what's the fighting game population like here?

[elliott20]

looking at the threads, I get the feeling a lot of posters have leaning towards RPGs, turn-based strategy, RTS, FPS, or some other hybrid of this kind.

What I haven't seen is any discussion related to fighting games. Now, I must make a confession: I am a fighting game junkie and I collect fighting games just for the hell of it.

And over the course of time, you find that there are usually the same style of players that emerges in fighting games.

Pit Bull: Attack, attack, and attack some more! The best defensive is a good offense! This style of play seems favor games like tekken and soulcalibur where poking is highly rewarded due to priorities being based quite a bit around frame rates.

Turtler: The clock is my attack. These players usually spend most of their efforts learning on how to defend their position, and only attack to capitalize on their foes mistake. Matches between two turtlers usually ends up running the clock.

Masher: I dont' know what I'm doing, but I'm hitting buttons and stuff is coming out. These are usually beginner players who are knew to the game they're playing.

One-Hit Wonder: Combos are nice, but I think I'll go for a guaranteed chunk damage. These people are the ones that will rely often on hits that do large amounts of damage instead of trying to do consistent, but small amount of chip damage. As a result, this type of play often coincides with the turtler.

Glitch Exploiter: these are the tournament players, the ones who will use every glitch, every cheap tactic, every little advantage they can to gain an edge at play. nothing inherently wrong with these guys, as they are just playing the game the best they can. But to watch these people play is often quite a sight to behold. (e.g. Every person that can perform a roll cancel in Capcom Vs. SNK 2 or anyone that performs throw cancels in Soulcalibur 3 at tournaments)

Scrub: These are usually players who have just got exposed to the game they're playing, but they're starting to get familiar with some of the mechanics. As a result though, they frequently find themselves using the same character, and uses a small selection of moves that they are familiar with rather then expand their skill sets. Often, these are the casual players who just play the game at home. This is the category that I tend to belong.

So, which one are you? or do you fit into some kind of new category?

[Lucky]

Turtler/Masher for most games.

For starcraft I'm a turtler/one-hit wonder.
Completely misread it. Fighting games...

Masher for all.

[RoboticSheeple]

depends on the game.
DoA series I tend to turtle because counters do more damage than an attack.
Guilty Gear you have to press the attack with combos, it's a must.
Soul Cailbur I spend a good amount of time attacking.
Super Smash Bros I wavedash around the level and use a lot of spikes to send foes flying down to their doom. I guess that one is exploiting because wavedashing isn't covered in the manual at all.
... And those are all the one's I play frequently enough to have a style.

[elliott20]

I get the feeling that most fighting games seem to favor the pit bull approach where you keep your momentum by continuously raining attacks down upon your opponent.

In starcraft though? The only map I can see you do a decent turtler tactic is on Big Game Hunters. (and even that is suspect) any normal map leaves you with too many vulnerabilities to rushing.

depends on the game.
DoA series I tend to turtle because counters do more damage than an attack.
Guilty Gear you have to press the attack with combos, it's a must.
Soul Cailbur I spend a good amount of time attacking.
Super Smash Bros I wavedash around the level and use a lot of spikes to send foes flying down to their doom. I guess that one is exploiting because wavedashing isn't covered in the manual at all.
... And those are all the one's I play frequently enough to have a style.

wave dashing in Super Smash Bros? Wow, that's the first I've heard of that outside of Tekken and SoulCalibur. How does that work?

[Penguinizer]

For SC 3 I suppose I would be a turtle/pit bull. Nothing like guard impact followed by a good long combo.

[Ronsian]

For Soul Caliber two, I hit 'em hard where it hurts. In Super Smash brothers melee as Link, I dance. I dance around the enemy, shooting, stabbing, and running. If I'm Donkey Kong, I just rush in. For a game I've just started, I tend to go on the defensive. Soon as I seek a break in the enemies attacks I push forward with everything I've got.

[That Lanky Bugger]

Depends on the game.

