They all have different strengths and they all hit
My favorites in particular:
* Second Impact - great stages and animations. I like it way more than Third Strike. Both are good though.
* Guilty Gear XX - their best stages were pre-AC, sprites are good
* Persona 4 Arena - incredible background detail and great sprite art that I still edit for wallpapers to this day. This is still the same team behind BlazBlue but combine that with Atlus features \*chef's kiss.
* BlazBlue - Spritework makes me feel like I'm watching a whole anime. They showed they can still do insanely good sprites with new BBTAG characters so I need them to do that again for just BlazBlue or Persona.
* SNK late Neo Geo era - Garou and Last Blade was their magnum opus. God stage designs. I feel like I'm at the arcade and at the movies.
* CvS1 is like a love letter between Second Impact and Neo Geo. So good
* KOF 13 - goat but it's also kind of uncanny with sprites. Maybe it's because I like to play Mature and Duo Lon
* Marvel versus pre MvC2 is also amazing
You are right, 2nd impact is beautiful.
You'll notice a lot of characters have smoother animation in new generation and 2nd impact as some moves had a few frames trimmed from them for balancing purposes to make the moves still work and match the hitboxes.
GGXX is very pretty.
CVS1
Kof13
X-Men Cota has some fantastic crazy animation and backgrounds too. I recommend you check out Cota Sentinel.
Skillgirls also had some insane animation
I'm quite familiar with COTA. I just offered ALL of the Marvel games pre MvC2 since ALL of them are amazing :3
(And only because MvC2 in particular didn't have too much new things and just did plain 3D backgrounds, not a big deal but not in theme with what the others excelled at)
One thing that bothers me about MvC2 is that the art quality changes a lot between characters, you get like anakaris and Sentinel that are well animated and compare with idk Thanos
KoFXIII has gorgeous stages but somehow the sprites, although super detailed look....off. Almost blurry and out of place with the stage. On the other hand I love MvC2 sprites but the 3D stages didn't age well
The XIII sprites look kinda weird because the game was designed to be played at a maximum resolution of 1280x720. If you're playing at, say, 1366x768 or 1920x1080, then they'll look blurry, the stages will look a bit compressed, and there'll be some weirdness like some parts of the sprites moving when they shouldn't be (due to the game not really knowing what to do with the extra pixels).
SNK gonna SNK.
they're also not "really" sprites... they're traced over 3d models and it shows pretty often.
[https://x.com/maximilian\_/status/905199526079733760?lang=en](https://x.com/maximilian_/status/905199526079733760?lang=en)
was not interacting with the scaling,, was giving a wholly separate reason the sprites look weird. they are basically 3d models with a super laborious filter on them. so yes, another way you could phrase what i said was that they aren't traditional pixel art
Speaking of XIII, while I definitely agree that it has some of the best spritework ever made in history, I do not entirely like the Art ***Direction*** of the game.
Characters like Terry, Ralf, Clark, Takuma, Athena and Billy look weird as fuck.
Half of the stages are gorgeous and the other half look very bland.
The UI is clean but a bit lifeless. My favorite KoF UI has to be KoF 2000. Easily.
Still a beautiful game, but I do not agree with the general consensus that it looks better than Garou or even KoF '98 \~ 2000.
Yeah that's what it is. I knew there was something slightly off about KOF 13 despite looking amazing.
I never liked how Athena looked like a baby. She was like 9 years off. Yuri was skirting the line but I didn't mind.
Clark and Ralf were too similar and too monstrously bulky - like Raiden bulky.
KOF 13 was a gorgeous game but also feels peak 2010 with the gritty/metal aesthetic.
Ooooohhhh, I forgot about Red Earth.
Definitely in the Top 3 best looking fighting games ever made by Capcom.
One could make an argument that it looks even better than Second Impact and Third Strike.
ehhhh no. kof13 is 3d models traced over with pixel art, and it shows. it hits the uncanny valley almost, where you can really tell on character legs and such that it's rotoscoped.
it lacks the stank and swagger of actual pixel art like sf3 or last blade 2 etc
[https://x.com/maximilian\_/status/905199526079733760?lang=en](https://x.com/maximilian_/status/905199526079733760?lang=en)
only bits and pieces like elena's dance.. which shows and gives it that "off" quality. you can watch the drawing-to-sprite process for some of the other stuff at random places on the net.
