4 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 21.1 ms ] thread
Fighting games are too inaccessible for me. I just want to play about game with cool characters with sick abilities beating each other up (Skullgirls, Street Fighter, Tekken) but there’s always so much mental preparation and input memorization you have to go through just to have the slightest chance at winning/having fun. The problem is multiplied by the sheer number of characters you get to play as and against in these games.

The whole genre, in some ways, has felt like some gated community to me that’s closed for anyone not willing to pour in the hours to learn.

The emphasis on single-player in the author's recommendations gells with me. I don't think it's a coincidence that SF6 has such an extensive campaign and is a huge success. By contrast 2XKO has none and is completely dead on arrival (though it has other problems as well). People need space to breath and learn before getting jumped on by somebody online, something to do when they're not feeling at 100%, a way to get more attached to the characters and world. RTS has this exact same issue as well: new titles release with just a PvP skirmish mode and die on release.

SF6 was my first fighting game. Sitting in the lab and learning to do a 3 hit combo with a dragon punch motion correctly over and over was actually rewarding. I don't think it's necessary to remove motions from the genre. I definitely would have dropped the game if my only initial choices were lab and multiplayer though.