Tekken -> Every game of the series is awesome and it has the best fight system and story!

Yeah, anyone answering anything but Tekken is wrong.... just saying.

EDIT: Oh why? It's unique play style of a button for a limb is perfectly suited to fighting games and transating real fighting styles into the comic versions we see in game.

I've seen the SNES version and it's simply ballz...

OT: Smash Bros! It's the only fighting franchise I've been able to enjoy with my friends! It's simply loads of fun.

Super Smash Brotherrs.. MELEEEEEEE.

Tekken is definitely king in my book.

I just like how Tekken's roster of characters always grows, instead of strangely absent ones in each entry like SF and MK. They make a character, give them a move set, perfect on their balance with each game. Removing a character due to unbalance is an admittance that you can't fix that. For the most part Tekken is a pretty fair fighting game, even when using some boss characters vs regular ones (Jinpachi, Ogre, Unknown).

Tekken also adds cool new techniques and way to show off your skills with each entry, not a retread of same tired mechanics. Between juggles, wall jumps, Rage Mode, Bounds, Item Attacks, Tag Assaults, and soon to have super meters, they have it all. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is true perfection. Great Tag Team controls and excecution. You can play with just one character if that is what you are comfortable with with the balancing done by putting you in perma-Rage mode so you take off more damage against teams. Being able to pull of true combos between 2 chars of your choosing is always awesome. The fact that you can have your tag partner come to your rescue during a tag grapple is even better. No other fighter can touch that in my opinion.

The series usually jam packs each entry with things to do with Tekken bowling, Tekken Force adventure mode, etc which I find to be great distractions from the normal fighting.

Gonna have to say Smash Bros. It just gives you a feeling with freedom with movement and the ability to be inventive that makes it fun to watch and fun to play. My second favorite would probably be the Soul Calibur series.

Of that list, Mortal Kombat, but here are my favourite fighting games:

1. Mortal Kombat (specifically II and Deadly Alliance (Gamecube preferably))
2. Killer Instinct
3. Soul Calibur (specifically 2, Gamecube version)

And one from the past that I still consider a classic: One Must Fall 2097. Developed by Epic Games, you piloted robots, and throughout the game, you could level up your pilot and buy/upgrade aspects of your robot, or buy a different robot. So, during the course of the game, you would often fight the same pilot and his/her stats multiple times, but in different robots. It was bloody awesome.

Guilty Gear or Blazblue gets my vote, perfect balance of crazy speed and deep strategy. Also, that is just beuatiful to look at.

1.Super Smash Bros
2.Street Fighter
3.Tekken