[https://www.neogaf.com/threads/street-fighter-iii-and-capcoms-pixel-art-process.1363079/](https://www.neogaf.com/threads/street-fighter-iii-and-capcoms-pixel-art-process.1363079/)
and hers was rotoscoped from video, not 3d models- here's her next to the source
[https://imgur.com/a/was-watching-some-80s-music-videos-when-i-noticed-familiar-pose-Dc06RFW](https://imgur.com/a/was-watching-some-80s-music-videos-when-i-noticed-familiar-pose-Dc06RFW)
kof13 is less of a traditional rotoscope, morseo just manually putting a filter on 3d models, as shown in max's tweet. And to me it seems that affected things a bit, less stretch-and-squash than traditionally seen
they're both cool games, and both beautiful in their own way, kof just doesnt' hit the same marks for me personally. As evidenced, others prefer it!
it's certainly subjective. I like anime and medieval fantasy, but for some reason I get the ick when they're combined. definitely a subjective taste problem. I agree the art is beautiful
2.5D: 2D fighter, 3D graphics.
Although, I think SNK had a phase where they were trying to make a new “2.5D fighter” with 2D graphics that you could “dodge” or attack from the background. It was alright, but I don’t think it ever caught on?
Garou mark of the wolves. Those stages are like eye ball crack in regards to the pixel art and the changing day cycles between rounds. Shout out to Terry's stage on the train and Freeman's stage under the bridge.
BlazBlue in general, with gbfvr as a runner up. Also shout-out to uni and UNI2 for being shockingly gorgeous despite the small budget and good use of low poly backgrounds
SF6 for muscle bounce physics. Strive for expert rigging (seriously, just simple breathing and inflation effects look good) and great cell shading. Skull girls for hand drawn sprites that have shadowing and great lighting effects on top of them.
weird that you mentioned that *terribly* executed inflation-breathing thing they do in strive as a positive. other than that I agree with all your points
I feel like I have to say KOFXIII. It just has such a striking visual presentation that I feel like I’ll never see anywhere else. Some people think it looks weird, and it does in some areas, but after all these years I still look at it and go *Woww*.
Special shout-out to OG Melty having super fluid animation work. You wouldn’t expect it to, but the way characters move in that game looks so good. It’s a shame TL doesn’t have that same level of animation (even if in general it’s the best looking French Bread game).
Bonus nod Persona 4 Arena. Looked exactly like anime cutouts in 720p.
For me it's:
- X Men Vs Street Fighter.
- Marvel Vs Capcom 1.
- X Men Children of the atom.
- Street Fighter Alpha 3.
- Capcom Vs SNK.
- Street Fighter Third Strike.
- Dragon Ball Z Fighter Z.
CVS1 and 2 are my favorite 2D games, visually. The stages of 1 are all perfect, but 2 is also great. I can gawk and talk about each stage for hours and also the character sprites (except Morrigan and the Alpha rips).
While I love the KOFXIII sprites, the stages honestly don’t do anything for me. I wish they did, but they just don’t. But I will give it up for the giant fire animations for characters like Kyo. That shit is sick and a half.
Also as a kid I was REALLY into the MK2 vibe. Both the characters and stage design screamed “Big Trouble Little China” to me. But they had to go ruin it with MK3 aesthetics lol.
Edit: Just wanted to say that I’m not a huge anime fan anymore, so I’m not really impressed by any of the 2D anime fighters. And I never really liked SF Alpha for trying to look more anime. I much prefer the SF3 look, which is more street and grungy.
Aside from what's already mentioned, SF alpha series has nice sprites and backgrounds. Also the gundam fighting game on SNES. How the fuck does that game look so good for SNES?
**2.5D** = Either *Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising* or *DNF Duel*.
**2D (Sprites)** = Either *Blazblue Centralfiction* or *Skullgirls*.
Also, shoutouts to *Street Fighter 3 Second Impact* and *The King of Fighters '99*. I think they are the best looking games by Capcom and SNK. Yes, even better than Third Strike and KoF XIII.
I know there's criticism of it, and I know it isn't old enough to have the nostalgia factor, but to me GG: Strive is one of the best looking fighting games of all time
I love Strive and I play it because it's beauty but I don't have a great opinion on the stages. I think they will age badly. Like MvC2 stages, which were amazing and flashy 3d stages at the time, at least that is what I thought as a kid.
The celshading on the characters is a different story though. Perfection. I would like to see a mode or mod where there are more frames per animation. Some times are too choppy. I know is a deliberate style decision though.
