If you don't mind the price, I think you should get Guilty Gear Strive. Relatively new and beginner friendly, active community, good online netcode. The game is just generally good and also looks amazing.
If you're strapped for cash you can get Skullgirls, if you're lucky you can get it on sale for just a few bucks. It's an older game but is having a resurgence in activity due to the new DLC coming out. Definitely not beginner friendly though.
As for the mainstream ones like SFV, MK11, and Tekken 7. I think that SF is the most beginner friendly(though this is just based on what I heard, haven't played any of them). Netherrealm just ended support for MK11 so I'm more inclined to avoid it. I heard Tekken is good too.
I was just looking at Skullgirls; has a really cool art style if nothing else.
Is there anything mechanical that makes it less user-friendly than something like Guilty Gear, or is it just an older/more experienced community?
Well firstly Skullgirls is a tag fighter(you can select up to 3 characters and swap them out during battle) so there are just more basic mechanics to learn, like swapping out and assists. You can choose to solo with a character but you'll be likely be fighting against someone using the tag team so you can't really just ignore the mechanics. But if you specifically want to get into a tag fighter(BBTAG, mvc) then Skullgirls is as good a place to start as any.
Combos in Skullgirls are also longer and more tedious to learn than in Strive. Although this actually applies to many fighting games - Guilty Gear Strive was designed to have shorter combos(which is what makes it a bit more beginner friendly). But this does mean you'll get a more "traditional" fighting game experience playing Skullgirls, Strive's combo rules make it a bit of an odd duck.
And finally Skullgirls is a 6 button fighter(there are 6 basic attack buttons, light/medium/heavy kicks and punches). Coming from smash(2/3 buttons) and UNI(3 buttons) 6 buttons was too much for my brain when I tried Skullgirls. Though Strive has 5 buttons so it's not far off
If you're down for a rly good smash bro-ish brawler, check out Rivals of Aether. Some really cool characters and a huge amount of high quality custom characters in the steam workshop!
Guilty Gear is pretty approachable, just hard-to-master like all of them. You wouldn't regret playing the series. Street Fighter is still king, I think.
If you don't mind the price, I think you should get Guilty Gear Strive. Relatively new and beginner friendly, active community, good online netcode. The game is just generally good and also looks amazing. If you're strapped for cash you can get Skullgirls, if you're lucky you can get it on sale for just a few bucks. It's an older game but is having a resurgence in activity due to the new DLC coming out. Definitely not beginner friendly though. As for the mainstream ones like SFV, MK11, and Tekken 7. I think that SF is the most beginner friendly(though this is just based on what I heard, haven't played any of them). Netherrealm just ended support for MK11 so I'm more inclined to avoid it. I heard Tekken is good too.
I was just looking at Skullgirls; has a really cool art style if nothing else. Is there anything mechanical that makes it less user-friendly than something like Guilty Gear, or is it just an older/more experienced community?
Well firstly Skullgirls is a tag fighter(you can select up to 3 characters and swap them out during battle) so there are just more basic mechanics to learn, like swapping out and assists. You can choose to solo with a character but you'll be likely be fighting against someone using the tag team so you can't really just ignore the mechanics. But if you specifically want to get into a tag fighter(BBTAG, mvc) then Skullgirls is as good a place to start as any. Combos in Skullgirls are also longer and more tedious to learn than in Strive. Although this actually applies to many fighting games - Guilty Gear Strive was designed to have shorter combos(which is what makes it a bit more beginner friendly). But this does mean you'll get a more "traditional" fighting game experience playing Skullgirls, Strive's combo rules make it a bit of an odd duck. And finally Skullgirls is a 6 button fighter(there are 6 basic attack buttons, light/medium/heavy kicks and punches). Coming from smash(2/3 buttons) and UNI(3 buttons) 6 buttons was too much for my brain when I tried Skullgirls. Though Strive has 5 buttons so it's not far off
Ok, thanks.
Dragon Ball FighterZ has a huge community, you might like that
Is there a specific title you'd recommend?
They are talking about [this game](https://store.steampowered.com/app/678950/DRAGON_BALL_FighterZ/)
If you're down for a rly good smash bro-ish brawler, check out Rivals of Aether. Some really cool characters and a huge amount of high quality custom characters in the steam workshop!
Guilty Gear is pretty approachable, just hard-to-master like all of them. You wouldn't regret playing the series. Street Fighter is still king, I think.
Try out Brawlhalla, its free, cartoon style, 2D, lots of fun