So your issue is your friend knows how to block a move and you don't so that makes the game bad? I mean do you believe that a good fighting game should be one where someone who doesn't know how to block a move or execute a move in a manner where it will land should win?

And how many other years has the tekken franchise been at EVO? 

You should know that EVO usually only feature games at their evens that are very very very good sellers. Tekken hasn't been selling very well of late. Hence its absence.

You make a fair point, looking at sales since the PS2 era ended Tekken has been a dying franchise, I guess it had the run of the manor on the PS2 since there was no real Street fighter outing that gen (not counting the 3rd EX+Alpha game)

Meant to say btw, when it comes to the unblockable moves having a 3second "arming" time, yoshimitsu's diagonally down forwards and square slash was instant with almost no recoil and many variants of tekken have featured Devil/Angels standing Eyebeam being almost instant with little to no recoil animation as well (the flying one has a ton of arm time but at the same time you can alter that to swoop behind with it as well or in TTT2 turn it into that crazy dive bomb attack)

Don't get me wrong Intrinsic, I really like Tekken, but it has some pretty bad flaws, especially I think if you put it and something like SF4 side by side.

For me when it comes to games like Tekken and SF4 it is more about play style than anything else. Because both are two very technical games. And I have been playing Tekken since part 1....the only time people got hit with the eye beams is when peopel didn't know what they were. After that it was more so on the player for getting hit not so much the game itself.

IMO both SF4 and Tekken have flaws in the gameplay department some more obvious than others and some more forgiving than others. The two are the top of the food chains as far as fighting games go I just prefer Tekken more so than SF.
.

I get what you are saying and mostly agree with you. Tekken does have some flaws.

But so deos SF. All that aside, those are simply two of the absolute best fighters out there. They are also bot h so different its not even fair to compare them to each other. They are both deeply technical games; I am inclined to believe that its near impossible to love both games equally. Your fighting games gene is either attuned to one or the other. The games are such that the reasons you will take one is great is the exact reason you will hate the other. 

The most important aspect is character balancing. While games like KOF really have a balanced roster, other like Injustice aren't (Aquaman, Superman, Green Arrow and Terminator are totally overpowered while Quinn is useless). The second most important thing is that the game gives you a way to avoid any kind of exploit of repetitive attacks that can win a match. Third most important thing is having a deep gameplay and plenty of aspects to explore.

For me, The King of Fighters is probably the best and is superb in all aspects. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom and Tekken are pretty good on these aspects too. Mortal Kombat, Injutice and Smash Bros are a little bit lacking in all these departments. Other gems that are pretty on par with KOF would be Garou, Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown. I would give a bonus to Kizuna Encounter by the deeply creative gameplay. In general, NeoGeo was the home for the start of the best fighting franchises ever. If I had to recommend only one fighting game, it would be KOF 13.

I didn't mean that. How absurd a game would be if the one that doesn't block always wins? No one would play that game. I meant that after practicing blocking again and again and again, you expect to do better against the skilled people, right? Wrong! No matter how I block while facing a human opponent, they ALWAYS seem to break my defense, whether I'm standing or crouching, or trying to predict where the attack is going to land.

You can't just focus on blocking tho, in street fighter I main blanka so tis pretty much no stop agression all the time, love the way he moves compared to others. But yeah just on a technical point if you block high in SF4 you can be sweeped or thrown, if you block low you can be attacked with a jumping attack or an overhead (kens axe kick) you shouldn't think of blocking as a way to stop all damage but more like paper scissors rock but where the other person can see which you've played and if they're fast enough they'll punish it with the right move.

@intrinsic and Naruto tho, what did you guys think of the crossover Tekken X Street fighter? I have it for the ps3/Vita but it just feels so wrong having the Tekken characters stuck on the 2d plane and even having fireball motions for some moves, even the GBA Tekken 3 was a better game for letting the characters move like Tekken chars. I still have all my PS1 tekken games too tucked away in storage, great memories of those.

No lie I felt SF X Tekken was TRASH the Tekken characters just did not blend well or fit well in my opinion. I was FAR more interested in the Tekken X SF that was canned. I felt that would have worked out much better. Like yous aid the Tekken characters being stuck in 2d just didn't work at all.

3 things im looking for a good fighting game.
1. Interactive
2. Unique customization
3. Skill based