General fighting games thread

My love for Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution surprised me because the series has always had a justified reputation for mostly bland characters but the game mechanics were a thing of beauty. Button mashing never payed off (like it often would in Namco games), experience and effort always won out. It was very rewarding. The hyper action mode was exhilarating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J0a_-yow4Q

picked up mkx for ps4, so far im enjoying it as the first real fighter ive played since SNES street fighter. community seems pretty active and the game is somewhat approachable for someone not fully invested in the genre thus far. not sure this has sparked a fire in me, and also not sure this game won't die as soon as something flashier drops on the console so for now it is an interesting diversion from destiny/bloodborne

According to the hardcore gaming 101 articles, Fatal Fury was the fighting games series with the most unique entries that were never made redundant.

King Of Fighters is easier to select because if you get 98 Ultimate, 2002 Unlimited, 11 and 13, you have the majority of everything that was good about the main series. KOF Ex2 (Gameboy Advance) and KOF Maximum Impact 2 Regulation A if you want to be completest about different characters not featured in the main series.

Last Blade 2 probably makes the first game redundant but I never played it. Same goes for whatever the last Guilty Gear X2 game was.

I don't think anyone prefers the first Capcom Vs Snk over the second. The style systems in it were just too annoying and didn't let you have all your moves.

Many think Marvel vs Capcom 1 was a better game overall than 2, similarly Street Fighter Alpha 2 over Alpha 3 but the bigger rosters of MvC2 and SFA3 wins me over easily.

if you want to spar, friend me art! (psn: n-hex)

xps Samurai Shodown (and a ton of the original NeoGeo games) had insane level difficulty arcade modes, feel no shame. SNK AI in particular is known for its cheapness - I don't think I've had the patience to go through one of those since Garou: MOTW

VF seemed to me how you described, though I didn't really play it past the first three in the arcades, I always respected its... purity and technical excellence? Especially compared to Tekken which I never got down with. (Frankly it took me a very long time to warm up to 3D fighters - I didn't really like one until the first Soul Calibur) Every time there's another major number iteration I'm tempted to try it again. Unfortunately, VF doesn't seem to have taken hold competitively, but I'm surprised to find out that VF5: Final Showdown was still getting arcade updates in 2015.

MvC1 was where personally input speed/onscreen action just started getting TOO crazy for me, but I agree MvC2 was better and more fun. Marvel Super Heroes vs. SF was probably the least "broken" of that series, but let's be real, they all had slushy infinites.
Loved SFA3, even with the crazy broken V-ism jazz, over SFA2 which was more balanced and sound.

The Last Blade 2 was a massive upgrade over LB1 in terms of gameplay, graphics etc. IIRC, real cool stuff

On the easiest mode all those Snk games have a manageable arcade mode despite cheap bosses, it was hard in KOF 99-03 but I still beat them several times at a minimum, but those Samurai Shodown games were several levels harder and cheaper. The end boss of SS5 in particular is the biggest asshole in any game I've ever played.
Samurai Shodown is odd in that it looks and mostly plays the same as most fighting games but it has several rules that make it far harder to master.

It's odd that Virtua Fighter doesn't have more tournament cred because it's better tuned for competitive play than pretty much anything else.

I also taken a little while to accept 3d fighters but Tekken 2 Is still my favourite 3d fighter. The characters weren't so obnoxiously flashy in terms of haircuts/clothes, the music was great, I liked the lighting, the settings quite atmospheric and I loved the echoey sounds. Overall, even though it may seem slow I found the playing more satisfying.
I think after Tekken 4 the game lacked stylistic cohesion. So many of the characters looked like they came from another franchise.

Although I had enjoyed them all at some point, my main problem with Tekken, Soul Calibur and Dead Or Alive is that it taken too long to watch the movelist demos let alone learn all the moves.

Xp will do, fair warning though, i am the worst.

Dark Awake/Chaos Breaker is worth a look. It's a Dungeons & Dragons styled 2d fighter with quite impressive animation.
For a long time that, Red Earth/Warzard, Hokuto No Ken/Fist Of The Northstar (Arc System Works version) and Martial Masters were my most coveted rare fighting games but Dark Awake unexpectedly came to PSN a few years ago and the response wasn't too great.

Power Instinct is one of the maddest fighting game series ever. Shame it never travelled much.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Avt1m45PKpc

The Prince character can throw carrots that his horse jumps in and catches.