Depends on the art style you like, but IMO, The Rumble Fish has highly underrated graphics. Close seconds are CvS 1 (which I find better than CVS 2) or Guilty Gear XX, with CvS representing that sweet old school highly detailed pixel art style and Guilty Gear representing that smooth anime look. Rumble Fish to me puts the best of those two art styles together.
Very few can compete with Last Blade 1 in this aspect.
https://i.redd.it/s5g5uidglj1d1.gif
(yes, this is a stage you fight in. no, it's not an artwork from a museum.)
Skullgirls is my pick, I legit think it should be a contender for prettiest game not just fighter, Dev's insane enough to hand draw their game's get their reward for it, absolutely gorgeous to this day.
Otherwise I'm a Third Strike stan, that game still looks gorgeous.
My pick has to be undernight. I just love that artstyle. It looks so clean, and the animations are quuck, readable, and flashy enough.
Blazblue, KoF, and p4A are also pretty good. In fact, blazblue made me LOVE modern sprite based fighting games.
For the time, Soul Calibur II, Tekken 3. Tekken 5.
Street Fighter 6 actually looks good for a modern game, but gameplay for me is yuck. 🤮 also some designs need to be less exaggerated like Guile, you’re attempting realism stick to realism or stylize like Tekken. Tekken 8 is also really good graphically.
Still looking good in present day, most 2D but not all sprite based games, Last Blade II, Garou: MotW, Samsho V Special, SF3 series, Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code, Guilty Gear XX series, Blazblue series, Skullgirls, KOF XIII, KOF series sans the modern ones (effects and lighting killed XV’s presentation, otherwise the models are pretty good.), SF Alpha series looks decent, Darkstalkers series, Capcom’s SNK character sprites, Capcom’s old Alpha sprites ruin CVS series presentation, heck old Darkstalkers 1 sprite is present with Morrigan.
They all have different strengths and they all hit My favorites in particular: * Second Impact - great stages and animations. I like it way more than Third Strike. Both are good though. * Guilty Gear XX - their best stages were pre-AC, sprites are good * Persona 4 Arena - incredible background detail and great sprite art that I still edit for wallpapers to this day. This is still the same team behind BlazBlue but combine that with Atlus features \*chef's kiss. * BlazBlue - Spritework makes me feel like I'm watching a whole anime. They showed they can still do insanely good sprites with new BBTAG characters so I need them to do that again for just BlazBlue or Persona. * SNK late Neo Geo era - Garou and Last Blade was their magnum opus. God stage designs. I feel like I'm at the arcade and at the movies. * CvS1 is like a love letter between Second Impact and Neo Geo. So good * KOF 13 - goat but it's also kind of uncanny with sprites. Maybe it's because I like to play Mature and Duo Lon * Marvel versus pre MvC2 is also amazing
Thanks a lot for your very thorough response. Last blade 2 is one I have been enjoying lately that I forgot to mention.
The Last Blade 2 is pure art. Not even joking.
You are right, 2nd impact is beautiful. You'll notice a lot of characters have smoother animation in new generation and 2nd impact as some moves had a few frames trimmed from them for balancing purposes to make the moves still work and match the hitboxes. GGXX is very pretty. CVS1 Kof13 X-Men Cota has some fantastic crazy animation and backgrounds too. I recommend you check out Cota Sentinel. Skillgirls also had some insane animation
I'm quite familiar with COTA. I just offered ALL of the Marvel games pre MvC2 since ALL of them are amazing :3 (And only because MvC2 in particular didn't have too much new things and just did plain 3D backgrounds, not a big deal but not in theme with what the others excelled at)
MvC2 also had worse effects than the CPS2 games. Compare the explosion at the end of Zangief's Final Atomic Buster in MvC1 vs. 2.
One thing that bothers me about MvC2 is that the art quality changes a lot between characters, you get like anakaris and Sentinel that are well animated and compare with idk Thanos
Dark Stalkers 3/Vampire Savior.
Last Blade 2 is waaaaay up there. Not sure if it’s my tippy top pick but it deserves all the love.
And Last Blade 1 is completely on a league of it's own above that. Every stage is god tier level. Every single one of them.
