I suppose this particular subforum is dead, so it doesn't much matter if I bump this up a bit. Most of what you listed is worth checking out to some degree - World Heroes Perfect or Real Bout Special are probably your best bets as fighting games you can really sink your teeth into as far as things directly on your list. Art of Fighting 2 is the one you should look at if you want to check out that series, and your best bets for Samurai Shodown are 2 or 5 Special. The top KoF games are 98, 2K2 (preferably the UM versions of either) or KoF XIII - the rest are pretty much skippable. I'd also throw in Real Bout 2 as a special mention for the Fatal Fury series - the balance is kind of fucked up, but it's crazy fun to play anyways, and goddamn gorgeous. Honestly, you can squeeze a lot of fun out of many of these games, and a lot of them have surprisingly decent depth and balance. I love playing retro fighters to death. I always try to get more folks to join me and try out stuff they never got the chance to appreciate before.
