There are a lot of ways for a developer to spice up their fighting game. Some opt for a kind of tag system in the idle of fights, others emphasize incredibly damaging moves, and some choose to let players master the many difficult combos held within the game.
One of the most underrated ways to bring life to a fighting game is by throwing in a few fantastic levels that the player can interact with in some way. There are plenty of ways to make something like that work, and games have come up with plenty of unique ideas over the years.
10 Mortal Kombat
It’s impossible to talk about fighting games with stages you can interact with without mentioning one of the pioneers, Mortal Kombat. The original game was a rather simple affair, but as everyone knows, bloody and violent.
The developers managed to create something truly magical with The Pit stage. Rather than ending a fight with a simple fatality like usual, you could uppercut your opponent clean off of the stage and onto a set of spikes far below for a stage fatality. It was shocking the first time anyone saw it, instantly becoming a classic.
9 Marvel Nemesis: Rise Of The Imperfects
An often-forgotten fighting game, Marvel Nemesis: Rise Of The Imperfects is far from your standard fighter. Rather than a 2D battle, the game puts you in a small arena littered with objects. You can pick your favorite hero, and even some new ones, and duke it out.
As you battle around the various levels, you’ll find that you can interact with much of the stage — and use it to your advantage. It’s nothing life-changing, but being able to rip parking meters from the ground, or even lift a car to use as a weapon, goes a long way toward making a fight feel desperate.
8 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
Plenty of fighting games offer tournament modes where you make your way through the ranks to be crowned the ultimate champion. The thing is, that’s a very real concept within the Dragon Ball universe, and one that some wanted to see even more of in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.
A mode that became a fan favorite is the World Tournament, which lets you fight under some of the same rules from the series. Rather than simply beating an opponent by force, you can outthink them and win by ringing them out, much like you could in an actual competition.
7 Shrek Superslam
As far as fighting games go, Shrek Superslam is a surprising delight in the Shrek series. It features plenty of unique characters to try out, lots of stages, weapons, and even a full story mode to play through. Much like other arena fighters, there is a lot to love.
As you brawl, you can slam opponents through objects within the level, and even pick some up to use as weapons. When you land a major hit on your opponent, a lot can happen depending on the level. You can destroy portions of castles, and even throw people through windows.
6 Injustice 2
Modern 2D fighters have been coming up with unique ways to spice up the typical gameplay loop for years now. As time has gone by, fighters have become even more complex — and while they try to keep things fresh, developers have also needed to keep games accessible to those with a lower skill level.
One way that a newer player can even the odds against a veteran is with the many interactive stages in Injustice 2. Some can be used as unique weapons, others as a way to evade damage, but all offer a novel way to tackle a fight.
5 X-Men: Next Dimension
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Another classic fighting game that doesn’t get all that much love is X-Men: Next Dimension. It’s a simple fighter that lets you play as your favorite character from the X-Men canon, especially if the character is Wolverine. While its levels aren’t the most intricately designed, some do offer a neat interaction.
When you land the right move on an opponent at the right time, you can send them flying into a kind of scene transition. If you take someone on in the Mansion, for example, you can transition the fight from a hallway to a classroom, and even out into a courtyard.
4 Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe
While some people swear against this Mortal Kombat title thanks to the lack of properly violent fatalities — due to the presence of the DC characters — it’s hard to say that it didn’t include a pretty cool way to interact with its stages. You can take the fight from one section of a stage to another by knocking your opponent through a wall or over a cliff.
From there, you can mash buttons to unleash several unique attacks before you finally land, with the damage tallied up. A fun twist is that the move can be reversed, so it becomes a bit of a risky maneuver to pull off.
3 Super Smash Bros.
The original Super Smash Bros. gave players more than a few surprises. Sure, you can duke it out with your favorite Nintendo characters, but you also have to be careful because the stages might just get involved in the action.
While you can’t directly influence anything that the stages do, that doesn’t mean ships won’t come flying at you, tornadoes won’t come howling at you, and Pokemon won’t come out looking for a fight. The original Super Smash Bros. set a standard for fighting game stages that few have managed to match.
2 Mortal Kombat Armageddon
Mortal Kombat games have done a fantastic job of keeping players on their toes throughout the years. One title that managed to do that above all was Mortal Kombat Armageddon. The big reason for this was that stage hazards became a major player.
The series had dabbled with adding a bit more to the base stages they used, but never like this. Depending on the stage, the placement of characters, and the moves used, you could instantly end a fight at the moment you were about to lose and with your opponent at full health, thanks to the various death traps.
1 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
It’s pretty much impossible to say that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate doesn’t have some of the best stages in fighting game history. They all have plenty of atmosphere, great customizable music, and of course, many have dozens of surprises inside.
For traditional interaction, the WarioWare Inc stage is always fantastic, but almost every single stage in the game offers some level of interactivity for those who want it. Even better, if you want to avoid that kind of thing altogether, you can simply play an Omega stage.