gaming Best fighting games for newbies.

[CastletonSnob 3,053]

I kind of want to get into fighting games. What would be some good games for a newbie like me?

Should I expect to lose a lot when I first play?

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,189]

I've always felt that Virtua Fighter 5 was a perfect entry point for fighting games and I still believe that. It doesn't have a massive roster of characters, but the characters it does have are all very fine tuned, using mainly real world fighting styles. The best part of it all, at least the original release, was the Quest mode, which is a mode where you can go to different 'arcades' to be in an endless rotation of fights for money and fighter gear. Each arcade has its own skill level, so it is great if you want to keep the fighting going and going at your pace. Sadly the 'improved' version, Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown, does not have the quest mode. It is still a great game even in that version, but the original release gets more points because of the quest mode. I spent hours on that mode.

As for the 'losing' bit, maybe, at first. It all depends on what you go to in the game and if you go to the training mode first. VF5 has a pretty extensive training mode and move input tutorials. I would definitely check out some of those before doing anything else to get a feel for how the game plays and to see which characters you like more than others.

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

I recall hearing that Skullgirls is a very good fighting game for beginners as it has extensive tutorials - I can't speak from personal experience, as I'm not a fan of fighting games, but Totalbiscuit could not praise it enough. It is quite old, but that means that it's also really quite cheap.

[gamecubeguy214 2,511]

Possibly Super Smash Bros for Wii U. Unlike traditional fighters, you are much more mobile and you aren't stuck in a box. You can actually move around and feel free. It has a very balanced roster and only the VERY bottom of the barrel characters can't make it far at all, such as Ganondorf and Jigglypuff. You can choose mostly any character you like without worry that you won't do good. It has some very good beginner friendly characters that rely on the fundamentals needed to compete, so those characters are great teachers of the game. The best beginner character I think is Mario. He has a really balanced kit, meaning that he can adapt to many situations and can do well with many playstyles.

[joanro 247]

I don’t know if you are planning to play competitively or not, so some of this may not apply to you. 

In terms of accessibility, I would recommend the NRS games like Mortal Kombat X or Injustice 2 especially if you enjoy Western fighting games more than Japanese ones.

If you like Japanese fighting games than I would recommend Street Fighter V especially if you plan to play online as you are more likely to find someone at your skill level than some of the other fighting games out there. 

3D fighting games are the most complex fighting games you can get into, so I wouldn’t recommend those for newbies. 

Games like Skullgirls have great tutorials for people who are new to fighting games, but if you plan to play online be prepared for one touch deaths from more seasoned players.

And yes, if you plan to play competitively be prepared to lose...a lot. It also helps to find a buddy who is also on the same skill level as you, especially if you are trying to get into game that has been out for awhile. Trust me, It’s not fun going against someone who is way beyond your skill level.

Edited January 23, 2018 by joanro

[Megas 27,470]

Just go for the one that started it all, Street Fighter 2

[KirbyFluttershy 2,523]

4 hours ago, VG_Addict said:

I kind of want to get into fighting games. What would be some good games for a newbie like me?

Should I expect to lose a lot when I first play?

It takes a lot of practice and training, but as a player who plays fighting games, I do recommend these games and my advice is this

Super Smash Bros. - If you're gonna play by yourself, you can set your opponent's level to 1 and then build up difficulty when you get the hang of it. If you're playing Super Smash bros. for 3DS and wii-u, you can use customizations to make things easier if you're playing against level 9 opponents. There's a demo for 3DS so I would recommend trying the demo out first although your character choices and gameplay will be limited during the demo play. There's also a DLC characters and stages so you wanna get them to expand your gameplay.

Street Fighter - Well I would definitely start with the easy difficulty if you wanna get the hang of things, but the ending may vary by difficulty although this ending by difficulty may not apply to future street fighter games

Pokken - Well There's a demo play for the wii-u and the switch, but character choices and pokemon assists will be limited as well and you can only play for the amount of rounds. If you want more pokemon to play with, Get pokken DX for the switch. There's a tutorial and training in this game and you can play by yourself as well.

also when playing fighting games, it also depends on which character you want to play the most and you can always try the character once first before you say "I hate this character" and stuff like that.

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

Well, since some of the other comments here said a few i wanted to say, i will now say dead or alive 5 last round. Some say it's just a game for pervs, but there is a really good fighting system behind it. Alot of combos are easy to pull off, it's fast-paced and has a counter-system that is similar to the virtua fighter games.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,159]

From my limited fighting game experience I'd probably say Soulcalibur 2. It seems to have the right balance between hard and easy that makes for a generally fun experience. Plus; the overall world and lore has a nice polish to it that I think would leave a good impression on those new to the genre.

