gaming Am I the only one that thinks fighting games are the absolute WORST genre?

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,314]

*Disclaimer: Two fighting games are exempt from this to me; Virtua Fighter 5 and Super Smash Bros.

 

Okay, rant incoming. I am sick of fighting games. Out of all the ones I have played in my life, almost none have stuck with me after all these years except for one, that being Virtua fighter 5, which in my opinion is one of the only good fighting games out there. Everything else? I am not seeing the appeal. Am I the only one who pretty much hates the fighting genre at this point?

 

To me, fighting games are:

 

1. Full of cheap tactics and cheap A.I: Simply put, I feel like the A.I. in many fighting games, unless you are playing on the easiest setting, it basically is design to outright murder you. A wonderful example of this is Tekken Tag Tournament 2, which is one of the most unfair and unfriendly games I have ever played. The A.I. in this game, even on easy mode, will pummel you into the ground and this is something that, to me, really destroys any sense of 'pick up and play' that this genre SHOULD have, given its arcade origins. Many games suffer from this issue and it has gotten old for me.

 

2. Many are extremely casual-hostile: This is a huge reason for me. Because of the aforementioned A.I. and often bad balancing issues, fighting games are becoming more and more very hostile towards a casual audience, which for fighting games, I consider myself in that group. Many games now rely on you losing to prove a point rather than give you a relaxed environment to fight in. There are games like Dark Souls, which is a hardcore game in the action RPG genre, you know going in what to expect with that game, but there are other games in the same genre that appeal to a more wider audience. From what I have experienced, fighting games mostly fail to accomplish this same thing, no matter the game. It seems the entire genre is tainted with this issue. There are games in many genres that can appeal to both a casual and hardcore audience, but the fighting genre ignores casuals and expects many to be or become experts to enjoy them. Sorry, I don't have thousands of hours to dedicate to a fighting game to actually enjoy it. 

 

3. Elitism: Okay, this one is not necessarily a fault of the genre itself, but it is still a problem. Fighting games, above any other genre, is absolute poisoned with tons of elitism from fans. Not every fan is like this, obviously not, but from my experience, many hardcore fans are ready at a moments notice to tear you apart. If you even DARE to have any criticism for a fighting game that has some hardcore fans, they are there to tell you how much you suck and how terrible you are at fighting games and how the game is perfect and has no faults of any kind. Oh, is the A.I. not balanced at all? Well, obviously that is YOUR fault and you need to just invest hundreds of hours and get better. Oh what fun that is. For a game like Elite Dangerous, I have no problem putting the time in to learn it, as it is a rather rare breed of game, whereas the fighting genre has countless amounts of games to choose from, many of which are eerily similar to each other, par for the course of the genre. Not only that, but a game like Elite Dangerous doesn't have the game constantly oppose you to remind you that you are just not dedicated enough to enjoy it. 

 

4. Too much of a focus to Online nowadays: Honestly, I am not really enjoying most fighting games offline at all either, but what I hate more than that are fighting games online. This, to me, has NEVER been fun, as it doesn't seem to provide anything. It is too competitive, too stressful and there is no real payoff of any kind. Plus, there really is no social interaction like a local play would have, which for me, is a HUGE downside to playing a game like this online. 

 

5. Many are often clunky: Most fighting games that I have played have suffered from one huge problem, the fighting engine itself. Often, many of these games have very stiff controls that never feel like they flow together, but rather they rely on jerky 'frames' as a way of determining accuracy with pulling off moves and combos. Whether it be 2D or 3D fighters, most of them have always felt very stilted to me and that brings down the possible enjoyment further as it is difficult to truly feel like you are controlling a fighter. 

 

So there is some of my thought on this subject. I can barely bring myself to play any fighting games anymore. Except for Virtua Fighter 5, which itself suffers from some of these issues too like cheap A.I. and whatnot. Am I alone on this issue? I honestly think that this is the most overrated genre in gaming history, as it is the one that I have seen the least amount of innovation in, simply because the framework for a fighting game doesn't allow for that much.

 

If you can enjoy the majority of these kinds of games, I say more power to you, but I cannot seem to feel the same way no matter how hard I try. 

[Sunny Fox 5,933]

Well, cheap AI can be found in many different game genres, I don't see why fighting games should be singled out for it.

