Anyone who reads this stack knows I like fighting games. I admit this is mainly restricted to the 2D realm. However, I have noticed as of late some trends and thoughts that seem both like good thoughts and also some bad ones. Companies also seem to be taking some of these and doing great, or totally pooping the bed. So for today’s post, we’re gonna go the old route of Animanics and talk about good ideas and bad ideas that have developed over time from the fighting game world. Sadly, we don’t have money for Ben Stein to narrate this. So, use your imagination and think the dull, flat tones of the guy we wanted to win money from in the late 90s is doing this.
GOOD IDEA: Embracing your past…
Depending on the series, the fighting game genre has had a lot of legacy series that have stood the test of time. From the defining game of the genre, Street Fighter, to the groundbreaking use of the third dimension with Virtua Fighter. To even the surprising in-depth and well-developed characters of Mortal Kombat.
With all that legacy behind you, it would be a shame to just throw it out all the time. But, you also don’t want to be riding that past, and not providing anything new. Street Fighter has surprisingly balanced this with the use of its older music and some costumes that are classic. They will, on occasion, swap out moves in different versions of games, like Ryu’s side kick, which was introduced in SF3, but had not come back in official games until SF6.
Fatal Fury and KOF also recognize this and have done similar to what Capcom did, swapping out moves, but also leaving easter eggs all over that reference the past and also add some personality to the world for eagle-eyed fans. The little bit of continuity while also moving forward is never a bad thing, and striking that balance so newer players come in, but also in a way thanking older players for sticking around.
Speaking of newer players, if you’ve read my reviews, you know where this is going. So, let’s just rip the band-aid off…
BAD IDEA: Modern Controls
I don’t think I’ve made it a secret how I feel about modern controls; they can go by other terms like “Smart Style” or whatever other bullshit they use, but let’s just call it what it really is: Automatic Mode.
If you’re thinking, “What the hell is he talking about?” Well, back in Marvel Vs Capcom 1, there was a selection that made use of terms Manual (or normal method of putting in commands) and Automatic. Automatic was the Modern control of its day, but I have to give credit where credit is due here. I used that back in the day, but it did something Modern controls did not: it made me actually learn how to play the game.
I am not against the concept of teaching new people controls; I actually think it is necessary to evolve the genre. What I have an issue with is the way it has been implemented. Instead of teaching you, it makes you hit buttons instead of inputting the motions. Making it “easier” and more “accessible,” But the issue is, it does not teach you. In fact, it has become grounds for an all-out spamming of moves, this is saying something when you can just hadoken a lot in SF and it’s one of the most basic commands in all of fighting games.
So the concept is not where my issue lays, it is with its execution, another thing they should do is cap the modern control players, keep them in the lower ranks, cause if I have to listen to some person complain about frame data all the fucking time, it’s clearly important part of the game so why should people be able to use easy street stuff? If you dropped me into a CoD game, and there is some secret trick to be better than everyone does is there a simple control for that? No, I am most likely expected to get good, as the kids say, or just become a jobber for the match everyone can get easy points off of.
So, when people complain that fighting games are too hard to learn, I just simply say, “get good.” We all had to back in the day. Why should you get special treatment?
GOOD IDEA: Embrace the Pro Wrestling Aesthetic
When Street Fighter and other series started, it was in the 90’s when ninjas and other such things were still cool (and they still are just different now.) So when plots revolved around tournaments and the fate of the world, and old martial arts movie tropes. It worked well, but moving forward, fighting games have embraced another way to tell stories that has slowly evolved in the background: the big fight feel.
Tekken has honestly accelerated in this; they have stages with crowds and explosions and big epic screens for all to see, and a ring. Other games have slowly added these types of arenas to their stage list. Does any of this sound familiar to you, reader? It should, cause every week you can turn on a channel and find it, it’s called Pro Wrestling.
Tekken, to me, seems at its best when it throws away its edge lord level story (look, it dragged on enough as it is, and it is needlessly grim dark) in favor of the let’s settle this in the ring vibe of Tekken Tag sub series. Street Fighter and SNK Games have slowly added more pro wrestlers to their games that range from the original tank of Zangief to the speed machines of Cook and Mexican luchador of El Fuerte. Often having the steady eddies of Clark in KOF and Alex or Hugo in Street Fighter. Tekken has made luchadores almost main characters in King and Armor King, respectively. Even having Murder Grandpa Minoru Suzuki doing Mocap for them in Tekken 3. Virtual Fighter has had Wolf as one of its mains since its inception as well.