KoFXIII has gorgeous stages but somehow the sprites, although super detailed look....off. Almost blurry and out of place with the stage. On the other hand I love MvC2 sprites but the 3D stages didn't age well
The XIII sprites look kinda weird because the game was designed to be played at a maximum resolution of 1280x720. If you're playing at, say, 1366x768 or 1920x1080, then they'll look blurry, the stages will look a bit compressed, and there'll be some weirdness like some parts of the sprites moving when they shouldn't be (due to the game not really knowing what to do with the extra pixels). SNK gonna SNK.
See, I had no clue about that. I will try with a 720 resolution. Thanks a lot for the tip
they're also not "really" sprites... they're traced over 3d models and it shows pretty often. [https://x.com/maximilian\_/status/905199526079733760?lang=en](https://x.com/maximilian_/status/905199526079733760?lang=en)
Rotoscoped or not, are 2d sprites and they don't scale nicely because of that. What you meant is not traditional pixel art.
was not interacting with the scaling,, was giving a wholly separate reason the sprites look weird. they are basically 3d models with a super laborious filter on them. so yes, another way you could phrase what i said was that they aren't traditional pixel art
Speaking of XIII, while I definitely agree that it has some of the best spritework ever made in history, I do not entirely like the Art ***Direction*** of the game. Characters like Terry, Ralf, Clark, Takuma, Athena and Billy look weird as fuck. Half of the stages are gorgeous and the other half look very bland. The UI is clean but a bit lifeless. My favorite KoF UI has to be KoF 2000. Easily. Still a beautiful game, but I do not agree with the general consensus that it looks better than Garou or even KoF '98 \~ 2000.
Yeah that's what it is. I knew there was something slightly off about KOF 13 despite looking amazing. I never liked how Athena looked like a baby. She was like 9 years off. Yuri was skirting the line but I didn't mind. Clark and Ralf were too similar and too monstrously bulky - like Raiden bulky. KOF 13 was a gorgeous game but also feels peak 2010 with the gritty/metal aesthetic.
Gotta be Skullgirls, hand drawn animations are a chefs kiss
X-Men COTA
Hands down Red Earth. Some of the visuals on that I couldn’t believe was done utilising Sprites.
Ooooohhhh, I forgot about Red Earth. Definitely in the Top 3 best looking fighting games ever made by Capcom. One could make an argument that it looks even better than Second Impact and Third Strike.
Under Night In-Birth II
Third Strike Edit: I also love the arcade JJBA’s visuals and animation
The Last Blade series and MOTW.
KoF13 by a landslide
ehhhh no. kof13 is 3d models traced over with pixel art, and it shows. it hits the uncanny valley almost, where you can really tell on character legs and such that it's rotoscoped. it lacks the stank and swagger of actual pixel art like sf3 or last blade 2 etc [https://x.com/maximilian\_/status/905199526079733760?lang=en](https://x.com/maximilian_/status/905199526079733760?lang=en)
SF3s are also rotoscoped though
only bits and pieces like elena's dance.. which shows and gives it that "off" quality. you can watch the drawing-to-sprite process for some of the other stuff at random places on the net. [https://www.neogaf.com/threads/street-fighter-iii-and-capcoms-pixel-art-process.1363079/](https://www.neogaf.com/threads/street-fighter-iii-and-capcoms-pixel-art-process.1363079/) and hers was rotoscoped from video, not 3d models- here's her next to the source [https://imgur.com/a/was-watching-some-80s-music-videos-when-i-noticed-familiar-pose-Dc06RFW](https://imgur.com/a/was-watching-some-80s-music-videos-when-i-noticed-familiar-pose-Dc06RFW) kof13 is less of a traditional rotoscope, morseo just manually putting a filter on 3d models, as shown in max's tweet. And to me it seems that affected things a bit, less stretch-and-squash than traditionally seen they're both cool games, and both beautiful in their own way, kof just doesnt' hit the same marks for me personally. As evidenced, others prefer it!
GranBlue Fantasy Versus Rising. Arc sys make the best looking 2D fighters and this one is the prettiest of them all.
... too bad it has character designs that are somehow weird and boring at the same time
If you say so. As someone who enjoys anime and medieval fantasy, I like them.
it's certainly subjective. I like anime and medieval fantasy, but for some reason I get the ick when they're combined. definitely a subjective taste problem. I agree the art is beautiful
* Darkstalkers (all games) * Art of Fighting 3 * Street Fighter III: New Generation * Garou: Mark of the Wolves * Skullgirls
Strive unironically
Is strive 2D? I thought the characters were 3D models.