Waku Waku 7 also looked quite nuts.

I think that Melty Blood is partially responsible for the current direction of 2d fighters, even though it wasn't a big professional thing.

Fans of early Mortal Kombat might want to check out Death Cargo. It has the 2d photo animation but the gore is really fucking vile in a way that even offends some MK fans.

ohhhh THAT series! I played Matrimelee, which was hilarious and awesome (and i think had a weird crossover with Double Dragon), one of the last MVS games

It's odd that Virtua Fighter doesn't have more tournament cred because it's better tuned for competitive play than pretty much anything else.

Waku Waku 7 was flippin' great. Dandy J and the whole cast was wonderful, but it should be known forever for the game with the mighty BONUS KUN
http://i.imgur.com/sT29eRC.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htNVFAeykvE

re: Melty Blood, i feel like there was this gradual build up of fan/doujin fighting games in the early 2000s that somehow went pro. Looking it up now, i see they're the same company that made those fun Queen of Heart games and Glove On Fight

never heard of Dark Awake or Death Cargo, will do some research!

Although I had enjoyed them all at some point, my main problem with Tekken, Soul Calibur and Dead Or Alive is that it taken too long to watch the movelist demos let alone learn all the moves.

I looked up Death Cargo, seems like it might be a vaporware scam, which is kind of hilarious

Kings of Kung Fu looks terrible, and it's Early Access (read: will probably never be finished) but's only a few bucks right now on Bundle Stars, and I admire their blatant love of Shaw Brothers and the like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=125&v=_qx295spTto

oops. let me try that again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qx295spTto

Looks terrible but I do love that almost all of the characters are recognizable from movies i have loved.

Decent deal on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - All Star Battle for PS3, $20, no tax, and free shipping if you have Amazon Prime. I don't expect this game to be available for too much longer, so I grabbed a copy.
http://www.bandainamcogamesstore.com/JoJos-Bizarre-Adventure-Battle-PlayStation-3/dp/B00KBB4CB6

So Streetfighter 5 has Ryu, Chun Li, M Bison/Vega, Charlie/Nash, Cammy and Birdie so far. Can't they give some of these guys a rest? I hope there will be more new guys than in 4.

Probably not, unfortunately. I have this feeling that internally Capcom looked at the mostly-new cast of SFIII as a failure and they've been backpedaling away from new characters ever since, like at most you can have four new people in a game. (And who expects any of the new characters from IV to appear? Poor ELF.)

The hope is kind of half hearted too because even if the cast was 90% new, they'd probably mostly look like j-pop stars or bland anyway.

After seeing Yoshimitsu's great new octopus costume I wonder why he looks consistently great in every game redesign yet few of the new characters look so imaginative. Do they get a different artist to design the different characters?

I think that returning characters probably have more lassitude because you can establish an awesome look without having to tie it to a coherent moveset? If this was Yoshimitsu's first Tekken then it'd be pretty confusing with the alien and the octopus and the sword and the pogo and the helicopter.

Which is not in any sense to take away from the fact that Yoshimitsu is completely baller.

Haha indeed he is

http://www.polygon.com/2015/7/9/8923583/street-fighter-5-sdcc-2015-san-diego-comic-con-capcom

Glad at least they're (somewhat) making Ken a new-ish character

Aw, Shippuden 4 got delayed to February

I'm interested in the "simpler" fighting games coming out -- Seth k*ll*an's Rising Thunder, Pocket Rumble, David Sirlin's Fantasy Strike. Supposedly the gameplay in the Rising Thunder alpha is already at a releasable state.

Sirlin' turning Fantasy Strike into an actual fighting game? Ha! Talk about snakes and tails..
Didn't know about Rising Thunder, will have to look into that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qxVDOc-oV8
Things of Beauty: Super Smash Bros. as Spectator Sport

I could never get seriously into Smash for various reasons, but I really like this video

yeah, that's interesting; thx for sharing

A bunch of new SF5 characters with interesting moves, (like Tekken they've added an Arabian guy). Karin was a lot of fun in SF Alpha 3.

Teaser for King Of Fighters 14 is really disappointing. I knew they were going with 3d but it looks very modest.

I like Laura's look and moves. Very happy to see Karin and Mika back.

LOL https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/them-s-fightin-herds#/

Just preordered SFV to get access to the second beta round. Getting antsy waiting for the beta code to be emailed to me from Best Buy...

