Anyone Else Had Trouble Getting Into Fighting Games?

[DSC]

Fighting games have interested me for a long time now. I find the idea very appealing, in theory they should be a great deal of fun, especially with friends. I've tried them out again and again, but every time I end up just not quite "getting" it. They just don't feel right or natural to me... Its hard to explain. When I played Doom or Mega Man for the first time I obviously struggled, but I don't ever remember being out of sync with the game. Is it because fighting games just naturally require a giant amount of effort before they get fun to play? Or is it just a "me" thing and they just aren't my thing?

 

I just want to ask everybody, did you struggle like me trying to play those games too? And, if you're a regular player of this genre, how hard was it to learn how to enjoy it, and how should I approach them to get the same out of them?

 

PS: I did fare better with Smash, but its so different from the "regular" kind of fighting games that I don't really think it matters.

[Lila Feuer]

As games they're in a unique place as their skill ceiling has no ceiling, there will always be new things to learn. They aren't for everybody, as it takes lots of time to see improvement, so if you're impatient you will have a bad time. It's important to find a character or two that interests you and practice with them until you learn their move set, then try to find combos you can do, reliably execute those moves so they become natural like anything else you do, then apply yourself. Even losing matches you are still learning new things, it's feedback to anything, whether it be what you're doing or the other player. Some fighting series can be harder to get into than others or a lot harder to get better at past casual level, but most fighters these days are generally pretty easy to pick up and play and figure things out and have fun relatively fast if you put even modest work in. The road to champion however is endless, and not every player is equal. Remember, even the pros still make mistakes from time to time. They also have super friendly communities that will help you out with anything you need to know, it's actually frowned upon to gatekeep unlike some other MP games.

[Rudolph]

Yes. I just do not like competitive multiplayer games. They just make me irritable.

[Chezza]

I don't consider myself a big fighting game player, but once every few years I can get into a Mortal Kombat.

 

As @Lila Feuer said, there is a big or limitless skill ceiling. Often these games can demand a lot of skill of the player but poorly educates on the fundamental skills to learn, and does a worse job in pacing.

 

My recommendations to start enjoying fighting games:

• Commit to learning a couple combinations and special moves for a specific character
• Use the game's training mode and invest 15 minutes learning these moves
• Play the single player mode in easy to work your way to medium when you feel more capable
• Understand that the art of knowing when to block, dodge or attack is fundamental for any fighting game
• Avoid online multiplayer for any fighting game until you think you're a master and ready to be humbled again

 

Generally I apply the above, and then after completing my first campaign learning the ropes I will try another. By that time I start to understand the mechanics, I end up having satisfying tense fights I usually win, and become curious about all the character's special moves and how they play differently, drawing me in to play more.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Absolutely, every time I try to get into one (except Smash like you said).

 

I get really confused about all the different layers and systems. I can't memorize the combos, and even if I do, I can't pull them off correctly, even if I feel like I'm doing them right.

 

It's the only genre I feel like I'm incapable of playing. There are some genres I have no experience with, such as really complex strategy games that I don't understand, but I know I could learn those if I just set aside the time to do it. Fighting games? Ain't gonna happen.  And playing fighting games by button mashing on medium difficulty is no fun whatsoever.

[Noiser]

I don't get it as well. They go against everything I like in arcade games, which is simplicity (easy to understand, hard to master). It's almost "anti-arcade" in a sense where you have all these buttons and complicated combinations you need to memorize. Besides, they feel very repetitive and claustrophobic - as you are always confined on a single square. You are always there, stuck in a cage.

But hey, I'm not saying they are bad or wrong, because they are not. Fighting games are very interesting and I can see a lot of quality and thought in them. But that's how I feel when I play, it's a similar distate I have with sport games. Maybe I need to go deeper so it can "click" on me - and I'm always open to that.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Noiser

[indigotyrian]

Take it from someone who's in a similar situation, dipping his toes into fighting games when he has the chance: If you can play Doom, you can play a fighting game. If you can beat Plutonia, you can play a fighting game at a decently competitive level. It's a different skill set from shooters to be sure, but if you can do one you can absolutely do the other.

