Why fighting games suck

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Lately the fighter genre has made a comeback with the release of Street Fighter IV and the upcoming release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 which is scheduled for early next year. The question is, why? Fighting games suck. And not just because I suck at playing them but for several legitimate reasons. Fighting games had their heyday in the 90's when games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II were released but since then there really has not been much improvement in the fighter genre as a whole. Unlike other video game genres that are constantly evolving and changing, the fighting game has pretty much remained the same. Racing games have become increasingly realistic, FPS evolve to meet the demands of the online gaming community, sandbox games have become more complex and detailed, and even RPGs have changed significantly from their early days. The only thing that has really changed about fighters is the number of characters in most of them could now rival a small army.

When the fighting genre did attempt to evolve by transitioning from 2D to 3D graphics, it was a disaster. Fighting in a 3D arena just wasn't the same and so fighters started to die out with fewer and fewer actual good ones being released. In recent times fighters have gone back to being 2D with 3D character models to give the impression of depth and now their popularity has one again sky-rocketed. When a genre actually has to revert major advancements because it couldn't adapt the gameplay to the changes, it's a warning sign that something is wrong.

Fighting games are boring because you're doing the same thing, one-on-one duels, over and over again. There aren't really any levels or storyline, it is just you, facing off against another character who is either controlled by a CPU or another person, and duking it out. Sure this could be cool for awhile but how many times can you repeat the same actions and still have fun? What other modes are there? Time Trial? Survival? How about coming up with a new mode where you have to fight three characters all at once? Oh wait...that was actually such a dramatic evolution that it became a whole standalone game (Smash Brothers)!

Many people complain that the yearly release of Madden is just the same game with updated rosters being repackaged and sold for full price but fighters are an even bigger offender of this. What really is the difference between Street Fighter II and Street Fighter IV? Cooler graphics? A couple new characters added to the roster? Is that really all the franchise was capable of evolving in the seventeen year timespan between the two arcade releases?

Fighters don't really take any skill to play, either. A lot of people probably would disagree with this statement and admittedly, I am personally bad at fighters but only because I have no interest at all in playing them. Being "good" at fighters isn't so much about actually having skill as it is having experience with the game and memorizing all of a character's techniques (which can be a ridiculously lengthy list). Once you can perform any technique at will, the only thing you need to do to become "good" is play the game enough to learn what beats what. Then, when your opponent performs a Dragon Uppercut you know you have to counter with a Fireball immediately. This isn't skill at the actual game, it's just memorization of a rock, paper, scissors mechanic.

Sometimes people will spam the same move over and over to win a match and it actually works. One example I can recall from Street Fighter is using M. Bison's down and B attack where he dashes forward. I remember people abusing this attack so much that it literally became the only one they performed in entire matches. If you saw an M. Bison vs M. Bison match, chances are it would be a war of the forward dashes. Take a look at the video embedded below where someone playing as Guile jump-kicks his way to victory. Does spamming this attack make him a good player?

This isn't a phenomenon that was only used back in the day, either. Recently playing Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit on Xbox LIVE, the very first match I played the guy would simply spam energy attacks. Trying to get close enough to actually fight him proved to be quite a chore as an undefended ki blast can deal thousands of points of damage with a single hit. If I did close the distance he wouldn't even fight back, he would just fly away and resume his energy attacks. Sure I could counter this strategy by emulating it myself but why should I have to do that? Needless to say, it wasn't very fun. Not only is attack spamming a problem but it can be just as easy in many situations to button mash your way to victory. Randomly mashing buttons on your controller to come out on top isn't gratifying and isn't fun.

How fighters can be played competitively at a professional level I'll never understand. In First Person Shooters, not only do you need to have an expert level of precision aiming and knowledge of the game, but you also have to be able to outsmart your opponents. You need to be able to predict their strategy and adapt to their tactics. In most cases you also need to use teamwork to overcome the enemy team. Fighters aren't predictable at all because you never know how the other guy is going to fight. Will this guy spam jump kick? If so you just need to think about what beats that to win. Maybe will he spam Fireball so you have to think about what beats that and you'll win. Fighters come down to who has more experience to know what to do at any given moment, not about skill at the game.

