Most impressive 2D fighter?

[Pulsar_t]

One of my few technical gripes with the way sprite-based fighting games are made is that when the characters connect it feels like a sprite cutting into another sprite, be it Mugen or the meticulously hand-drawn Blazblue and its ilk, whereas in 3D fighters the collisions feel more "believable", especially when grappling: Barely noticeable clipping and characters that usually react with an adequate physical model to being kicked in the face.

My question is what is the most impressively animated 2D fighting game/series that you can think of, in terms of the aforementioned scrapping animations?

[samsonlonghair]

Personal opinion: I always thought the animation and scaling looked good in the Real Bout trilogy.

[Soldier Blue]

I always felt the animation was quite good in Night Warriors Vampire Hunter/Darkstalkers and Vampire Savior. Kinda interesting the way the characters fidget about even while standing still.

[CD AGES]

I can agree with both Real Bout series and Vampire, particularly Vsav!
Others that are worth mentioning are SF III 3rd Strike and Martial Masters IMO.

[JoeAwesome]

As much as I didn't like the characters from SFIII ( ), seeing Gill's sprite be accurate when he faces whichever side was pretty impressive.

[Ogreatgames]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV for the SNES was an impressive 2D fighter. I enjoyed the animation & the sound effects, it followed together excellently.

[Luke]

Options to choose from?

Define "Impressive" for a 2D please.

Maybe select a gen too. We're talking about thousands of games here, so narrowing it down would help.

[Gunstar Green]

For me, King of Fighters XIII is the current gold standard. I've always felt SNK did it best (Real Bout is a great suggestion for what you're looking for) and the animation in KoFXIII is just a real treat.

[marurun]

The only time I have issues with sprite "clipping" in 2D games is weapon-based fighters, but I have the same issue with Soul Calibur. And in truth, polygon clipping bothers me more in 3D games than sprite clipping in 2D games. I always feel weird to see a character throw someone with their hands hovering above, or buried in, the opponent's body. I also hate how common hair and cloth clipping are, or alternate costumes which do not account for a characters fists or weapons (sword blade casually cutting through the clothes or body during idle animation).

[cha cha]

I am guessing Guilty Gear Xrd is eliminated because they used AMAZINGLY cell shaded 3D models on a 2D plane? It's a shame that the beauty of the game would be dismissed over that contention, because the 3D model work is so good it looks like 2D and a living anime to boot.

But as far as old sprite-based fighters that impressed me with animations, I have to give a shout out to Martial Masters, they went ham on the animations for that game.