[LoatharMDPhD]

After MK3 for SNES and the occasional japanese Culture Club Smash Brothers the OG on gamecube, the fighting games lost their appeal... at that time i was heavily into Martial arts (Kempo Juijitsu, Kyusho, some Aikido, Seelat, Judo, Tae Kwon Do, and Mui Tai thrown in for well-roundedness) so if i wanted to simulate a bout, I'd get a chance twice a week to spar or grapple.. not into mashing buttons...

[plums]

I think it depends what you want out of them. It's fine to be bad at fighters (or any game) if you can still have fun playing them. Whether this means sticking to single-player mode, playing with friends or people online who are equally bad, or something else.

 

If you want to get reasonably good at fighters so you can play competitively, or even just competently, it is often more deliberate effort than is needed for other genres. This can feel like work, and won't be everyone's idea of fun for sure.

Edited August 23, 2023 by plums

[enigma101]

I usually like playing some fighting games just to have fun, but actually getting into the games in terms of learning the moves and button combos is too much of a pain to bother. That isn't to say I don't enjoy them, I've spent way too much time playing Tekken and Soulcalibur, but a lot of the time learning the game doesn't have that much of a payoff for me, as I just prefer to mess around in the arcade or single-player modes.

Although, I would say that if you're struggling to get into fighting games, maybe try out practice/arcade mode where you can learn the game without playing against an actual person. At least then you might feel more confident in your skills and enjoy the game more as a result.

Edited August 23, 2023 by enigma101

[Noiser]

Funnily enough, I don't mind the difficulty (I like hard games). The problem is what you need to do in order to play - there's a lot of memorization and too many buttons and actions. When I'm on a shumup for example I know I will go through a very punishing experience, but it's never difficult to control your ship. In fighting games, is quite the opposite. Even when I'm winning the round, It feels clunky. Idk, as I said, maybe I should go deeper to appreciate it more.

[taufan99]

I grew up with lots of Tekken games (notably 3 and 5), but I'd be lying to say fighting games in general don't exhaust me with their combo lists.

 

Spoiler

Also, this is especially very subjective, but I can't be the only one who noticed that a lot of these also have questionable female character designs, at least in term of clothing.

 

[Herr Dethnout]

My advice is to NOT recommend anybody who wants to get into FG play any SNK Fighters (Aside NGP cuz is a limited portable console xd)

SNK made most of the most complex FG in every aspect, no joke. I think a good introduction is the Original Street Fighter 2 (AKA The World Warrior), is fairly simple and doesn't have combos, that is probably the most unappealing mechanic in the FG (Only few games like Mortal Kombat 3 or 3D FGs like Tekken or Soulcalibur made it well).

If you want a Single Player experience, well Red Earth is a solid choice, one of the few fighters that is was made with singleplayer in mind.

Is not really that hard to get good on fighting games, is not like you will play competitively like E-Sports so you need to memorize every single variable and hit/sleep frames or even glitches to have "fun", right?




                                                                                                                                                                                                                            RIGHT?!

[Herr Dethnout]

5 minutes ago, taufan99 said:

Also, this is especially very subjective, but I can't be the only one who noticed that a lot of these also have questionable female character designs, at least in term of clothing.

Welp, is just one way to get his target audience (you know, young boys). I don't mind but for example, I prefer the alt Ivy costume in SC1 (The Red victorian clothes) than his actual costume. :P

[666shooter]

2 minutes ago, Herr Dethnout said:

My advice is to NOT recommend anybody who wants to get into FG play any SNK Fighters (Aside NGP cuz is a limited portable console xd)

SNK made most of the most complex FG in every aspect, no joke. I think a good introduction is the Original Street Fighter 2 (AKA The World Warrior), is fairly simple and doesn't have combos, that is probably the most unappealing mechanic in the FG (Only few games like Mortal Kombat 3 or 3D FGs like Tekken or Soulcalibur made it well).

