Poll: Best fighting game franchise?

[PureChaos]

it would be either Mortal Kombat or Smash Bros. Street Fighter is good, as is DoA. never really played Tekken or Soul Calibur.

 

[Silenttalker22]

The dead or alive game mention was a reply to his challenging me to find a fighting game without any fighting in it. Need that context man.

Oh and hitting people in a 2D sidescroller game like Castlevania isn't the same as doing that in a fighting game, even if all the sprites are copied and pasted and all the moves are the same.

You didn't find a fighting game... You found a sports game with clearly no elements of fighting, and called it one. But said a game where a fighter fights stuff isn't a proper one.

 

[Silenttalker22]

Street Fighter is good, as is DoA.

DOA is my No.2. Been playing it heavily since doa2 on Dreamcast. Me and my long-time sparring partner and friend love it's fast, exaggerated combat, and I respect it for it's great mix of accessibility to new people, and wealth of material, for veterans.

 

[Last Hugh Alive]

Well, my FAVOURITE fighting game franchise of all time is Mortal Kombat. Its also one of my favourite franchises in general. There's a lot of spectacle, but I think there's depth and balance in how the actual fighting works. I've always felt a balance in Mortal Kombat that's somewhere between Tekken and Street Fighter in terms of how it plays, I enjoy the storylines and character plotlines, and the game is made unique by artistic style, gore, Fatalities and varied side modes with each game. I may be biased, though.

The best, however... We need to define "best". Best as in most successful/popular? Easiest/funnest to play? Best story/characters? Most depth?

 

[PureChaos]

Street Fighter is good, as is DoA.

DOA is my No.2. Been playing it heavily since doa2 on Dreamcast. Me and my long-time sparring partner and friend love it's fast, exaggerated combat, and I respect it for it's great mix of accessibility to new people, and wealth of material, for veterans.

i've only played DoA 4 on the 360. did a 4 player game and it was really good fun. even though 2 of us had never played it before (the other 2 had played it a fair amount so we had 1 veteran and 1 newcomer on each team to make it even) and the matches were really close. there were 2 people watching and we had loads of matches which they were happy to watch because they were close. we played Street Fighter 4 before doing winner stays on but one person only used Chun Li and constantly won. Street Fighter is probably better if 2 closely matched veterans play but DoA is great for all

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

You didn't find a fighting game... You found a sports game with clearly no elements of fighting, and called it one. But said a game where a fighter fights stuff isn't a proper one.

That's the point, a fighting game series, Dead or alive, had a sports game as one of them, while still being called dead or alive and being a fighting game series. Anyways, that's a totally besides the point discussion that had nothing to do with any of this.

And yeah, fighting stuff in a 2D sidescroller game is nothing like a fighting game.

 

[Silenttalker22]

i've only played DoA 4 on the 360.

The vegas level is one of the niftiest stage oriented things to ever come to a prominent series (I say prominent cuz I haven't played every one and wouldn't want anyone to feel left out). We make it a huge deal of trying to hit and out-think the other person into oncoming cars. It's great fun

 

[PureChaos]

i've only played DoA 4 on the 360.

The vegas level is one of the niftiest stage oriented things to ever come to a prominent series (I say prominent cuz I haven't played every one and wouldn't want anyone to feel left out). We make it a huge deal of trying to hit and out-think the other person into oncoming cars. It's great fun

didn't get to play that level, we just did a rematch. sounds like a good level, though. next time i visit my mate i'll see if we can give it a go.

 

[Fishyash]

^

Why exactly a fighting game being "too anime" is a bad thing as far as "the west" is concerned? Anime isn't only liked in Japan and most fighter fans do like the anime-aspect of the games.


Hell, Akuma turned super saiyan in Arcade Edition, id's say a demon with blue aura and hovering beads around him smashing you with evil energy that makes Japanese letters appear is as close to "anime-like aesthetic" as you can get really.

Spoiler

I mean look at him, they even gave him the electricity currents from Super Saiyan 2 lol.

I usually do things before I think.

Maybe it's because I live in the UK (I can count the amount of anime shows that air on TV currently with 2 hands at the most), but I just assumed that the anime art style in the west is not as well recieved as it is in the east (yes, since the genre is dominated in japan worldwide it's not much of a difference). And yes, the art style is there in street fighter (especially in the arcade mode scenes), but I think there definately is a difference between this

Spoiler

And this

Spoiler

Well, even if my argument is rather silly, it was probably the smallest of points I had. One that doesn't matter the slightest, and probably one I shouldn't have brought up because it is mostly untrue.

 

[Harlemura]

I'm gonna go with Street Fighter, because I find it the most fun. I'll admit, I've only played Super Street Fighter IV and Arcade Edition, but I just find it more fun than the other fighters I've played.
I do like most of the modern ones though. Mortal Kombat, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and, at a stretch, Tekken 6. I'm really not good at Tekken, so I'm kinda biased against it.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

^

Why exactly a fighting game being "too anime" is a bad thing as far as "the west" is concerned? Anime isn't only liked in Japan and most fighter fans do like the anime-aspect of the games.


Hell, Akuma turned super saiyan in Arcade Edition, id's say a demon with blue aura and hovering beads around him smashing you with evil energy that makes Japanese letters appear is as close to "anime-like aesthetic" as you can get really.

Spoiler

I mean look at him, they even gave him the electricity currents from Super Saiyan 2 lol.

I usually do things before I think.

