General fighting games thread

Also, I cant stomach the clichés and emotional drama of most of these games anymore.

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.

Not so much limbo, but I'm guessing Marvel was the one holding it up. The only real activity since Infinite came out were those Arcade 1-Up cabinets, and the last time MvC 2 was officially available on console was 2013. Might spring for physical copy on this one. (Marvel/Activision, where are my X-Men Legends/Marvel Ultimate Alliance remasters?)

But yeah - it's been so long it feels like a miracle of sorts, especially since Maximillian's been stumping for it for four years

I was going to say Marvel Ultimate Alliance already got shitty overpriced Steam remasters a few years back, but a) it was 2016! and b) they've been delisted again 💀

I loved x-men legends

I'm actually looking forward to playing the earlier games, as I played MvC2 to death and barely touched any of the others. MvC1 looks a bit better aesthetically to me - it's a similar situation to Alpha 2 and 3, while the latter has a crazy number of characters and stuff going on, the former feels more complete and satisfying as a game somehow.

This is giving me faint hope the the original Capcom Alien vs Predator and the Jojo fighting game may see the light of day again.

Seen something about Mike Tyson being proud of the Balrog/M. Bison thing. But this is interesting too
https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/social-and-lifestyle/1007993/street-fighters-fall-from-grace

contains a picture of him holding up Sagat art

I had read quite a bit on the history of the characters development but a lot of this is new to me. Didn't know Sodom was a western guy who spoke terrible japanese and got all the cultural stuff wrong, he was a favorite of mine.
https://www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com/blog/origins-street-fighter-ii-character-names

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez6wDOcywrc
Good stuff

Wonder why Capcom never re-used these characters? I've always liked them. Maybe Tetsuo Hara owns the designs?

https://fightersgeneration.com/characters6/the-great-oni.html
https://fightersgeneration.com/characters6/black-widow-slam.html

I saw that SF6 is on sale and so I just bought an ethernet adapter for my MacBook and installed Boot Camp on it, I think this is finally happening for me!

didn't see that one coming tbh

Something exciting in the making! #SNK #FatalFury #CR7 pic.twitter.com/u9gDbx9M1y

— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) September 21, 2024

I...what?

I guess it's a Being Owned by Saudi Arabia thing

Boy howdy, fighting games have a lot more mechanics than they had in the SF2 days.

Oof. Fuckin bummer.

I’ve been playing the OG ‘Garou: Mark of the Wolves’ entirely coincidentally these past few weeks. First time. One of the best fighters I’ve played tbh. Beautiful game.

Leee I agree that in SF6 the system is complicated. It's one of the most free-form systems as the drive meter can be used in so many ways. There are lots of good youtube tutorials, and also the website supercombo.gg is useful.

I am a terrible, terrible player but I'd say don't sweat the meter mechanics too much immediately - they're important as you get on but getting execution and fundamentals down is the thing and imo is more fun.

Agree on youtube - a lot of the useful starter things are called something like '[character name] rookie to diamond tutorial' & are well guided.

i've been watching an 8-hour cammy rookie to diamond video and it's excellent. won a few matches today employing some of these ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by4B_gIoT84

I really liked his Sakura tutorials for SFV - they were excellent at getting you to do just a few things that work, then building on that. When I actually get some time to re-commit to 6 it's Cammy for me & I will be following (tho Akaraien's rookie to diamond for her also looks pretty good)

I wanted to learn Manon but I didn't see a rookie -> Diamond video for her; I checked out a Juri one instead, and after it talked about pokes, I was completely lost with the bar at the bottom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMz_9giZ654

Yeah ceelows is good, I got decent with Kage in SF5 from his guide, something satisfying about sticking to a very basic toolset and slowly adding to it instead of improvising everything you know sweatily

xp
ah yeah maybe it wasn't a great steer - I was thinking of Ceelows and Akaraien in particular. That looks like it dives into 'plus on block' explanations too early.

I've thought about Manon myself & this looks like a brutally basic guide. Maybe I'll try it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx2mkOC_Rc8

Capcom v. DECO lawsuit exhibit video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGnutyhfIL0

This video comes from a VHS tape original given to DieHard GameFan Magazine by Data East as media outreach regarding the 1994 lawsuit Capcom U.S.A. Inc. v. Data East Corp. In this first tape of evidence, a representative from Data East compares seven characters from Fighter's History to ones that Capcom says Data East infringed upon from Street Fighter II.

ceelows deleted his youtube channel. Akaraien it is.

Fuck. Retiring from SF6

Not making any money from youtube apparently? He did come across a bit bitcoin/hustle bro when I used to look in on his twitch.

tbh his SF6 vids were a bit of a step down from the SF5 ones - unedited, bit rambly and less clear on the 'when this happens, do this' front.

Ah yeah I guess when the material's less concisely edited he might have evidenced more chud tendencies, the SF5 stuff was pleasingly all business, even if the videos were 8 hours long

I guess the SF5 new character toolset of "safe poke, reliable anti-air, safe blockstring, punish combo you can consistently do / don't fucking jump all the time" is fairly easy to translate to other characters or games

Yet to even test out Terry B or do much with Bison

virtua fighter on steam with rollback, open beta available now lasting 5 days
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3112260/

Join The VIRTUA FIGHTER 5 R.E.V.O. Open β from... now!

