Growing up during the age of the Super Nintendo brought me into the fighting game genre. The popularity of games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat attracted a lot of attention, especially when those games were brought to home consoles. People may remember the controversy surrounding Mortal Kombat for fatalities and the lack of blood on the SNES version, but for me being a kid who didn't know any better, I just sat there and played the CPU on ever-increasing difficulties to improve my skills. Over time I drifted apart from fighting games and the scene. I played Super Smash Bros., but that really wasn't the same. What brought me back was Street Fighter IV and the hype surrounding it. A few years later and here we are, at the end of another generation where it seems history is repeating itself.
Throughout the PS1/PS2 era, fighting games became a lot harder, becoming more technique-based and frame precise. They required a lot more skill and thus, the genre fell out of favor until the return of Street Fighter IV. When it revived the genre, fight sticks, tournaments and online video streams became popular ways to engage ones' self in the culture that is the fighting game. But what made these games popular again? A lot of hype and dumbing down the difficulty that made them inaccessible in the first place, which is the point of this article. Today I'll be looking at the accessibility of certain fighting games based on five criteria:
- How good the training/trials mode is
- How punishing is the AI on the lowest difficulty
- How clear the directions in the game are
- How easy is it to make inputs for combo strings?
- How easy is it for new players to get better?
For clarity's sake, I will be using the most recent release of a mainline series, so that means I will not be looking at Street Fighter X Tekken. Let's get started, shall we?
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition 2013
#1 - Training Mode: 2.5/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 4/5
#3 - Directions: 1.5/5
#4 - Combos Strings: 3/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 4/5
The AI in Street Fighter IV series has by and large been consistent. It offers varying degrees of challenge that do improve your play, but the game can get a bit overbearing on some of the harder difficulty levels, as well as being a bit too forgiving on easier ones. Combo strings are somewhat forgiving except for the more trickier combos, but the game does a good job at balancing efforts so you don't necessarily need to use them. A major problem this game has is its' training mode and the directions it gives the player. There's very little of it. While it may tell you a button prompt string, it never tells you to get in stances needed to perform certain moves, nor does it make it easy to find out. While Street Fighter IV does a lot right, and is the preferable pick-up fighting game for anyone, it does a lot wrong to try and get new players good.
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
#1 - Training Mode: 4/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 3/5
#3 - Directions: 3/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 2/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 3.5/5
Virtua Fighter 5 excels at its' training mode, which not only asks you to perform certain moves, but allows you to see them in action and understand where certain inputs are needed. While it may be hard to execute these moves, it is a major step above every other fighter out there in terms of trying to get the player to understand frame data. A problem the game has comes from its' AI, which is somewhat punishing, and makes it harder for new players to feel like they're getting any better. Street Fighter IV has the same problem, where AI on the same difficulty can range from a joke to murderous. It's discouraging that there isn't a solid balance between characters and makes it harder for players to know if they're getting better at it or not.
Dead or Alive 5
#1 - Training Mode: 4/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 2/5
#3 - Directions: 3/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 4.5/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 3.5/5
A lot of DOA5's increase in skill comes from the AI, or the luck of the draw. The AI here has 2 distinct movesets: Almost nothing at all or Magic. By magic I mean the AI reads your button inputs from time to time and counters every single move you have. The game does this on every single difficulty, and only gets worse the tougher you make the AI. Other than that, the game is extremely accessible with it being a 4 button game, or 2 if you just want to attack. The game's training mode is very basic, but it is very encouraging since you only need to perform moves to do them, not hit your opponent. Although the game could be a bit more clear on directions as it is confusing at times to know what inputs are which for combos, but once you get combos, they're easy to pull off. More importantly, the more you play, you do seem to get better, even though the AI does get in your way randomly at times, which makes it rather frustrating. If you're looking to get into 3D fighting games, this is probably your best bet.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
#1 - Training Mode: 1.5/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 1.5/5
#3 - Directions: 1/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 1.5/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 1.5/5
TTT2 is not for the weak at heart. While it tries to ease people into it through it's Combot Training mode, it's poorly implemented. Directions are given out while you're active, meaning it's very easy to miss directions that you can't read over again, until you lose at least. You read correctly, you can lose in the tutorial of this, which is roughly 3 hours in length assuming you don't lose. The AI is also another one of those 'MAGIC' systems where the AI will read your inputs from time to time, but it's worse here since the game will prevent you from recovering more. The fact that TTT2's combat is extremely stiff, meaning it's hard to pull off combos and enjoy it, it's a hard sell to anyone who's looking to get into a 3D fighting game. It's for experts only, and it doesn't really seem to understand that it does a poor job of getting people into it.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
#1 - Training Mode: 2.5/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 3.5/5
#3 - Directions: 3.5/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 4.5/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 3/5
UMVC3 has the same problem SSF4 has, in that the game gives you very little direction on how to get better or perform some of the most basic moves. While you can succeed without them, you'll quickly come to realize that these mechanics are things you learned by random chance instead of careful understanding of the mechanics. The AI is mostly fair, and is heavily dependent on your skill, but since the game is very lenient with combo strings, it's a nice time to be had by all, especially given its' flashy nature. I can't recommend this higher than SSF4, but if you understand that game well enough, this is a fair enough compliment to it to help you understand both better.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
#1 - Training Mode: 1/5
#2 - AI Challenge: 5/5
#3 - Directions: 2.5/5
#4 - Combo Strings: 4/5
#5 - Increase of Skill: 5/5
I know people will instantly discredit me by bringing this up, but hear me out. The key that makes Brawl stand out here, even if you don't like it or don't consider Smash Bros. to be a fighting game series, is that the game clearly defines AI difficulty, and because of it you can feel yourself getting better at the game, allowing you to increase the challenge at your leisure through basic play. It also never feels like the AI is performing moves you yourself can't, which is something a lot of other fighters do. While there is a sandbox type training mode, it's mostly throwaway. The same goes for directions, while simple, the game simply doesn't make it easy for you to find out where these directions are in-game. At least with other fighting games, you at least understand how to perform a punch, a kick, a fireball, etc. Brawl, and the series as a whole doesn't do that, so it is something they could improve upon. If you're looking to get into fighting games, this is a good starting point, but perhaps not the starting point one would technically look for since it's not as skill dependent as most.
While there are a lot of fighting game fans out there, there are a lot of ways for that group of people to increase. Fighting games have done a lot to try and cater to new players, but there is still a ways to go before it can be something a lot bigger than it currently is right now. Hopefully series like Tekken take note and follow before there is no one else to play it. As it stands, fighting games are popular, and will only get popular if they become more accessible to those interested in playing, but may not know how to play.
If you would like me to look at another fighting game that I may have missed, please post a comment below and I'll see if I can check it out.
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