Fighting games are about outsmarting an opponent. Outsmarting an opponent is fun when you're on an even balanced playing field and when the player has options (and can therefore choose a right or wrong one), to have a feeling of outsmarting there needs to be something of a rock-paper-scissors momentum, a right move to use at the right time as it were, blocks and counters. There should also be combinations of attacks that are more optimal than other combinations of attacks, for example, using the basic punch or kick usually allows just two hits being landed before the opponent falls to the ground thereby ending the combo, but a skilled player could execute two basic attacks, follow up with an uppercut and then grab an opponent in mid-air and throw them to the ground. There needs to be button combinations to learn, because pulling off moves that aren't single button presses is one of the most core gratifying things about playing a fighting game.

Creating a good fighting game is actually incredibly hard to do and is basically the most mechanically driven game genre.

Have good game mechanics and it should be original.

http://www.sirlin.net/article-archive/ is a good resource. Those are by a competitive street-fighter player who's interested in game design.

I think the core of a fighting game is having multiple options that you need to select from quickly in reaction to what's happening on the screen. The opponent starts his fireball animation: high block? low block? jump? try to punch him first? Some options are wrong (he's too far away to punch), but more than one option is always valid, and the best one to choose is the one your opponent doesn't expect. But because the pacing is so quick you don't have a time to really analyze what your opponent is doing, just intuit his tricks and weaknesses.

Rewarding extreme precision in timing and positioning, expecting the memorization of long button combos: there's reasons for those, but I think they're peripheral to what makes a fighting game great.

ok how could i miss that video i watch them a lot! Well thank you.

The video touches a lot of important points. Fighting games at the competitive level, play a lot like chess, except you don't have two sides with equal number of tools, you have dozens of characters with their strengths and weaknesses against certain plays.

Tournament/competitive players like in EVO study the game inside out, from frame count, delay, hit boxes, which move counters what, which move can be combo together. Then they also need to practice on their reflexes and develop their own individual style.

Personally, I was completely addicted to Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for a while because I saw the pros go at it and was absolutely amazed by their ability to just keep juggling their opponents indefinitely with just one launch, the tag combos being big and flashy, the awesome sound effects...

I played because it was ridiculously fun to play with my friends. As for fighting games in general, it's just very rewarding to practice for ages on a move and then pull it off flawlessly in an online match to utterly destroy your opponent. Fun times!