

Fighting games may not be the most popular genre anymore, but the people who still love the genre are among the most loyal of any gamers. Unfortunately, fighting games haven’t been as rampant on Android as many would’ve hoped and there aren’t many amazing options available. 2018 saw some pretty big releases. There is some hope that this genre gets better over time. Here are the best fighting games for Android!



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Brawl Stars

Price: Free to play

Brawl Stars might be reaching just a little bit. The game play is a little more beat ’em up style than it is true fighter, but it has a lot of the same tense elements. You and a couple of other people play online PvP against up to three total opponents. You have to beat them up, and finish the objective. However, the game does have a one versus one fighting mode that is basically just a fight to the death. The fighter genre isn’t super packed with great titles, but we think this one is good for killing five minutes.

EA Sports UFC

Price: Freemium

EA Sports UFC is one of the most popular fighting games currently available. It features decent graphics, a roster of 70 MMA fighters (including both male and female stars), and tons of in-game content to play with. The controls are pretty bad. Most of it is just tapping or swiping. There isn’t hardly any room for creativity. However, it’s not a bad way to spend five minutes at a time. It’s an EA Sports game that has in-app purchases. Many fans of EA games know what to expect with that.

Emulators

Price: Free / Varies

Interest in fighting games was a lot higher on older consoles so you can find a ton of old games with emulators. You can play classic Street Fighter games with an SNES emulator, Soul Calibur on a PlayStation emulator, or King of Fighters on SEGA emulators. There are a large number of options with a bunch of games for each platform. Most of them also have controller support, save and load states, support for cheat codes, and other features. Mobile fighters are super simplified and this is a way to recapture those more complex fighters from long ago. We have John NESS (SNES and NES) linked at the button or our full list of the best emulators here.

Evoland 1 and 2

Price: $0.99 and $7.99, respectively

Evoland 1 and 2 are unique games. They cover a bunch of genres, including RPG, fighting, hack-and-slash, adventure, trading card game, and many others. It’s an ode to the classic video games we grew up playing. The first game is a little short, but fun. It has about a half a dozen game mechanics, graphical styles, and controls. The second one is a bit longer, has better graphics, and includes even more mechanics and control styles. They aren’t strictly fighting games. However, they do have fighting game elements along with a bunch of other genres. Plus, they’re both single price games with no in-app purchases.

Fighting Tiger – Liberal

Price: Free

Fighting Tiber – Liberal is one of the older fighting games. It’s also pretty good. You start in an area and you must beat up a number of opponents instead of just one. The mechanics are predominately fighting with grapples, special moves, and combos to help you along the way. It also features a number of fighting styles, weapons, and more that you can use to beat up the bad guys. It has a campaign mode where you must save your girlfriend and fight for your life to survive. Not bad for a completely free game with ads.

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Injustice: Gods Among Us 1 and 2 (and Mortal Kombat)

Price: Free to play

Injustice: Gods Among Us 1 and 2 are two fo the most popular fighting games on mobile. However, like most popular fighting games, the mechanics for both are a little bogus. It’s mostly just tapping a bunch of times until someone wins. Aside from that, they with a decent roster of DC Comics heroes, tons of stuff to do in the game, and online multiplayer. Mortal Kombat is another fighter by Warner Bros with roughly the same mechanics. Neither of these games are great, but they’re both decent time killers.

The King of Fighters ALLSTAR

Price: Free to play

The King of Fighters ALLSTAR is one of the newer fighting games on the list comparatively speaking. It takes place in the KoF universe and has a bunch of characters from the various games. It’s a little bit of a button masher, but it has more control options than something like Mortal Kombat X or Injustice 2. The game also features online PvP, co-op play, and a campaign option. People seem to really like this one aside from the lag issues when playing PvP matches. Aside from that, it’s a solid free to play fighter.