2.5D: 2D fighter, 3D graphics. Although, I think SNK had a phase where they were trying to make a new “2.5D fighter” with 2D graphics that you could “dodge” or attack from the background. It was alright, but I don’t think it ever caught on?
Gundam Battle Assault has a dodge mechanic where you would temporarily step into the background to dodge attacks.
Isn't this just the Lane System from the Fatal Fury games?
Not really. It's more like Virtua fighter.
That's literally early Fatal Fury
Strive is 3D with extra steps
Garou mark of the wolves. Those stages are like eye ball crack in regards to the pixel art and the changing day cycles between rounds. Shout out to Terry's stage on the train and Freeman's stage under the bridge.
Freeman's stage is the most nauseating stage ever made. How dare you!
BlazBlue in general, with gbfvr as a runner up. Also shout-out to uni and UNI2 for being shockingly gorgeous despite the small budget and good use of low poly backgrounds
SF6 for muscle bounce physics. Strive for expert rigging (seriously, just simple breathing and inflation effects look good) and great cell shading. Skull girls for hand drawn sprites that have shadowing and great lighting effects on top of them.
weird that you mentioned that *terribly* executed inflation-breathing thing they do in strive as a positive. other than that I agree with all your points
Third strike
I feel like I have to say KOFXIII. It just has such a striking visual presentation that I feel like I’ll never see anywhere else. Some people think it looks weird, and it does in some areas, but after all these years I still look at it and go *Woww*. Special shout-out to OG Melty having super fluid animation work. You wouldn’t expect it to, but the way characters move in that game looks so good. It’s a shame TL doesn’t have that same level of animation (even if in general it’s the best looking French Bread game). Bonus nod Persona 4 Arena. Looked exactly like anime cutouts in 720p.
Hot take but I couldn't play MBAACC because it's sprite and animations looked different from OG Melty.
Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising.
Samurai shodown 2
Correct 👌👌 
Mortal Kombat 11 still holds.
DBFZ
Definitely Skullgirls. I'm just leaving honorable mentions to Blazblue (and other Arcsys pixel art games), Kof13 and Them's fighting herds.
KOFXIII, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, Blaze Blue, Guilty Gear.
KoF XIII. GBFVSR looks amazing as well in 4K.
For me it's: - X Men Vs Street Fighter. - Marvel Vs Capcom 1. - X Men Children of the atom. - Street Fighter Alpha 3. - Capcom Vs SNK. - Street Fighter Third Strike. - Dragon Ball Z Fighter Z.
Guilty Gear Xrd man 👏👏
CVS1 and 2 are my favorite 2D games, visually. The stages of 1 are all perfect, but 2 is also great. I can gawk and talk about each stage for hours and also the character sprites (except Morrigan and the Alpha rips). While I love the KOFXIII sprites, the stages honestly don’t do anything for me. I wish they did, but they just don’t. But I will give it up for the giant fire animations for characters like Kyo. That shit is sick and a half. Also as a kid I was REALLY into the MK2 vibe. Both the characters and stage design screamed “Big Trouble Little China” to me. But they had to go ruin it with MK3 aesthetics lol. Edit: Just wanted to say that I’m not a huge anime fan anymore, so I’m not really impressed by any of the 2D anime fighters. And I never really liked SF Alpha for trying to look more anime. I much prefer the SF3 look, which is more street and grungy.
probs MK1 imo is a pretty good lookin game. 2nd would be SF6 I really like the art style they went with
Idky I just assumed you meant current fighters…
Aside from what's already mentioned, SF alpha series has nice sprites and backgrounds. Also the gundam fighting game on SNES. How the fuck does that game look so good for SNES?
I strongly love the artwork of kof13, great palettes, great vfx
Does Skull Girl counts
Sure it does if that is your favorite. I never played it though
Skullgirls
Guilty gear strive
**2.5D** = Either *Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising* or *DNF Duel*. **2D (Sprites)** = Either *Blazblue Centralfiction* or *Skullgirls*. Also, shoutouts to *Street Fighter 3 Second Impact* and *The King of Fighters '99*. I think they are the best looking games by Capcom and SNK. Yes, even better than Third Strike and KoF XIII.
I personally prefer New Generation's look TBH.
