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 September 11, 2023 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.

13 Fist Of The North Star

kenshiro pointing forward in fist of the north star

Fist of the North Star looks like the first Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fighting 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.

12 Mortal Kombat 11

Mortal Kombat 11: Shang Tsung Ruling The Universe In His Ending

If you make a lot of unnecessary movements, Mortal Kombat 11 will annoy you. It's all about precision and making sure that you can 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.

11 Street Fighter 5

Chun Li flying in Street 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 in Street Fighter 5, and every decision you make (including when to use your critical art) is important. There are over 40 characters you 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.

10 Guilty Gear Strive

Guilty Gear Strive Nagoriyuki

Guilty Gear Strive carries 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 can 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.

9 Dragon Ball FighterZ

hit throwing a punch in dragon ball fighterz

Dragon Ball FighterZ isn'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.

8 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Pikachu

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has 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 as Pokemon, 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 has 89 characters you can choose from to master, which isn't going to be easy, given the unique kit of every character in the game.

7 Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds

Marvel vs Capcom 3 Fate of Two Worlds roster

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds brings all of our beloved characters from Capcom's fighting games, as well as Marvel's popular 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.

6 BlazBlue Central Fiction

Jin vs Nine in Blazblue 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.

5 Skullgirls

Skullgirls Black Dahlia vs Annie

Whether you play it on android or PlayStation doesn't really matter, because the difficulty doesn't change. Skullgirls has 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.

4 Street Fighter 4

Street Fighter 4 Evil Ryu

Street Fighter 4 is 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 can 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.

3 The King Of Fighters 13

King of Fighters 13 Kula and Iori

Even pros claim that The King of Fighters 13 can break your hands because of its difficult trials and combos, even when using hitbox controllers. Going into this game with zero experience in fighting games will crush your fingers, and will make you feel like you're playing a rhythm game instead because of the number of buttons you'll be constantly pressing.

Putting combos aside, you also play three characters in one game, and will have to beat three characters from your opponent one by one. That means having to be good at three characters all at once, which is a steep learning curve for most people.

2 Tekken 7

Tekken 7 Devil Jin

Tekken 7 is argued to be easy by some, and by some, we mean veterans of the game who've played since the beginning of the series. That being said, a lot of the characters' skills remain the same throughout the other games up to this point, which may have already been mastered by a lot of players.

If you're looking to enter the game at this point, it will be difficult to do so, given that the skill pool of the people playing is already high. Gameplay-wise, the environment seems larger, since the space you play in makes you feel like there is more room before you're able to corner people. There are 54 playable characters, which will exhaust your ability to learn the characters you want to play.

1 Street Fighter 6

Street Fighter 6 Rashid

Street Fighter 6 is difficult; many characters often come with difficult combination chains. Some characters like Guile and Cammy have easier mechanics, so they won't give beginners a hard time. Try to main Dhalsim or Chun-Li, and you'll probably have your hands tied trying to figure out either their pokes or combinations.

This is a game that you can't button mash your way out of, and even professional fighting game players find the game hard to be good at. If you stay away from ranked matches, you'll probably keep your peace intact.

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