If you want a Single Player experience, well Red Earth is a solid choice, one of the few fighters that is was made with singleplayer in mind.

Is not really that hard to get good on fighting games, is not like you will play competitively like E-Sports so you need to memorize every single variable and hit/sleep frames or even glitches to have "fun", right?




                                                                                                                                                                                                                            RIGHT?!

I can appreciate the irony of this statement as I recently got KOF 98 for sale on Steam and spent about an hour-and-a-half practicing combos for a handful of characters. I can play SC2 and Smash, but even looking at some of the combos for Guilty Gear previously made my heart skip a beat, so it has been an experience trying to learn to play a more "traditional" fighting game again. I doubt I'll be ready to do well in Arcade anytime soon, but there is something very appealing about seeing those combos, and I was very proud of myself when I executed the Special a few times.

[Thomased22]

As a kid I was an incompetent fool but hey I was having fun then and I still have fun now. Fighting games I feel are among the more fundamentally solid, nearly perfect games when done right. It's a lot like chess in that way. How do you get better at chess? You play as much as you can to get better at seeing what will happen in the game before it happens.

How do you get better at fighting games? You play as much as you can until it becomes second nature. Once you learn one fighting game a lot of what you've learnt will carry over to other games. One of the ways I got better over time was just by getting ok at a bunch of different games. Each one will teach you something new or teach you something better than the rest. So just go experiment on like fightcade and stuff until you find a game(s) and character(s) you really like.

 

People put a lot of emphasis on "memorizing combos" here but I've never found that to be a necessary thing outside of like the VS 2v2/3v3 games. And even then you don't necessarily need to? Also talk of "button mashing", some of what's been said reminds me of discussions of yore before more people actually had an understanding of what these games are like.

All you really need is to learn how to land a normal attack (usually a medium or more often heavy attack) and then instantly "link" a special move after by inputting it while the attack is hitting. Once you do this you can do simple but highly effective combos. So, TBH, just go into singleplayer, and go find that good normal or two, and practice your motion input for the moves you need. Once you get that down everything else will come naturally. Like learning what buttons are good to throw out to fend off an approaching opponent and how to approach yourself, etc.

Fighting games are not as complex as a lot of people would leave you to believe at low and mid level play lmao.

[Mr. Freeze]

I sucked as a kid but really put my effort into MK9 and MK11 and had an absolute blast. It's all practice and muscle memory. And more importantly, it's about finding a character that you gel with, not just whomever is considered top tier at the moment. Yeah you'll get your face kicked in but the real gratification comes from coming back after a brutal match to win it all. 

[LexiMax]

If it's the controls that bother you, try Street Fighter 6.  It has a modern controls setting that it defaults to, and it's can actually be used competitively.  Plus it's...ya know...Street Fighter, so the game is popular and is going to be sticking around a while, you won't ever run out of people to play of all skill levels.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by LexiMax

[Thomased22]

42 minutes ago, LexiMax said:

If it's the controls that bother you, try Street Fighter 6.  It has a modern controls setting that it defaults to, and it's can actually be used competitively.  Plus it's...ya know...Street Fighter, so the game is popular and is going to be sticking around a while, you won't ever run out of people to play of all skill levels.

Modern has it's downsides, such as less super damage (if not less damage globally iIrc) and TBH I find it to be harder to work with after years of learning traditional controls. But you can do some crackhead shit with it. It's for sure good enough for low and mid level play. But it's at it's best as training wheels. Also some characters are way better with it than others. Some don't get much benefit at all. To the point where modern is objectively worse. So you should prolly look into that if you intend on playing modern. There's a reason a majority of players still use traditional mode. But aside from the oddities and the kinks modern is cool to have. 

