Poll: Greatest Hand to Hand fighting video game character

[Geo Da Sponge]

I'm sorry, you appear to have forgotten the THE GOD DAMN BATMAN.

Seriously though, Arkham Asylum is probably the best hand to hand combat game ever.

It's in fact the worst I have seen actually. It looked nice, sure, but you weren't really playing.

If the hand to hand combat system was so great in Arkham Asylum, how then did I make my way across the game by mashing a single button?
You just hold the analog stick in the enemy's direction and you press the attack button while Batman will do all these crazy looking contextual moves.

*Mega Uber Snip*

To be honest, I didn't read your massive ramble about God Hand, because I could see that you had already missed the point when you first started talking. You can get through the story with a minimum of skill. You can even get three 'stars' on all of the combat challenges without anything too amazing. But when it comes to topping the leaderboards, that's where it get's really fun.

Arkham Asylum isn't about intricate, self constructed combos. It isn't about any of the traditional qualities of hand to hand fighting games. It's based on a very simple control scheme for a reason; topping the charts is all about spatial awareness, maneouvering yourself to be in the right place at the right time, always aware of that extra goon who's runoff to pickup a stun baton, getting the most out of every enemy in terms of points.

The very fact that you complain about Batman's 'choreography' shows this better than anything else. The very beauty of the always flowing combat is what makes the game so very rewarding; while 'God Hand' is rewarding due to being brutally difficult, Arkham Asylum achieves this without having to punish the player. This is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of quality. Anyone can make a game rewarding by making it hard.

Overall, Arkham Asylum is not about singly controlling every jab, block or kick. It is about controlling the fight itself and using a combination of quick thinking, reflexes and experience to get the most out of every fight. It's not deep or complex, and is all the better for it. And if your view of what makes a good fighting game is so narrow that you can't see this, then I truly pity you.

 

[timmytom1]

Kratos i mean , there aren`t any other protagonists either on that list or in the rest of the gaming universe that can RIP A MAN CLEAN IN HALF!!! i mean obviously we all can do it in real life , but it`s rearely done in the videogaming universe XD

 

[Wizco]

Amarant in Final Fantasy 9.

Greatest Monk Ever...

 

[Amnestic]

Gene from God Hand.

His fists are quite literally divine weapons. You don't get much more badass hand-to-hand than that.

 

[Space Spoons]

Ryu from Street Fighter. Hand-to-hand fighting is his life, past, present and foreseeable future. He's almost always wearing that ratty karate gi, just in case he runs into someone who's willing to drop everything and duke it out in the streets. Hell, the man travels around the world on foot and doesn't even own shoes.

 

[Huxleykrcc]

While I like Arkham Asylum much more than God Hand, I have to disagree about difficulty. Hard games are generally better games (the good ones, anyway) because it takes more polish and precision (read: balance) to make a game fun and fair and still be hard. Combat systems that work when easy often fall apart when things get harder, partly because they lack the skill depth to accomodate them.

I don't think ease of play is a mark of quality. Neither is difficulty of play, necessarily, but most of the best games I've played tend to be difficult.

Hell, the most satisfying combat, really, is multi-player...I mean, someone with human intelligence will present the greatest challenge.

 

[PeterDawson]

Obligatory comment about how this is a poll when there's ideally hundreds of characters that could be championed for this.

Anyhow, of the list you gave, I actually want to go with DMC's Dante. Not because I'm a fan of the series, as I'm really not (maybe played 10 hours total of the entire series combined), but given how damn hard a couple of the games he's in are and how he keeps surviving, not to mention just how well he can defy gravity, I have to give it to him. Of course, he's possibly the most agile fighter while Altair's probably the most efficient, going for fast and dirty kills, while Kratos is probably the most physically devastating, given he's a one man army.

 

[Gitty101]

You call this a hand to hand combat poll, with no mention of Snake!? Solid Snake or Big Boss?

My vote would've gone to Big Boss, the best of all the snakes imo...

 

[Fidelias]

Neo.

He is THE ONE.

And he knows kung fu.

 

[Totenkopf]

I'll go with Dante. Why? He's just the character who is compared to the others way too over the top to be vincible.

 

[Kailat777]

Considering that nobody in your poll actually fights 'hand to hand', I choose not to vote. If I were to vote for a hand to hand fighter, it would definitely be Tifa, of Final Fantasy fame. Kazuma Kiryu of Yakuza is a very close second.

 

[ethan22122]

i picked kratos, i like atlair but kratos has more of an in your face attitude.

 

[Pingieking]

If I ignore the whole "None of those people fight hand to hand", I'd go with Kratos.
Cause, you know, he did

Spoiler

punch Hercule's face in. Literally. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWMW1N1g9as

 

[Traskelion]

I'm gonna have to go with DMC's Dante. He doesn't really seem to care (at least in cut-scenes) when he gets stabbed with scythes, thrown across a room, etc. And he's been punched by that Nero's Devil Bringer hand repeatedly with little care. Unarmed or not, the rest of the list just doesn't have enough to worry him.