Best Fighting Game - PSLS Game of the Year Awards 2018

Fighting games have been a video game staple for decades, but some years really have something special for the fans of kicks and punches. We had some great games get nominated this year, including a brawler based on Final Fantasy and a new take on an extremely popular anime. Which one did we like the best? Here are the PlayStation LifeStyle nominations for Best Fighting Game in 2018.

Best Fighting Game 2018 Winner

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Read our review.

It’s rare that a game can encapsulate the property it comes from so completely, but Dragon Ball FighterZ does just that. Our resident fighting game expert Lucas White told us why Dragon Ball FighterZ deserved this win.

“Akira Toriyama and video games have a long history, and Dragon Ball is at the heart of that history. But even with decades full of masterpieces such as Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest, and weird stuff like Tomba, no game has quite succeeded in the holy grail of bringing that art to life. That is, until Arc System Works broke new ground in translating 2D art to 3D visual structure with Guilty Gear Xrd, then translated that success to Dragon Ball FighterZ. This is the video game that looks like Dragon Ball brought to life in HD, more so than even recent anime projects. On top of that, it’s an incredible tribute to the 3-on-3 “Versus” concept that even Capcom seems to have left behind, bringing people from several disparate communities together and smashing Evo records. Dragon Ball FighterZ is a special game that shows you don’t need extra fluff or a big budget story mode to get a big audience to play a fighting game.”

Reader’s Choice Winner

Dragon Ball FighterZ

SoulCalibur VI fought a hard fight, but Dragon Ball FighterZ landed a knockout punch. It was clearly the favorite, winning both the staff and reader’s choice votes. And no, sorry to everyone that wrote in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. You might have forgotten that you’re on PlayStation LifeStyle, which means that all nominees and winners have to be PlayStation games.

Don’t miss our full lineup of nominees for the PlayStation LifeStyle Game of the Year awards. We’ll be revealing more winners all throughout the week, leading up to the Game of the Year on Friday December 21.