Virtua Fighter 5.
As much as I love tekken (it's very accessible to newbies), VF is the deeper fighting experience. VF is one of the most balanced fighting games (After the introduction of eddie, it was confirmed that the Tekken series was broken) and there's actually a challenge in learning how to play properly (as opposed to the button mashing and single attack spamming that can get you through most tekken matches). My only issue with VF is that the learning curve is so steep, I don't have any real urges to start using another fighter because I'm so comfortable with the way my original choice plays and I don't want to have to waste hours upon hours getting good at another one.
Personally, if it was all fighters, my top 3 would be:
1) Super Smash Bros. (original and easily the best, if only because if you were good with a "crappy" character, you'd never lose to anybody using Fox or Kirby)
2) Jump Ultimate Stars (Alot of cheaters and cheapshots online, but who can say no to a game purely based on what if x and y fought scenarios with anime characters)
3) Street Fighter 2 or 3 (2 for the nostalgic factor but 3 was the best in series).