The one exception to this argument would be Super Smash Brothers which took fighting games to a whole new level by taking one-on-one duels and turning them into a four player brawl. Stages actually matter in Smash Brothers as well unlike in other fighters which are just there for scenery. Spamming attacks in Smash still happens but with a lot less frequency and if all four players are still in the game, one attack is not going to be able to save you.

Most fighters are just the same game except with different characters and a different rock, paper, scissors mechanic to memorize. It is high time this tired genre either evolve or retire altogether.</div></div>

I was going to post a lot of choice quotes but it ended up being almost the entire article.

 

pure blasphemy D: but... hey who cares? he doesn't know really beat em up. Sure sometimes some beat em ups aren't funny or cleaver, but that's not true for everyone.
Intereting point of view after all, but the comments below the article are enough to erase his ideas XD

 

Don't visit this link, or repost it.

Why?

Because I know that the pay base of the Examiner is determined by how many hits a particular piece gets. The more traffic brought in, the more money this jerk makes.

Douche is trolling for profit, and right now he's making a goddamned killing.

Do you want this ignorant douche to make money off of being an idiot? You don't. So don't patronize him. Stop visiting the site.

 

This advice is great, because one, it prevents a lot of us getting wound up and two, it stops him from getting money from us.

I'm glad I didn't read it.

 

I agree with this article apart from the skill required to play fighting games.

 

I have a different opinion about this article but I kinda agree with this article.

 

Isn't that whole sentence a contradiction?

 

This is some quotes form the article.

And I quote form the Author,

"There aren't really any levels or storyline, it is just you, facing off against another character who is either controlled by a CPU or another person, and duking it out. Sure this could be cool for awhile but how many times can you repeat the same actions and still have fun? What other modes are there? Time Trial? Survival?

Fighters don't really take any skill to play, either. A lot of people probably would disagree with this statement and admittedly, Being "good" at fighters isn't so much about actually having skill as it is having experience with the game and memorizing all of a character's techniques (which can be a ridiculously lengthy list). Sometimes people will spam the same move over and over to win a match and it actually works.
Most fighters are just the same game except with different characters and a different rock, paper, scissors mechanic to memorize. It is high time this tired genre either evolve or retire altogether." end quote.


This was just come parts that I have to agree with in this article. Fighting games are not as fun as other genres. If a player wins online the losers sent hate mail. He is half right on the part about the skills. All a player needs to do is remember the moves. However, it still takes pure strategy to win an online battle. The player must study on the opponents movements. I do wonder, why are fighting games just for online one on one? That does get boring. Plus, what if the online service sucks like Tekken 6?



Another problem with fighting games is the fanboys. So giving your opinion about something that you are not to crazy about is trolling? Then everyone is trolling.

 

I love fighting games, I know that they last longer than games of other genres, I'm not sure exactly why, but it depends on the gamers' preferences but some games are hard to go back to once u actually 'beat' it, fighting games don't actually have a finish to them except in certain types of modes like Tekken 6's campaign mode or Mortal Kombat 5-7 konquest modes. But yeah, there are some games that are hard to go back to, and I don't know about anyone else, but it easier to keep on playing fighting games.

 

Re: Tex

You know what, there is _some_ truth to this but then I thought that Starcraft 1 and 2, two most popular real-time strategy games of all time, pretty much fall into the same description.

90% of the "strategies" in the Starcraft game basically boils down to memorizing all the build orders that can be performed by you and your opponent, and knowing WHAT COUNTERS WHAT and WHAT WORKS IN WHAT SITUATION. One may even argue that there is no real "strategy" in the Starcraft series, but just building whatever counters what your opponent is building. (Of course, just doing exactly that is often no easy task.)

So in short, if the guy has something legit to say I would like to hear what his formal definition of "skill" is.