Maybe it's because I live in the UK (I can count the amount of anime shows that air on TV currently with 2 hands at the most), but I just assumed that the anime art style in the west is not as well recieved as it is in the east (yes, since the genre is dominated in japan worldwide it's not much of a difference). And yes, the art style is there in street fighter (especially in the arcade mode scenes), but I think there definately is a difference between this

Spoiler

And this

Spoiler

Well, even if my argument is rather silly, it was probably the smallest of points I had. One that doesn't matter the slightest, and probably one I shouldn't have brought up because it is mostly untrue.

The only difference I see is that one is 3D models in a 2D plane and the other is HD sprites. Neither is less anime, one is simply stylistic, imaginative and pretty, the other is mundane and generic.

Not all anime is totally unrealistic and being totally unrealistic doesn't make a thing anime. Hell, Mortal Kombat is more unrealistic than SF4 and nobody would even think MK as being anime-like. Anyways, only SF4 started doing this 3D graphics on a 2D plane thing, all the past ones have sprites and they don't look all that far away really. Hell, in 3rd strike you can even see identical animations to those in SF4...only they actually look more fluid in motion lol.


Oh and yeah, that's why I targeted it, since it was mostly untrue, I didn't have much to say about the rest of the points.

 

[GeorgW]

I wouldn't really count SSB as a "true" fighting game, but that's still my vote. It's the only one I don't suck at. As far as "true" fighting games go, I like both marvel vs capcom and mortal kombat.

 

[LordXel]

I played Super Street Fighter II. Fun at times but not my thing.

I played Tatsunoko vs Capcom. This is the game that I suck at the most.

I played Soul Calibur I-IV. I love these games, the only fighting series I understand.

Super Smash Bros is more like a party game than a fighter.

 

[JKain]

Guilty Gear/BlazBlue
...and still your reasoning of excluding them doesn't hold up imo - and i wouldn't consider it a smart move either (looking at the replys etc.)

..but i do understand your reasons for including SSB

And yes, I *did* feel that the "all fighting games suck" choice was necessary.

and I feel that your feeling was wrong
All fighting games suck 3.9% (13) - yeah, pretty pointless option

 

[ace_of_something]

For some bizzare reason I enjoy fighters. I suck at them. The stories never make sense, and they aren't usually worth the money when it comes to replay.

Lord help me I just can't resist them though. Mortal Kombat and the Street Fighter Alpha (and MvC series which has pretty much the same mechanics) will always have a special place in my heart. MK for it's style. SFA/MvC for it's enjoyment and madness.

I'd have to go for Mortal Kombat myself. I know, it's not very deep, and it's mostly about the spectacle... But I love it all the same.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Smash Bros.

Accessible, simple, fun, lots of different and recognisable characters.

What more do you want?

Depth, complexity, highly competitive drive, an interesting story and uniqueness.

Please expand on depth, because I don't quite understand what you mean by that.

Complexity - I think completely making a different way to fight, including items, team-battle, point-scoring battles, boss-battles, and still giving you the option to fight like in other fighting games with hit-points is a lot more complex than most games I've played of the genre. Added to that characters with certain rules that affect them (I fall faster, I get stronger as I get damaged, most of my attacks rely on chance, I can take other's abilities) and it's a lot more complex...and then you have the ability to turn off half the rules I mentioned to change your game to fight exactly how you want.

Complexity I don't quite understand either. I don't see how many fighting games are 'complex' with he exception of games that give you lengthy combos from a drop-down menu, rather than your own creations you make up on the spot.

Highly competitive drive is a weird thing to argue. My friends and I play the game endlessly and enjoy it, racking up hours of gameplay a day most times me play it. Other people won't.

Interesting story I've not actually encountered on a fighting game. I actually found the story scene in Brawl to be a lot more entertaining than any other fighting game I've personally encountered. Karate-man out for revenge/ultimate weapon/ultimate life-form seems to be the theme of many other fighting games.

Uniqueness? I honestly can't think of a fighting game with much more uniqueness. Half the time I can't tell if people are playing Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter or sometimes even Mortal Kombat until someone burps a fireball.

Depth inj fighting games is when you have a few dozen situational variables to consider, all situationally changing based on your foe's actions, combined with another dozen or so ways to mix up your approach to remain unpredictable, while simultaneously trying to mix it up in a way corresponding to your prediction of your foe's attempts at mixing it up.


Sorry, that's not complexity, that's artificial variety. You can't have randomness play a part in fighting games, that instantly disqualifies items as applied in SSB due to their gamebreaking potential. Messing with the rules isn't adding complexity, it's simply altering balance, so for example the glass cannon guy who normally kills people fast but dies easily will be so disadvantaged that even blocking gets him killed.

Combos aren't as much about complexity as they are about simple technical skill, it's more about creativity. Yes, most games will give you a list of combos to do. Those however are nowhere close the pinnacles of combos in that game, you'll need to discover those yourself, through imaginative play and exploration of the game's depth. (if the game does have such a thing of course, not all fighters do) To give you a visual exaple, here's the hardest challenge mode combos for my character that the game provides:

and here is a combo video made by a person:



Watch them and notice the difference, that is the essence of a complex game that has been truly explored. Can you see how much more imaginative the second one is? (I really hope you can, if you need more details explained be sure to ask)

As for the story and uniqueness parts, those seem to stem from the same problem so I'll tackle them together. Yes, Tekken or Virtua fighter are even LESS unique, I never said otherwise. If you look at my previous posts I was talking about Blazblue and Guilty Gear here. The story aspect also referred to those, their stories are more akin to a visual novel or a Jrpg than what you get from your average street fighter.

 

[Nieroshai]

So "Other" is a resounding win? I can barely think of other fighting games, let alone say I've played them.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

So "Other" is a resounding win? I can barely think of other fighting games, let alone say I've played them.

Then read the posts in this thread, they'll be quite educational.