Somehow I missed this. It's from May.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UaXhe_XPsU&t=9m36s

Starting at around 9:30.

good god

http://shoryuken.com/2015/12/05/snk-playmore-bringing-the-last-blade-2-to-playstation-4-vita/

http://mattrifiedgames.blogspot.com/2015/11/my-emerging-love-hate-relationship-with.html

As someone who loves story/single player modes in fighting games I definitely agree with several points in his article. (I wish Battle High 2 didn't have such terrible graphics. Maybe I'll still grab it as a lark - it's free/pay-what-you-want on PC.)

Injustice 2 pre-leaked prior to E3, looks like... I'm in

it has loot crates and microtransactions

argh. i imagine it's gonna be a mess competitively. i'll just have to enjoy the single player mode, i guess

It's EVO time! Psyched to watch the SFV finals on ESPN tomorrow night.
Been watching the SRK streams - they have five this year! - and three guys from my local flew out there to participate so I'm more invested than usual.
Man, I wish I was good at Marvel. Just started getting into Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator and still trucking along w/SFV.

https://i.imgur.com/XvRNfDa.png

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/08/simply-a-smashing-timea-visual-tour-of-super-smash-con/

http://www.polygon.com/pc/2016/9/17/12952688/harambe-vs-capcom-video-game-trailer

I see there's a ROM hack attempt at balancing ST, incorporating the better bits of HDR.
http://www.strevival.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=122

This guy Xanadu from KOF 14 is hilarious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKNAc6p0aAw

what... what is his gimmick??

Ultra Street Fighter II coming to Nintendo Switch... both classic and HDR graphics, two new palette swaps, no word on gameplay changes. I don't plan on getting a Switch so I don't really care.

really weird for a Nintendo system to finally get a port of HDR so many years later

so from what Justin Wong and others were saying

- SF4 throw teching. throwing command is the original. i guess it removes tic throw loops, but still...
- no old characters! way to remove half the game
- akuma has very low life, otherwise he's ST Akuma
- chun's stored super charge is gone
- sagat's tiger knee is dp motion (f, d, df) instead of d to uf

Been getting back into SFV lately due to the huge amount of Season 2 changes, it's a meaty update. Helps that Laura got so many buffs :) Splurged on the Season 2 Character Pass too, not gonna grind out the Fight Money this time. (Plus I would like to buy some stages/costumes this year with FM)

Also put some time this weekend into GGXrd -Revelator-. Great game, though I fear like Marvel the intensity/frequency of input might be too much for me to play competitively. But I'm having a surprising amount of fun just playing with the single-player (and hilarious chaotic and broken) M.O.M. mode. Each character itself is like an entirely different game, so I feel like I'm gonna have to put more time than I actually have into this to explore everyone to decide on a main, though I've enjoyed the weirdness of Ramlethal and Raven so far.

This year's looking pretty good already between Tekken 6, Injustice 2, the next GGX update, and so on... and if the Switch port of Smash comes out this year, I might jump onto that just out of the sheer popularity of the game at locals and online.

Also, after about twenty years of sticking to pads (after beginning on sticks in the arcade back in the late '80s/early '90s) I finally broke down, shelled out the cash for a TE2+ FightStick. No regrets; hitting buttons will always be super fun.

i'm always happy to just main a character from the base roster and not have to worry about dlc. i havent actually looked at who's in the base roster for this one tho

Classic 8 + Luke, Juri, Dee Jay and Cammy + 6 new characters - Jamie, Kimberly, Manon, Marisa, JP, and Lily. So, plenty to start.
I always look to play the new characters first. The OG World Warriors are always there if the new ones are trash. Ended up maining Laura last game pretty quickly...
Three of the four Year 1 characters are old ones anyway - Akuma, Rashid, Ed.

ah yeah thats a good starting roster i dont need dlc. i can play cammy or ken if theyre not too different

I was having great fun maining Kage in V, so I guess Akuma's the closest I'll get to that for a while, though all of the new characters look worth a try. I'll probably just buy the sucker magic beans edition tbh

I really like how this game has balanced having 3 supers per character at different meter levels, and they're all situational and distinct, as opposed to there just always being a big imperative to work towards popping off your single cutscene-length ultra move that takes off half the opponent's health

seeing it all written out, i think I'm good without - pre-ordered standard edition.

Maybe I'll buy the other three individually to spite that prick Ed.

