Fighting Games: The Most Badly Named Genre
Like a deer in the headlights of a fist. Article written by Gamoc in Blog, on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 9:00.On Thursday I rented Virtua Fighter 5 for the 360, due to a combination of feeling cheated that the PS3 version didn’t have online multiplayer and wanting to beat the crap out of something without getting arrested. I’m going to be up front about this; I am not particularly good at fighting games. I’m not exactly terrible, though, I’m more in the group of people who beat other people of the same group but, when faced by either anyone who plays them a lot or a small child’s wild button mashing skills, will lose horribly.
Virtua Fighter 5 was a launch title for the European release of the PS3, which is pretty much the only reason why it doesn’t have online multiplayer, as it was left out in order to get the game ready in time (though why it wasn’t patched in is beyond me). I was not aware of this when I bought the PS3 version some time last year, so when I got home I was immediately whispering violent nothings into the game’s case. Online multiplayer was included in the 360 version of the game, though, as it release 6 months later, so they added it in without patching it into the PS3 version. In classic Gamoc fashion, when I finally got around to playing VF5 360 today, I ignored all memories of playing the PS3 version so long ago and immediately went for the ninja. Because ninjas are cool.
I then proceeded to have my arse handed to me over and over again. They hit me with some many body parts I’m pretty certain that only a cockslap was needed to get the full set. It’s astonishing that, in every fighting game known to man, there always seems to be an extremely noticeable ramp up in difficulty halfway through arcade mode. The first few fights are like punching candy from a baby, the fight following the last of those is much more difficult, as evidenced by the rain of punches being directed towards my face whilst I stand there like a deer in the headlights of a fist. It’s even more astonishing that the computer can turn the characters that I simply couldn’t use, such as Akira, who was way too slow for me, and turn them into super-speedy punching machines who barely leave me time to breath.
After an eternity in the form of 20 minutes of being beaten into a ninja-shaped stain on a variety of different floors, I quit and went back to the character select, wondering why I would want to play online when I have such trouble getting through Arcade mode on normal. Now I’d had sense beaten into me, I remembered my two favourite characters, Lei-Fei and Lau Chan, so I picked Lau Chan and played through Arcade mode. Just like that. Sure, there was some contention between using the analogue or the completely terrible d-pad, but once I settled on the d-pad (I simply can’t use an analogue for a fighting game) and I’d died a couple of times I had bested my ninja-oriented earlier attempt and actually finished Arcade mode.
Lei-Fei is my favourite character in Virtua Fighter 5. Every single move he makes is dripping with badassery. Even the way he falls over after being hit says ‘I’ve been hit, but I don’t care, because I’m badass‘. Other than this, though, his moves flow together like water with…well, with more water, and land like an avalanche, if said avalanche was on the end of an arm and powered by pure badassery.
Akira, however, is the king of douchebaggery (yes, I enjoy using made up words). He’s slow when I use him, but apparently dipped in oil when the computer uses him – and then set on fire. My first match as my favourite character against Akira went as follows: I punched him. He punched me, but then followed it with roughly 3 Hitlers worth of evil. I didn’t see a single useful response from any button I pressed simply due to the fact that Lei-Fei was either being juggled like a prostitute’s breasts or being kicked in the head as I was standing up. Needless to say, I lost the round. In the following round, everytime I tried to stand back up, I recieved the same three hits and what seems to be a shoulder barge. On the other hand, I did manage to land two whole punches. That’s progress.
And here I am, bitching about Akira on TSA because I’m pretty certain he can’t possibly beat me at typing, mostly due to him being a character in a game. I will take this as a moral victory for myself and hope he doesn’t come to life and get up to all sorts of zany antics, like some kind of 80s film.
Oh, and ‘fighting games’ is a horrible genre title. It’s so unimaginative. ‘What do we do in these games? Fight? Oh, fighting game it is!’ Everytime I say ‘fighting games’ I feel like an 80 year old woman who doesn’t know what technology means. Not that I know what that feels like. Uhoh, I think I’ve given myself away. Then again, what else could we call it? The only two ideas I have are ‘punchy games’ or ‘frustratingly difficult games in which you hit someone until you die somehow’, and the former is less imaginative than ‘fighting games’ is, whilst the latter is a little bit wordy.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and cry into a pillow. Then I’ll turn my PS3 on and play Tekken 5, as Tekken is the only ‘frustratingly difficult game in why you hit someone until you die somehow’ that I’m any good at. My favourite character is either Hwoarang or Sergei Dragunov. The last guy shares a name with a sniper rifle, it’s practically mandatory to like him.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
mayflame | 08/11/2009 09:08
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You just brought up the biggest question in fighting game history.
Tekken or Virtua Fighter?
xdarkmagician | 08/11/2009 09:46
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I always thought the question was Tekken or Street Fighter or simply 2-D vrs 3-D.
poorwretch | 09/11/2009 09:28
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No the question is right
Tekken or Virtua Fighter?