Street Fighter III: I am probably tournement level. Nobody I know will play with me anymore because my response to most supers (let alone specials or regular attacks) is to parry them. I think the breaking point was air-parrying a Tenma Gou Zankuu and then finishing off my buddy for a second perfect in a two round fight. With Dudley. If I had to pick a favourite character, it'd probably be Yun, Ken, or Ibuki.

Soul Caliber 2&3: Pitbull. For SC2 I generally prefer to use Nightmare, Mitsurugi, Taki, and Link (if he's available). SC3 I actually like some of the custom characters the best. Either the Grieve Edge or Katana and Shuriken, though I'm also a fan of using Setsuka. Of course I still like my SC2 characters as well.

As a side note... I've been told that beating on people with Tira in SC3 is somehow offensive, which is probably why I enjoy it so much.

DOA series: Turtle. I tend to use Ayame or Ryu Hayabusa, though Hitomi is fun to play due to her variable charge.

Virtua Fighter: Been a fan for quite some time, probably since VF2 if not the original. Bulldog with a bit of turtling. I've always been a Kagemaru fan, though Sarah Bryant is a nice change of pace and Brad Burns is a lot of fun.

Tekken: Is crap. Seriously. I don't understand how this can be promoted as a fighting game. The characters control terribly and punches don't chain. Why I have to enter a complex series of buttons for simple combination attacks is beyond me.

[Dragor]

As above, depends.

Soul Calibur II- nearly always Taki, which I suppose makes me a quick and nimble sorta player. I play as Ivy, too, mostly for coolness factor.

Smash Bros. - Marth! I don't know whether he's a popular choice, but he's a good defensive and acrobatic character, who can do so much damage if you can use his sword properly. (Nobody gets the 'Tip of the sword = more damage' trick in my household, so they play the more simple characters.)

Tekken- Only play it when I go round my friends, but I always end up playing as Anna Williams. Now call me a perv, but I think you can guess why

[BrokenButterfly]

Okay, i haven't played a beat-em-up for a while, but it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy them.

SC2: I prefer 2 to 3 for some reason, and I tend to go Pitbull as Seung Mina.

SSBM: I don't mind who I play as, sometimes I'll go for Bowser and play a One-Hit Wonder game, but generally it'll be Roy for me, in Pitbull mode.

DoA2: This is the only one I have since I don't have an XBox (360 or otherwise). I tend to Pitbull as Kasumi.

Notice some sort of trend in my fighting styles? Generally it's because I've moved beyond the Scrub stage, but don't care enough to memorise move sets or anything.

[Beleriphon]

The only fighting game I've really played with any depth would be SC2, and I enjoyed using the really fast characters the best. It suits my play style of getting in close and pressing the attack.

I've also enjoyed some of the GC wrestling games. I have my own character at a buddy's that actually gets better after being tossed out of the ring. So my tactic is to let them do so, and drag them out after me then proceed with the beat down.

I suppose that puts me into the pit bull approach. I do prefer standard moves though. I managed to beat SC2's story mode using nothing but default kicks, punches, and throws.

[Haruki-kun]

I LOVED Smash Bros. (both), Soul Calibur, and maybe Bloody Roar. Otherwise.......... meh..........

I'dbe kind the guy who learns a few combos one by one ad uses them however he can. I'm not sure what that would fall under.

[Orzel]

I want always good but below tourney level in many games like Third Strike, Second Impast, the Capcom vs games, Smash Bros and Tekken. I stink now due to no practice.

I was only of those guys that relied on 2 good combos, invinciblity frames, game knowledge, and unpopular characters.

I destroy newbies but pros beat me.

*waits for fireball and does super art through it for 80% damage.*

[Tengu]

An interesting trend I noticed is that mashers usually seem to take pride in their lack of skill, thinking their gaming style is much superior to these of all the people who "take the game too seriously", especially when by some miracle they manage to beat someone.

Well, the only fighting game I play now is Guilty Gear. I like special moves, so I'd guess I fit into the "one hit wonder" category (partially with scrub, I do not play a lot).

[Captain van der Decken]

Well, I've only really played MK games much, but Pit Bull, no doubt about it. I also tend to keep using one attack constantly so the opponent can't do anything.