With the new arena of online play, I actually like this as it makes the game more fun and maybe a bit more self-aware instead of just running with a B-Movie level plot as the backbone of the fighting. This is also not to say that it is bad, but I think the fact that the bigger series are willing to embrace and even take some of the quirks of this style of entertainment is a nice change in tone that I’m not against going forward with.
BAD IDEA: Guest Characters
This one is kind of complicated, we’re gonna focus on the bad first more because I feel there are some legit good ways of doing it. But there are some bad ways it’s been doing it, also. Two of the offenders are Tekken and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Tekken, because while it started interesting with crossovers of Geese and Akuma from Fatal Fury and Street Fighter, respectively. It took a nosedive once they started including characters outside the genre. Did we really need Negan and Great Value Cloud from Final Fantasy XV? Also, why is Clive from XVI in 8? I was baffled by those choices cause it’s not like there is a character who actually uses martial arts in one of the biggest games in your series! Tifa gets looked over but would transition quite well into Tekken 8, but nope, let’s go with Great Value Cloud and Totally not ripped off Mutant from X-Men Clive.
As for City of the Wolves, well, the Dj dude who I don’t remember who he is (or care to look up), is, I admit, in a goofy way, kind of an “alright, let’s just roll with this,” kind of vibe. I feel we could have just used Duck King, but sure, whatever, I guess. But why is Rolando even in this game? AND WHY IS HE USING MICHAEL JORDAN’S BALLS FROM HIS 16-BIT GAME? Cause that was my second thought, my first one was why is this guy even here to begin with? I’ll level with you all, I thought this was the same guy who was in The Simpsons years ago, and he was just not when I watched. No, I only learned who he actually is as I had to type “bald Brazilian soccer player Simpsons” into Google to bring up the clip and realize it’s a whole other person. So, that’s my cross to bear, and it also shows how effective putting that person in was for most fans.
However, if we are going to talk about bad use of guest characters, both these games bow before the just sheer awful execution of Mortal Kombat. It stated innocent enough, let’s put in Freddy Krueger? I mean, I thought it was kind of odd, but hey, we got some returns and also a new interesting character, so sure. We get to MK X, and now we have Jason, the Predator, and...a Xenomorph...well, at least we’re finding a type here.
But going into MK 1 (or 11 for those of you devoted to keeping continuity) They seem to swing for the fences of guests. Suddenly, it went from looking like adding filler to a carefully researched marketing program designed to follow a trending tab on social media. I don’t think we needed Peacemaker Cena and Homelander in these games. Homelander barely passes the adult violence test, and both again really feel like WB went to Ed Boon and said, “You can make the game, but these guys must be in there.”
GOOD IDEA: Guest Characters
To end this positively, I also have to say some of the better executions come from both games I just ripped into and surprisingly (cause Capcom has a tendency to Capcom.) Street Fighter, when they have a character from another fighting game. It seems more organic, and when it comes to the Capcom and SNK side, it actually does feel a bit like a shared world. Also, when Tekken did Geese and Akuma, they also felt like they’d just been hanging out in the back for years watching things. But I also feel like they are just very much teasing a third edition of Capcom Vs SNK 3 that will never happen. Simply because I can see the companies going, this DLC was the spiritual continuation, or some bullshit like that.
Guest Characters can provide an incentive to keep playing the game, or could make people groan and walk away, also. If these games focused more on their past roster or introducing new characters that maybe they are not sure about, but would like to see if it works. It goes back to what I said about using the past earlier; in bursts, it can be effective. But you also don’t want to make it your entire purpose. So it is a tricky tightrope to walk.
Wrapping it all up
These are just some things I’ve noticed over the last few years; there are many other things I could include in this list. However, I felt I should keep it this set of things, maybe down the road I’ll do a volume two of this subject. I wanted to show the positives and the negatives of things at the moment, there are some good things like evolution via the pro-wrestling aesthetic, to the negative of if guest downloadable content is decided in a boardroom. But also we can improve on somethings like making fighting games easier to learn without it feeling like “push button for quick time” controls.
However, I will ask you, the reader: what are some things you think are working well in fighting games right now? Also, what could be better, or should be dropped like a bad habit altogether? Leave a comment below, and if there is another edition of this, I’ll be sure to include your thoughts and give credit where it’s due. Until then, thanks for reading
-The Chaos Director
If you want to reach out to myself or Ili, you can drop us an email at Magicninjarobot00@gmail.com