The answer: Street Fighter
JamboGT | 08/11/2009 09:59
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I always prefered Tekken of those two, though my favourite is Soul Calibur 2!
gybrocker | 08/11/2009 10:22
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for me tekken 3 was the best..
cc_star | 08/11/2009 11:15
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Tekken 3 was the pinnacle of the genre in more recent year, but surely everybody know The Way Of The Exploding Fist is the best overall, and specially when sharing a keyboard for 2 player action
minerwilly | 08/11/2009 11:25
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Yea I used to love that , brillant game . Renegade was a cracker too and the original Street Fighter on 48k was great . I remember something called Yie Ar Kung Fu (cant for the life of me remember what it was like though but think it was by Konami about 1985) . Oh yea IK+ (International Karate) long time ago now .
cc_star | 08/11/2009 12:09
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I think Yie Ar Kung Fu was a beat ‘em up
pawski | 08/11/2009 14:40
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wotef was great, but not with a quickshot2, diagonal moves were a nightmare
cc_star | 08/11/2009 14:53
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In a 1 player game it was best to use the 8 keys surrounding the S key, and I think player 2 had to use the 8 keys surrounding the J key… Good times.
TctclMvPhase | 08/11/2009 23:36
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:cough” DOA?:cough:
More seriously though, I like Virtua Fighter because of the logical connection between button presses and on-screen action (one button per limb) but have always had issues with the timing. I think Tekken has a more jovial tone to it and more interesting characters, so I like it on a more superficial level. Then again my all-time favorite is still Bushido Blade…
mayflame | 08/11/2009 09:11
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Oh, and you want hard? Try Dead Or Alive my friend.
JamboGT | 08/11/2009 09:47
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I call them Beat em ups, or bups for short, same with shoot em ups or shmups
Gamoc | 08/11/2009 10:34
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Yeah, so did I, but according to wikipedia beat ‘em ups are games in which you fight multiple enemies – so things like streets of rage. And Tekken Force mode, I suppose.
aerobes | 08/11/2009 15:09
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On the Sony Playstation website it lists the genre as ‘Fighting / Beat ‘em up’.
So I suppose its called whatever you like …
3shirts | 08/11/2009 15:23
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@aerobes I think thats just because they don’t want to have too many different categories.
aerobes | 08/11/2009 15:32
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Yeah, I imagine thats true, I do miss (what i would consider) Beat ‘em ups though, Double Dragon, Target Renegade and that sort of thing.
Having said that though, A game of that type would probably be so hard to make these days at full price, I certainly wouldn’t say no to a HD update of Target Renegade on PSN!
3shirts | 08/11/2009 18:50
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The recent Tutles In Time HD release is a good one for old school, multiplayer, side scrolling beat em up.
hannes_truce | 08/11/2009 10:03
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Nice read. I think I fall in the same category as you, I’ve often been defeated by a small childs button mashing…
FRUIT0FDOOM | 08/11/2009 10:47
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What is wrong with you guys? IK Plus (International Karate Plus) is the all time best fighting game! Seriously, I find the oldies the best. When Mortal Kombat hit the arcades I must have spent at least £10 playing it in a day (back then that was a fair bit). Coming into 3D I would struggle to pick between Tekken and Soul Calibur, perhaps favouring the former as a bit purer in combat. On that note – anyone with a 360 download Soul Calibur from Arcade and hit me up for a match, happy days.
minerwilly | 08/11/2009 11:27
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Ar har I didnt see your comment about IK+ i just mentioned that above ! great game .
Quinlank | 08/11/2009 14:37
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Uh… isn’t the XBLA version of Soul Calibur a heavily stripped down version of the Dreamcast game? I haven’t tried it, but I can recall reading they removed the lengthy story mode from the game and didn’t add any online multiplayer at all, just leaderboards. Very unusual for an XBLA port of an older game I remember thinking.
I still have my copy of the Dreamcast original though, so I’m good
ShovellyJoe | 08/11/2009 11:08
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Awesome article.
“3 Hitlers worth of evil” xD
I’m probably as good as you Gamoc, I can never beat anybody online but can absolutely hand the ass to anyone of similar skill.
BigCheese | 08/11/2009 11:16
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I’m quite a big Tekken fan myself, and I’m looking forward to buying Tekken 6 (eventually). But, to be honest, my favourite ‘frustratingly difficult game in which you hit someone until you die somehow’ is Dragonball Z: Budokai 3
I don’t, however, like the Tenkaichi series.
Oh yeah, good read as well, very funny
cc_star | 08/11/2009 11:21
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Is the 1v1 fighter genre not dead? The key problem I always had with it is that a button masher (my mrs) can always beat me, even though I’d be good enough to finish the game on normal difficulty.
I’d really like to see a return for the beat ‘em up genre I’d love to play a current gen version of Double Dragon, Final Fight or Street Fighter, Final Fight was actually an arcade game which I completed I remember it cost me £1.10 in continues.
