, and improved counter timing in a bid to shift the game away from Tekken and Virtua Fighter style juggling and into space-control and defense.
It also introduces some fan-favorite characters in Christie, Hitomi, and Brad Wong alongside others. Its nippy, fluid gameplay still holds up well as later games in the series followed its trend. This is good, as, like DOA Ultimate, it’s compatible with the Xbox One and Series X/S too and so is ready for anyone who's after a blast from the past.