In Metro City, a battle has been brewing for some time behind the scenes. Two Chinese groups have desired to find ancient tablets that contain a clue to finding treasures from the Pale Lotus temple. These treasures will allow a mortal to gain the ability to barter with the gods for a chance at immortality. Thus, with such a power to be gained, numerous warriors have sought the tablets and fight to the death for them. The battle to become legends starts here in Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus.

Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus should have been an amazing fighting game. From two people who worked with Mortal Kombat before leaving when Midway—the original owners of Mortal Kombat—dissolved, Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus seemed to be a title that would go down as a game to be compared to Mortal Kombat. However, Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus can only be compared to Mortal Kombat if you’re showing what a bad clone looks like. Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus isn’t bad because it’s overly bloody and violet—those are elements we liked about being fans of Mortal Kombat—but because it felt too much like a clone of Mortal Kombat and lacked originality. There are some who genuinely like Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus which we understand, but for us here at Honey’s Anime, we don’t think it was a good fighting game and a lot of others side with us in that regard.

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 is a 2D fighter set in the Dragon Ball Z universe. Play as some of your favorite heroes like Goku, Krillin and Gohan or try your hands with villains Frieza and the evil Super Buu. With over 22 characters—several more can be unlocked while playing—Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 will be sure to include some familiar faces. Now are you ready for a fight? If your answer is yes then enter the battle in Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22.

We mentioned earlier that recently we have been loving the newest Dragon Ball game—Dragon Ball FighterZ—and have been reminded what excellence is to be expected from the Dragon Ball game franchise. However, not all Dragon Ball games have been stellar. In fact, many of the older Dragon Ball Z games have been down right terrible even given their system limitations. One of these terrible Dragon Ball games comes in the form of Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22—the title changes to 27 once the whole cast is unlocked though—which is just the embodiment of how bad a Dragon Ball fighting game can be.

In Kabuki Warriors, players assume the role of Kabuki teams who must do battle with other teams in different locations. Harness your movements to unleash your skills on your opponents while pleasing the audience. Win each fight to earn cash and admiration from the audience. Can you become the ultimate Kabuki legend? It’s time to show your skills in Kabuki Warriors!

Fighting games live off their gameplay mechanics. If a fighting game doesn’t control well or has poor mechanics then the game becomes a mess and will appeal to no one. Kabuki Warriors is one of these games where despite the interesting ideas it had, it failed in execution because of the actual gameplay mechanics. Rather than having the ability to perform various combos with multiple button inputs—like most fighting games—Kabuki Warriors relied on using one attack button with an emphasis on using movement to make attacks do different things. Kabuki Warriors ends up looking like a poor version of Soul Calibur and that makes us cringe even thinking about it. Even if you like collecting old Xbox games, we implore you to avoid spending a dime on Kabuki Warriors unless you just want it for the kind of cool box art.

Girls in bikinis seems like just another day at the beach, right? Well, these bikini babes aren’t just eye candy. With karate skills and various martial arts, these girls want to show their aptitude for looking good and fighting while doing it. Time to ready up, player. These girls are ready to fight and they won’t be waiting forever to do so!

Dead or Alive is a great fighting game franchise thanks to developers Team Ninja. Mixing solid fighting game mechanics with a cast of attractive fighters just screams for a good time. That’s why it’s not uncommon to see other developers try to mirror that in their fighting games with girls who want to show off some skin here and there. Unfortunately, Creative Edge Studios tried their hands with fighting games in the form of Bikini Karate Babes and failed miserably making a game that just feels terrible. Poor frame rate, terrible fighting animations, terrible controls and some ridiculous real girl overlays—yes the girls in Bikini Karate Babes are real girls superimposed on the screen—make Bikini Karate Babes worthy of being included on the Top 10 Worst Fighting Games list we’ve made. Trust us, avoid Bikini Karate Babes even if you want to ogle at some girls.

Simon has found himself in a dire situation that requires his immediate attention. When Simon’s father ends up owing a powerful crime boss, he must earn some cash and do it quickly. That’s why Simon decides to use his street fighting skills to enter an illegal fighting tournament. If Simon can win, he will earn enough to bail his dad out of hot water. However, Simon’s opponents all have reasons for fighting as well and they aren’t about to be taken down without a struggle.

Xbox Kinect was easily one of Microsoft’s biggest failures in the early days of the Xbox 360. Not only were the games for it pretty average to poor, but it caused developer AMA Studios to produce Fighters Uncaged. The idea of using your own body for a fighting game seems kind of cool but that’s about the most praise we can give Fighters Uncaged. Poor responses due to the Kinect’s limitations and downright horrible mechanics make Fighter Uncaged anything but cool. Players could legit spam one punch move over and over and win nearly every match doing so. When you can do that in a fighting game, that is a sign that the game itself is pretty darn bad and Fighters Uncaged isn’t an exception to this reality.