 

Also, I remember, a year or so after Tekken 6 has been released to the Japanese arcade, someone posted a link to an article written by some guy living in Japan BLASTING TEKKEN.

Of course the article was gobbled up by the anti-Tekken pro-VF fanboys here. But upon the close inspection of the article, it was clear to me that the guy:

1. Had no clue about fighting games and probably never played one seriously.
2. Was bashing the fighting game genre in general, and Tekken just happened to be at his crosssight because it just happened to be the most popular fighting game in Japan that time.

So I found somewhat ironic that that article several years ago was actually praised here, while this article pretty much says the same thing, only with probably more substance, is getting trashed here.

 

LOL, why stop at fighting games?

There is hasn't been a worthwhile FPS since UT, Deus Ex (a RPG hybrid for that matter), or even Operation Flashpoint (yet a another hybrid). [2002]

RTS haven't gotten any better since Myth 2 Soulblighter. (1998)

RPG-wise...

I could go on, but really, video/computer gaming sucks ass.

[coming from a guy who sold his PS3 3 months ago and got rid of his gaming computer 2.5 months ago and who also misses DOS]

 

Gaming maybe isn't the fastest to evolve, but its still damn fast. Think back, 10 years ago we were on what, the N64? Games have made decent changes since then. What you have to remember is that companies are trying to MAKE A PROFIT, and the easiest way to do so is to make more of the same for a good franchise.
So of course, they aren't going to make COMPLETELY NEW GAMES every day year, not to mention it takes like 2-4 years to make a game, the growth rate is pretty good.

and god damn it I clicked the link I'm pissed I got him money...
That had to be the most ignorant article I have ever seen in my life lol. Although there is some "Know the counter" rock paper scissors that is just THE FUCKING BEGINNING. I've known evades>linear, crouching>Highs, mids>Crouching etc since day one. Thats something you learn in the first week of VF and yet its a JOKE to compare myself now to myself a month after I started.

Fighters also have MUCH MUCH greater longevity than most games which you play for 10-20 hours and stop. Most competitive games do like FPS online games.
But theres something about fighting ONE ON ONE with another person that is just so much funner than team battles in FPS etc. Atleast at times.
I play pretty much all genres. But fighting is prob one of my favs.

 

Aside from that Tekken article (I never saw it) remember that there were 2 versions of Tekken 6, the original and the upgrade T6: Bloodline Rebellion. The console version was based off of T6BR (without BR in the name). Original Tekken 6 was widely criticized and had to get patched dozens of times. Even many top Tekken players thought it was awful but BR improved things a lot.

What substance was there in this article? It's just a lot of ignorance and generalization from someone who doesn't like the genre and has never put much time into it. That Tekken article would have had to have been incredibly bad to be worse than this.

 

well said guys, i actually enjoyed the heck out of Unreal tournament at least UT 2003 on the PC which my brother and I used to play. Like I said, it depends on the players' preferences.

 

That article was pure blasphemy.. >_< but thats the result of when you let a casual scrub who only plays halo and GTA write an article

 

(Laughing at the video Boom Head Shot.) This is what happens when your life becomes the game.

 

The only thing i think suck in fighting games nowadays (Only with 2-D) To much mix ups and mind games with No to very little answers.

 

That article was meant to generate clicks, nothing else.

 

You're all saying that the article is being ignorant, but to be honest it actually is pretty ignorant of you lot to disregard the article when the proof is before your eyes.

How many people play VF? (in the Western world) Honest answer: very few

How many people were playing fighting games in general as opposed to FPS/(MMO)RPG games, before SF4 came out?

I mean yeh SF4 attracted A LOT of new players to fighting games, but come on we knew this fact already. Even with the huge boost in numbers of people playing fighting games there are still far far fewer playing them then your typical Call of Duty/World of Warcraft games.

So when you realise this fact that people do not play fighting games why not ask yourself why?

Well I'll tell you what read the article again and you might actually learn something.