Best fighting games and why?

edited in Questions and Answers
After some interesting posts I read on female characters in games and a lot of them being in fighting games I thought:

1)What are some arcade fighter favourites in this community?What are your favourite titles?

2)What sets them apart from the competion or what makes them special/unique?

3)Who are your favourite characters and why?

4)How awesome would a South African fight game be? We have such diversity that character design is seemingly limitless.

Comments

  • Well, I cannot say that I still really play fighting games, I did get Dead or Alive 4 for Xbox 360 and played it for a while, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed fighting games when I was younger.

    1) My all-time favourite is the Mortal Combat series, I have "Mortal Combat Trilogy" on PS One when I still had a PS One. :P I also played quite a bit of Tekken (mostly because of the fact that my friends loved Tekken), but the style of characters in Mortal Kombat (with each having a major theme that they tended to follow, like ice in general for Sub-zero as the easiest example off the top of my head) helped me enjoy it more, I mostly played MK3.

    2) Like I said above what set MK apart for me was the themes for characters. I'm very much drawn to games that offer different play styles depending on what character you choose, but where they are themed (so I play a lot of RPGs), for instance, when changing from Sub-Zero (where the general way to play is freeze your opponent then beat the crap out of them) to Raiden (where you will teleport to avoid damage and shock from a distance usually) you can feel the difference in how you have to play. That isn't to say they had to be played that way, often people just button mash the whole game through, but for me it made a nice distinction between the two. (And for the fact that Tekken was similar, I cannot explain why MK became my favourite, I just didnt enjoy Tekken as much)

    3) My favourite character (ironically perhaps) comes from Tekken, Yoshimitsu. The idea of throwing in someone who blatantly relies on a weapon (as opposed to less obtrusive weapons that characters hide on themselves) appeals to me, the fact that for Yoshimitsu they tried to follow some correctness for some of the attacks (like if you kicked the sword, shield and armor were in the way and you did a more awkward kick that someone who wasnt wearing armor) also helped me like him most.

    4) I dont think that diversity alone is what we would need, for instance in Dead or Alive 4 there are a bunch of very different characters, but what people notice (and a quote from my dad seeing it for the first time: "their boobs jiggle all the time, it's distracting") is not the actual fighting. One thing they did right though were the 3D destructible, "interesting", fighting arenas. There has to be an emphasis on the fighting for a fighting game to be awesome in my opinion, this means you do need the diversity, but you need to make sure that what people get out of it is the fight, not things unrelated to the actual game play. Also, the character design being "seemingly" limitless could be stymied by the fact that you still have to do the design and do it properly, and you might find for several "themed" characters down the line you start having to cut corners or not finish designs as it takes a while to find the right combinations of moves and skills to "complete" the character fully.

    I avoided talking about some of the fighting games from my "TV gaming" days as I can't remember names, though I could probably look them up at some point and make a second post here.
  • 1) I love fighting games, and enjoy pretty much all of them. When it comes to choosing a favourite my vote would definitely go to the Guilty Gear series, and it's younger sibling Blaz Blue.

    The reasons why I like Guilty Gear and Blaz Blue the most are the same for each of them, and they are produced by the same developer (if different designers) so I'll discuss them as a single blob.

    2) Things that distinguish them:

    The characters a far more diverse in theme and tactically unique than any of the other major franchises. This is the major thing I hold against series's like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, the characters are (relatively) samey. I find mastering a game like Guilty Gear takes me far longer and thus I find it interesting and engaging for far longer. There's more to think about in a game where you actually have to play differently depending on who you are up against (not just who you are playing with).

    (I don't mean to minimize the tactics of other fighting games. There are very interesting tactics at high levels of play for all of them. But I don't play fighting games at that level, and I find the tactics of Guilty Gear / Blaz Blue start at a far lower level than their rivals, and from what I gather, are even more tactically interesting at competitive levels.)

    Blaz Blue and Guilty Gear are faster and more mobile than their rivals. There are more options for movement in Guilty Gear than any other franchise I know, and as such the player has that many extra paths to assault his/her opponent.

    The combos are more interesting and freeform than most of their contemporaries. I can't stand prescribed combos. I do however really want to play Marvel vs Capcom 3 precisely for its incredible/ridiculous combos.

    These games are balanced. There are vibrant competitive communities around these games. They've been designed specifically for the pro level players, and you can feel the knife edge refinement in the combat.

    They're still in 2D. This is a negative for me, I'd personally rather they adopt a Street Fighter like visual style. Blaz Blue is still very pretty though.

