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marurun
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Call out your favorite X in fighting games!

by marurun Thu Jul 28, 2022 12:27 pm

Hey folks,

I don't play many fighting games any more due to lacking time or appropriate skill-level competition (low), but I still watch videos about them all the time and love the crap out of them. So I wanted to open up a discussion about our varied favorite things in and about fighting games. I'll start by selecting a few categories and naming my own choices. Feel free to crib my categories or create your own! This is intended to be an open discussion.

Favorite fighting game moves: The Shoryuken is a classic that moves and hits just right. I really like Demitri's Bat Spin. I don't like playing Guile-type characters, but I do love the Flash Kick. It's pretty darn classic. I think Bison/Dictator's Scissor Kick is underappreciated by casual players. The Kyokugenryu school's Haoh Shou Kouken is one of the coolest moves around and my favorite projectile of all time. I love King's Venom Strike and Trap Shot. Geese and Rock's Raging Storm is awesome. Wan-Fu's fiery throw is awesome, even though it leaves him without a weapon. Used well it has some nice cross-up potential and is one of the few moves that just sends a character across the screen, which is crazy given he's otherwise a slower, stronger character. I love Sarah Bryant's flip kick. It totally leaves her open but when it hits it's just so satisfying. By and large, despite really enjoying Capcom's fighting games a little more for overall feel, I tend to prefer SNK fighters individual moves and moveset combos.

Favorite fighting game character movesets: I love Terry and Andy Bogard's movesets. Some of the SNK movesets felt so different from Capcom's, even right from the start. And Terry was a great example of how to make an all-rounder without making them a shoto, even though the shoto hadn't yet really been established at the time as a trope. Andy hasn't actually been all that great in an SNK fighting game in a while because of move timings and priorities, but in general I love the variety in his moveset, too. I do love the core shoto moveset of Ryu and Ken, but I tend not to be nearly as enamored of the fireballs and uppercuts in the more blatant shoto knock-offs, even if I otherwise like the characters (Ryo and Robert, for example). Rock Howard is a beautiful fusion of Geese and Terry. I don't know anyone else has made a derived/merged moveset quite as artful. I love King's moves. She's just a blast to play. Lee Rekka's moveset is so much fun. I don't necessary love any individual move of his, but for a 2D fighting character his moves chain together so smoothly and nicely. He almost has 3D fighter character flow, IMO. I am wary of and tend not to like as much moves that are just a multi-hit combo. Sometimes they work well, but sometimes it feels disconnected from the input or the idea of doing a move. "I did a move and now my character is carrying out a series of moves on their own without me." That's one of the things I like less about SNK fighters. I love Virtua Fighter's Sarah and Pai. Sarah also just has such nice, rapid transition from move to move. Those two characters are just my jam when it comes to 3D fighters. Lei Fang from DOA is also awesome, IMO. I love how her moves string together. I'm also a huge fan of Seung Mina. I just love her reach and spear moves.

Favorite fighting game character visual design/model: King, Robert Garcia, MotW Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Kyo Kusanagi, and Benimaru Nikaido. Sometimes SNK goes too hard into weird or fashion, but I think those characters all thread the needle really well. SNK does seem more style and fashion-aware than Capcom does. So many fighting game characters (Capcom or SNK) are either too kitch or some variation of national stereotype or martial arts stereotype and it's hard for me to get excited about that. I'm also not longer interested in the women characters who's visuals are designed specifically to titillate with obvious bounce or boob-windows on the outfit. I have no objection to sexy characters, but large-breasted women designed by men for primarily male audiences is kinda sketch, TBH. There's a million different ways to make confident, capable, sexy women characters, and stuffing them into a revealing outfit is the least creative and least compelling.

Favorite righting game to watch others play: KOF 15 is my current jam. The Tampa Never Sleeps weeklies are just fantastic. The commentators know the moves, the timings, the character rankings, and the strats, and the commentary reflects that. It's not just the gameplay that drives my enjoyment but the commentator's real knowledge and narration of the game in play on-screen. I haven't seen another tournament that goes to that extent.

Favorite fighting game mechanic: I love short hops and defensive rolls. I also love Capcom's VS games combined specials.

