The Video Game Critic

Ok fighting game fans, help me out. My entire gaming life, I have failed to grasp the appeal of fighting games (one-on-one fighting games; i.e., Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc.... but, for purposes of this discussion, I don't mean games like Super Smash Bros., which have a different sort of appeal to them). And it's not just because of personal preference... I mean, I'm not a big puzzle game or shmup fan, but I understand why people like them. With fighting games, I can't say the same thing- instead, I don't get it at all, especially gamers who are hardcore into them. Now don't get me wrong-- I enjoy a few rounds of Mortal Kombat II, Bloody Roar, or Soul Calibur here or there, especially against a friend. BUT, it can never sustain my interest for more than about 30 minutes. My recent purchase of a Neo Geo CD (where about 50% of the games are fighting games) has only further perplexed my brain on this issue. Right now, I have a stack of Neo Geo fighting games that I'll play once each, and never play again. I promised to be open-minded going in, but I've given up. I dread even trying them out. What gives...

One of my major problems with fighting games is the complete lack of direction or progress or goals to push me forward (most modern fighters at least have lots of unlockables to help this issue.. but in the '90s? forget it). Oh, the progress, you say, is that I can spend hours mastering all of my character's special moves? Wonderful....

In fairness, it doesn't help that I completely suck at most fighting games. I try learning moves rather than button mashing, but I actually just get beat worse when I spend the fight trying to fiddle around with button combinations. I especially suck at Street Fighter II... even on the easiest difficulty, I can barely beat the first computer character; and so, rather than practice, I've just decided that I will hate Street Fighter II for the rest of my life. Sorry....

Truly, this is the only genre I feel this way about. And again, when I say I don't get it, I'm not referring to casual fans who can play a Tekken game for 30 minutes, I understand that-- what I'm referring to is the hardcore gamers that can play it for hours on end. I'd much rather be playing a beat em up game (a genre I do like, btw), where I fight a bunch of guys at once and have a goal and progress, rather than these tedious one-on-one fighters.

So... what's wrong with me? Are fighting games all about getting intimately familiar with a character's move set and enjoying the aspect of "mastering" the game, and I'm just too impatient to appreciate them? Is there some sort of manly competitiveness that only a head-to-head fight can satisfy, and I am just far too wimpy to comprehend it? Or.. are there a lot of other gamers like me who just don't get the point?

/end novella

P.S. If you picked one of the first two options, please explain! I'm not trying to bash fighting games here; I'm genuinely trying to get a handle on the reason that many people seem to love these games.

I don't have much time now, so I will probably either edit this post later or do a follow-up.

Retro STrife wrote:One of my major problems with fighting games is the complete lack of direction or progress or goals to push me forward (most modern fighters at least have lots of unlockables to help this issue.. but in the '90s? forget it). Oh, the progress, you say, is that I can spend hours mastering all of my character's special moves? Wonderful....

I don't think most old-school fighters were built with single-player in mind. This is obviously changing (the new Mortal Kombat and Injustice games by NetherRealm Studios and Persona 4 Arena have involved single-player story modes, and the upcoming Street Fighter supposedly will as well), but most older fighting games are just recreations of the arcade game and really only meant to be played with another person. There is some fun in exploring the mechanics of each character and choosing a couple of favorites, but it's all with an eye towards playing against another human being (especially since most computer opponents are programmed to be unfair, particularly in the arcades). Believe me, I would not have bothered sinking as much time as I have into fighting games if all there was to it was memorizing movelists, and I think that would apply to just about anyone.

Retro STrife wrote:In fairness, it doesn't help that I completely suck at most fighting games. I try learning moves rather than button mashing, but I actually just get beat worse when I spend the fight trying to fiddle around with button combinations. I especially suck at Street Fighter II... even on the easiest difficulty, I can barely beat the first computer character; and so, rather than practice, I've just decided that I will hate Street Fighter II for the rest of my life. Sorry....

Believe it or not, this is pretty common. When you are first trying to learn how to play "properly", you will typically play worse because the things you are doing feel unnatural to you. Learning special moves and combinations and being able to execute them at will is only the beginning; you have to figure out the situations where they would be most effective, rather than just repeatedly trying to use a new trick. On Shoryuken (one of the biggest online resources for fighting game information) they typically tell a new player to learn only one or two simple combos for a character in the beginning, since learning to use your basic moves is more important.

