What fighting game(s) did you guys play to make you hate fighting games so much?

[Lufia Erim]

Serious thread. Usually when people comment on fighting games , people critisize them saying they are all about mashing or learning and memorizing extremely long and boring combos. Those are the usual complaints i hear about fighting games. I could go on about how much depth there are to fighting games, how mashing isn't ideal , i could talk about spacing, frames ,neutral ,movement and all that, but quite frankly no one cares about those stuff and there are other people on these forums better suited than me to explain all of that *cough*Dreiko*cough*.

What i want to know in this thread is what fighting games did you guys play to make you guys hate fighting games so much? Also for the non-fighting game players, what as the last fighting game you bought? And which was the last one you played ( not necessarily owned).?

I understand full and well that not all genres are for everyone, and that's fine. No one is expected to like everything. That being said, the misconceptions of fighting games, are akin to those of sports games and racing games. Of the sort sports games are all the same year after year save for a slight roster update and racing games are about driving in a circle. Obviously there is more to them than that, and any avid sports and racing game players will explain why. However it seems like most people are content to believe their misconceptions and insult those who do enjoy those kinds of games claiming they are reduced mashing/driving in a circle/etc...do fighting games have their problems? Of course! Balancing issues, cheap set ups, poor design and other stuff, but not what most people are complaining about.

So escapists, what is your take on this?

 

[StatusNil]

Also for the non-fighting game players, what as the last fighting game you bought? And which was the last one you played ( not necessarily owned).?

Not a big fighting game fan, due to my aged reflexes not being able to handle advanced play at all. And the whole idea of developing a strong "main" (that's what you call 'em, right?) seems to demand so much discipline that it's clearly not for me. But I did buy Soul Calibur 5 and Injustice a while back when they were on sale and had some fun mashing the buttons in those. (Funnily enough, I couldn't complete the TUTORIAL of Injustice on my 360 controller. No major problems with the SP campaign, though.) So it was one of those two. All in all, worth what I paid for them. The canned super moves in Injustice were particularly hilarious to me, but I guess many a true fighting game fan would frown on canned moves.

 

[jademunky]

No single game turned me off of them. I do, however, remember Tekken 3 being particularly eye-rolling in the way someone could input a stupidly complex combo that would take out nearly all your health. My real problem with fighting games is that i really feel that I am playing 1/3 of a game.

To me, a game is more about exploration, character interaction, equipment management, etc with fighting as just one aspect of gameplay. Yeah i know fighting games do technically have a story but in much the same way a porno movie has one.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

There are a couple reasons for me, none of which are tied to any specific game:

1) The tutorials are ass. Seriously, the best you get is the training room with a dummy and a screen prompt. "Hey, do a guard cancel, here's how" it says. "Ok," I say, "what's a guard cancel and what do you use it for?" "Now do this other thing" the game replies.

I kinda get how to execute a command, but almost no specifics for when or why I'd want to. Start adding in a moveset with 30 different attacks for each character and, well, no.

2) The "friend who knows how to play" problem. I've got a couple of friends who know how to play and like fighting games. And that's great. Do I sit down and play against them? Hell no! I can kinda-sorta play Ken alright, but I've got nothing besides basic specials and maybe the super move. My friends will take me apart like a Ken potato-head. For a brief, shining moment I may be able to hold my own when a game is brand spanking new, but after that fades, handing me the controller just means I get frustrated losing 40 times in a row. With no Blue Justice in the game to spice things up, it's a no go. (Opposite happens with me and my friends in racing games. I get to a point where racing me isn't very fun for them unless they've got a way to wreck my shit. "Realistic" racing games are right out.)

3) The "Old Grudge" problem. I first started playing games in an Arcade. Which means every play cost a quarter and, unless the place was empty, there was always that asshole who decided that no, you don't finally get to fight M. Bison, try again later scrub. And on the off chance I actually beat that guy, he always had another quarter to show me the character he was actually good with.

So yeah. I actually kinda like fighting games when I get to do the whole story thing, but as a multiplayer endeavor? Rather play Kart or Smash with all the items turned on and random tracks/arenas.

 

[stroopwafel]

I don't hate fighting games but I definitely lost interest in them. I absolutely loved Street Fighter 2 back in the day(both in the arcades and on home consoles). It looked and played amazing compared to anything before it. I guess I was also at an age those twitch/reflex based games really appealed to me. Then Mortal Kombat came around which was a huge 'meh' but it had the novelty of being particularly violent(again for its time now it looks like ass), and the sequel actually improved the gameplay a lot as well. The last fighting game I was probably properly amazed by was Tekken 2 when it first came out. After that I just kinda lost interest and rarely(if ever) play them anymore.