[Will Guide 21,357]

I recommend Smash Bros. since the controls are easy to learn. It's only tricky to master if you want to be hardcore tournament-level.

I personally don't do that as a casual gamer.

[Prospekt 11,008]

I don't play a lot of fighting games. But maybe start with one of the newer Super Smash Bros. games. They aren't too technical for beginners. Kind of like @KirbyFluttershy said above, it's easy to train yourself just by playing on your own and gradually working up to higher difficulty levels.

Then you can move on to games like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter.

[PiratePony 8,475]

Street Fighter 2. It's all downhill from there.

[Ganondorf8 11,241]

Super Smash Bros. is what I would recommend though I wouldn't suggest Melee as that can be too fast especially if you're new to how the series works. Instead, I would recommend either the first game in the series or perhaps Brawl as those are slower though the original hasn't shown the test of time all that well. As for the Wii U and 3DS versions of the latest one, go with the console version as fighting games can be difficult to play on a handheld.

[KirbyFluttershy 2,523]

Well for super smash bros for 3DS and wii-u, well that all depends on the characters you play as. Another thing or more, If you're playing classic, the difficulty function works the same as kid Icarus uprising's intensity. If you're gonna use customizations, I would recommend farming equipment and moves for certain characters or if it helps, then all characters would work. The only exception that has all the customization moves are palutena and mii fighters. You start off with certain characters and then you'll unlock the characters over time as you play more by yourself against the CPU via vs. matches and buy the DLC characters. If you don't want to play normal stages with obstructions and assistance, you can put them on omega mode which it will put the stage on final destination mode although with the exception of final destination, the stage can be played in any mode including battlefield stage. Of course there are challenges in super smash bros for 3DS and wii-u and works the same function as Super Smash bros brawl's challenges and Kirby air ride's checklist. There's also training mode in super smash bros as well. If you wanna play with items, you can go ahead and be our guest, but most of us play with no items and it makes the matches go by very quickly so if you want full enjoyment to your matches, I would suggest not using items by turning off the item appearance. Stages can be unlocked by doing challenges and buying DLC stages. Of course there's a DLC bundle for both stages and the characters so I would recommend getting the bundle to save yourself some time and money in buying the DLC characters and stages individually. For Vs. match, not only there's a time limit to your matches, but you can play on stock mode of 3 or more, but As I heard before people who played super smash bros series. for the 1st time should do a time match which is the most KOs. Stock mode is survival so it's self-explanatory, last man standing and of course in certain super smash bros. games, there's also coin matches which is grabbing the most coins or money than your opponent and you can use items to get more coins and of course there's team matches which you can play by yourself with CPU against another team of CPU and rules will apply the same to team match so when playing time, it has to be the team with the most KOs in total. Stock will be the last team standing and share stock will be applied, and of course coins will be the total coins from the team. For the Characters, they have their own strengths and weaknesses so like ganondorf, he's a power-type character, but his movement speed is slow. Charizard is good against bosses only such as the hands as I know about. Little Mac is very agile and powerful, but his recovery and jump height isn't that good. Shulk's strengths and weaknesses may vary regardless if you used monado arts or not. What I do know about customizations is that you can get them off on classic and all-star mode, but in 3DS, you can get most of them in smash run which it works the same function as Kirby air ride's city trial.

As of Street fighter goes, well only certain street fighter games have training mode and some have trials like in street fighter 4. If you're new to street fighter games, I would recommend getting street fighter: 30th anniversary collection for the switch however street fighter 4 and 5 will not be in this collection.

[gamecubeguy214 2,511]

13 hours ago, KirbyFluttershy said:

Super Smash Bros. - If you're gonna play by yourself, you can set your opponent's level to 1 and then build up difficulty when you get the hang of it. If you're playing Super Smash bros. for 3DS and wii-u, you can use customizations to make things easier if you're playing against level 9 opponents. There's a demo for 3DS so I would recommend trying the demo out first although your character choices and gameplay will be limited during the demo play. There's also a DLC characters and stages so you wanna get them to expand your gameplay.