    However the characters designs (visually) are more diverse and indeed more strange/creative than most other fighters, the 2D art style probably helps here.

    3) Favourite Characters:

    Potemkin and Iron Tager and Hakumen. I like characters that give me good damage per button press ratios. I like that slower characters force me to make decisions carefully.

    I also love mashing characters, like Mashfried and Mashmare from Soul Calibre.

    And sometimes I just want to play a blindingly fast mobile character, like Taokaka or Jam and perform feints and strike my opponent from angles they don't suspect.

    4) I'd love to make a fighting game some day. I guess I've already outlined what sort of game I'd try make :)

  • edited
    I'm a huge fighting game fan. :p

    1. Some favorites: Street Fighter series, Tekken series, Marvel VS Capcom, Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, Killer Instinct, Soul Edge/Soul Calibur, Darkstalkers, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Samurai Shodown and The Last Blade. My all-time favorite would have to be Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition.

    2. I like each of them for different reasons. Street Fighter, for its precision and tight gameplay mechanics. It reminds me a lot of chess. In that, you're given a set number of moves/pieces and the person with the best strategy wins the match. I like Tekken because it incorporates real-world fighting styles in the game. The moves are tweaked, to give them some added flash, but it's still quite faithful and the gameplay is extremely fun. Tekken also has a pretty diverse character roster.

    I like Mortal Kombat for its characters, Fatalities and story lines. Its combat system might not have been the best, but I found MK1-UMK3 to be very entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the back-to-basics Mortal Kombat 9. Killer Instinct had a fun/complex combo system which helped separate it from the crowd. Darkstalkers had solid gameplay, colorful characters and fluid animations. I enjoyed MvC for its colorful characters and over-the-top combat system. Lastly, Soul Calibur, Samurai Shodown and Last blade had a great weapon-based combat system. Soul Blade/Edge also had a really fantastic intro!

    3. Ryu, Mitsurugi, Haohmaru: I really like the honorable, solitary-fighter style, character. Someone who trains to be the best he/she can be. I find that trait to be very appealing. They are also very balanced characters, in terms of attack and defense.

    Akuma and Wolverine: Sometimes you just want to be a bad-ass. These two characters come to mind. Both of them have their flaws (Akuma with his low stamina and Wolverine with his limited range) but when it comes to mounting an offense, they can be two very dangerous characters, who can totally overwhelm their opponents with devastating mix-ups. Visually, I find their designs and mannerisms to be very cool. Akuma's stance after hitting the Raging Demon..etc.

    4. I'd love to see a local fighting game. In addition to the diverse population, SA has a growing number of martial arts enthusiasts. With the rise of EFC and the numerous martial art centers around S.A, there are certainly resources and an audience for it, I think. And like edg3 said, it takes much more than diversity to create a successful fighting game. It needs to be accompanied by equally great mechanics. :)


    @BlackShipsFilltheSky: I know it's technically a beat-em-up, but I'm really looking forward to Kicky Fighter! ;) 

  • Excellent responses everyone.
    My favourites has to be Tekken and the King of Fighters

    Tekken has this interesting appeal in characters not having projectiles. I like that each button controls an idividual limb and the realistic fighting styles. Also charcters from the original game have more complex combos. They are more difficult to master. Tekken 3 introduced a plethora of new and easy to play characters. And since then the series has gone from strength to strength. My favourite charcters are Eddy Gordo, Paul Phoenix, Ling Xiaoyu, Heihachi Mishima and Jin Kazama and Hwaorang. I do play with almost all.

    King of fighters I've been playing since primary school, when it was called standard 1 and not grade3.
    Ralf is my favourite character even though he has got considerably weaker and limited as the series progressed. I also like Iori Yagami(just had to mention him), Kim,Leona, Athena and everybody.
    I'm too excited later
  • 1. The Soul Calibur series, all the way.

    2. SC has always given you options as the player. The ability to 8-way run in an actual 3D arena that still has a fighting plane? Holy crap batman, why don't they get more credit for this? Guard impacts and redirects (I'm not up to speed on SCV's changes fully yet) are player-empowering at high risk instead of player-disempowering when making a mistake (compare the cost of being nailed in a Tekken combo and missing the reversal). And the weapon-based styles gives the game far more scope to mess with styles, ranges and techniques. Combos also tend to be far more fluid and reactionary rather than set in stone, mostly thanks to GI's and air-control allowing the player that's being combo'd to DO SOMETHING about it and adding an element of mind-gaming to being pummeled. The input scheme just makes more sense to the way my mind works and they stick to the limitations of horizontal/vertical/kick/block much better than other button systems, plus I find the game has far less dexterity gates (don't have to clutch dragon punch wiggle that joystick) due to diagonals being meaningful.