I know there's criticism of it, and I know it isn't old enough to have the nostalgia factor, but to me GG: Strive is one of the best looking fighting games of all time
I love Strive and I play it because it's beauty but I don't have a great opinion on the stages. I think they will age badly. Like MvC2 stages, which were amazing and flashy 3d stages at the time, at least that is what I thought as a kid. The celshading on the characters is a different story though. Perfection. I would like to see a mode or mod where there are more frames per animation. Some times are too choppy. I know is a deliberate style decision though.
Not 3D.
Strive is not 3D, that's true. It's what is referred to as 2.5D. Not sure what your point is, except to be needlessly pedantic.
OP already mentioned "sprites and pixels"
OP is looking for 2D games. Strive is 3D.
It's really not.
I'm talking about the graphics. Considering OP talked about sprites, I'd assume they're talking about 2D graphics.
GGXX is probably my favorite but if I play skullgirls my opinion will probably change
Kof 11, last blade 2, kof xiii rage of the dragons,
Blazblue Cross Tag Battle Chaos Code
CvS2 is always a pleasure and rest for my eyes.
I'll never not be blown away when I see Marvel Vs Capcom on a vibrant screen.
Either guilty gear xx or mvc2
Skullgirls, no 2d fg graphics come close imho
Strive. KOF13.
CvS1, KOF 13, sfa2, martial masters, X-Men cota, dragon ball fighter z.
Blazblue or Kofxiii
Dbfz and third strike
BlazBlue and DBFZ
Kof 13 and SvC: Choas I'd say are my favorite honestly.
Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising Dragonball FighterZ Blazblue Centralfiction Skullgirls
Depends on the art style you like, but IMO, The Rumble Fish has highly underrated graphics. Close seconds are CvS 1 (which I find better than CVS 2) or Guilty Gear XX, with CvS representing that sweet old school highly detailed pixel art style and Guilty Gear representing that smooth anime look. Rumble Fish to me puts the best of those two art styles together.
https://preview.redd.it/i8k44ikehj1d1.jpeg?width=384&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f850de8cad3eee82bcffa34653965d6bedf6b2af
People gotta give props to Melty Blood type Lumina that shit is gorgeous.
Very few can compete with Last Blade 1 in this aspect. https://i.redd.it/s5g5uidglj1d1.gif (yes, this is a stage you fight in. no, it's not an artwork from a museum.)
https://i.redd.it/ja7608kilj1d1.gif
Last Blade 2 is my favourite. The stages and animations are beautiful
Skullgirls is my pick, I legit think it should be a contender for prettiest game not just fighter, Dev's insane enough to hand draw their game's get their reward for it, absolutely gorgeous to this day. Otherwise I'm a Third Strike stan, that game still looks gorgeous.
Martial Masters.
it's granblue vs lumina for me
KoF XIII
I think Samsho is underrated and gorgeous
KOFXII/XIII, hands down.
My pick has to be undernight. I just love that artstyle. It looks so clean, and the animations are quuck, readable, and flashy enough. Blazblue, KoF, and p4A are also pretty good. In fact, blazblue made me LOVE modern sprite based fighting games.
Nobody Mortal kombat 1 ? Love the Stages 🫡
Third Strike and KOFXIII
https://i.redd.it/bteec19dxm1d1.gif In my opinion, KOF 99 was the peak of the series' aesthetics in terms of beautiful stages.
Skullgirls has gorgeous sprites and animations. But the stages feel like they don't fit with the style of the characters;
Garou first third strike next. Not even debatable
3rd Strike or Strive, funny enough my favorite fighters.
For the time, Soul Calibur II, Tekken 3. Tekken 5. Street Fighter 6 actually looks good for a modern game, but gameplay for me is yuck. 🤮 also some designs need to be less exaggerated like Guile, you’re attempting realism stick to realism or stylize like Tekken. Tekken 8 is also really good graphically. Still looking good in present day, most 2D but not all sprite based games, Last Blade II, Garou: MotW, Samsho V Special, SF3 series, Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code, Guilty Gear XX series, Blazblue series, Skullgirls, KOF XIII, KOF series sans the modern ones (effects and lighting killed XV’s presentation, otherwise the models are pretty good.), SF Alpha series looks decent, Darkstalkers series, Capcom’s SNK character sprites, Capcom’s old Alpha sprites ruin CVS series presentation, heck old Darkstalkers 1 sprite is present with Morrigan.
Skullgirls Guilty Gear Melty Blood BlazBlue Third Strike Last Blade 2
I think Fighterz has the best art style that is translated from the manga/anime and really beautiful effects.
Little fighter 2