The Openβ is already started and will be available to players on Steam for 5 days.
Check out its store page on Steam!https://t.co/b5aAvXQDqC#VF5REVO#LegacyVF pic.twitter.com/yuPxErEQ5n

— VIRTUA FIGHTER (@VF_SEGA) December 13, 2024

In my very limited experience VF seems like the most elegant of fighting games, a profound game, & it saddens me that I will never have the tiniest bit of competence at it.

VF6 was announced at the game awards

limited hype for vf6 from me because i'm expecting sega to royally fuck it up. at least the changes in revo seem conservative enough to not ruin everything and rollback (if good, tbc yet) is huge

thanks for the beta notice. i haven't touched a VF in so long, i gotta try this

So Capcom Cup happened. The big story is that a 15-year-old got to the finals. Noahtheprodigy also got into the top 8. He first showed up in FGC events when he was 8 years old, playing a Hulk team in MVC3. The younguns are taken over with their superior reflexes.

I don't think the final winner has won a major before, other than his Capcom Cup qualifier.

Interesting... makes sense we'd eventually see a newer generation break through

it's beat-tribe cup weekend, live now

Updated 19th VFR Beat-Tribe Cup Schedule with Stream Information #VF5REVO #EVOJapan2025:

EVO Japan Day 2 - Sub Stage J
YT: https://t.co/R2LNf6jWxE
Twitch https://t.co/GhQsiviUho

EVO Japan Day 3 - Sub Stage JP
YT: https://t.co/GhQsiviUho
Twitch: https://t.co/woUzSC5lKi https://t.co/8T3NY6UMbw pic.twitter.com/fy3Z5JVd7q

— VFDC (@vfdotcom) May 9, 2025

Maybe it's too early to say, but apparently the new Fatal Fury is bombing pretty hard. According to some reports, SNK's owners were expecting massive returns. Fighting games can obviously do good business but it's been a much more niche genre for quite some time now... though perhaps not as long a time since the last game with Fatal Fury in the title (before the millennium!). If they really thought all that Ronaldo nonsense was going to attract the masses, they were pretty deluded.

the samurai showdown reboot coming out with awful online play right before rollback netcode became industry standard was unfortunate, thats the best game they've made since the classic days but wasn't given the ability to catch on.

people have been wary of them ever since the saudi prince bought them as a vanity thing and the ronaldo etc nonsense was the vindicating moment. the fg folks i know who check out pretty much every new fighting game weren't interested in this one after that

i havent played anything in quite a while, i was waiting to jump back in on the next big anime fighter once GG Strive runs its course but that may never come at this rate. maybe VF6 will be fun

Yeah some people were definitely put off by the Ronaldo "appearance" (he didn't even record any voice work or anything, so it's more akin to a Fortnite skin or something); I'll bet some people were hoping his fans would make up for that by flocking to an expensive non-football game - more fool them. Extensive advertising at wrestling and boxing events seems to have had no effect either. I must give that SamSho game a go sometime.

Another Capcom fighting collection is out tomorrow. I've made peace with the fact that we'll never see a new Darkstalkers or Rival Schools or non-SF Capcom Fighter game again (which means I might get a pleasant surprise someday...) so it's great to have these collections of the arcade originals.

I have to admit, the Ronaldo announcement killed the enthusiasm I had for the game (as well as that goofy DJ character, to a lesser extent) when I was already on the fence about spending the full $60 on it

I'll pick up CFC2, probably wait until it's $10-20 off, i didn't even open the Marvel collection but bought it for posterity as I will this one

Yeah I was the same with Fatal Fury, Ron and the who-the-fuck-is-this-guy useful idiot DJ just foregrounded the grossness a little bit too much, I was otherwise fairly enthusiastic about it

I'll also probably buy the new Capcom collection and then not play it because those games didn't have much single player stuff and I can't get psyched up enough to play online

The PS1 era 3D games are fun but definitely show their age now. Capcom Fighting Jam is the only clunker in the collection, a rushed hackjob with awkwardly mismatched sprites and some of the worst backgrounds I have ever seen. There's a context for it, but it's a bit of an farcical end to their 2D fighting run.

I don't do much online play myself; what I find is that after a few weeks, the scene is largely dominated by "experts" who flatten me one fight after another. Not fun.

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

A characteristically game performance from Kenny here

Sagat, Viper, Alex...Ingrid

c. viper is such a cool character - her combos in 4 were so fun

It's a good reveal video. I like them trolling with Ingrid.

I'm seeing a lot about Ingrid on my feed atm, I had no idea she was apparently such a "hated" character. Granted, the game she features in is a bit of a mess, but I don't really get it lol

Nice to see another SF3 fighter

I just went past a double decker bus in South London completely covered in a Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves ad. Why yes, 15ft tall Rock Howard, this is the most bizarre and ill-fated marketing push I've ever seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fbfrV5qqnU
Strange that Marvel given their license to Arc System Works