    3. Mitsurugi. His moves just make sense to me by now. There are so many different styles of play I can move into with him in a single match, even though I miss his pokes in SCV... But I enjoy a lot of other characters too - Voldo is great fun, Siggy brings the [strikeout]emo[/strikeout] pain and I still mourn the loss of Rock. Best memory = 46 GI string on an arcade machine with Miktar and I feinting like crazy while crying from laughter.

    4. I dunno. I kinda feel like there aren't that many solid MA practitioners when it comes to personal styles to base things on, plus things like MMA tend to turn fighters into a big mush of "whatever's most effective given these rules" sort of thing. Down that road lies TKD and not punching for the face because because. But that's a completely different debate. I don't play any fighting game because of where the characters are from - I hated MK vs DC. Also, I once made "Rhino vs Baby" and it was terrible...
  • @dislekcia SOUL CALIBUR!! That is all.
  • There is only one fighting game... and its name is TIMESLAUGHTER
  • Dafuq did I just see?
  • One Must Fall!

    It sure had its share of bugs, but it took the well-worn fighting game genre and added RPG-style upgradable stat increases to motivate further play.
  • So glad that One Must Fall and Haohmaru have been mentioned :)
  • I haven't played many fighting games to be honest. Just a tiny few, often. :P Lots of Mortal Kombat 3 as a kid. I felt it was really well-tuned. As an example, the distance that a person gets knocked back when you hit him: you could only reach him if you jumped forward and did a flying kick, knocking him just as he got up. But the distances were such that could only do it three times. If you tried it a fourth time, you'd miss him by a couple of pixels, and he could uppercut you as you landed. (This got totally broken in MK4, that awful mess.) I also enjoyed the graphics; taking photos of real people, and using those as your animations was great! :) I always cringe when I see the ridiculously large breasts that are on every single female character in the later games.

    I also played a lot of Tekken3. I enjoyed how I could recognise so many of the fighting styles, and thought that Lei's fighting reminded me a lot of Jackie Chan, before I was told that he actually did the mocap/reference for the game. :)

    One of my favourite moments was my really struggling a lot in the Survival Mode. I could barely get past 12 consecutive fights. Then, one day, we had to leave, and my mom was in a hurry, and I was on the 12th fight. "I'm sure I'll die soon! Be right there!" Win. 13th fight. 14th fight. I eventually died after the 20th. My mom was furious that I was playing games when we were already in a hurry. But it was totally worth it. :D

    I'd love to work on a fighting game one day! But I... probably wouldn't want to work on one that focused on being South African-themed. (The same way I wouldn't want to work on any fighting game that relied on real-world for anything other than inspiration.) I want to make games, not simulations.
  • edited
    1. Dead or Alive.

    I played guilty gear some years ago and loved it; unfortunately I haven't played it, or Blaz Blue, enough to really give it top honours.

    Also, to my shame, I have never played Street Fighter,

    2. DoA is rather simple when you break it down. It has movement and three buttons: block, kick, and punch. The block can be used in a four directional system for counters. While I love how simple the system is; I find it fuck off hard to get right, never mind master.

    I actually find Soul Calibur more fun since it is a more lenient system, but after years of playing it there are still a bunch of crazy things in the game I don't have much idea how they work, and that's why I prefer DoA.

    3. From DoA I have to say Kasumi is my favourite. Her attacks are really over the top, and I like how they combo.

    My favourite character, across all games, is Kilik from SC. His staff is pure hax and I lovely how it combos: he is the only character I pull off guard impacts with intentionally.

    4. A South African fighting game is the last of anything I would want. And if it were ever made I could see it being a terribly racial.

    On an interesting note: [url = http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/cash-arcade-games-and-gleeful-griefing-the-education-of-seth-killian]Seth Killian talking about his early days playing Street Fighter.[/url]
  • Love Soul Calibur and Guilty Gear/Blaz Blue. They fulfil me for 2D and 3D fighting ^_^
  • I got recommended this article about what the author terms "slippery slopes".

    http://www.sirlin.net/articles/slippery-slope-and-perpetual-comeback.html

    The author was a competitive Street Fighter player, so a fair bit of it pertains to fighting game design.

    I don't actually agree with his conclusions. Or his values at least. I feel the lack of ability to press advantage in Street Fighter makes the game relatively slow and repetitive (though as the author points out this has other benefits).

