Nobody becomes a pro overnight, but there are some games that are known for being notoriously hard. You find yourself either being one-shot by other players or grinding every day in hopes of improving your skill level in the game. There are even times that the game’s environment would be against you, and lead you to miserably fall to your death.
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Most people have a hard time playing fighting games for the first time, but they become harder even with sufficient practice because of their competitive nature. These fighting games are the hardest based on control difficulty and character diversity.
Updated August 01, 2025 by Vanessa Esguerra: Some fighting games became easier as time passed, while others have solidified their reputation as difficult. There are some classics here that some pros still struggle with, and newer games that are proving to be the most challenging in their series and the hardest to play among other fighting games.
13Fist Of The North Star
Fist of the North Star looks like the firstJojo’s Bizarre Adventurefighting game. You’ve either played it on your good old PS2 or spent time in arcades trying to figure out how to get even a bit of damage against your opponents. There’s little room for error in this retro fighting game, and if you blink, you’ll probably be punished with a large chunk removed from your health bar.
You’ll get by if you learn the combinations, and with enough hard work, you might be able to land that Fatal K.O. you’ve been dreaming of.
12Mortal Kombat 11
If you make a lot of unnecessary movements,Mortal Kombat 11will annoy you. It’s all about precision and making sure that you’re able to land your combination against your opponent—that’s if they don’t escape it and punish you instead. You have to be cautious and learn how to cope with the blows of many tricky characters.
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Reading movements are key in winning against your enemies in this game, and it could mean life or death. This is why compared to Mortal Kombat 2 and Mortal Kombat 10, Mortal Kombat 11 stands out to be the most difficult game in the series.
11Street Fighter 5
Anybody who’s played against a seasoned Chun Li player would know that it’s almost game over once she unleashes her critical art. Not to mention, being unable to dodge or block any incoming punches from Ryu will have you getting knocked back or immobile for a moment.
Button mashing isn’t a solution inStreet Fighter 5, and every decision you make (including when to use your critical art) is important. There areover 40 charactersyou can play as, and some are more notable than others. While you don’t have to excel in all of them, that wide pool of champions will have you go through the process of trial and error before you find the best fit for you.
10Guilty Gear Strive
Guilty Gear Strivecarries the tradition of characters with weird-looking weapons, ranging from anchors to guitars. Strange choice of weapons aside, playing against others with more experience can easily send you flying in the air as a punching bag. Guilty Gear Strive only has 21 characters you may choose from, but you’ll have to master a lot of controls, from special attacks up to the character’s attack cancels in order to play them efficiently.
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A good knowledge of other characters is also a bonus, so that you can predict how the other player might fight. That makes the game harder since these different characters have unique ways of attacking.
9Dragon Ball FighterZ
Dragon Ball FighterZisn’t playing around with difficulty modes, and the hardest difficulty will make you think that the AI you’re playing against is a real fighting game veteran. You’ll unlock the hardest mode after beating the story, and some gamers who attempted this mode failed and never looked back. Try it out, and you’ll find yourself asking why you’re even replaying the game on steroids—just to suffer?
In terms of characters, most have mechanics that are easy to learn. There are some characters that will require more effort to play, but most of the difficulty in this game stems from the AI designed to kill you.
8Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. Ultimatehas characters that are tough and sensitive to control. The characters in this game might have initially encouraged you to play since it does have characters from well-loved games such asPokemon,Persona 5,Bayonetta, and so much more.
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But you might’ve given up soon after falling down the platform one too many times without knowing how to hang on to it. Not to mention, you have many combos to learn all while you’re dragging your opponents up in the air (all while not losing track of the platform). This game also has89 characters you can choosefrom to master, which isn’t going to be easy, given the unique kit of every character in the game.
7Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds
Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worldsbrings all of our beloved characters from Capcom’s fighting games, as well asMarvel’spopular heroes. One of the hardest things in fighting games in general is getting to know the champion you’re using, but this game takes it to another level by making you play three characters in one match.
What makes this game difficult in particular is getting to know the rotations of the characters you’ll be choosing, and seeing if their skills match with one another since more than one character can be played at the same time.
6BlazBlue Central Fiction
Blazblue Central Fiction is not for the faint of heart as it is technically challenging, leaving combos to learn aside. Not only can characters jump in different ways, but some can also float and even teleport depending on who you’re playing. There are multiple ways you can block the other player, and some techniques involving blocks are more advanced than others.
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Some moves can punish you for reading an opponent wrong, which may result in instant death, like counter assaulting and your opponent being able to see it coming. A 36-character pool isn’t too huge, but it doesn’t make the game any easier either.
5Skullgirls
Whether you play it on android or PlayStation doesn’t really matter, because the difficulty doesn’t change.Skullgirlshas 17 characters you can pick from to main, and its fights are like no other due to how visually chaotic it all looks. Not only is blocking not as encouraged in this game, Skullgirls generally encourage you to fight aggressively to the death.
In most fighting games, going through with combos is the best way to go, but Skullgirls is different in a way that only the first few hits of a combo are strong and will encourage you to break apart from the other player to deal more damage much later. To add to the complexity of the game, the characters' abilities are upgradable, which is a mechanic that isn’t present in most fighting games.
4Street Fighter 4
Street Fighter 4is known for making your hands dance due to its complicated combos and links. Years later, it’s still a struggle to nail the chains of combos specific to certain characters in the game. Some even complain that there are combos in the game that are unnecessary but are nonetheless difficult to execute.
Unsurprisingly, this is also a game where, if you have low health, you’re able to turn the tide and kill somebody with more health just by spitting out a combo and well-planned attacks. Opinions haven’t changed over the years, with many claiming that the game is still difficult and not advisable for people starting out in fighting games.
