Summary
Unsurprisingly, the biggest draw in fighting games is itsroster of fighters. Most of them are distinctly different from one another and tend to represent something memorable, be it a certain country, class or subculture, likeStreet Fighter 6’s neat cast of newbies like Manon the French judo-based fashionista, and Kimberly the Afro-American ninja who loves street art and 80s tech. After all, seeing the same faces being battered and bruised over and over again can get old.
A bigger roster ofplayable characters in fighting gamescan translate to better replayability and more variety if the extra characters offer something distinct. Otherwise, they end up offering quantity over quality.Street Fighter,Tekken,Mortal Kombat,etc. havedozens of awesome fighters, but whether they’re making up the numbers or offering true variety, these entries' massive rosters dwarf their average cast. To make it fair, this list offers only one game per franchise to prevent one series or another dominating the proceedings.
Updated on October 2nd, 2024 by David Heath:What makes a fighting game roster too small, too large, or just right can be relative depending on the game.Virtua Fighter’s cast is tiny compared toTekken, but their styles were all largely unique compared toTekken’s clones at the time. Likewise,Mortal Kombat’s cast often dwarfedStreet Fighteras they were more keen on palette-swapping their ninjas thanSFwas for their shotos.
Even so, there have been some games whose rosters have ballooned way out of proportion. Whether it’s from wanting to provide the ultimate fighting game experience, crossing multiple series over, or from a quirk in its gameplay modes, this list has received more examples of fighting games with large rosters, alongside some refreshed details for the older entries and some rearrangements.
Some fans burned byStreet Fighter 6get wistful aboutStreet Fighter 5, thinking about its catchy music, interesting V-Trigger mechanics, and its bold, colorful graphics. They likely don’t remember its lacking features, broken online mode, and lacking 16-character roster on launch. Compared toTekken 7,King of Fighters 14, and even the originalStreet Fighter 4, it felt way too small.
Still, the game hung in there for years, refining its gameplay and roster size with each size before reachingStreet Fighter 5: Champion Edition. This time, it offered multiple single player modes, new V-mechanics that made better use of the V-Trigger gauge, and the largest roster out of all theSFgames. It would’ve been a relatively modest 39 ifSF6’s development went more smoothly. Instead, it received 6 more characters, includingSF6’s Luke, to total out at 45 characters.
WithBlazBlue’s head honcho Toshimichi Mori now gone from ArcSystem Works, no one knows what the future holds in store for the series. It filled theGuilty Gear-shaped hole that fighting game fans had while that series was in legal limbo, then fizzled out right as it came back. Fans of both series still snipe at each other online today, which would seem like a good opportunity to cross the two series over to let them battle it out digitally.
Instead,BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battlesaw the cast of Mori’s fighters mix up with the cast ofPersona 4 Arena,Under Night In-Birth,RWBY,Arcana Heart,Akatsuki BlitzkampfandSenran Kagurain tag-team combat. It worked out well, though it might’ve worked out better if most of its 53 characters weren’t DLC. Getting all those series' IPs together couldn’t have been cheap, though having to cash out for a decent roster size turned off a lot of fans.
One would expect a huge crossover likeMarvel Vs Capcom 2to have a legion ofsuperheroes and superpowered anime charactersduking it out, but the roster is actually a bit more modest compared to others at 56 characters. Still, for 2000, that was a massive roster as it consisted of practically everyone from the priorMarvelgames up to that point, alongside a few original characters like Ruby Heart and Amingo.
The chance of seeing Chun Li trade blows with Thanos with an assist fromResident Evil’s Jill Valentine, or Cable catchingMega Man Legends' Tron Bonne in a Hyper Viper Beam after tagging out Strider Hiryu more than justified the price of admission. It’s no wonder it became the jewel in the crown of the recentMarvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collectionrelease.
Shōnen Jump’s series haven’t been strangers to having arena fighters with large rosters (as the later entries will show), nor have they shied away from crossing over with each other. The only problem is that the crossovers tend to vary in quality.Jump Super Starswas a greatSmash Brosclone on the DS, but it was a Japan-only release.Jump Forcewent worldwide, only to end up feeling more like a hop instead.
Nonetheless, despite its lacking critical reception and sudden delisting, it had a beefy roster of 40 base characters, 14 DLC characters, and 3 freebies to provide 57 classicJumpcharacters battling it out. Compared to its predecessor,J-Stars Victory Vsand its deep cuts (Hell Teacher Nubeanyone?), it stuck to the big hitters likeDragon Ball,Naruto,Bleach, etc., with a few old-school favorites likeFist of the North Star’s Kenshiro andCity Hunter’s Ryo Saeba.
The originalJojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battleis an interesting game. It had some significant flaws, like its buggy online mode, lacking story mode, and nasty microtransactions. Yet it really showed a love for the series, featuring characters from (at the time) all 8 parts, moves that referenced their big moments in the story, and plenty of Easter eggs for fans to check out.
Still, there was room for improvement, which it surprisingly got when CyberConnect2 reworked it for all modern consoles asJojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R. Characters who missed the cut the first time around finally joined the roster, alongside the new characters from its arena-fighting predecessorEyes of Heaven, and some fresh faces likePart 7’s Diego Brando. In the end, it gaveJojofans 60 characters from its 8 parts (and Baoh) to play with.
Not too surprisingly, theTekkentitle with the most characters would beTekken Tag Tournament 2. It was anon-canon dream matchwhere practically everyone from the prior games got together to take each other 2 on 2 rather than 1 on 1. The only guy missing in this massive roster isTekken 3’s Gon, who was actually the series' first and only guest character untilTekken 7’s Akuma.
It has 60 total characters, with most having their own unique fighting styles. Though even its clone characters have noticeable differences, like Miharu being clumsier than Xiaoyu, Slim Bob having less weight behind his moves than regular Bob (literally), and Sebastian having better reach than his ward, Lili. The game was a masterclass in presentation, though its gameplay was too tricky for most, and the fallout fromStreet Fighter X Tekken’s faults and fiascoes made it one of the worst-selling entries in the series.
Mortal Kombat: Armageddonis similar to the Tekken Taggames in that it was also meant to bring everyone from the prior games back. It just went one spot further by bringing back characters presumed dead in the canon, alongside new characters for its story-oriented Konquest Mode. It would also end up being the last chapter in the originalMKcanon, as its ending would lead into the series' 2011 rebootMortal Kombat(MK9).
Despite its large roster, it was considered a downgrade from the previous game,MK: Deception, as it reduced the characters' switchable fighting styles from 3 to 2, and a lot of the characters shared their basic moves. The custom Fatalities were fairly generic too, butthe stage fatalities were still neat. Overall, that was the price that had to be paid to get 62 playable characters, with 2 slots for custom characters.
7The King Of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match
66 Characters Aim to Reign in the Ring
TheKing of Fightersseries has always had a gargantuan roster, since it’s relied on 3-player teams for much of its life. The NESTS saga (KOF ‘99-2001) upped the count to 4-person teams for a while, before toning things back down to 3 for its dream match edition,KOF 2002. But when their remake ofKOF ‘98, KOF ‘98: Ultimate Match, brought back everyone fromKOFs ‘94-‘97, it felt inevitable that they’d do the same forKOF 2002.
Sure enough,The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Matchincluded every character from the NESTS saga, including formerly console exclusive characters like Geese and Goenitz, to alternate versions with rearranged moves like EX Kensou and Nightmare Geese. The only missing character was K9999, their clone of Tetsuo fromAkira, who got redesigned into the new character Nameless. It still has the largest roster in the series at 66 characters, thoughKOFs14and15have come close with 58 fighters on offer each.
Def Jam: Fight for NYis a peculiar title since it’sa fighting gamebased on hip-hop culture with real, actual music stars and artists as playable characters. In other words, it’s a typical Grammy Awards night, but with fewer safety rules. If players ever wanted to see Ice-T beat up Busta Rhymes in a fist fight instead of a freestyle rap battle, this is the game.
Combining all the big names with its original characters, the base game has 67 characters. The PSP port upped it to 68, with plenty of room to add custom characters to reach 74+ across all its platforms. They’re an eclectic bunch too, as, alongside Snoop Dogg, Sean Paul, Warren G, etc., there are some curious choices, like Henry Rollins, Danny Trejo, jeweler Jacob Arabo, and Carmen Electra (who’s usually banned at tournaments for being broken).
Super Smash Bros. Ultimatepresents another strong argument for why the Nintendo Switch is a necessary device for gamers. They wouldn’t want to miss out on this massive pop culture crossover. It truly lives up to the name ‘Ultimate’, as it managed to fit in everyone from the prior games, including guest characters likeMetal Gear’s Solid Snake andBayonetta, and threw in more stars on top.
Once its last DLC character,Kingdom Hearts’ Sora, was added, its roster had a total of 89 playable fighters, including echo fighters likeStreet Fighter’s Ken to go with Ryu, and Daisy to go with Peach. IfSmashcontinues, it’s unlikely to ever get this big again, as Nintendo had to go out of their way to talk to Capcom, Bandai-Namco, Square-Enix, Disney, etc., to include what are essentially some of the biggest names in 40+ years of gaming, alongside Nintendo’s own classic characters.