    But more than that I think there is a connection between slippery slopes and competitive play (i.e. greater slippery slopes satisfy more competitive players whereas less substantial slopes are better for players who are playing in a social environment where crushing defeats aren't as appealing).
  • Interesting article. I, for one, being a king of fighters fan can see all of the features of streetfighter that make it inferior. There are no actual slippery slides in sf. The moves are basic eg quarter circle forward,half circle back and dragon punch. That's it. Its fairly limited and I guess that balances it. Comparing kof to sf I'd say its chess to checkers.
    But considering the article I think streetfighter lacks the killer instinct needed in a fighting game. In mortal kombat if you not careful(and even if you are) you can get pretty brutally combo'd. I'll have more to say when I get the tekken tag game. I saw its finally out( at musica today).
    P. S. I tend to not listen to streetfighter fans or their talk(although I do like ryu). Its just outdated.
    Yet capcom with their streetfighter franchise seem to be the leaders in the fighting game market - intereresting.
    Thanks for the article Evan
  • I like the concept of moderate or temporary slippery slopes and it's probably the best way to deal with the disadvantages of either extreme. But I think what people really need when they're debating slippery slopes vs not is the idea of stuff that happens earlier in the match having a meaningful impact on stuff that occurs later.

    I think the "disconnect" problem was mentioned very briefly in the article but sadly not emphasised enough. It's very unfortunate when -- at any given point in a game session -- the decisions which took place *before* that point lose their significance and become forgotten. When you have a slippery slope, it's like the game is reminding you that a whole bunch of stuff happened before such a point ... with consequences.

    I think Street Fighter is popular because at high levels of play (in this or any other fighter, really), there is a strong player psychology element at work. Even though the mechanical consequences of any moves made early on have little sway later in a match (the player has recovered from an immediate knockdown or something), the savvy player who observes fighting "trends" (favoured moves, timing of supers, et cetera) can start making reads on their opponent and countering more effectively.

    Thus, while the match's buildup to that point has no major impact on what the character is *able* to do, you get an appealing game-state change in the way that you've hopefully learned in that time what your opponent is *more likely* to do, and the fun comes through trying to outwit them rather than simply taking advantage of some kinda bleed-out (which, hurrdurr, is a bit of a no-brainer decision and becomes increasingly trivialised at higher levels of play in any game where players know enough to always take the "sensible" route).

    This is also why it is far less fun to, say, play against an AI (even a reasonably challenging one) or a player who is simply button-mashing (as you can never get a meaningful or entertaining read on their behaviour and the game becomes a series of disconnected decisions again).

    Funnily enough, Mr Ships, I'd contend that higher slipperies are far more entertaining for beginners who actually *need* that feedback to see meaningful state change (though agreed, the throw-the-controller-at-that-douchebag's-stupid-effing-face social pressure comes into play), whereas a game that has few mechanical slippery slopes can still see meaningful "progress" amongst people who are playing the psychology game.

    That said, I'm not a Street Fighter fan.

    Fuck dexterity gates.
  • I'd also like to write more about my opinions on feedback in chess games (and completely deterministic puzzles in general), but the second finger on my right hand is getting tired and I still need to check some more threads over at QCF.
  • edited
    @Mr Nandrew This is certainly something I'm still thinking about.

    My suggestion that steep or persistent slippery slopes is appealing to competitive players has more to do with me thinking about Starcraft and DOTA and Counter Strike (all of which have more slipperiness than their peers and have attracted more unpleasantly vicious player-bases than their peers). And I was trying to overlay the same pattern upon fighting games (which isn't necessarily a perfect fit, though I feel like there might be something there).

    Although I do know that Guilty Gear had a disproportionately large competitive scene compared to its commercial success (which is partially where my theory came from).

    Also Chess is pretty damn slippery :)

    I do see your point about Street Fighter gameplay allowing for more iterations of opponent analysis and prediction.

    (I'm going to have to consider this some more)
  • I noticed this post and it made me remember the good old days of going to the arcade at Cresta or Northgate, and cramming tokens into Primal Rage. To a boy of seven nothing could possibly beat fighting using dinosaurs. So Primal Rage it is. I even played it recently using MAME and it still plays quite well. It's a possible to button mash but it works better if you know what you doing, similar to MK but quite unlike Tekken (noob friendly fighter). Don't get me wrong I lurv me some Tekken but there's nothing quite as irritating as losing to someone who's pulling out made combos and then asks if they won...

