Combat has long been accepted as the norm when you are playing video games. You have hordes of baddies heading your way in most of the games you play, so you’re going to need to defend yourself against any who are daring to challenge your skills.
There are those whose instinct is to pick up a weapon and start fighting, but there are those who are of another caliber. After all, why pick up a weapon when you have two perfectly good ones right there on the ends of your arms? A goon with a gun will have no chance against these warriors with their fists of steel.
8 Wei Shen - Sleeping Dogs
You aren’t going to be able to toe the line of the criminal underworld while being an undercover cop without having the skills to back you up. In this criminally underrated game, you are Wei Shen, the aforementioned undercover cop who has returned to the city of Hong Kong to infiltrate the Son On Yee, the largest triad in the area.
Wei Shen is good with a gun for sure, as he is a cop, but where his true talents lie, his real bread and butter, is in his skills as a martial artist. By the time enemies realize what happened, their heads are already heading toward the ground and losing consciousness (or being pushed into a fish tank).
7 Tifa Lockhart - Final Fantasy 7
Your party members in Final Fantasy 7 come equipped with an arsenal of weapons at their disposal: swords, guns, kunai, and a squishy robot that can hit you with bad luck. So, what does Tifa bring to the party? Left and Right hand of course. What’s more reliable than your own fists?
To be fair, Tifa is a skilled martial artist, having been trained by her master, Zangan, from a young age, she’s had years to hone her skills. In the remake, she’s gained even more skills, as she can switch between stances with her new skill called Unbridled Strength.
6 Billy And Jimmy Lee - Double Dragon Series
What starts as a ‘simple’ quest of getting Billy’s girlfriend out of the clutches of a gang, turns into an epic fight against the city’s worst to return it to its former state of peace. The premise, though exciting, is a simple one that grows in scale.
What isn’t simple is the combat. The Black Shadow gang sends its worst after you, with enemies coming at you with weapons of all types while you and your brother take all of them on with nothing more but your fists, feet, and whatever weapons you can pick up from the gang.
5 Akuma - Street Fighter Series
First, Akuma was nothing more than a phantom in earlier Street Fighter games, only showing up when you met some unknown prerequisite and attracted his bloodlust with your strength. That hunger for finding someone who can match his power drives him forward on autopilot until he finds the next person to challenge.
Akuma wasn’t always the murderous martial artist that you’ve come to know and maybe fear. Rumor has it he was a kind soul and cared a lot about those around him. All that came crashing down when his father was killed, setting Akuma down the path of revenge and pursuing deadly martial arts.
4 Steve Fox - Tekken Series
Steve is rare in the world of Tekken. A lot of characters who say they only fight with their fists end up having a kick or three under their arsenal, while Steve is a boxer through and through, never lifting his leg to attack, only to defend himself from oncoming attacks.
The driving force for Steve to continue to participate in the frankly deadly tournament of the Iron Fist is his duty to find the truth about himself and his family as he discovers his mother is an assassin being controlled by the Mishima Zaibatsu, the very company that funds the Iron Fist Tournament.
3 Knuckles The Echidna - Sonic The Hedgehog Series
Let’s make one thing clear: Knuckles is about that life. His name is literally Knuckles, the part of the fist you use to punch things. Not only can he punch and stomp on things, he can use those knuckles to climb over any surface he needs to. That does raise the question: how does he punch things without sticking to his opponents, anyway?
Though well-meaning, Knuckles tends to be a little naive, as he’s fallen for Dr. Eggman/Robotnik’s nefarious plans more than once, but how could he not? He is the protector of Sanctuary Island and has a heart of gold once you get through his tough guy exterior.
2 Kazuma Kiryu - Yakuza Series
The man, the myth, the legend himself: The Dragon of Dojima. Kazuma Kiryu is a complex man underneath his stoic demeanor. He is the kind of guy that will never start a fight and will try to avoid necessary conflict, but will absolutely finish it with him as the victor if you cross the line and threaten innocent folks while he’s around.
Once you cross that line, you’ve awakened the dragon, and that is no exaggeration. Kiryu’s reputation precedes him wherever he goes, which causes a lot of fighters with an inflated ego trying and failing to take him down. Only one man can go blow for blow with the dragon, The Mad Dog of Shimano, Goro Majima.
1 Asura - Asura's Wrath
There isn’t a protagonist in gaming who can match the anger and scale of power that Asura comes swinging in with. After winning the war against the Gohma, a seemingly alien race who had come to invade and subjugate the Earth, Asura is taking out alien ships with his bare hands. Sure, he’s shooting projectiles from them, but that counts.
As his anger grows throughout the game, so do his feats of power and strength. When two fists aren’t enough to take on the stronger of the Seven Deities, then he just grows more until they no longer exist and stand in his way. Asura’s Wrath is a hell of a motivator.