What's even better is playing the singleplayer with traditional controls. The game does a great job of teaching you the controls. Though it's AI is just a smidge under the braininess necessary to teach you anything theoretical like neutral. It's good enough to get you to grips with the game mechanically. Anything beyond that you'd be better off playing other people for anyways lol.

[LexiMax]

47 minutes ago, Thomased22 said:

But it's at it's best as training wheels.

 

This is actually a matter of debate in the SF6 community.  What you lose in terms of buttons and damage you gain in more consistent execution and reaction times.  Things like reliable anti-airs, hair-trigger DP's and easy Level 3 supers on reaction.  There are even a few pros that are switching to Modern.

 

More importantly, Modern isn't an afterthought like similar "easy input" modes are in other fighting games.  Capcom clearly designed SF6 with Modern controls in mind, side by side with Classic inputs.  If you play Modern, you're not getting a worse experience, and from all accounts can reliably bop with similar-ranked Classic players until you hit the higher ranks - at which point you can decide if you want to keep riding with Modern or switch to Classic with the benefit of having ample opportunity to work on your fundamentals without the pressure of motion inputs.

Edited August 24, 2023 by LexiMax

[Lila Feuer]

Should also point out that fundamentals are incredibly important and will determine a lot of things whether you'll be successful or not, think of them as the ground rules that govern the game. Some things will always work or land due to fundamentals, and your spacing, the correct response to a response, your defense, just to name some. Also never underestimate your normals, they are integral to setting things up, getting in, find your character's pokes or safe moves, they are just as important if not maybe more so than specials and don't require specific inputs to do every time, you just hit a punch or a kick. And finally it is very imperative that you learn things piecemeal, doesn't matter what it is, don't try to take in all this information all at once or you'll get burnout. Be sure to watch videos of tourneys and see how others play, make note of the character they use if it's someone you play or want to play, you can learn a lot from that as well. Most of all though, just have fun, it's a video game at the end of the day, nobody's going to mock you for fighting the CPU or spending hours in training doing the same things over and over, that's how you sharpen your reflexes and get better over time.

 

E: Last thing to come to mind, yes, the mental stack you have to develop against another person is real and can be overwhelming at times, since it's a lot to manage in realtime and I'm nowhere near being there yet. That said become comfortable with your character(s) and reliably execute what you want to do anyway you can, training modes are in depth and have a lot of options to help you try things out against a dummy and whatever you want the dummy to do.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Lila Feuer

[RHhe82]

I could never get into them -- when we were kids, a lot of my friends would just love to play the heck out of Mortal Kombat 1 and 2, but whenever I tried, I just had a miserable time. I hated learning combos, especially since I couldn't execute them anyway. As an adult I did play a little of Mortal Kombat 9, that was the second time I had any fun with the genre, but not enough to incite any interest.

 

One true exception was also as a kid with a little-known (?) fighting game known as One Must Fall 2097. That one I played a lot and loved it -- I guess mostly because I learned to control one robot fighter well, and that would carry me through the tournaments. But I guess that's a slightly different beast to regular fighting games, as it had minor RPG elements where you could upgrade your robot and the player characters (who "drove" the robots). I guess OMF was, by design, easier than Mortal Kombats and Tekkens and others.

[Optimus]

I am fine with old good Street Fighter 2 (and maybe some later iterations of it like Turbo) and old good Mortal Kombat 1,2,3,Ultimate, but some other later 3D fighters like Tekken, Virtua Fighter or others, I can't get into. Or I did play them and it was all button mashing and winning but didn't feel good. Soul Calibour seems like that too but at least I adore this one, the graphics, the ancient fighter themes, I loved it on my DreamCast. But it still for me the oldschool 2D even in their 3D iterrations might play better although I haven't checked the recent 3D SF or MKs. I am fine with the old classic ones.