 

Most competitive games are casual hostile. For example, chess or go are easy to learn but difficult to master, and if you want to win against strong opponents, you're going to have to put in the hours to get to that level. Arkham Asylum is a good video game example. It drove me nuts how difficult it seemed to be, but once I got the hang of the fighting system, I found I just wasn't doing it right, and it became quite fun, and I got a genuine sense of achievement when I did master (to an extent ) it. Granted, you're not actually fighting another human opponent in this game, so the analogy isn't perfect, but I think you get what I'm saying.

 

Elitism, as you admit, is a problem in many game genres. If you want to state that fighting games are somehow particularly prone to this, I'd have to ask you what evidence you have to support that statement. And many games in any genre have those hardcore fans that'll send you death threats for daring to criticize it. Heck, virtually every kind of media has examples of that sort of toxic fan.

 

I'll concede you the points for 4 and 5. I don't play much online multiplayer in anything, and while I don't get the same feeling of fighter game clunkiness as you, if you do experience that, it would indeed probably negatively impact your enjoyment. 

 

I don't really play fighting games online, since I agree that it takes more effort to get to a competitive level than I'm willing to put in, but that's not really a fault of the genre itself, more a question of personal taste.

[Untitled Goose Q 5,136]

With any opinion, chances are there's someone else that holds it, so.... no, you are not the only one.

 

I'm not a fan myself, barring SSB.

[cider float 2,536]

I'm guessing you're comparing fighting games to adventure games. In adventure games the difficulty slowly ramps up and you have the room to explore and get a feel of the controls but a fighting game puts you right into hard mode right away.

 

The reason behind this is what kind of content would fighting games have aside from versus modes? It's just you against one AI controlled fighter unlike fighting swaths of enemies in adventure games or jumping through different terrain using proper control so in order to get your money's worth they give you an AI controlled fighter that is going to kick your butt if you're not paying attention. If you can pass him like some random trash mob, then the game would lose it's worth.

 

The clunky feel is more or less a feeling you have to get used to. Every fighting game has their own "feel" to it sort of speak and part of challenge is getting used to the controls. When you finally get it and then learn to know where and when to use it then you will feel accomplished. It's like as if you were really learning a martial art move and learning to use it requires some tricky movements.

 

Aside from the versus modes, the game can get boring if played alone though.

Edited May 7, 2016 by cider float

[碇 シンジン 27,427]

fighting games are pretty good 

 

I think the genre is suited more when you have some casual multiplayer locally because online games arent pretty beginner friendly

[Discordian 6,013]

I love my fighting games but I don't like when they try to get too technical, especially if they lack character designs I care about. Because of that I don't much care for games like Virtua Fighter or Street Fighter. Neither has particularly interesting characters to me and far too stiff and requiring you to be technical to even be kinda okay at it.

 

I prefer fighting games like BlazBlue and NitroPlus Blasterz. Easy to pick up and play and lots of memorable characters. Not to mention very easy to move around in.

[joanro 247]

If you don't like fighting games, why play them?  I don't think it sounds very fun playing against the A.I., but that's just me. Fighting games are competitive by nature. You don't necessarily have be a pro to enjoy playing against other people. If you are not having fun though, why even bother playing? The thrill of the fight is what makes it exciting for me.

[Simon 4,554]

I've never been a big fighting game person myself, probably largely because I suck at them, but that's besides the point. For me, fighting games fall into the realm of games that are very hard to get into... so much of it is about experience, knowledge of the controls, etc that unless you're playing a specific fighting game constantly, it's very hard to be decent at and that kills much of the fun for me. I get the appeal of them for sure, I just am not a big enough gamer to ever really get into something as technical as this.

[Lil Pip 775]

I think street fighter has less moveset diversity than tekken, so tekken I do prefer plus its 3-d and I grew up older bro would play some tekken 3 and such with the cousins. I can beat the ai on hard with some characters in TTT2 though June still usually griefs me. Also I can win like an infinite amount of AI as Lee in tekken 6 spamming his down/forward oooo, then dashing towards the opponent and pressing down briefly to stop my carried momentum then repeat just as the ai gets off the ground. In ghost mode I won like 30 in a row against each of the hardest ai opponents I could choose.

 

But TTT2 I feel some moves I cannot pull off consistently needing to do fast half into one quarter circles or such. Also can't really do the tag combos yet. But the game is infuriating when you don't play against people of similar skill and even then attack spamming can get you somewhere if you can't combo or read. Or if you play defensive it could work for some people too who aren't experienced.

 

Also any multiplayer game takes a lot of dedication to be top tier really. Unless its pay to win.

Edited May 8, 2016 by Lil Pip

[Moony the Cat 3,697]

I hate fighting Games.

 

The ones i played didnt even have a Story, just two Characters that beat each other up.