    I'm glad to see One Must Fall 2097 having a mention, the RPG elements and combining different robots with different pilots is quite brilliant. Killer Instinct was also fun and had the different approach of not restarting rounds but rather the Tekken-survival-mode sorta mechanic where you just had to eliminate the enemy's health bar twice.

    Honourable mention in my book is XENOPHAGE - Check it out...

    I'd love to make a fighting game... I think a stop action photography comedic ripoff of MK, set in SA would be amazing: Konstabel Abel v.s. JuJu... FIGHT!!!
  • Hadn't seen this thread till now, I'm huge into fighters :)

    Remembering the heydays of emulator fighting games like king of fighters 9xs, samurai showdown, mark of the wolves (one of the coolest) when me and a few of my friends would spend entire evenings battling till the birds tweeted... Then the interesting arcade diversions of stuff like Killer Instinct and Primal Rage (both lots of fun), and the quirky oddballs like Ballz on consoles. Man.

    One Must Fall! That was epic awesome. I remember discovering the cat dude that could do an infinite combo. Talk about a slippery slope :)


    My all time fav series would still have to be Tekken. Tag or no tag, doesn't matter to me. So much depth, so many combos, so much to learn. And it's not just learning your character, but also learning how to defend against other characters individually. For example everyone has 10-strings, and if you recognise them coming, people who think they're all that can easily be stopped. It's really quite deep. Plenty of room for getting better with a massive diverse roster and noob friendly too.


    Close second was the KOF series, although I think it topped out at KOF 2008 (I'm not actually sure of the year, that one where that Akira-like character with the crazy arm was introduced). I enjoyed the technical and combo play with a lot of breakers and intricacies (based on the team you select).


    I've not enjoyed Mortal Kombat... Till this last one :) 9 I believe it is? This one had some really good systems in place - old MK to me always felt a bit flat. So was old Street Fighter... The new ones are a lot better, but I see what you guys mean with the lack means to press an advantage - it's true that Street Fighter relied more on psychological advantage over your opponent than a technical one (except for the psycho super attacks, which is more fun than practical, and sometimes unfair, I think).


    Fighting game Dexterity gates I have no problems with - I thoroughly enjoy comboing and learning combos. In this way it's different from Starcraft for me :P much more immediate.


    Between two seasoned players, I find that the slipperiness becomes a combination of psychological "aw damnit man" and an actual inability to get out - often more the former than the latter. Skill does matter still :)

    The thing with comebacks is that the possibility of comebacks obviously appeals to inexperienced players who happen to pull it off. Watch any girls play fighting games and you'll see them go "AW WOWW I TOTALLY KICKED ASS DID YOU SEE THAT".

    BUT the same possibility of moves will be deconstructed fairly easily by a seasoned player. In Tekken everyone experienced know that could break just about any elaborate sequence with just a jab. Yet we've all had moments where we get destroyed by some seemingly impossible sequence - they were just unknown, or unexpected, which gives credence to the depth of each character in the breadth of characters.


    I'm not sure if Tekken has a more refined slipperiness that I enjoy or I simply hadn't put enough time into games like DOA (which I actually dislike quite a bit for being too mashy, but I acknowledge that I haven't put much time into it. Could be due to that xbox controller :P). Street Fighter just doesn't have enough "flow" for me - a move is a move is a move. Most of the time.
  • Speaking of slippery slopes... FTL. Ultimate slippery slope game. There's no surviving a boarding gone wrong with 2 "surviving" crew. They should just kill themselves.
  • Oh yeah? I've always found that crew members are super useful, but not absolutely vital (though I suppose all of this depends on whatever other equipment you have handy -- I've been playing some pretty drone-heavy games recently).
  • @tuism. I agree alsmost totally.
    I love playing Tekken with class, honour and variety. I hate losing to a limited, boring, one move player. I'm kind of tied heavily between tekken and kof. I like how in tekken each button controls a limb.
    King of fighters 2002 was the greatest. Kof 12 was garbage, more so than even 94(which I think was good for its day). You can talk to me about those two fighters anyday. Also agreed about streetfighter's a move is a move is a move. The typical quarter circle forward, half circle back and dragonpunch also called colloqually : atooget, side step and all u get
  • Oh yeah? I've always found that crew members are super useful, but not absolutely vital (though I suppose all of this depends on whatever other equipment you have handy -- I've been playing some pretty drone-heavy games recently).
    After discovering the Engi ship drones are my fav too, except the moments when you get boarded by mantis and you haven't found (or could afford) anti-personnel drones. The open-all-hatches strategy doesn't always work. Sector 4/5 sometimes has enemies with GLAIVE BEAM. Insta kill.
Sign In or Register to comment.