What do fighting games need?

[MikeHaggar]

The fighting genre has become a widely respected genre in the video game community. Although fighting games were at a slump in the 21st century (mostly due to ripoffs of initially successful franchises as well as just plain poorly made yet mildly successful games such as Mortal Kombat), fighting games are back thanks to Street Fighter IV. Now that most series being released nowadays are highly praised, will fighting games hit a slump again?

To avoid such a drought in the genre (seriously, I don't want another era where the only fighting games are a single Capcom crossover that's competitively ruined by a glitch and a plethora of bad, annual Mortal Kombats), the genre will need further improvement sometime soon.

I think Skullgirls and Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, from a gameplay standpoint, took the genre further. Skullgirls uses the Capcom vs. SNK 2 ratio system, allowing a player to choose from a team of 3 normal characters, a team of 2 slightly stronger characters or a single powerful character. Teams have the option to use assist attacks as well as Delayed super moves whereas single characters are just plain powerful. Skullgirls is great because the type of battle will truly vary despite only having 8 characters; battles involving teams will only be one round whereas 1 on 1 battles are round-based. The small amount of 8 characters is truly diverse; Ms. Fortune has a head that can fight independently while her headless body is controlled normally, Parasoul and Peacock have insane keepaway (shoutouts to StarGalaxy's saltiness), Cerebella is a huge heavy hitter a la Hulk, etc. With Skullgirls' variety of battles and characters, each match will feel different quite a bit than the other. I feel this is what fighting games need: varying battle experience. I believe Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is doing this as well by letting someone choose between 1 character or a tag team of 2. Character variety is one thing, but fighting against a multitude of different kinds of teams is a plus. It changes strategy and thus makes the game more interesting.

Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom had two mecha characters, Gold Lightan and PTX-40A; these characters were insanely huge compared to the other characters. They had their own features while lacking the features of a tag team; they couldn't do air combos or team hyper combos and couldn't have a partner. However, they had much more health and did tremendous damage. I think they had super armor as well.

Why not combine an extended team ratio system like Skullgirls' and giant mecha characters like TvC's with the extensive character variety that Skullgirl's and UMVC3 has? The possibilities are crazy; there's a single regular character fighting a single mecha, or a team of 3 fighting a team of 2. I think fighting games need to explore different ways to make each battle fresh and different than one another; most other fighting games only have one factor that make a match different than another and that's whether one is fighting a rushdown or a projectile-heavy character. Battles need more variety since variety induces deeper strategy and thus a truly long living fighting game.

EDIT: I do think Street Fighter X Tekken's Gem system contributes to this as well. Not only do I feel personal customization is great and helps a player connect to the game more tightly, but it also changes circumstances as well. I think there's a new gem that extends that amount of time Pandora Mode is active, which is something to fear if used properly. I would say UMVC3's X-Factor also changes strategy a bit but it doesn't add variety to the game since it's always available. It's merely just a boost.

Your thoughts?

[Bahamut]

I think that all new fighting games should have multiplayer, worldwide. You get to test your ability against other players.

[MikeHaggar]

I think that all new fighting games should have multiplayer, worldwide. You get to test your ability against other players.

Actually, I'm sure that's already implemented for the more successful games, at least. I think Soulcalibur V has that option to specifically choose which area of the world you'd like to find an opponent in. Technically, all fighting games with online multiplayer can do worldwide matchmaking, it's a matter of how well it's done. I've fought Japanese, Brazilian, Mexican, and mostly American players in UMVC3.

[Alantor]

Fighting games should have easy to use controls like Smash Brothers. When I tried fighting games when I was little, the controls were too complicated and there's this one guy I hate who loves fighting games and brags about them being better than pother genres which ticks me off.

All genres of games are equal and no one should use the fighting genre as a supioer complex. And the fighting genre should have easy to use controls.

[GaijinGuyJim]

They need to maintain a high emphasis on character balance while still making their characters seem diverse and entertaining to play/look at.

The balance is mainly to appease the hardcore players, while the diversity is necessary to encourage new player to want to play.

Easier said than done, I know, but fighting games are one of the harder genre's to do correctly I think.

[StephF]

I think fighting games need more adventure in them, so that its more fun to play.

:)

[Skuntank]

Fighting games should have easy to use controls like Smash Brothers. When I tried fighting games when I was little, the controls were too complicated and there's this one guy I hate who loves fighting games and brags about them being better than pother genres which ticks me off.

All genres of games are equal and no one should use the fighting genre as a supioer complex. And the fighting genre should have easy to use controls.

I dunno I find it easier to understand fighting games if you use an arcade stick, I understand arcade controls almost innately, so I should invest in an Arcade Stick if I plan on playing fighting games more, I mean I played a lot of fighting games in pizza places as a kid, that or a beat em up. I think Smash though is too simple, like if you get a guy good at platforming, like me, everyone is decimated. Smash bros. should honestly be considered a platformer, since that is what the controls are more suited too.

