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So, I was never much into fighting games back in the day and as such, never really seemed to pick them up later on in my gaming career.

Now, at the ripe old age of 31, I find myself wanting to give the genre a serious go. The problem is, I don't really know where to start!

There are TONS of fighters out there from the 16-bit era on and to be honest it's a little overwhelming. I'm not sure where to start, what a good game for a n00b is, etc. Should I start back in the 16-bit era or play something more modern? Beats me!

The only thing I do know is that I don't really want to play 3D fighters - 2D (or 2.5D) for me please.

Any advice?

Fighters are meant to be played with other people so just find a modern game that is accessible and you can play with your friends

You can try Super Street Fighter IV or the latest Super Smash Bros, for example

General_Norris wrote: Super Smash Bros

he said "fighting games"

the popular 2D fighters are Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Marvel Vs Capcom 3 and King of Fighters. Those are the big competitive games that you will always find someone to be able to play against. This is a very tough time to get into fighting games, since these games have been out for so long that the competition has learned and played it to the point of insanity.

I suggest getting together with a couple friends, picking a game, any game and having fun with it. Me and my buddies do this all the time with various games and genres. The only one I dedicate my real time to on a competitive level is virtua fighter 5 final shodown.

By doing it this way, you miss out on the frustrating part, the part where people pummel you into oblivion and send you horrifically negative messages. What you get instead is a bunch of friends who meet up and play and have fun and are better sports and you all get to learn the game together.

But if you want my personal opinion on what 2D fighter to play, it's Samurai Shodown 2.

Pick up something with Street Fighter in the title (I'd say SFIV due to the tutorials/etc) and (probably) learn a shoto character (Ryu/Ken/Akuma/Sakura/etc).

That'd give you the basic muscle memory to pick up at least a character or two in quite a number of games.

Of course, give other characters a go as well, and see if others might suit you better.

I say Street Fighter due to the mechanics of those games tending to be pretty basic, in a good way.

I am at the ripe old age of 37 and play fighting games myself. I am not hardcore into it but I still have quite a bit of fun. One of the things that I just recently did was get myself an arcade stick. The can be a bit pricey but this late in the current console generation you can get some pretty good deals on a stick. They are going to still cost more than a regular controller but it will be better than a regular controller.

Last week I ordered the MadCatz Soulcalibur V Arcade Stick from amazon.com for $69.99. That is not bad considering the MSRP was $159.99. Good Luck.

I'm not a fighting game pro by any means but if I were to start today I'd do so with Street Fighter IV and King of Fighters XIII. You'll have to take somebody else's suggestion on the 3D fighters because I'm not really into those.

After that if you're really serious about the genre you can start looking into some of the classics.

I recommend starting with the classic Street Fighter 2 Turbo for the SNES or Chapionship Edition for the Genesis (6 button controller required!). You gotta get the foundation laid down properly before you can build a house!

8bit wrote:I recommend starting with the classic Street Fighter 2 Turbo for the SNES or Chapionship Edition for the Genesis (6 button controller required!). You gotta get the foundation laid down properly before you can build a house!

i agree. start with the classics. Street Fighter 2 Turbo is a great starter for any noobs of this genre. If you don't like fighting with fist only, then go sword to sword battle with Samurai Showdown.

here are others i recommend after playing SF or SS:

King of Fighters
Fatal Fury
World Heroes
Art of Fighting
Mortal Kombat

then when you get to used those, you can go more modern of each series.

Perhaps what I'm going to say may sound a little odd to these guys, but I would argue you start with World Heroes.

World Heroes features a very simple, streamlined fighting system. There are no counters, no supers, no combos. Instead, fights revolve around learning to use your specials and being able to identify the best places to move in for a hit. These are skills that are vital to learn when picking up the basics of the genre. World Heroes is a game purely about the basics. It's an excellent place to pick up on concepts such as chipping, anti-air moves to beat aerial foes, and capitalizing on opponents who have missed with their specials and are briefly left with their guard down. And learning about one's opponent is easy due to the limited move sets of each character.

Once you have these bare minimum requirements done, moving into things like Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, or Street Fighter will be easier, because they all utilize these skills at their core. In these games, you can then start to learn about supers, combos, and counters. I'd also start studying on throws at this level.

From there, there's a variety of ways to progress, based on your interests and what you'd like to explore. Want to fight with swords in a counter-heavy environment, waiting for your opponent to misstep so you can punish them severely? Samurai Shodown or The Last Blade. Want to fight with a team to take down other teams of opponents by utilizing each of your characters' skills to support one another? King of Fighters or the Vs. series. Want to focus entirely on fighting boss-style creatures? Red Earth. Want dozens of special moves, counters, supers, massive combos, and punishing difficulty? WeaponLord. And so on and so forth.