The first (and only) fighting game that I ever considered myself semi-competitive at, although admittedly I was playing a broken top-tier character (I promise that I had picked out my main before they were even playable!).

Easy to pick up, a non-bloated character roster that's the perfect size to actually be able to learn matchups and some neat systems for learning faster like the "!" symbols to teach that you were hit by a high/low attack.