The PlayStation 2 wasn’t the most powerful hardware around, but it was the most popular, offering the widest range of games. Many of them would even become bona-fide classics like God of War, Metal Gear Solid 3, and the Prince of Persia trilogy. On top of its DVD playback, the machine offered more value for money, so it’s little wonder that it’s since become the best-selling console in the world.

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Its heyday also coincided with a dip in the popularity of fighting games. Tekken, SoulCalibur, and Mortal Kombat were still big, but the genre and its biggest developers largely went quiet. The ones that did come out often catered to its keenest, most experienced fans. The ones who knew their footsies from their Pringles. If they weren’t in the know, they’d have trouble with the PS2’s hardest fighting games.

8 Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution is low on the list because it tried to be accessible to newer players. Its character select screen listed which characters were beginner-friendly. The Quest Mode put them in the virtual shoes of an arcade player, where they gradually rose to the top. Then it had a dry but helpful tutorial that showed players how to do its techniques in a clear, concise manner.

But just because a hiker is well-prepared doesn’t mean the mountains stop being steep. The simple stuff is fine, but more advanced opponents require more advanced tactics. The easier characters were often lower-tier than their harder counterparts, who could be very hard to use. Players had to earn Akira's top-tier strength by getting the hang of his tightly-timed commands, like his kneelift that required pressing Kick+Guard, then letting go of Guard after 1 frame.

7 Hyper Street Fighter 2: The Anniversary Collection

With the arcades effectively dead at the turn of the millennium, Capcom gradually left the fighting genre behind. After 2001, they’d only release collections of their classic fighters, and a failed attempt to do a "Capcom Vs Capcom" with Capcom Fighting Evolution. For a while, Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and co were as dead as the Darkstalkers until they took a chance on Street Fighter 4 in 2008.

But they’d still celebrate the series’ 15th anniversary in 2003 with Hyper Street Fighter 2. It was essentially another re-release of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, except players could switch out their characters with their earlier iterations. It didn’t have the difficulty bug the original SSF2T had, but that didn’t stop its AI from cheating, nor did its stricter input requirements help players against the cheesy likes of Sagat, Bison, or Akuma.

6 Arcana Heart

Yuki Enterprise’s Arcana Heart looks as if CLAMP got to remake Mortal Kombat in their own image, as 11 cute anime "maidens" have to stop Mildred Avallone from merging Earth with the Elemental realm. Its AI isn’t as merciless as klassic MK, though the special moves still require Street Fighter/King of Fighters-like directional inputs, which can be tricky for some. That's putting aside the game's aerial combat and each character's Arcana powers.

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They each do different things, from messing with time to controlling plants, and getting the most out of them requires plenty of practice. Then, there’s the final boss Mildred. She can use the whole roster’s arcana powers, has two projectile-firing drones that surround her, different forms, and a screen-filling super move. If those tactics sound familiar, that's because Yuki Enterprise consisted of ex-SNK staff, who really liked making hard boss characters.

5 King Of Fighters 11

SNK are infamous for their really hard final bosses, from Geese Howard in Fatal Fury to Omega Rugal in King of Fighters 95. Some of them, even on the easiest difficulty settings, would pull off a screen-nuking super move that could do a nasty dose of damage even when blocked. Not every boss had one, and not every boss with one was that hard to beat.

But King of Fighters 11’s Magaki had one and was hard to beat. Even if Magaki didn’t try to give the player a seizure, he'd still fill the stage's real estate with projectiles, from the slow, nearly invisible ones to ones that would appear behind the player. The game’s guest sub-bosses, like Buriki One’s Silver and Savage Reign’s Jazu weren’t pushovers either, so players had to master the tag gameplay to get ahead.

4 Capcom Vs SNK 2

Unlike their Marvel crossovers, Capcom’s digital take on their rivalry with SNK got more technical and intricate. Capcom Vs SNK 1 made players pick between a Capcom Groove (plays like Street Fighter Alpha) or an SNK Groove (plays like KOF’s Extra mode). Then they had to do some math with its Ratio system, where each character had a number between 1-4, and they could only form a team that equaled a total of 4.

Capcom Vs SNK 2 improved on that by making the Ratio system a separate, optional mode where players could set their team's number total (i.e. Geese could actually partner with people now). However, it increased the Grooves to 6, ranging from replicating Samurai Shodown’s Rage Gauge to SFA3’s V-Ism. Then players had to get enough points to fight Shin Akuma or God Rugal, the hardest bosses in the game, and then beat them to get the good endings.

3 Street Fighter 3: Third Strike

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike is beloved now, but it and its two predecessors were treated like digital leprosy back in the day. New Generation and Second Impact were Dreamcast-only, Third Strike only saw a PS2 release in Japan and North America as a tie-in bonus with Hyper SF2. One which Europe rejected, where it remained an Xbox exclusive thanks to its online play.

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Those in the know fell in love with its EX moves, Super Art selections, and the combo potential of characters like Urien and Makoto. Casual players were more likely to be lost as they got to grips with the inputs, and there wasn't much extra content beyond Vs mode and Arcade mode. The latter would see both them and veterans get creamed by Gill who, on top of his screen-nuke and input-reading, could resurrect with full health if he died with a full super meter.

2 SVC: SNK Vs Capcom Chaos

SNK arguably made the best Capcom/SNK crossover with the handheld gem SNK Vs Capcom: Match of the Millennium. They also unfortunately made the worst with SVC: SNK Vs Capcom Chaos. Its development troubles made it feel rough and incomplete, with its lifeless locales, janky animations, and functional but awkward gameplay. Converting the Capcom cast to 4 buttons was fine, but reinventing Fatal Fury's proverbial wheel proved troublesome.

SNK Boss Syndrome was in full effect too, as Shin Akuma and Serious Mr. Karate were merciless. They'd read every mistake and exploit every opening. Even worse, they’re not the final bosses. Players have to beat them with a high enough score (which requires beating them first try) to fight the easier but annoying Athena and Red Arremer (aka Firebrand). That's a lot of effort to see the characters' endings which, while nice, are easier to watch on YouTube.

1 Guilty Gear X2

The subheading here is a bit of a misnomer, as there are 6 versions of Guilty Gear X2, and the PS2 had 5 of them, ranging from the original X2 to XX Accent Core Plus. So, which one earned the top spot? Simple: All of them! They all have the technicality of an SF/KOF game with its own tricky techniques like Roman Cancels, Fake Roman Cancels, and Dust combos. Later games like GGXrd and GG Strive would give players a handy tutorial for them.

GGX2 gives them a Mission Mode instead, where they can face off against harder opponents, like the CPU-only EX, Shadow, and Gold characters. The final boss, I-No, has a CPU-only super move that does horrendous damage on hit or block. The only respite from I-No is in Story Mode, where only some characters face her boss form. But they can face GGX boss Dizzy, or GG1 boss Justice instead. It’s like choosing between the frying pan, fire, or Dante’s Inferno.

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