Retro STrife wrote:Truly, this is the only genre I feel this way about. And again, when I say I don't get it, I'm not referring to casual fans who can play a Tekken game for 30 minutes, I understand that-- what I'm referring to is the hardcore gamers that can play it for hours on end. I'd much rather be playing a beat em up game (a genre I do like, btw), where I fight a bunch of guys at once and have a goal and progress, rather than these tedious one-on-one fighters.

The people who play for hours on end are usually those who are serious competitors, people who are both putting time in Training Room mode and studying various aspects of their character and competing against others (for which online can be great, but in-person is preferred) . That can be very rewarding and a great social activity (the community aspect of competitive fighting games cannot be understated), but it can be time-consuming and a lot of work for something that is most people will view as a trifle. However, there's nothing wrong with saving the fighting games for when your friends are over and just having fun that way, either. Even when I knew nothing about fighting games I could still have a lot of fun playing my cousin in Tekken 3, slowing figuring out cool moves by accident.

Fighting games do pretty much suck as single player games. They were made to be competitive two player games. Back in the day arcades were filled with people playing Street Fighter II and you didn't have to play against the CPU. I used to really like them. Mastering them can be quite difficult and rewarding but there are two major problems. If I go and master fighting game x, and my friend don't it ceases to be fun becasue I just murder them badly(this happened with Street FIghter II and my brothers) or, as I get older, I just don't have anybody around to really play against at all. I can't see online as a viable alternative. Between input lag from wireless controllers, plus input lag to modern LCD AND lag from the internet how could a fighting game even be playable that way? I used to play plenty of FPS online and they barely work at an acceptable level

Whoa I didn't know we could do polls! That's wild!!

Anyway I do enjoy fighting games, even if they aren't my favorite. I think it goes back to my early fascination with Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The thing about fighters is you need the right mindset. If you're not very competitive, you're probably not going to feel satisfied playing them. In some ways they are like sports games. Some people love them and some people hate them. I'm extremely competitive (good natured of course) so I enjoy that aspect.

VideoGameCritic wrote:Whoa I didn't know we could do polls! That's wild!!

Yeah, it's funny, because I was actually about to post a topic suggesting that you add the ability to do polls into the forums. I don't know, I just love polls, and it's great to have them in a forum. Then, suddenly, I saw the "Polls" option when I was creating the topic. But as surprised as I was by that, I'm even more surprised that you didn't know before! I didn't realize I was stepping into uncharted territory.

VideoGameCritic wrote:The thing about fighters is you need the right mindset. If you're not very competitive, you're probably not going to feel satisfied playing them. In some ways they are like sports games. Some people love them and some people hate them. I'm extremely competitive (good natured of course) so I enjoy that aspect.

Interestingly, sports games are probably my favorite genre (now that I don't have time for RPGs), and I'm extremely competitive as well. It doesn't matter the game--football, basketball, tennis, hockey--I love watching sports, playing them, and playing sports games. (Jeez, I even enjoy the Fight Night series, and that's almost a fighting game.) So, that distinction could make sense generally, but it doesn't work for me. Then again, I'm also excellent at sports games (by far my best genre), whereas I completely suck at fighting games (probably my worst genre). Since competitive people hate losing, maybe that's my problem with fighting games.

I enjoyed Street Fighter 2 and the Mortal Kombat series. For me, the appeal was the characters. So many fighting games have characters that I just couldn't identify with and that are just silly. And to play as that character really sucks. The MK series had a lot of really good characters, and I especially liked Cyrax, Sector, and Smoke. And the storyline for the first 3 games was really cool, it sucked me in.

I still enjoy Street Fighter and MK, plus a few gimmiky titles here and there. My problem is that I can never remember the combos or special moves. Its pretty much just button mashing for me, even after playing the same titles for about 2 decades now.

I enjoy fighting games but their definitely one that I don't play too seriously (minus Smash Bros). They can be a lot of fun when you have a friend that you have to play against who also enjoys the competition. If you don't have that friend then it is really hard to get any better and you're stuck fighting against the computer. I do tend to like 2D fighting games a lot more than 3D ones. The only 3D fighting game that has ever held my interest was Soul Calibur while I like Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury, Street Fighter, and a few other 2D ones.

I have been a fan of the genre the moment Street Fighter2 came out in the arcades. It's all about mastering characters and see how you stack up against your friends/ brothers. The more proficient you get, the best you make out of these games, and online competitions can be fun too. It's like a sport, to me anyways.