At least when I play other fighting games I feel like there's good reason for me to be terrible at them: Most people playing them have grown up with them while I just started last year, I don't really have the patience to practice with them very much, I buy too many of them and learn none of them as a result, I'm still not totally accustomed to an arcade stick yet, etc. But this game, this damn game, it's so simple that I feel like there's no reason whatsoever for me to suck at it. Yet I'm probably bottom 10%. I don't get it, man, I just don't get it.

Well, just because it has two buttons doesn't mean it's simple.

Also, I agree, Divekick is definitely a surreal fighting game.

This is what people will start to understand, I think. The real part of fighting games isn't execution or complicated combos but it's mostly what Divekick represents via footsies and mind games as well as a good grasp of offense/defense.

I understand that, but it doesn't make me any good at it.

(Currently at an 8-game losing streak).

This actually makes me angrier than real fighting games.

Wait so what the hell is Divekick? A fake fighting game?

@yummytreesap: It makes you angrier because I think you more fully understand exactly what you did wrong, and if you had instead acted slightly differently, you could've won that round. That stuff is obfuscated way more in other, more complex fighting games.

What makes me angry when I play is constantly feeling like I shouldn't of made that mistake. Everytime I lose a round I say "I know better than that". Mistakes are really important because it's a full round that you're losing. Great, but frustrating.

Only thing that makes me mad is when i lose to stuff i don't get, like against the baz and s-kill. I finally figured out the baz though, even though I hate how you basically have to unlearn everything you know about the game to beat him lol.

Also don't like markman cause he just throws shit out so easily, probably a good way to get past it though, but i play with kick primarily.

"A party game."

The only frustrating thing for me are the special abilities.

Trying to crouch as Redacted and instead having her jump into someone's foot because I hit one button a fraction of a second after the other really sucks.

This is definitely a "real" fighting game. A party game is like those mario party things, this actually has strategy and depth.

by real I assumed he meant more complicated. stop harping on semantics guys

If it's not making you angry, it's not a fighting game.

I'm the opposite. I'd rather lose to a well planned kick than a meticulously memorized combo (not that there's anything wrong with those, it just frustrates me). In this game, you have a chance against even the top players. Not a very good chance, but a chance.

Yep. I still have trouble consistently pulling off a crucial special in the heat of the moment.

I actually haven't really gotten mad at any matches yet. When I lose I usually can figure out immediately after what I did wrong- I read wrong, or spacing, or whatever. Even at the beginning when I was having difficulties figuring out characters (redacted, Stream, Baz, etc.) I figured it was more me needing to figure out the characters than anything else.

So do I. I was having execution issues (who would of though in divekick) so I swapped my controls around a bunch until I stuck with down on dpad and x. I am more consistent with specials. I however don't have a main yet. The tournament is gonna be rough for me. I will probably fraud it up with Mr.N. So GDLK!

I'm pretty sure he was trolling people who claim that Smash isn't a fighting game

@dystopiax said:

I generally know why I lose, and that's exactly why I get angry. Occasionally due to disagreements with how the game calculates winners, but more with myself than anything. The game's simplicity is what kills me. Without there being anything else to get in the way, it just cuts right to the fact that I'm kind of terrible at video games, especially competitive ones, and fighting games even more so. It's a bummer, is all.

Yeah I guess for me when I know what I did wrong, I get less mad cause I don't feel like it was luck, or shit execution, or whatever I can blame things on- it's on me. And rather than getting mad about it since I know what I did wrong it's easy to just go into the next round/match with the intent to improve.

have you tried different characters? I was doing terrible until i found Kung Pao. then after i tried more characters and was also doing terrible with those. you might just have to find the right guy for your play style.

Not yet, really. I've mostly been using Kick, but sometimes I'll pick REDACTED if I think it's a good strategy.

Anyway, I started picking up a little bit of momentum since posting this. I'm still, like, 18–34, which is awful, but I was at 12–30 or something at one point, so that's a short term winning record!

I'm new to fighting games this year but I think I'm getting the hang of it. The biggest hurdle to get over has been learning to not react. Sometimes it's best to just stay on the ground and let an attack go over you. I started out 11-19 but now I'm 29-31 after changing characters.

I find the same and I think it's because largely I can't blame execution errors for my losses, it all comes down to spacing and fundamentals. Except for fucking Markman, fuck him.

Execution is definitely important, at least in typical fighting games or Street Fighter specifically. Dive Kick is just all of that distilled into a much "purer" formula.

First one to make a mistake gets caught in a deadly super long combo and dies is sometimes taken as a sign of an imbalanced game. Now there's a game BASED on that! People will get mad.

I haven't been super mad after losing, mostly just me muttering "damn!" and "Yeah. Yup. Alright, that-- yeah." because I can recognize all of those were because I made mistakes. The only time I really get frustrated is when (it feels like) someone has me so well read that I can't even put a scratch on him, and I choke.