They need to maintain a high emphasis on character balance while still making their characters seem diverse and entertaining to play/look at.

The balance is mainly to appease the hardcore players, while the diversity is necessary to encourage new player to want to play.

Easier said than done, I know, but fighting games are one of the harder genre's to do correctly I think.

Honestly, balance is more important than diversity, hell I can easily convince people to try a fighting game I want them to play when I can say balance is decent. I can't wait to get Skullgirls so I can finally say, this game had balance as a priority.

I also like a variety of characters, but I notice the bigger the roster, the more similar characters pop up. Skullgirls though hit the sweet spot with characters, since they focused on making the characters awesome and they only need 8 to make variety.

I don't really have anything I think would be something fighting games need, but of course, I am always open to new things and I could talk forever about what games I have a problem with, but I don't know what they need. I just know what they DON'T need.

[Oracle]

They need to maintain a high emphasis on character balance while still making their characters seem diverse and entertaining to play/look at.

The balance is mainly to appease the hardcore players, while the diversity is necessary to encourage new player to want to play.

Easier said than done, I know, but fighting games are one of the harder genre's to do correctly I think.

Tight balance and better character design alone can carry a fighting game miles beyond to the point where diversity isn't needed.

I don't really have anything I think would be something fighting games need, but of course, I am always open to new things and I could talk forever about what games I have a problem with, but I don't know what they need. I just know what they DON'T need.

But we can agree that bewbs are here to stay, right?

[Squizzlee]

Fighting games should have easy to use controls like Smash Brothers. When I tried fighting games when I was little, the controls were too complicated and there's this one guy I hate who loves fighting games and brags about them being better than pother genres which ticks me off.

All genres of games are equal and no one should use the fighting genre as a supioer complex. And the fighting genre should have easy to use controls.

That was the problem.

When you are young your attention span is shorter so trying to learn the outrageous controls were difficult. + When you were little, you basically spammed and button smashed in every fighting game and it didn't matter because you weren't playing for serious.

Honestly, I think fighting games should have some difficulty in controls. If a powerful move has a very easy button command(s), prepare to rage at the spam.

I find side scrolling fighting games enjoyable when they're 2D/Cartoony style. I think it makes the game look natural - coming from a guy who played a ton of Marvel vs Capcom/ BlazeBlu

[Warubou]

Here I am *glowing eyes*

anyway, Fighting games need more balance I watched my friends spar in SF x Tekken and he did something we call "Juggling" I dont know if thats the proper term but its when you get your enemy into the air and keep him up there. He is so good at "juggling" he can switch into a "juggle". Another thing they spoke about was "Cross overs"
Like when you kick in the air the opposite way from a enemy in older games it misses in SF x Tekken it locks on and almost never misses.

The way I see it they need to balance fighting games or make all the characters op. Like a novelty fighting game like naruto ultimate ninja storm generations, to me that game is broken as a glass window hit by a brick.
you have people with massive grab ranges and untouchable frames/invincibility frames, The move sets are shallow so playing like a scum bag is obviously peoples 1st approach naruto,sasuke = Rasegan spam/chidori spam, Same goes for kakashi/minato. Then you have more obviously spammers like little Ten ten, and Masked man.Oh and theres an awakening mode in the game which people always use to clutch wins. Lets say we get susanno'o sasuke to orange health(low) if he is allowed to awaken he will turn into a big spirt, sometimes its easy to beat because he is trapped and cant sub out of combos effectively.Other times its game over Susanno'o awakenining = about 12 combos or more until you are dead and if you are already fighting a sasuke chances are your health is low or almost low because of how fast they can combo cancel and if you block it will break your block leaving you stunned so now you are really dead meat and he can jutsu while he combos. Its like melee characters have an advantage but spammers have more of an advantage if they know how to spam like they do. Its just annoying thats why I stopped playing online, because you beat someone and they pick MM or something and spam. MM is the most broken character because of his grab and jutsu's all = invincibility frames. Oh and most characters are Zangeifs and when I say that I mean they can grab you out of almost anything its pretty annoying. I got grabbed in the air for the 1st time yesterday and I laughed.

just I dont know it seems like the only way to get a decent fair fight is to play people you know or go to live tournaments and such.

I the 1st time I played mvc3, won 10 games online at my friends house without ever playing the game but I was using Akuma,Dormamuu(To lazy to google the spelling), and spiderman. and the 11th battle I fight a guy using Wesker,dante,and virgil. And it was like surrendering the match.

But I just hope they fix the juggling in sf x tekken because I wanted to get that game but I dont want to have to play cheap to win. I guess most people gave up on having fun but then again winning is fun.