Rival Schools

2 player

Stand out version - PS1

Possibly the most under appreciated 3D fighter of its generation, with Rival Schools Capcom created a very distinct, original, and very playable 3D fighting experience, infused with a memorable, wacky style. The gameplay is very much like a 3D version of their Marvel Vs series, including team based support attacks and aerial combos.

Soul Blade

2 player

Stand out version - PS1

Soul Blade sits amongst Virtua Fighter 2 and Tekken 3 in the highest tier fighting games of its generation. Namco mixed the weapons based fighting from Battle Arena Toshindon with the gameplay from their other series Tekken, and added a lot of polish and careful design (both elements prominently missing from Toshindon) to create a very stylish, beautifully crafted game.

Street Fighter EX 2

2 player

Stand out version - PS1

The EX games tend to be unpopular with die hard Street Fighter fans, mainly because the 3D perspective adds nothing to the gameplay of the series, and they don't feel quite as polished as games from the main series, but personally I think they're still worth checking out. The famed Street Fighter gameplay, whilst slightly watered down here, is still there in abundance, there's some pretty cool exclusive characters available, and generally, just seeing the Street Fighter world played out in 3D was a truly awesome sight.

Tekken 3

2 Player

Stand out versions - PS1

Tekken 3 has to be the final answer in fighting games available for the PS1, no question. With each new release Namco managed to work on and improve their Tekken games until they were polished to perfection, and their ports to the PS1 were always closer than fans could've hoped for. Tekken 3 represents the more mainstream, accessible side to 3D fighters, it contains a lot of effective, easy to learn combos, and a selection of colourful, and interesting characters to play as.

Tobal 2

2 Player

Stand out versions - PS1

The original Tobal was known for its smooth gameplay, elegant fighting system, and innovative Quest Mode (an RPG styled run around through dungeons). All the elements of the first game were admirably improved here, with the Fighting system much polished, tons of new characters, and Quest mode additions such as towns with shops and such. If you can't get ahold of this import the original was still a very good early fighting game in its own right and is still definitely worth picking up.

 

Virtua Fighter 2

1 Player

Stand out versions - Saturn

Virtua Fighter 2 totally raised the bar for fighting games on its arrival and was definitely the most important Saturn release bar none. Running in high resolution at 60fps it looked stunning for 1996 and proved once and for all that the Saturn could do a good job with 3D graphics. The whole thing plays very closely to its arcade parent, which was one of the most respected, technical, and hardcore of the fighting games around for that period.

Wu Tang: Shaolin Style

4 Player

Stand out version - PS1

A surprisingly good licensed fighting game based on the eponymous hip hop group, Wu Tang's main talking points are the fun 4-player mode, and over the top Mortal Kombat style violence, but these elements are in addition to a very solid fighting game engine. Like Ehrgeiz (and the then recently released Powerstone) It plays in true 3D, allowing you to run around the environments dodging your opponents and counter-attacking, there's a plethora of different moves available for every character, and an in depth story mode to boot.

Zero Divide

2 player

Stand out Version - PS1

Fairly early PS1 fighter featuring a robot theme, which some reviewers of the time actually touted as the PS1's answer Virtua Fighter (which was a bit optimistic) due to some similar play mechanics between the two games. Its a bit dated now but was a pretty fun early fighter for the time and is worth a shot if you can find it cheap.