I went for the Deluxe version, $96 Canadian, which I think is the most I have spent on a single game. Not accounting for inflation. I rarely ever buy games at their launch price.

Lily is the character I want to put serious effort into. I want to condor dive against fireballs like the AI would do to me in old games. Throw characters seem like they'll be good because it's an easy counter to drive impact. I'll be trying Akuma when he gets released -- my guy in SFA3 and what little I played of SF5. I'm curious to see if he still has a "vortex" with the drive system. It's interesting how the Drive system has made them rejigger the older characters. Dhalsim's long limb moves seem vulnerable to parry and drive impact -- instead of improving them, they made his fireballs better. Honda's hundred hands are worse than in previous games because their use is now as a counter to drive impact, having enough hits to break through its armor.

Will those Drive Tickets or whatever be able to purchase characters like Fight Money in SFV? Or it is just cosmetics for World Tour

Seems like it's just cosmetics. Capcom's page says "Drive Tickets can be used at the Hub Goods Shop." Links to a page that says "Tons of items are available at the Hub Goods Shop. Use them to customize your avatar to your liking."

so, worthless then

can't believe you don't want outfit 12 colours 15-20

VF beat-tribe cup top 8 happening right now

https://twitch.tv/majinobama

Mortal Kombat 1 (aka 12) officially announced for September 14. Follows the in-story reboot following MK 11 Aftermath with Fire God Liu Kang remaking the universe. First Kombat Pack will actually include a Jean Claude Van Damme skin for Johnny Cage, which is funny since they tried to get him for the original MK and it finally happened.
It's an exciting year!

MK1 kombat pack characters leaked: Quan Chi, Ermac, Takeda, Peacemaker, Homelander, Omni Man

Anyone messing with the Street Fighter 6 open beta this weekend? Pretty fun! Battle Hub concept that’s like an open arcade where your avatar can walk around and sit down at a machine and challenge or spectate whomever is neat. Game gets you into fights lightning quick, barely had time to take a sip of a drink between matches.

Aesthetically it’s kinda ugly though imo. Not too crazy about the art style and the whole create-your-own-avatar gooniness makes me feel like I’m walking around a Second Life space. And I’m vaguely annoyed by how they shove this Modern control scheme on you, took me a minute to navigate the kinda crappy UI to get it to default to Classic.

All set dressing though I guess, the fighting itself feels pretty good so far. I’ve already put in a few hours.

SFV was the ugliest street fighter's been imo, this one looks a little bit better. not bothering with the beta but i'll play the game when it's out

I kind of want to spend like 30 hours labbing before I jump online, which you can't really do in the beta

I am NOT losing my first ranked match 😤

SFV is very garish, I feel like maybe the naturalistic aesthetic of 6 is a bit of an overcorrection the other way, but this is the most interested I've been to try a crop of brand new characters since pretty much Third Strike

I honestly preferred the look of 5 to this, though it’s been years since I’ve looked at it. Kinda in a Zoomer/Fortnite zone here, but hey, can’t blame them for courting the next gen.

The new characters seem very capable, people are kicking ass with them already. I’m just mucking around with the familiars because there’s not a proper training mode in the beta.

yeah no training mode is why i shant play the beta, i have a need to test every character's moveset thoroughly and identify my main before i go online, in any fighter

in the beta, battle hub has practice mode. go up to an empty arcade machine and select solo training.

oh, I see that other people can challenge you. so use an empty server.

I am NOT losing my first ranked match 😤

I am ABSOLUTELY losing my first ranked match. Planning an almost-but-not-quite perfect loss in the first round then almost take the second until I choke and start mashing sweep.

On PS4 so no beta but been playing the demo & I like the feel of it. The look I'm indifferent to - need to play more than Ryu and Luke.

And I’m vaguely annoyed by how they shove this Modern control scheme on you, took me a minute to navigate the kinda crappy UI to get it to default to Classic.

Accidentally defaulting into modern controls was a mindfuck.

Yes, especially right after they ask you if you want classic or modern.

Here's a spreadsheet someone made of the moves available in modern. Some characters look viable. Kimberly and Juri are missing a few normals but have everything else. On the other hand Guile loses his overhead and his upside down kick.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QQnYBUua2MnA6CYYXcOwVyQoTrzOw_3bN8DEfiqkJJo/

what does "modern additional" mean?

I think it's that characters don't have every one of their special moves mapped to a simple command in modern, and for those ones you have the option of doing a classic style motion to access it.