Yeah, but the execution part is important AFTER the footsies and mindgames. You use the latter to open the opponent up to a situation where you can actually use that execution. I think @fluxwavez is right in that there is a misconception from people who don't play fighting games seriously about the execution being what makes high level fighting game play, which is why a lot of people thought Divekick was nothing but a dumb joke without any level of depth to it. Maybe they'll think differently if they play a bit of the game online etc.

Fantastic. You've taught me a new maxim.

Divekick is the realest fighting game, the Bushido Blade of a new generation.

I jumped into Baz lightning 3 times in a row earlier. So salty.

I'm absolutely loving Divekick, the simplicity just allows me to get involved instantly. I've always wanted to invest some time in a proper fighting game but never had the luxury of enough time to learn all the moves etc.

It's completely whacky and basic but it works so well. It's fucking hilarious too! It is also infinitely tactical for such a stripped back fighting game. I'm certainly learning alot about timing and movement/baiting in fighting games.

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because I can't continuously tap buttons during animations as much as I like to do in regular fighting games, but I tend to actually panic sometimes in this game and my execution suffers. That makes me mad, but at the same time, it's kind of cool getting that panicky feeling back that I haven't felt since I was a kid.

What others have said, it actually condenses elements of fighting games to their "purest" form, thus making you SEE your mistakes in their rawest form. When you over-commit and your opponent punishes you, you feel it because it was such a simple mistake. When you bait your opponent into something, then miss your punish and get punished in return, you again feel it because it was all so simple.

@yummytreesap said:

You start off with not much patience for them. Personally I had that situation too. If you love them enough, you will gradually understand and gain experience from them. It's not instantaneous and the road will feel sometimes hard but in the long run, you will enjoy them.

Here is something to help you out if you are willing to partake.

Yeah, I've read that link.

One thing that Divekick definitely has over other fighting games (I'll apologize for my use of real though I'm sure my intent was clear) is that I feel I can actually play it online and have some semblance of a chance. With other fighting games that is not the case, unfortunately. Most people playing fighting games online in 2013 have done it for years, so the odds of me finding someone of a similar skill level are low. None of my friends like fighting games, either, so I can't even play with people I know. It's unfortunate. I don't think my area has any sort of fighting game scene.

My main problem with fighting games is being able to translate everything I've learned into actually playing the game. I can read about strategies as much as I want, do as many combo trials as I can (making progress toward the trophy in KoF XIII!), but nothing equals actual match experience. Without getting to do it against people, though, I don't get any better. Divekick at least I feel on equal ground with everyone else, theoretically.

Who would get mad at a Flash game?

It does make me angrier than most games, but for the opposite reason. I was watching an old episode of the Marvelous Adventures of Gootecks and Mike Ross, and they said Marvel made them the most angry because they didnt know why they lost a lot of the time. For me its the opposite, Divekick makes the most angry because most times i KNOW exactly why i lost, every single round. I find marvel makes me salty, but most of the time i can just go "well, thats marvel!", with divekick i am liable to throw my controller across the room yelling, "FUCK, I SUCK AT THIS!"

I was playing as Jefailey and was standing right in the middle with around 2 seconds left, actually was smart enough to use Timer Scam.

Got kicked in the head with 0 on the clock. Must have been like .1 seconds before I would have been really happy.

Divekick is a weird mindgame you end up playing with the other player AND yourself, and since you're not thinking much about the execution and going more with your gut, ability to read or predict, and reflexes, it's easy to psych yourself out and then get pissed at yourself because of it. There's almost immediate feedback on what you did wrong, and more often than not when you make your move you know IMMEDIATELY whether it was the right thing to do or not. You just feel it in your gut in a way that I don't get from other fighters, because a lot of the time I feel I'm too focused on execution.

@gorillamopena: The 0 counts as a second. Gotta timer scam at 1.

@pollysmps: Yep, half the time I psyche myself out more than my opponent actually doing something. I'm typically my own worst enemy.

@phished0ne: Exactly my sentiment. It makes me SOOOO much more salty than any SFIV loss or Injustice loss because I can't just say, "Oh, I'm playing as Bane and that was just a really terrible match-up for him..." or anything like that. Every loss I suffer in Divekick (now over 100) I place squarely on my own shoulders and my inability to "do it right".

But in a lot of ways, that's why I love it and can't stop playing it. I know if I just calm down, just play the match-up like I know I can and execute, I can win. And in the same vein, if I get headshotted by Jefailey for 5 rounds in a row, it was because I was playing like absolute garbage. Nothing else factors in.

Just when I thought I was on the rise, I lost seven games tonight and won only one. Maybe it's my fatalistic attitude, but I'm pretty sure I'm never going to be not terrible at this game. At least I detected a fraud in my one win.