I don't know but with fighting games I always enjoy them for 30 minutes or so before getting incredibly bored with them. I guess its different when you play them with a group of friends or competitively. Without the social or competitive aspect though there really isn't much to fighting games in my opinion.

 

[Mutant1988]

I don't know but with fighting games I always enjoy them for 30 minutes or so before getting incredibly bored with them. I guess its different when you play them with a group of friends or competitively. Without the social or competitive aspect though there really isn't much to fighting games in my opinion.

Different people different tastes. I rarely get a chance to hang out with more than one friend at any time, because my friends don't really know each other or live anywhere close to one another. So those large fighting game social events don't happen very often.

But I do agree that fighting games are at their absolute best when played with a group of friends, preferably if all are equally into it. That or if no one has played the game and all learn as they go. The less you care about winning or losing, the better.

But since such meet ups are very rare for me, I tend to play a lot of singleplayer and I actually quite like playing fighting games in singleplayer and a lot of recent fighting games have had quite a lot of content and story to offer.

That is, I enjoy singleplayer as long as the AI isn't just reacting perfectly to your every move. No one likes a cheating CPU. But it's satisfying to get good at something and win against an opponent that has caused you so much grief. It's not any different than any other game in that regard - I'd say that fighting games just generally have more clearly defined rules.

Very rarely is physics our environments a factor, only your skill at utilizing the moves of the character and reacting to the moves of your opponent. It's not for everyone.

 

[Mutant1988]

1) The tutorials are ass. Seriously, the best you get is the training room with a dummy and a screen prompt. "Hey, do a guard cancel, here's how" it says. "Ok," I say, "what's a guard cancel and what do you use it for?" "Now do this other thing" the game replies.

Fighting games do tend to have hilariously terrible tutorials. That said, the tutorial in King of Fighters 13 is excellent in teaching you the terminology and basics and function of various moves, specials, supers and cancels. Honestly, I can't recommend that game enough to anyone that has even a marginal interest in 2D fighting game.

It's one of the best 2D fighters ever made.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I love em well most of em but I am not particularly great at any of them although I am confident in my skills in SF2 and Soul Calibur and am not terrible at DOA. However put a good player against me in those games and I will likely lose.

I have always liked the idea of fighters since I first saw the great artwork of SF2 in the arcades and how different and amazing it was back then. Trouble is I like to play against people next to me and that rarely happens now most of my friends either hate or are indifferent to fighters and I am not big on online play.

I love playing someone of the same skill level or preferably slightly better who is next to me and I can ask questions of about stuff they are doing or just plain instruct me on stupid stuff I do. I think its the impenetrability that turns many players off they are hard to get into and can actually look pretty shallow on the surface as well which can turn others off (and some of the bad ones are, talkin back in the day here I struggle to think of a shallow one of recent times).

I think of the hundreds upon hundreds of hours I have put into SF2 and SC over the years and have merely become nothing more than competent and I was pretty competitive in SC back in the day. Most people dont want to put that into a game. Also to get really good you need to spend a lot of time practising as well as playing, most players just want to jump in and win and that aint gonna happen against anyone decent unless the lag is atrocious or you get very very lucky.

If I had a friend who came round and liked fighters or a fighter as much as me it would be almost the only game(s) I would play. As it stands im not as hungry when I dont have anyone in my mind to compete with.

 

[Johnny Impact]

I don't hate fighting games. I just hate sucking and don't like them enough to put in the time to get good. I also no longer have the reflexes of youth, or the new generation of gamers has better reflexes, or something. I suppose I could train up but I just don't feel the need.

I played a fair amount of the early Mortal Kombats and Soul something-or-other (Calibur, Edge, one of those) way back when. Tekken 3 was my game though. Couldn't have won a tournament but I could win 2 out of 5 against a friend for whom Tekken was practically a frickin' religion.

My childhood buddy had Street Fighter and I didn't, which means my abiding memory of that series is losing over and over again until I got sick of it, then doing it again a week later.

If I hate a fighter series, it's Smash Brothers. My brother-in-law just would NOT shut up about how awesome/deep/revolutionary it was. So we played it. Stated as briefly as possible, it sucked. Hyperkinetic, arbitrary, meaningless button mashing with an overabundance of confusing not-so-special effects. It is *the* game for kids raised without attention spans, and that's most definitely not a compliment.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Street Fighter. Lots of lost quarters on that one.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Fighting games do tend to have hilariously terrible tutorials. That said, the tutorial in King of Fighters 13 is excellent in teaching you the terminology and basics and function of various moves, specials, supers and cancels. Honestly, I can't recommend that game enough to anyone that has even a marginal interest in 2D fighting game.