Punch Boxing 3D

Price: Free to play

Punch Boxing 3D is the first of a few boxing games on this list. As with most boxing games, the game play is a bit slower than combo fighters and you rely more on block and strike moves rather than movement. The graphics are alright and the controls seem to function as intended. It’s a bit unfortunate that your controls are essentially confined to block and punch, but that’s how it goes sometimes. The audio is also pretty bad. You can also level up your character by fighting at the gym and there are a variety of accessories you can unlock.

Real Boxing 2

Price: Free to play

Real Boxing 2 (formerly Real Boxing 2 Rocky) is the sequel to one of the best fighting games out there. You’ll get to play as (and against) the popular fictional character as you fight. There is also a lot of stuff to do. You can challenge other fighters, engage in mini-games, battle bosses, and even create your own character. It has a selection of power ups and gear and that can turn the tide in battle for better or worse. The controls are pretty decent as are the graphics. There is also social mechanics in the form of leaderboards and gifts.

Real Steel series

Price: Free to play

Real Steel is a series of robot fighting games from Reliance Games. Unlike most, these titles feature arcade style fighting controls. That means you’ll have to move and hit on your own. There are four games in the robot fighting series, each with their own set of mechanics, looks, and stuff to do. The most popular one, Real Steel World Robot Boxing, includes customization, multiplayer, and a couple of other play modes. The latest game in the series is World Robot Boxing 2 and it has reasonably decent reviews. These are on the higher end of the fighting game spectrum.

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Prizefighters

Price: Free to play

Prizefighters is another one of the newer fighting games. It’s a retro-style boxing game similar to those from the SNES era (the 1990’s). It features simple controls, player and ring customization, a progression system, social features, and more. The developers also promise online multiplayer at some point. That should elevate an already above average experience. This is a good one for fans of retro fighting games. The in-app purchases aren’t as bad as competitors, either.

Shadow Fight 3

Price: Free to play

Shadow Fight 3 is the latest game in the popular fighting franchise. It picks up where its predecessors left off with some differences. For instance, the series shed its silhouetted graphics in favor of fully animated character models. Most of the game remains the same. The mechanics also received a bit of a revamp in favor of something a little more modern. That’s unfortunate because the mechanics in the previous games were fairly unique and fun. In any case, you can’t go wrong with any of the Shadow Fight games. Just keep in mind that they are free to play and make for better time killers than deep, engaging fighting games.

Skullgirls

Price: Free to play

Skullgirls is a bit of a diamond in the rough. It’s not mentioned in the same conversations as Street Fighter or KoF, but people seem to like this one. The game brands itself as a 2D fighting RPG with mechanics from both genres. You collect a variety of characters, level them up, and then use them to beat up other people. The game is a bit heavier on the RPG elements than it is fighter elements, but there are enough controls there to scratch that itch. The online PvP has some problems, including the occasional lopsided match-up, but otherwise it seems like an enjoyable little RPG fighter.

SNK Corporation fighting games

Price: Free / Up to $2.99 each

SNK Corporation is probably the best developer of fighting games right now. They have a decent collection of retro fighting games. Some of them include a few The King of Fighters titles, Samurai Showdown games, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and Fatal Fury Special. Most of these games are ports from previous consoles or arcade boxes. However, SNK did a good job with them. They’re all rock solid retro fighters with single purchase prices and no in-app purchases. They haven’t received updates in a while. That’s a little concerning but they still work in our tests. The link above takes you to SNK’s developer page to see their full lineup.

Street Fighter IV Champion Edition

Price: Free / $4.99

Street Fighter IV Champion Edition is one of the big fighting game releases of 2018. It’s not without its problems, though. The full game features a decent selection of characters and actual fighting mechanics. It also includes several somewhat broken, but functional features like Bluetooth controller support and online PvP. We’ll be honest, this one still needs some work. However, Capcom seems up to the challenge with a swath of updates in the first few weeks of release. Most of the problems were fixed in its first year and the Google Play rating seems to be turning around from its insanely low score from back then.

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If we missed any of the best fighting games for Android, tell us about them in the comments!