Even Super Smash Bros was disappointing to me, since even that had no real Story or Goal.

It was fun but...only for 3 weeks.

 

Fighting Games are boring for me.

But i hate Racing Games more.

At least Fighting Games dont make me Rage and make me want to destroy the game Disc. I hate racing Games so much !!!

[Detritus 258]

I've never really cared for them either... not even Super Smash Bros.

[LHfunk 422]

I was gonna come here to complain that this includes Smash Bros, but it doesn't so good. I don't play any other fighting games, so I wouldn't know. The only other fighting game I'd like to play is Pokken Tournament.

[EpicEnergy 22,105]

I despise fighting games primarily because I suck at them. They are too hard and not worth my time to begin with.

[Evil Pink One 13,016]

I suck at ehm too.....

[TBD 17,228]

Fighting games is my favorite genre, so I'm quite the opposite here. It's one genre that I'd play just to relax without taking out too much time thinking and more in just passing buttons until you win a fight.

[Dita Bear 270]

I love fighting games, they’ve always been my favorite, but I agree with you on pretty much everything listed. 
I really don’t like how modern game developers seem to be focused on what would appeal to the EVO/e-sports/professional tournament crowd (both in terms of gameplay and in terms of people watching) as opposed to the general fan base/average player crowd either.

[Sonic Shimmer 4,116]

Fighting games are really a love it or hate it genre. They require a lot more practice, memorisation and experimenting to get really good than any other genre, even RPGs. For people who just want to plug in and immediately have fun, they’re not going to appeal.

[honk friend 1,972]

I can't help but feel like fighting games are designed less for having fun and more for competition. Not to say those two things are mutually exclusive, but I personally think fighting games are boring as hell.

Side note, but if you take super smash bros seriously you are sucking all the fun out of that game.

[HereComesTom 2,232]

Well...I sure love Super Smash Bros; it's accessible and feels like it's almost more a platformer than a fighting game in terms of its mechanics.  And I've played it for long enough to understand why I lose when I lose.

But...well, I'm not sure I've ever shown a picture of my basement before; I'm collecting arcade1up cabinets based on what games I like and filling my basement with them.  And the only fighting game cabinet I even have is the Midway Legacy one which has Mortal Kombat 1-3 on it---and I really only bought it for Joust and Defender.  The few times I tried the Mortal Kombat games, I found I sucked at them and was lucky if I could get to the second fight---even playing on Novice difficulty on MK3.  Generally whatever I did in the first fight didn't work on the second fight, and I lost, and I didn't really know why I lost or what I did wrong.  Probably I could get better if I kept at it, but I didn't really find it fun, so I haven't even attempted to get better at the MK games.

This is a big part of the reason I'm not looking into getting the Street Fighter arcade1up cabinets or the Marvel fighting games, even if they are classics from my childhood and I'd really like having a cabinet with blue trim in my basement for the decor.  I'm just not into most fighting games, either.

[RaphLuna 305]

Fighting Games Total YAWN. 

[Pentium100 2,057]

While I am not a big fan of fighting games, sometimes they can be enjoyable. "Hidden Object" games, on the other hand - it's if they took the worst aspect of adventure games (pixel hunting) and made it the main part of the game.

[Splashee 28,537]

I cannot think of the top of my head what is the worst video game genre, but I don't see Fighting Games as the worst. It is a culture in itself nowadays and a huge sport, brings people together. It reminds me a little bit about.... us Bronies and MLP? It is just a group of people that like something, and excel in what they do.

As for the games themselves. I love everything about Street Fighter II, Alpha, III, and Mortal Kombat. Classic game engines with ideas that they had to keep using when introducing 3D decades later, just to satisfy that perfect game play rush. I love their special game systems, their art, music, and there is a lot of work going into them.

How about the people who play them? The ones who are so good they earn money out of it, I just applause! That's dedication.

I watch a YouTube channel every now and then called Core-A Gaming and it is entertaining what they talk about tournaments and fighting sticks, and history, and all that!

 

I might dedicate 5% of my year to fighting games, or even less. I still find them fascinating.

[Sunset Rose 251]

Fighting games are definitely not something I'm into playing, but I like the characters in a lot of them and the story in some of the newer ones. I definitely don't think they're the worst genre of video game since they can be so entertaining. Personally I put MOBAs and gacha games at the bottom in terms of what I like the least.

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,377]

They don't have that much story to them  

[Splashee 28,537]

Since I am into Dragonball, and like fighting tournaments as story plot, I do not think fighting games are the worst.