[SirPootis]

I personally never really got into fighting games. I always played them at my friends' houses when offered to and then i'd just button mash my way to victory (or defeat, most of the time, haha). Never really wanted to get into trying to figure out movesets and counters and whatnot, especially since I never played them at home. However, recently I did find a fighting game I actually enjoy, called "Your Only Move is HUSTLE". It's an interesting take on fighting games, where instead of a fast-paced fight where you need to think on your feet, yomiHUSTLE (for short) is a fighting game with the pace of a chess match (if you remember ToriBash from a decade or so ago it's a similar idea). The fight plays itself for 30 frames, but then freezes. During the freeze, each player picks a move for their character to do: attacks, defends, specials, movement, etc. Once each player picks a move, the fight plays for another 30 frames or so, now with the chosen moves, and then freezes again for each player to decide what to do next. It's such a fun balance of fast-paced fighting game style with slow, methodical planning. Plus, seeing the full fight play out in normal-speed at the end is always fun. Would recommend anyone not really into fighting games to at least take a look at, it's pretty cheap on steam.

Edited August 24, 2023 by SirPootis

[banjiepixel]

I feel like many of things that modern fighting games are doing make them harder to get into. While less strict input windows and especially Street Fighter 6's modern controls are good changes for a beginners, also the general complexity of these games have increased also alot and with online play being the norm these days, there I alot of pressure to learn tons of stuff to even feel like you get to play the game.

 

I have been playing fighting games casually over 20 years and most modern fighting games have mechanics and systems that I feel like my brains or fingers will never be able to handle. But that is fine, I stopped worrying about what I can't do and started focus on learning to doing things I can do as well I can. I also do not do online play because it doesn't inspire me to become better at the game, same goes for tutorial modes. I want to learn to play on my own pace and it's pretty hard when you are contantly comparing yourself to other players and worry about the stuff you can't currently do.

 

Older games have huge advantage in that they are much simpler. Generally learning to play something ancient like pretty much any version of Street Fighter 2 can really help you learn the basics and that skill can then pretty easily be transferred to newer games and expanded. Also learning to play a game with tight input windows is also great way to jumpstart playing newer games with higher input execution skills. Older and simpler fighting games are also much easier to play using only basic attacks so you can focus more on the "rock paper scissors" aspect of fighting games.

 

I play mainly the arcade mode as I don't really have anyone to play with me in person and motivate me to learn with them. Actually most of my skill comes from playing arcade mode in several games. I rarely look at movelists and prefer to just try different inputs and see what a character is able to do. I try to find the moves that seem to work against the cpu and figure out a playing style based on those. I usually know something useful for most characters in the game and these have proven to be useful also against human opponents. I do look at the movelist when I want to learn a specific move I happen to see somewhere and happen like it.

 

One strong part of fighting games is the rewarding the feeling of learning something new, i was so happy when I managed succesfully do my first 360 input motion requiring move in a game that has looser input windows and it didn't take long until I was doing them also in games that have tighter input windows. I would had never learned to do that if I would had tried to learn it before I were actually ready for it, both mentally and what comes to my ability to make precise inputs.

 

I would give more specific advice if I knew better at what specific parts you are actually struggling with. But generally this sound like a case of being just overwhelmed by what skills and information you assume being needed to play and enjoy fighting games. There is literally no wrong way to play fighting games, some ways to play just work better or worse against certain opponents. And most important skill is always being able to adapt to your own limitations as a player and to whatever your opponent is doing.

 

And in what ways you feel like that Smash Bros games are different from traditional fighting games?

 

Also, do you like (japanese) character action games (Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Ninja Gaiden etc.)?

Edited August 24, 2023 by banjiepixel

[LexiMax]

The idea that the older games were simpler is actually kind of misleading.  The older games had way more bullshit mechanics, stricter input demands, more oppressive top tiers, loads of unintuitive “tech”, more randomness, and even outright bugs.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by LexiMax

[Garlichead]

While i am not very good at them, they used to be one of my favorite video game genres. I still ocasionally play some rounds of King of Figthers 98, Garou or Street Figther 4 every now and then, but not as much as i used to.