It's one of the best 2D fighters ever made.

Full agreement here. I'd go a bit further and say it's arguable that it IS the best 2D fighter ever made.

I'm not the right audience for this thread since fighting games are one of my favorite genres of games. I basically play everything that isn't a 3D fighter, unless it's one of the more obscure "anime" games (Arcana Heart and Aquapazza come to mind). Even got into MKX when I didn't like 9 at all. Feels heavily improved. I started playing in my early teens with Blazblue: Calamity Trigger (my first fighting game was actually...Bushido Blade, I think, and SF2 Hyper Fighting on SNES, though I didn't really love them until BB) on my Xborks 360, and have enjoyed the genre ever since.

Not exactly fitting given your question, OP, but that's where I stand.

 

[Pax Romana]

I always found the Soulcaliber series to be the one with the most depth. Each character had a lot to them and you could'nt button bash your way to victory if you had a competent opponent. Mastering the entire move set was challenging and playing regularly with your friends meant not becoming predictable.

Mortal Kombat and DBZ games by comparison are much more shallow but fun anyway IMO.

Probably more considered a sports game but the new UFC game is extremely well put together for what it is and very fun to play, particularly if you like watching UFC. I would recommend it for any fans of the sport to give it a try.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Street Fighter IV. I am no whiz at fighting games. I bought the Dead or Alive games because I wanted to know more about Ryu, Kasumi, and Ayane from Ninja Gaiden. That's my level of skill when it comes to these types of games--as in, very little. But I can usually get by in the story mode to at least see the endings of characters.

And then I played Street Fighter IV. And I couldn't beat it. Even when I set it on easy, I still got my teeth kicked in. Again and again. On the rare occasions I actually got to Seth (I was normally losing to the rival fighter right before him), I would be lucky if I managed to get in more than five hits. I never beat him, and I got so frustrated that I pulled the game out, stuffed it back in its case, and tossed it under my dresser so that I wouldn't give in to the whole, "Okay, THIS time I'll get him!" mentality. I will never touch another Street Fighter game as long as I live because of that game.

 

[RaikuFA]

Skullgirls: "Oh we're gonna make a tutorial that newcomers feel welcome" bull fucking shit.

Any Aksys fighter tries to be helpful as well and fail at it. And the SF community. You think MOBA's are bad? Try being a newcomer in SF.

 

[garjian]

This thread is already a real eye-opener. Only 13 posts in and I'm already really frustrated.

I mean...

I pulled the game out, stuffed it back in its case, and tossed it under my dresser so that I wouldn't give in to the whole, "Okay, THIS time I'll get him!" mentality.

Why would somebody do that?
You could've done if you kept trying, and learnt something along the way!

And you seriously cannot mash in any of these games that've been mentioned. Especially Smash Bros... I can't even conceive of how you could do that. You'd just end up jumping on the spot and Side-B-ing off the stage!
Argh!

Anyway, I know the question isn't aimed at me, but my first fighting game was Clayfighter 63 1/3 and I love fighting games. Seems it's more about winning and losing rather than which game it was.
I reckon people whose first fighting games are modern would find it much easier to get into them, just because they can almost always find somebody around their skill level online.

 

[Erttheking]

Injustice, Gods Among Us. Couldn't get out of the tutorial because of this thing called "Bounce cancel" whatever the fuck THAT was. Kept hammering in the commands but nothing happened. In fact, half of the things the game told me to do I couldn't do when the game was flashing the commands at me like I was thick, so there's no way I could've done it when I was panicking in the middle of a fast paced fight. And I can't remember all the combos they were throwing at me. I like watching fighting games (Espically JoJo's Allstar Battle) but I just suck at them. (Though a friend of mine says that if I consider that to be an annoyance I might like Skullgirls, so I'm going to check that out when I can)

 

[pspman45]

While I understand they're not for everyone, I am a fan of fighting games, my current favorites are Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Blazblue Chronophantasma, Project M for Smash Brothers Melee and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle. I revel in the tension that comes from the quick 1v1 combat these games offer, something I can't really find anywhere else.

 

[xmbts]

Mortal Kombat Gold on the N64.

Then I gave street fighter 4 a shot when it launched and that was the last time.

Never again...

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

Yeah, it's not about any particular game ruining the genre. It's that you eventually to get to the point where you've played enough fighting games that they start to look the same. The thing about fighters is that they all operate on one basic mechanic: press a button, character attacks. There is nothing else to them, or else they wouldn't be fighting games.

Secondly, the only way to compete at anything beyond party game level is to invest just absurd amounts of time into them. Just learning one character in one game well enough to play online takes days, even weeks. It's REALLY not worth the time when there are so many other games that offer more complex and variable experiences.