ShovellyJoe | 08/11/2009 11:34
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Button mashing is impossible to defend against for me on games like Tekken, but when I play Street Fighter I’m not bad at seeing off mashers.
3shirts | 08/11/2009 11:57
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The problem is that you can get to a certain level by mashing but will never get any better. On the other hand actually learning moves and timing can get you to a higher level but when you first start using skill you are worse than mashers so it can be very frustrating.
It’s like mashing will get you from level 0 to about 4 while ‘proper’ fighting can get you to 10 BUT when you first switch from mashing (where you are a 4) to proper fighting, you go down to a 1 or 2 and suddenly get beaten by mashers. It takes a while to get good up to 5 where you can see of button mashers by skill alone.
BryOnRye | 08/11/2009 11:59
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Kudos for the use of the word douchebaggery – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tqEBQjWRws
Gamoc | 08/11/2009 12:12
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Well actually I got them from The Week in Douchebaggery at Cracked.com
http://www.cracked.com/video_16100_the-week-in-douchebaggery-robin-williams-kfc-god.html
3shirts | 08/11/2009 12:00
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No genre had a ‘good’ name though really. The acronym ones are ok (FPS, RTS) but the rest are just functional names; platformer, racer, fighting game etc.
Gamoc | 08/11/2009 12:10
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Yeah, but most genres don’t have to say ‘game’ in them, except RPGs, but that’s got an acronym.
3shirts | 08/11/2009 12:30
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You can substitute the r for the word game:
Racing game > Racer
Fighting game > Fighter
Just depends on the context really. I would call Gran Turismo a racing game if I was talking to someone who doesn’t know about games or if the conversation wasn’t specifically about games but if we were having a conversation about games, I’d call it a racer. Same is true of fighting games (though I usually say beat ‘em up even if its not technically correct as discussed above)
mynameisblair | 08/11/2009 12:10
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I agree – the 360s D-PAD is TERRIBLE!
I was playing Tekken 6 on my friends 360 and although I owned them all, I would have played much better if I could use the PS3 controller.
So now I really can’t wait for the latest fighting game – ‘Tekken 6′…. on the PS3, ofcourse.
Gamoc | 08/11/2009 12:12
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You know it’s already out, right?
mynameisblair | 08/11/2009 12:41
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You know I have no money, right?
FRUIT0FDOOM | 08/11/2009 15:52
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You know the new 360 pads are much better right?
Gamoc | 08/11/2009 18:40
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The 360 pad is roughly 200x shitter than the PS3 pad.
mayflame | 08/11/2009 19:41
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I agree too. I had more trouble playing Soulcalibur 4 on the 360 than I had on the PS3. The Sixaxis/DS3 D-pad works great on fighting games.
tantalus_blank | 08/11/2009 12:32
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I know what you mean about the sudden ramping of the difficulty. I’ve been playing Tekken a lot since the 3rd installment and I was doing fine through Tekken 6’s arcade, until a freaking giant robot turned up which I couldn’t even dent. I’m fine with enemies the same size as me as you can predict them and things but the robot and the Anubis-type creature are just silly
mayflame | 08/11/2009 19:44
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Tekken just gets wierder and wierder with every new installment.
Quinlank | 08/11/2009 14:51
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The way Sega handled Virtua Fighter 5 on PS3 was pretty shocking. I remember reading at the time how they simply rush ported the arcade version of the game to the point where they didn’t even create any new AI for the game, just reusing what they had from the PS2 VF4 Evolution in it. It’s easier to understand major developers not putting any real effort into the PS3 so much back then in hindsight though I suppose.
The fighting genre has grown really stale of late in my opinion, with Tekken 6 being a great example of a series that has not evolved a jot in gameplay terms since it began. It looks great, yeah(Though not as much as Soul Calibur 4 it must be said, with the Scenario mode visuals being particularly laughable), but it plays like the PS1 games to me, and Azazel, the final boss, is the single cheapest boss in beat em up history, yes, even more than Seth in Street Fighter 4!
Perhaps I just don’t like these sorts of games anymore, but if the genre hasn’t got anything new to bring to the table, then I can’t really see a reason to bother with new releases when the pinnacle of the genre seems to already exist with Street Fighter 2, which I can just fire up any time I get the urge to play my friends.
BadBoyBoogie | 08/11/2009 14:51
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I hate random button mashing too…beats me every time!!!
teflon | 08/11/2009 16:20
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How about “Arena Based Fighter” or ABF?
Then you’ve got a much better distinction between ABFs and Beat ‘em Ups where you go from one left to right beating everything up in your path. Though maybe Beat ‘em Ups should be called Side Scrolling Fighters…
Its like a “shooter” is something like Metal Slug, but a TPS and FPS are just shooters from different perspectives. So surely Metal Slug is a Side Scrolling Shooter?