Favorite fighting game engine (broad): The Virtua Fighter core engine with punch, kick, and block with directional inputs modifying the moves is my favorite. It worked great for DOA and Sega's other 3D fighters of the time as well. It just feels the most fluid to me and makes the most sense. I find it reliable, replicable, and accessible, despite the steep learning curve.

I know this is a pretty random string of thoughts, but I think it's a good starting point for a number of discussions, some of which should maybe spin off to their own threads. But let's see what others have to say first.
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Anapan
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Re: Call out your favorite X in fighting games!

by Anapan Thu Jul 28, 2022 9:44 pm

Sorry
Image
My favorite pose is the Jack-O-Crouch

Okay, I'll bite. I played a lot of Street Fighter 2 variants and Mortal Kombat 1 & 2 on consoles and PC official ports, but really, didn't get to experience them properly until they were considered old. I did emulate NeoGeo and have played a lot of the games available there as well as some Taito titles, but back then none of us had a good computer and they were all time-delayed bad emulation. Playing at an arcade was too periodic to count as "playing them".

Favorite fighting game moves:
I like the ones that really expect you have an arcade stick and only a few buttons. The ones you have to struggle with on a d-pad, but are so smooth on a real 8-way or the emulation has made natural on an analog stick. Any game that doesn't make at least one character default to Ryu's moves in easy mode has failed to get new players engaged.

Favorite fighting game character movesets:
Uuhh, all my answers are generic. I like when a game allows me to air-juggle without unlocking the ability somehow. I've learned to use blocks, but that's not really an answer.

Favorite fighting game character visual design/model:
This one is easy: Those slick hand-drawn sprites they made for Super Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike are the best. Guilty Gear do it really well as well. I think all of the games lost it when they went to 3D attempts at hand drawn through shaders.
Second are the later Neo Geo titles 16-bit but huge well shaded looks from the later KOF and similar.

Favorite righting game to watch others play:
I don't really do this. Here's all of the Midnight Bliss Finishers from Darkstalkers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCUaHgMmZww
"Comeon-Baby"

Favorite fighting game mechanic:
I like that I've started to get combo-breakers and air-juggling, but I'm gonna go with finishers.

Favorite fighting game engine (broad)
Only because I've mastered a lot of the move sets and they are still valid - Mortal Kombat (early arcade now). I'll answer the same for my least favorite - Virtua Fighter and all the clones. It was a dark time and none ever redeemed themselves. The whole lot of them and their fans should be burned.

I still think the high-point of fighting games is the Jack-o-Crouch. Quoting the meme initiator "She's so normal."

Despite how great the first Mortal Kombat film was, I absolutely love the fan-attempt at a Mortal Kombat series reboot: Mortal Kombat Legacy, and the new films.
I wish the cinematic universe was so kind to the Street Fighter franchise. Still, the multiple animated series were not totally bad.
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Raging Justice
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Re: Call out your favorite X in fighting games!

by Raging Justice Sun Aug 07, 2022 12:17 pm

marurun wrote:Hey folks,

I don't play many fighting games any more due to lacking time or appropriate skill-level competition (low), but I still watch videos about them all the time and love the crap out of them. So I wanted to open up a discussion about our varied favorite things in and about fighting games. I'll start by selecting a few categories and naming my own choices. Feel free to crib my categories or create your own! This is intended to be an open discussion.

Favorite fighting game moves: The Shoryuken is a classic that moves and hits just right.


So fun little fact for a fun little thread:

Stardom, the biggest women's wrestling company in Japan (and probably the whole world) has a girl named Saki Kashima, one of their current champions, who literally does this move in her matches. The Japanese guys on commentary even say, "Shoooooryuken" when she hits someone with it.

It goes without saying though that it doesn't look nearly as amazing as something Ken, Ryu, or Akuma would do, and sadly, she isn't able to generate flames around her fist :lol:

She hits a pretty nice one here though:

https://twitter.com/seanoRKO/status/1551553959487488000
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marurun
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Re: Call out your favorite X in fighting games!

by marurun Sun Aug 07, 2022 2:58 pm

I clearly don’t know jack about wrestling, because I figured something like that would be an illegal move.
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