Okay this list will likely make no one happy, and frankly I haven't really been very interested in the genre since the late 90's. But it's my damned blog and over here what I say goes, so...

1. Street Fighter Alpha II - To me this is where the Alpha series really clicked. It had a large and varied roster, good balance, and a style of graphics that struck a good chord with me. Lots of good memories playing this entire series with friends, but this is really where it all where it peaked.

2. Super Smash Bros: Brawl - Does this count as a fighter? Fuck you, of course it does. It's an awesome game and people fight... so I love it man!

3.  Super Street Fighter II - While I had played SFII many times before, this was the version that I finally got competitive with. Great times in the arcade with this game.

4. Mortal Kombat 2 - I was never a huge MK fan, but the 2nd in the series really worked for me. It had all the excesses of the series that I enjoyed without too much of the bull crap that later installments would have (i.e. weapons, palatte swapped characters, etc.)

5. Virtua Fighter 2 - Next to the jump from SF to SF II, I don't think any game ever had such a dramatic jump in quality. This was also one of the very few 3-D fighters that I really liked. Not too many bells and whistles, just good combat. Unfortunately I really sucked. Fortunately I played as Lion so most people just thought it the flawed character and not me.