Not sure what the benefit is of having an alternate motion for the moves that already have a mapped button for modern though. Maybe helps you keep your inputs consistent if you're trying to slowly learn classic but with training wheels idk

Didn’t think to mention it because it was so out-of-sight, out-of-mind, but the net-code they got worked out seems pretty impressive too. Had almost negligible amounts of wonkiness in dozens of matches while playing on Wi-Fi.

Seriously considering getting a Hitbox knockoff. Fightbox a.k.a. RAC-J800B sounds decent. It's not tournament-legal but I'm not good enough for tournaments. The only previous sticks I had were a $40 PS3 piece of shit and a SF4 Madcatz one that had reliability issues.

I've had one from the UK guy Furin Arcade since Feb and I wouldn't go back to another controller. Idk if it makes me gigantically better beyond me not randomly jumping by accident, but it's more fun and satisfying to me to play that way and it's easy on the wrists and hands.

I also had that jumping problem when using stick. Although I'm fine with d-pad.

Dipping in and out of work to muck about on SF6 - Ryu arcade run-through, quick go on the cammy, honda and manon guides, yelling at world tour to hurry up and let me use classic. Everything feels fun! Hopefully will get a few hours tonight.

Day 1 Blanka looks fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-sbw-YaMYg

I haven't had a chance to play it yet.

Finding it quite hard to adjust so far, the moves come out fairly easily but the timing for the dash cancel type stuff seems really demanding for a rapidly decaying guy like me

Early tutorial/combo challenge forays have JP as the surprise frontrunner for me

If I make every effort to switch to classic in every mode I play in hey maybe don’t default to modern in the first casual match I play. Happy to lose but not like this.

I feel like I've missed a 'never ever use modern controls unless I ask to use them' setting. I'm not against modern! Just let me be a happy six-button old man consistently.

Anyway, all fixed now. Went Cammy for a couple of casual matches - won one, lost one and it all felt great.

^ Genuinely annoyed by how you have to manually switch to Classic in multiple different menus. And it still manages to foist it on you depending on what mode you’re checking out.

Put a goddamn REMOVE THIS ABOMINATION FOREVER master switch in there already.

I know right! They finally changed the annoying combo trial thing from SF5 so it defaults to displaying the actual fucking inputs it wants you to do if that's what you pick, but now this shit!!

Completed Ryu's combo trials. This is a sign that I should main him, just until I understand the game a little better, that's all

The dash cancel stuff I think involves a lot of dialing stuff in while other animations are still happening so it's maybe more of a test of concentration than pure finger speed. Ken's regular move dash that he combos into other specials (ie his old v-skill) is still giving me trouble though, very inconsistent on those trials still

World tour mode is kind of dumb fun but the performance is randomly ass at various points on PC

I'm leaning to Manon but I might also fall back to Ryu while I train with her. I'd like to break my shoto habit but I do feel the want of a fireball.

world tour is 100% 'why can't i stop playing this dumb game?'.

btw thank you sarge for the info about getting the actual inputs in trials. Spent too much time in V squinting at the Sakura trials going 'into what now?'

also liking training mode - quick access to eg anti-air practice, plus things like the red/blue cancel hints are really helpful if your timing has always sucked

Played Lily and Zangief a bit. I did not know that SPD could be done with the old tiger knee motion (back rolled to up-forward) since SF4. Apparently you just need to hit all four cardinal directions (with diagonals allowed), so some hitbox users do back, forward, down, up.

Ken Advanced trial 4...good lord

Avatar battles are surprisingly entertaining
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bTofdgJm3M

BLIND WARRIOR SVEN! @SvenvandeWege #Evo2023 pic.twitter.com/U1Wdc55yrr

— HiFight(ハイファイト) (@HiFightTH) August 4, 2023

I've been watching the SF6 stream and I didn't catch that one. Street Fighter 2 was an early game to use accurate sound placement -- Super Turbo used QSound for instance. SF6 has accessibility sound options and I hope Sven was allowed to use them in the tournament.

In a recent big SF6 tournament, the Zangief player Snake Eyez won 3-0 in the grand finals against a JP player. Zangief is considered one of the worst 2 characters in the game and JP is his worst matchup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdOYHnnHiG0

Snake Eyez is the same player who won the Evo 2010 HD Remix tournament with Zangief.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vc40bFgQ2w