Kasumi Ninja is an Atari Jaguar game released in 1994. Players assume the role of Habaki or Senzo as they head to a mythical island called Kasumi Island. Here, they will face a powerful being known as the Demon Gyaku. However, reaching Gyaku will not be a simple task. Standing before them are various warriors who wish to impede their progress using their own martial art skills. A bloody conflict is soon about to begin in Kasumi Ninja.

Back during the days of Mortal Kombat’s original conception, many game developers wanted to be cool with their fighting games. How did they want to do that you might ask? Simple, have absurd amounts of blood and gore to push that cool factor seen in Mortal Kombat. Kasumi Ninja tried the same thing, being helmed by developers Hand Made Software, but in the end, it just became a clunky fighter with terrible controls and absurd amount of blood. We feel bad for the kids back in the day that tried to convince their parents to pick up Kasumi Ninja to only find out how terrible it actually was.

The year now is 2043 and the world has changed considerably thanks to breakthroughs in science and technology. Robot servants and automations are utilized daily to help the people deal with nearly everything now and has allowed robotics to advance in ways only seen in sci-fi movies. However, one hive mind group known as Electrocorp R & D is facing a terrible predicament when a virus breaks out and causes their powerful AI system to become sentient and self-aware which in turn causes the city of Metropolis 4 to be locked down to defend the outer areas. Coton—an advanced AI robot himself—has been unaffected by the virus and now stands as the last hope to stopping the AI systems in the facility.

Robots are amazing and any game with robots instantly intrigues us here at Honey’s Anime. Though robots aren’t always utilized in the best way in fighting games and while there have been some amazing robot fighters like Cyberbots, there have also been some bad ones like Rise of the Robots. While many praised the graphics of Rise of the Robots—remember this is the 90s so the game did look good for back then—everything else about this 2D robot fighter was terrible. Robots controlled poorly, hit detection was something that we’re not sure if it existed and overall Rise of the Robots just lacked anything that could have made it a stable fighting game. Rise of the Robots had the potential to be incredible but it just couldn’t do it and became a mess of good ideas put into a poor fighter. The sequel—Rise 2: Resurrection—we won’t even mention as that was just as bad so there was no redemption for this short-lived series.

Sonic and his friends are back at it again but this time they have a new mission, see who the better fighter is among them! Sonic the Fighters has fan favorite characters like Sonic and Knuckles as well as some newcomers like Bark the Polar Bear. Sonic the Fighters aims to ask who would win in a fight between Tails and Sonic? Now is the time to find out for yourselves in Sonic the Fighters. Let the Sonic battle royale begin!

Sega has some great older fighting games like Fighting Vipers or their illustrious Virtua Fighter series. Though one thing that should never have been made is Sonic the Fighters. While we like when companies go and take their characters out of their natural gameplay formulas—like put them in a RPG or a card game—these types of games tend to be more miss than hit. Sonic the Fighters falls into the miss category and the reasons are numerous. Besides controlling poorly and being just outrageously silly for a fighting game, Sonic the Fighters was just an absurd idea. Do we hate Sonic the Fighters? No, we don’t, but equally, when we think of the greater fighting games Sega has produced, we realize that Sonic the Fighters is probably one of their worst in this genre.

Dragon Ball GT gets its own fighting game in the form of Dragon Ball GT Final Bout. Players will control heroes from the GT world such as Kid Goku, Trunks, Pan and even Super Saiyan 4 Goku! You will need to defeat the various heroes and villains of the series to ultimately go up against Baby Vegeta as the final boss. Fight in the Build Up mode to level your heroes and make them stronger through tough training and fight against tough opponents in the Build Up tournament. Welcome to the world of GT in Dragon Ball GT Final Bout!

Now we won’t say we hate Dragon Ball GT as many fans of the Dragon Ball franchise will say, but we will say we agree it has its ups and downs. That’s why possibly one of the more confusing ideas for a fighting game is to take a series already disliked and make a fighting game from it. Dragon Ball GT Final Bout could have been at least some form of redemption for the GT series but like the show, it failed to deliver. Poor gameplay mechanics, mistranslations, horrible level designs and art are just a few of the numerous problems facing Dragon Ball GT Final Bout. Trust us, folks, even if you love Dragon Ball GT, stay far away from Final Bout…

Shaquille O’Neal was supposed to head for a charity basketball game in Tokyo, Japan. However, when Shaq arrives at an old dojo while heading to the game, he meets a martial arts master named Leotsu. Begging Shaq to save a young boy named Nezu, Shaq is then transported to another world. Here, Shaq will need to fight to reach Nezu who is guarded by evil forces. Can Shaq use his skills to fight against the evil mummy Sett Ra and save Nezu?!

We really shouldn’t need to explain the failings of Shaq Fu. The fact that a basketball player—even if it’s the legendary Shaq—being a protagonist in a fighting game is enough to send chills down anyone’s spine. However, if we need to go into more depth with why Shaq Fu is bad we’ll just say poor controls, overly difficult fights, unfair mechanics and a ridiculous plot are the key reasons. Want to hear something even scarier, folks? Shaq Fu is somehow getting a sequel despite it being the worst fighting game we’ve ever played here at Honey’s Anime…Why?