[Krade]

The BEST fighting game I've ever played was X-Men VS. Street Fighter (NOT Marvel VS. Capcom). Even though it was a tag-team style game, I could go through the whole game with just Chun-li or Gambit.

This was one of the few games we had at the theater I worked at a couple years ago. Some of the fights I had with one of the assistant managers seemed to come straight out of an episode of DBZ where we end the battle both doing the super attack and one's running out first and be blown away by the others.

As for style, I'd say Pitbull with somewhere between Scrub and Glitch-Exploiter.

[potatocubed]

The only fighting game I play regularly enough to have a style with is Guilty Gear, although I've spent a lot of time with SC2 in the past.

My style varies from character to character, honestly. With Baiken I turtle, with Potemkin (or Astaroth if I'm playing SC2) I go turtle/one-hit wonder, and with anyone else I usually go with pit bull - which has variable effects depending on who I'm playing.

Oh, and I think you missed a category: The Pinball - generally chooses the jumpiest, fastest character, and spends the entire match ricocheting off the walls, standing on your head, triple-jumping, and otherwise not touching the ground.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Hmm... I pick the best looking character and try to use the moves I learnt with them most recently. I guess I'm a masher or a one-hit wonder. One-hit wonder with Mitsurugi, Masher with Sophitia and Xianghua in Soul Callibre. One-hit wonder with Robo-kai, Dizzy and Millia Rage, masher with Kai Kisuke and Baiken (I know it sucks but I don't even know how to do a counter, I'll do something cheap like use Ex-Baiken if my opponent will let me) in Guilty Gear.

I think that over complicated moves are elitist. Mainly because I get annoyed when smug people beat me. I really hate when they're un-intuitive (what does half-circle forward heavy slash have to do with a death ray?) though. I have no idea how the hell you do Robo-Kai's move that turns into an Overdrive if you have half tension but you can do as a special if you don't have the tension.

You might want to shorten that list to 5 and do a poll.

[Cubey]

I think that over complicated moves are elitist. Mainly because I get annoyed when smug people beat me. I really hate when they're un-intuitive (what does half-circle forward heavy slash have to do with a death ray?) though.

Weird. I found many moves in GG to be rather intuitive, and the input somehow "feels" the same way as the effect. For example, Ky Kiske's Ride the Lightning. I can't describe this feeling, you either know what I mean or don't... well, nevermind.

I have no idea how the hell you do Robo-Kai's move that turns into an Overdrive if you have half tension but you can do as a special if you don't have the tension.

Forward, down, forward, Slash/HeavySlash (forgot which one, mea culpa). There's a command list in-game, you know.

[Jerthanis]

Tekken: Is crap. Seriously. I don't understand how this can be promoted as a fighting game. The characters control terribly and punches don't chain. Why I have to enter a complex series of buttons for simple combination attacks is beyond me.

Tekken is probably my favorite fighting game for that very reason (with Guilty Gear X2 a close second). The fights have an extremely technical precision to them with timing, gaging distance, and execution of very defined button combinations to do your character's moves. You have to know your characters inside and out in order to really be effective with them, though as you learn multiple characters you begin to pick up on how characters tend to be similar (most characters have LP, RP, RK three hit combos for instance) and how certain characters lack certain more universal moves (Lei can't do a ->->RP+LP for the diving recovery from lying down IIRC) I like Tekken for the highly technical back and forth of timing, gaging, defense and offense, which is my style of play. A balance between Pit Bull and Turtler, with an emphasis on practice and technical performance over intuition and masher's luck. Personally I can't stand DoA or Virtua Fighter for the fact that all you have to press is P,P,P,K,K to do a five hit combo.

I think that over complicated moves are elitist. Mainly because I get annoyed when smug people beat me. I really hate when they're un-intuitive (what does half-circle forward heavy slash have to do with a death ray?) though. I have no idea how the hell you do Robo-Kai's move that turns into an Overdrive if you have half tension but you can do as a special if you don't have the tension.

