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.

#1 Karate (Atari 2600)

I'd be more worried about the purple guy's legs. Both look badly broken, perhaps so broken he's stuck on the spot and can't even fall over! Kinda like the perfect dismount on The Simpsons.