This is awful. Playing against CPUs to get better is not the correct answer. I believe the farthest you should go is a level 7 CPU, because they play the best while also having human characteristics. Level 8 and 9 CPUs do not resemble human gameplay at all and make you play worse against a good player. They have instant reaction times, so they will attempt to power shield everything you do. But despite having these overpowered traits, they still are far worse than a human player and play much differently, in such a way that will make a player worse if they play against them for too long.

The best option is instead of frequently fighting too many level 9 CPUs, show up at a local tournament to try and compete vs other players in your area. There are often Facebook pages for different areas, as well as a Discord server that you can find with a website called Smashcords. If you can get used to going to these events frequently, then it will do you much better. It will get you familiar with the people in your area, and it can help you get used to the pressure and the atmosphere of the tournament. It's much different from online tournaments, because those take place in the comfort of your own home where you feel no pressure at all, and feeling under pressure is an important factor in improving. And when you lose to your opponent (It's your first tournament, you will) you can ask them what comments they may have on your play that you can improve on, and also maybe some areas you did good so that you know to keep it up. Another benefit of fighting human players is that while they are much better than CPUs, they still have natural human instinct that you can exploit, and this is also one of the key things that it takes to play a fighting game.

In a fighting game tournament, you won't be fighting any computers (Unless it's like that one time they took the Fox Amiibo into a tournament). If you plan to improve at fighting human players, you should actually fight human players. You're going to get bodied, but it's a chance to learn and improve. I think working your way up to level 7 CPUs would be good because they play the most like humans if I'm not mistaken. But after that, you should spend a little bit of time online playing against humans and ESPECIALLY showing up to local tournaments on a regular basis. Level 8 and 9 CPUs are not a good idea. Once you learn the basics of the game, you should start showing up to tournaments as soon as you can so that you can have both a good time and a good learning experience. Plus, you might even make a few friends, meaning that you could find a training partner for yourself so that they could help teach you the ways of becoming a good Smasher.

EDIT: My tired brain just completely ignored the "If you're gonna play with yourself" part of the sentence. This advice is still solid, but playing Smash just to play alone and not compete with others would allow you to be completely free of how to play. But I do highly recommend competitive, since it's so fun and rewarding.

Edited January 24, 2018 by gamecubeguy214

[KirbyFluttershy 2,523]

Well If you're new to fighting games (as the thread stated newbie), then the chances of winning tournaments is 0% chance. There are people that are good out there regardless from local or online. If you're playing online, then it depends on how good the connection is from either you and/or your opponent to avoid lag and disconnections. If learning the basics of the game, I would suggest start something easy first and then build up difficulty gradually. If you think that your CPU opponent is tough for you, just lower the difficulty. With the amiibo support in Super Smash bros. you can play against your amiibos and train it however the AI behavior changes and gets tougher as you train it and it can go up to level 50. Only super smash bros series amiibos can be used in super smash bros and of course if you're gonna get a super smash bros series amiibo, then you need the NFC reader (if your 3DS model isn't new 3DS XL model).

If you want to play fighting games against your friend without any trouble (or lag or connections), I would simply suggest inviting them over or go over to their house depending on if they have the game and the system. if super smash bros, then you need either the super smash bros game itself and/or the controller app for the 3DS if playing on the wii-u.

The other 2 fighting games I know are Kirby Fighters Deluxe and Kirby Battle Royale. Kirby Fighters Deluxe is the Deluxe version of Kirby fighters so all stages and controls are pretty much the same as the original version. Kirby Battle Royale, well there are game modes other than battling each other and of course there's a demo for this game as well so probably you can download it and try it out.

[gamecubeguy214 2,511]

8 hours ago, KirbyFluttershy said:

Well If you're new to fighting games (as the thread stated newbie), then the chances of winning tournaments is 0% chance. There are people that are good out there regardless from local or online.

Tournaments aren't just about winning. It's a wonderful learning experience. This makes it great to go to tournaments early in your Smash Bros career. Your suggestion of fighting computer players is good, but only to the extent of level 7. 8 and 9 aren't human enough to do you any good. Once you become familiar with the names of moves (Tilts, specials, grabs, aerials, smashes and such) and the inputs for doing them, you're no longer a Smash Bros button masher. This is when I feel that going to tournaments is good, because asking your opponent questions allows you so much to learn and improve on. No new player should ever expect to do well on their first tournament, so they should instead take the opportunity as a way to learn and grow to become great.

[Cash In 22,039]

The Super Smash Bros. games are pretty easy to get started with. They're simple to understand and can be both casual fun and competitive. You also get a huge roster of characters to experiment with, so it'll keep you busy for a while.