So I think I should play fighting games... where to start?

[samsonlonghair]

Start practicing Soulcalibur II. Simple, cheap, and popular. An HD remix with online play is coming out soon. It's one of my favorite games. The button inputs won't give you any trouble and you can play it well with a standard controller.

It'll still take a long time to get good at it, but getting competent will be straightforward.

Seconded. SC2 is one of the best games for new players. It's very easy to learn.

[marurun]

Start practicing Soulcalibur II. Simple, cheap, and popular. An HD remix with online play is coming out soon. It's one of my favorite games. The button inputs won't give you any trouble and you can play it well with a standard controller.

It'll still take a long time to get good at it, but getting competent will be straightforward.

Seconded. SC2 is one of the best games for new players. It's very easy to learn.

I'm not entirely sure I agree. It is easy to button mash and mostly get down, but in the SC games, I have always felt that there was some control element I could never get a handle on. Most of the time I would get what I wanted, but sometimes I would get a completely different move. There were too many fortunate, and unfortunate, accidents.

Quite frankly, this is why I would actually recommend one of the Virtua Fighter games as a good starter 3D fighter. The moves are all reliable. Your character never does something leaving you wonder "WTF did I just do?" or "WTF just happened?" Yes, it is hard, but it is a solid learning title.

[EvilRyu2099]

I agree completely. But, I still would find it strange to suggest such a fast, frantic, and combo-centric game to someone new to fighters. It's not as complex as GG in the grand scale but the general flow of the game for the average player is still nothing to scoff at, and dependent on a pretty decent level of skill, even for playing just a middle-higher level arcade mode, let alone competing against someone that knows how to play well. Not insurmountable by any means, but for someone new to fighters there is definitely a fairly steep learning curve with BlazBlue if you want to be able to hold your own against anyone.

It's kind of like suggesting Cave games to a new shmup player. The SNK and Capcom VS fighters are just so much more welcoming to new players than any Arc Sys game.

I disagree.. KoF 13 might be the most complex fighter in the 7th gen.. Most pro players and casuals agree atleast.. Blazblue I would hardly call a fast paced game.. It's actually one of the slower fighters I've played.. But your other points except your analogy at the end I can agree with.. I think BB is about the easiest Air Dasher you could learn.. AH 3, GG( any version) and even Auqapazza are a little bit harder to learn IMO.. I suppose Melty Blood would be more beginner friendly though.. Air Dashers in general aren't the most beginner friendly but so aren't SNK games and classic Capcom games.. Btw MVC 2 and CVS 2 were WAY more complex than BB as well.. I actually used to compete in both.. MVC 3 I have no clue since I never got into it.. I hear mixed things.. Some say it's very easy and other say it's hard..

[Nyukki]

I played Killer Instinct SNES to death as a kid, learning and executing the Ultra Combos is really satisfying.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Start practicing Soulcalibur II. Simple, cheap, and popular. An HD remix with online play is coming out soon. It's one of my favorite games. The button inputs won't give you any trouble and you can play it well with a standard controller.

It'll still take a long time to get good at it, but getting competent will be straightforward.

Seconded. SC2 is one of the best games for new players. It's very easy to learn.

I'm not entirely sure I agree. It is easy to button mash and mostly get down, but in the SC games, I have always felt that there was some control element I could never get a handle on. Most of the time I would get what I wanted, but sometimes I would get a completely different move. There were too many fortunate, and unfortunate, accidents.

I always get what I want, even with a standard Dualshock. It's important to watch your character - you can't just enter the whole combo early like in Tekken. This is fine, though, because the animation is extremely fluid and the movements make some physical sense.

[KalessinDB]

Alright I may be a little late to the party, but I think the best bet is "Whatever your friends want to play"... we played a lot of 3d fighters in college, and for several years afterwards. We had a lot of fun, and there were definitely different levels of competence in our friends, but I don't think any of us would've been great competitively or even in the current online arenas.

We had a ton of fun with Tekken (3 and Tag, mostly), Soul Calibur (1 and 2), Rival Schools and Project Justice, and on the rare occasion we played 2d it was Guilty Gear

Personally, I always found the 3d fighters to be easier to play than the 2d ones. 3d fighters were more about finding the character's beat, his pattern or rhythm. 2d fighters, you completely had to memorize movelists and combos. I'm aware there's lots of combos in 3d fighters too, we had some great ones, but you could at least make do with just learning their rhythm.

A suggestion that always worked for us? Play a lot of random. A lot. It just increases the fun because you get more well-rounded and you can play more different matches rather than just throwing your 2 favorites against each other over and over...