My love/hate relationships with fighting games
There’s something exhilarating about fighting games. When you’re playing a first-person shooter or an RPG, or even an MMORPG, events unfold rather slowly. In Halo, you’re scouting out an area before being attacked, and in World Of Warcraft, you could ride for miles before seeing something to fight. However, in fighting games, you’re thrown into the ring immediately with barely enough time to shake the sweat off your palms from the last game you barely won.
The concept of fighting games has been the same for decades since the days of Karateka for the Atari 800 and Mortal Kombat: learn to use moves against your opponent, block incoming blows, counter moves if you can, and survive. It seems easy, in fact some poorly designed games are called “button mashers” because all it really takes is just mashing certain buttons on the controller to beat your opponent.
However, there are some rather intelligent fighting games out there. Tekken and Soul Calibur are known to be the two best in the genre and each have their own unique styles of gameplay. Tekken is more hand-to-hand whereas Soul Calibur is based on swords and other weapons. What makes them “intelligent” is that your computer-controlled opponents don’t just stand there and randomly attack you. They’re designed to challenge you by simulating what a real person would do.
The fun part of Soul Calibur has been the story mode and the unlocakable content. The original Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast had so many unlocakables I couldn’t list them all. Soul Calibur IV will have the same and I’m itching to go through it all.
The fun part of fighting games ends there. There comes a point in these games when they just get ridiculously difficult. Many times in these games I’ll do well, have a few close calls, but survive, and then reach a point where the opponent is so hard to beat that I can’t get a move off of them. Or, I’ll get them down to within a hair of their life and they’ll come back and somehow beat me to a bloody pulp. To me there’s nothing more frustrating than trying to beat an opponent for the umpteenth time and just as you’re about to take them out, you find yourself knocked to the ground. Game Over.
I personally believe that fighting games are what keeps extra controllers in stock at game stores.
So with today’s release of Soul Calibur IV, I look forward to beating Voldo and Ivy and Siegfriend into the pavement. Again. I’m going to try and be Zen about it this time around and realize that if the game’s getting too frustrating, I have the option of walking away, or bribing my nephew into doing the work for me.
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Comments
I run into the same issue with pro wrestling video games. Most of them are designed so poorly that it’s just a jumble of button mashing.
But on fighting games, I always found that a game that moved a little slower was always move enjoyable. I liked the Street Fighter series until they started in with the Hyper and Turbo and the like.
I enjoy a good fighting game, but I have to confess: I’ve hardly played any Soul Calibur or Tekken. I’ve been more of a Capcom and SNK player when it comes to fighters. I used to have Virtua Fighter 4: Evo for the PS2, which I enjoyed tremendously.
I do hate the frustration that you describe here though. And it’s inevitable.
You made me want to go buy a good fighting game!