I don't know why complicated moves are elitist, as the game has a move list built in, so it's not like people have to use occult divinations to discover how to do the moves, they just have to pause the game for 5 seconds to check. Also, if the point of competitive games is to test the comparable skill levels of the players, and utilizing complex moves requires skill, isn't a game
better off rewarding complex moves? Some aspects of glitch exploitation might be somewhat elitist, as I don't think anything in any manual tells you about False Roman Cancels, Jump Cancels or utilizing perfect defense to cancel the delay at the end of dash animations, but complex moves are in the game to allow for people of higher skill levels to defeat lower skill level people. Without that layer of complexity, we may as well be playing a game where we see who can tap a button fastest.

[Saithis Bladewing]

Sometimes I think that I'm the only person who likes Tekken...I don't see how you can complain about it being aimed towards people who can play complex. There are still players you can execute very simple combos or button mash with. Personally, Tekken is my favourite, followed by Street Fighter.

I tend to turtle in SF-style games, but in any other game I'd be somewhere between Pit Bull and Turtler, leaning more towards Pit Bull, sometimes with a bit of Glitch Exploiter thrown in if I'm playing Tekken (I have, admittedly, juggled people in the air until they died. It's funny, but I don't use it in most games because it is so cheap.)

[elliott20]

wait, wait, wait, you're telling me that complex games are not fun but then you're preferring Virtual Fighter over Tekken? Virtual Fighter is probably one of the most technical and most difficult 3D fighting games to really play at a high level, period. With VF there are more categories for counters (thereby making a counter-game hard to set up), more nuances to deciding priorities (frame rates AND strength of move as opposed to just frame rates), more issues you must content with in terms of throw escapes (throw + direction), more consideration for combo juggling possibilities (weight). Basically, any mechanic
that you have in Tekken, VF does it with greater depth. (And slower speed)

I personally like tekken better because it's just good ol' fashion slugfest (and it has a larger audience in the US), but I'd be lying to myself if I said VF is in anyway less sophisticated than Tekken.

[Glaivemaster]

I'm a pit-bull in DOA 4, it just seems to work, especially with Ayane

In Guilty Gear I'm definitely a scrub, with slayer. I can beat my older brother sometimes who, while not being a pro by a long way, is hideous when using Kai Kiske. I have to keep learning new things to beat him though, so at least I am improving

[Orzel]

Who else plays with the "scrub" or "weird" characters to beat on scrubs when bored?

Guy: Haha. You picked Sean. He sucks. Can't even shoot firballs normally.

*does a lame combo*
Whack whack ShoryuCannon whack ShoryuCannon whack

[That Lanky Bugger]

Alright, to clarify...

Virtua Fighter is something anyone can pick up and play. When two skilled players play versus each other, it's an entirely different match when compared to a game of two unskilled players. However, someone who is good at another fighting game can pick up a character with a similar style of play to their favorite character and has a chance of making a decent showing against a veteran player (provided the player has a decent foundation of fighting game skills as regards blocking, judging attack distances, and decent timing). There will be a disparity, but the learning curve for an experienced fighting game fan is relatively low compared to the learning curve for someone who's never played a fighting game before. The fundamentals aren't radically different. It is, at it's core, a game which allows for an intuitive player to fight intuitively knowing only the basic mechanics of the game.

Tekken, on the other hand, requires you to know specific inputs for your character to be effective. If you don't know these specific inputs, you cannot come close to effectiveness. Someone cannot take the basic control scheme for Tekken and attempt to fight a veteran player with any iota of success unless they randomly mash the buttons and pray for victory... Which contrasts directly with the intuitive nature of a fighting game. It's a remarkably unintuitive game which features nearly the same learning curve for fighting game vets (who are Tekken newbies) as new videogame players as a whole. One cannot pick up and play the game, and every new sequel heralds a rush of ineffectiveness which requires players to memorize specific inputs to counter specific situations.

