Why indeed!?
I personally have never "gotten into" most fighting games out there. I did fall in love with Killer Instinct back in the mid 90s when the only other real choices were Street Fighter, Tekken, or Mortal Kombat. I had played SF and MK a bit, both on the various consoles and in the arcade, but there was such a massive following with those games that joining in without a skillful background meant that I would lose that precious quarter in less than 30 seconds when going up against a fellow homo sapien and on the rare occasion, I could last until the third round against early computer AI. The problem was that I was never particularly great at any of them.
So when Killer Instinct came out in the arcades touting that it would be released on the "Nintendo Ultra 64" I was pretty excited. Nintendo Power even sent out little bookmark-type cards with character information and a short list of moves and the newly introduced C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER! I even took Jago's card with me the first time I went to the local arcade (Tilt) to play and I think I only played a couple of times due to the line and the $0.50 startup fee. Plus, Robin Beanland's score for the game was amazing. I played the SNES version that Dr. Potts had quite a bit and I eventually bought the watered down Game Boy port (parent's didn't like the idea of a game where you can fight against women) so I had some experience in a very limited capacity (from six attack buttons down to four along with a reduced roster and move list as well).
During the Pine Tree Year, I played a bit of X-Men: Mutant Academy, which I do not recall being any good at either, but we played it for fun. And I guess I could count Bushido Blade in this group too (which I later bought), but that was an odd combination of fighting game, and something else that I cannot place. Bushido Blade I did alright with, managing to finish a couple of the storylines, but the "Kill 100 enemies of progressing difficulty without dying to get the super duper ending" was just a bit beyond my skill (read: impossible). Years later when I bought Chreekat's PSP from him along with a Tekken: Dark Resurrection I thought I would give the genre another go. That lasted about a year before I ultimately gave up. Again.
I know what my problem is too with fighting games. It's all of the moves that characters have and being able to link moves together to perform combos. I get flustered, then I become frustrated and all of those (as in maybe three or four) moves that I have memorized in my brain becomes mush and the rest of the fight turns me into a button mashing idiot not at all wondering why I lost.
And now, for some inexplicable reason, I have the urge to play/acquire a fighting game. Maybe it's that Mortal Kombat X and Dead or Alive 5 have been released seemingly back-to-back, but I feel like I will fall into the same hole of loathing and despair. I will be drawn in by the good lookingness of the game, the moves that people are able to pull off are, to say the least, a bit on the amazing side. I would like to be able to play a game like that, but I know that I lack the skill and calmness, which is probably for the best. It's probably better for my blood pressure too since I know that I will become upset to the point that I might have to break a controller.
And murdering that controller? It's a real and legitimate fear. It's something that I would rather not put Conklederp through. Plus finding a corded Xbox 360 controller is getting more and more difficult to find. . .nevermind, it's not. But I would rather not have to fork over another $30 because I felt that, without any practice, I could jump right in and kick some digital ass.
Peace out bitches. . .I'm out. *Kerplünk*(sound of the mike being dropped into the toilet).
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
It's The Circle of Life
I personally have never "gotten into" most fighting games out there. I did fall in love with Killer Instinct back in the mid 90s when the only other real choices were Street Fighter, Tekken, or Mortal Kombat. I had played SF and MK a bit, both on the various consoles and in the arcade, but there was such a massive following with those games that joining in without a skillful background meant that I would lose that precious quarter in less than 30 seconds when going up against a fellow homo sapien and on the rare occasion, I could last until the third round against early computer AI. The problem was that I was never particularly great at any of them.
So when Killer Instinct came out in the arcades touting that it would be released on the "Nintendo Ultra 64" I was pretty excited. Nintendo Power even sent out little bookmark-type cards with character information and a short list of moves and the newly introduced C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER! I even took Jago's card with me the first time I went to the local arcade (Tilt) to play and I think I only played a couple of times due to the line and the $0.50 startup fee. Plus, Robin Beanland's score for the game was amazing. I played the SNES version that Dr. Potts had quite a bit and I eventually bought the watered down Game Boy port (parent's didn't like the idea of a game where you can fight against women) so I had some experience in a very limited capacity (from six attack buttons down to four along with a reduced roster and move list as well).
During the Pine Tree Year, I played a bit of X-Men: Mutant Academy, which I do not recall being any good at either, but we played it for fun. And I guess I could count Bushido Blade in this group too (which I later bought), but that was an odd combination of fighting game, and something else that I cannot place. Bushido Blade I did alright with, managing to finish a couple of the storylines, but the "Kill 100 enemies of progressing difficulty without dying to get the super duper ending" was just a bit beyond my skill (read: impossible). Years later when I bought Chreekat's PSP from him along with a Tekken: Dark Resurrection I thought I would give the genre another go. That lasted about a year before I ultimately gave up. Again.
I know what my problem is too with fighting games. It's all of the moves that characters have and being able to link moves together to perform combos. I get flustered, then I become frustrated and all of those (as in maybe three or four) moves that I have memorized in my brain becomes mush and the rest of the fight turns me into a button mashing idiot not at all wondering why I lost.
And now, for some inexplicable reason, I have the urge to play/acquire a fighting game. Maybe it's that Mortal Kombat X and Dead or Alive 5 have been released seemingly back-to-back, but I feel like I will fall into the same hole of loathing and despair. I will be drawn in by the good lookingness of the game, the moves that people are able to pull off are, to say the least, a bit on the amazing side. I would like to be able to play a game like that, but I know that I lack the skill and calmness, which is probably for the best. It's probably better for my blood pressure too since I know that I will become upset to the point that I might have to break a controller.
And murdering that controller? It's a real and legitimate fear. It's something that I would rather not put Conklederp through. Plus finding a corded Xbox 360 controller is getting more and more difficult to find. . .nevermind, it's not. But I would rather not have to fork over another $30 because I felt that, without any practice, I could jump right in and kick some digital ass.
Peace out bitches. . .I'm out. *Kerplünk*(sound of the mike being dropped into the toilet).
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
It's The Circle of Life
Did you ever play Battle Arena Toshinden on the PS1? I rented it a few times, and the sequel. There was a guy who was a knight in armor, and he was cool. And on the really easy setting, I got by with knowing just two moves or so and using them alot.
ReplyDeleteAlso: Bushido blade is SUCH a cool game!
Also also, there is something different about fighting games, in that they are always competitive, all the time. Like, there is never a time when the game isn't head-to-head competitive, which kinda sucks. In the case of a racing game, it's always competitive, but it's actually fun to race around a track, even if you're losing. Driving is fun! especially in video game form. But flailing wildly while someone beats the ever-loving-snot out of you is never fun.
further side note: a lot of fighting games have training modes now where you beat up on a hapless computer and the game shows you how to do the moves. That can help, but it requires patience and dedication and maybe you don't want to buy a fighting game on the offchance you want to dump that kind of work into it. Video game rental, where are you?
Tekken: Dark Resurrection does have a training mode where you go up against a standing dummy. My problem with that is that while you do get to learn the moves in a safe environment, it doesn't help you to learn to react to your opponent's moves with moves of your own. I can't say the same for other tutorials in fighting games though.
ReplyDeleteThe Playstation Network has a game streaming/rental service that lets you rent by the hour/30 or 90 days. I think I might peruse some fighting games on Steam and see if any of them have demos, just to get a feel of my frustration level.