 

Personally, I feel that they are similar to RTS games. They are only worth playing if you a bunch of friends (IRL or online) who have a similar skills than you. This games have super high skill ceiling, as some other have mentioned; thus unless you are on a similar level they can get boring.

[Thomased22]

16 hours ago, RHhe82 said:

 

 

One true exception was also as a kid with a little-known (?) fighting game known as One Must Fall 2097.

Big fan of this game's soundtrack but I've never played it myself. 

 

15 hours ago, SirPootis said:

However, recently I did find a fighting game I actually enjoy, called "Your Only Move is HUSTLE". It's an interesting take on fighting games, where instead of a fast-paced fight where you need to think on your feet, yomiHUSTLE (for short) is a fighting game with the pace of a chess match The fight plays itself for 30 frames, but then freezes. During the freeze, each player picks a move for their character to do: attacks, defends, specials, movement, etc. Once each player picks a move, the fight plays for another 30 frames or so, now with the chosen moves, and then freezes again for each player to decide what to do next. It's such a fun balance of fast-paced fighting game style with slow, methodical planning. Plus, seeing the full fight play out in normal-speed at the end is always fun. Would recommend anyone not really into fighting games to at least take a look at, it's pretty cheap on steam.

Yeah this game's good. I've been playing since it dropped on itch. Steam version is way better though. Since it got more updates, it's more balanced and more mechanically fleshed out. The game's crazy experimental so it was and to an extent still is pretty scuffed but the dev and the pros helping the dev have never taken an L. Game's always getting better. I've been burnt out for a while but I plan on coming back when the big defensive mechanic overhaul drops.

To be more accurate, the game is like a "Tool Assisted" fighting game. Like yanno, a TAS speedrun, it's supposed to play like that. Which is badass. It's not quite chess-like but I get what you mean. 

 

8 hours ago, LexiMax said:

The idea that the older games were simpler is actually kind of misleading.  The older games had way more bullshit mechanics, stricter input demands, more oppressive top tiers, loads of unintuitive “tech”, more randomness, and even outright bugs.

 

Yep. Newer games are for sure more streamlined and less complicated. Not always for the better but SF6, MK9, and other such games stand up well next to the oldies. Especially MK9 relative to the previous MK games. And the later ones for that matter though MKX is pretty close to it.

 

17 hours ago, LexiMax said:

 

This is actually a matter of debate in the SF6 community.  What you lose in terms of buttons and damage you gain in more consistent execution and reaction times.  Things like reliable anti-airs, hair-trigger DP's and easy Level 3 supers on reaction.  There are even a few pros that are switching to Modern.

 

More importantly, Modern isn't an afterthought like similar "easy input" modes are in other fighting games.  Capcom clearly designed SF6 with Modern controls in mind, side by side with Classic inputs.  If you play Modern, you're not getting a worse experience, and from all accounts can reliably bop with similar-ranked Classic players until you hit the higher ranks - at which point you can decide if you want to keep riding with Modern or switch to Classic with the benefit of having ample opportunity to work on your fundamentals without the pressure of motion inputs.

Yeah the instant DPs and Supers are for sure the biggest benefit to Modern controls. But idk how well Modern will hold up when you get less damage for what resources you are spending. Less combo potential in general too. Comparing them directly, classic wins after less winning interactions at high level play. But I guess modern wins more interactions cause of instant shenanigans? Idk if we've played the game long enough to figure out if it's balanced or not but I guess that just goes to show that yeah, they did put a lot of thought into modern. It might be even better in that regard compared to it's intended purposes. I wonder where they will go with it in future updates lol.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Thomased22
I'm stupid

[Thomased22]

Also when you select classic controls in SF6 it makes the UI noises from SF alpha 3 and that makes me smile :). Therefore it's objectively based-er.

[Azuris]

I am bad at Foghting Games, but i like

 

Street Fighter 2

Street Fighter 4

Mortal Mombat 11

Dead or Alive 2

Soul Calibur 2

 

I can be a Problem for Beginners in Smash Bros, have some Veteran Tricks.