For example... If someone comes at me with a high attack which I can counter with a low attack, I've always got similarly simple options:

In Dead or Alive, I can press down and kick and I'll likely sweep them off their feet or at least halt their attack. I can initiative a low counter and toss them like a ragdoll. In Soul Caliber I can initiate a low parry and then counter, or simply block the attack and counter when I have the timing advantage. Street Fighter III it's a low Parry followed by a special attack to punish my foe. Even Virtua Fighter features a strong list of actions independant of the character which allow me to evade and counter attacks as part of the core system, and not a part of an individual character's move list. Reversals are relatively intuitive, Charge attacks allow me to break the pacing of my blows, and evades are simple to execute.

In Tekken, if your foe comes at you, you have no variety of options. Mobility greatly favors the attacker, making most of the defensive moves useless. If someone attacks low and I try to counter with a high attack, I've got to pray I pressed the right punch or kick button (making it a crap shoot half the time) or I've got to hammer on the guard and pray my foe doesn't have a good enough frame advantage to punish me for daring to block.

Don't get me wrong. I liked Tekken 2 back on the Playstation. Back then, series like Battle Arena Toshinden and Virtua Fighter weren't much better either. It was all an immobile crapshoot of special moves. The problem is that every other fighting game series which decided to stick around also managed to evolve their fighting engines a bit to produce reversals and other gameplay innovations while each new entry in the Tekken series is invariably "Just like the last one, but with costume changes and some prettier graphics!"

Everyone who loves the Tekken series, do me a favor. Go back and play Tekken 2, then toss Tekken 5 into your PS2. The core gameplay isn't really all that different, is it? Same sort of engine, just prettier graphics and Paul keeps getting older.

Now toss in Soul Edge and compare it to Soul Caliber 3. Or compare Virtua Fighter 2 to Virtua Fighter 4. Or Street Fighter II to Street Fighter III. All display vast improvements and innovations which fundamentally alter the balance of play by introducing new factors to the fight.

[Orzel]

Tekken isn't that hard
You can pick Eddie or similiar character, hold down, and mash the kick buttons.

I 'member the first time I beat a Eddie masher. I was so happy.

[Saithis Bladewing]

Tekken isn't that hard
You can pick Eddie or similiar character, hold down, and mash the kick buttons.

I 'member the first time I beat a Eddie masher. I was so happy.

QFT, and extended for post length issues.

[RoboticSheeple]

wave dashing in Super Smash Bros? Wow, that's the first I've heard of that outside of Tekken and SoulCalibur. How does that work?

It's pressing downforward/downback and then jump with a quick shield for an aerial dodge. If you do it right there won't be a dodge animation and you'll just make the little dust clouds constantly while moving.

Important to note is that you don't turn like with a shieldroll so you can keep your facing on a foe while approaching or retreating.

The biggest advantage though is for cliffhanging because it allows backwards movement off a ledge which is normally impossible.

[Setra]

I suck at fighting games, except the smash brother's games.

Those games are so easy, I mean even I can play in a 3-on-1 against three level 9 computers.

I prefer to use Samus and Marth, though unlike most people I know who use Samus, I use her for her speed and fun aerial moves.

I hate memorizing a long list of moves to play a game. When I actually play them, my winning tactic is easily a Pit Bull/Button Masher Combo, that way there is nothing to memorize.

Edit: Also, I like some of the DBZ fighting games.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Forward, down, forward, Slash/HeavySlash (forgot which one, mea culpa). There's a command list in-game, you know.

I've SEEN the in game command list. It just confuses the heck out of me. I'm not very good at specials, I tend to just muck around. I can just about do Ride the Lightning and Imperial Ray. I'm not even going to try using Gigantic Bullet properly.

In Guilty Gear I once decieded to play only using the kick button. Turned out most of Kai-Kisuke's decent moves are based of kick. I mainly just screw around like that.

[SMEE]

It depends on the game.
I usually tend to pick the brutes (Ie. Zangief/Hugo at SF, Chang at KOF, Bass at DOA, etc...) and play as One-Hit wonder.
Or I pick balanced fighters (Ryu, Takuma) and rely on short, yet effective combos.

I'm really found at 2d fighting games, but never played them at tournament level. I consider myself an average joe when it comes to my skills.

I usually can't stand 3d fighters (I despise Tekken and find Soul Caliber to be boring), but I enjoy DOA and Virtua Fighter. I'm not that good on them, though.