The Generic Fighting Game Guide v2.8

History

012509 – First draft of guide

013009 – Fixed some typos and added new section Fair Play Part 3

021109 – New section The Pros at work Part 1: Miracle of Daigo

021509 - Added more sections of Pros at work

021709 – Added section “All fighting Games are the same”

022009 – Added section “All fighting Game are the Same” Part 2

030109 - General editing down of stuff to make the guide more concise.

Welcome to my general guide about fighting games. Let start off by telling you what this guide is and isn’t. This guide isn’t going to be a technical manual on any specific fighting game or how to do tricky moves or win in tournaments. What this guide is is to inform and hopefully change the way you think about fighting games in general.

           The idea for this guide was derived from the Bombcast from the week of 012009. Growing up with fighting games when they where at their peak, I myself really sucked at them for the longest time. Then one day I met some new friends and I totally wiped the floor with them; they had never played any fighting games before. College rolled around and my friends there were so into fighting games that they had schooled me in more ways than one. So then what was our difference? Experience, skill? No, it was simply because when they play, they play to win.

           Ever since then I stumbled upon a little website made by a certain tournament player called Sirlin. Certain sections of this guide are inspired from him. It was because of his writings (I actually bought his book even though it was free online) along with the tournament players I met in college that I have begun to think of fighting games in this manner and not just a series of flashy animation with someone being called the winner at the end.

             I want to thank all those that PM me (or commented) about my guide. If it wasn’t for you guys I wouldn’t have a reason to even fix my typos and grammar mistakes from my first draft, much less try to think of new ways to expand it. I do read all your comments and PM messages, just don’t be offended if I don’t directly reply back to you. While I don’t think I can write much more (unless some comments or whatever intrigues me enough to try to tackle) without going into territory that I may not be fit to write about; I am going to continue this guide in the form of Video commentary.

By video commentary, I will put what I believe are really great fighting game videos from competitions. I will write a commentary on it, so that everybody will understand the high level of game play and perhaps learn a thing or two.

Ok, this is going to be my last update for the guide that I see myself doing. With Street Fighter 4 being released, I'm going to spend most of my time there and most likely write a proper guide for that. I don't believe I can even show any more videos that I can clearly show why its high level of play since they ultimately do all boil down to the same overall tactic of controlling space. I know I never actually did write a full on guide as to why this move works and when you want to do this move like Jeff's real challenge was. But seeing as this guide relates to all fighting games, I hope I gave the readers a good stepping stone and at least change thier minds on how to think about the game genre as a whole. If you really still don't know what you should do, then by all means try to copy some of the moves you see in "The Pros @ Work". Notice what they are not doing as well as what they are doing. My ultimate hope is that you find your own rhythm and technqiue when you play since this isn't Guitar Hero on Expert where there is only one true way of pressing the buttons in a specific manor and time or you'll get penalized. Not being able to do all the big combos and flashy moves isn't the end of the world since a fighting game is all about defeating your opponent. As you can see in "The Pros @ Work", even the Pros just use the combos that are effective; skill is determined by the winner and not the amount of special moves you can do. 

I initially thought about putting this as a subsection of controlling space, but seeing as how this guide is mainly for beginners it would be smart to put this first.

            To the beginner having the ability to do the fireball is a god send, and of course having the fireball done to you is considered “ultra cheap”. But the fireball is the simplest form of controlling space that it is the bread and butter of most fighting games. It is not considered cheap by any means to “Spam” fireballs although it is a common first brick wall that regrettably most people don’t get over.

           The very simplest fireball game involves spamming lots and lots of fireballs. Nah, just kidding, but to the untrained eye, it can seem like it. In every fighting game there are usually different level strengths of punches that you can do; most games have light, medium and hard, while others may only have light and hard. Almost every fireball command uses a punch button as the last command to throw the fireball. The level of punch (light, medium or hard) used has an effect on the fireball itself. This effect is the speed of the fireball and how hard it hits.

           The amount of variation to put in the fireball is the essence of the fireball game. We as gamers have been used to jumping ever since the days of Mario (sadly some gamers are too young to experience a 2d Mario platformer that isn’t dubbed retro). Seeing a fireball come our way, we have one of two instinctual habits: try to jump over it or duck and block in fear.

           When an ultra ripped guy throws a ball of fire your way, your natural instinct is to block (the safe choice). However because of chip damage (a very small amount of damage taken relative to not blocking), every fireball you block puts you on the losing side one pixel of your life bar at a time. So to progress in the game, you have to get over your fear and jump.

           All your platforming experience will come in play here as you gauge how fast the fireball is coming at you (not all characters jump the same). You will jump at the right time and make it to the other side just fine. However there are two ways you can approach this (assuming you and your opponent are at opposite sides of the screen). One way would be to just jump straight up and down. This way is safer than the alternate since you’re character is only traveling in one direction along the Y axis. Depending on the character, even if you jump too early, you have enough time to make another jump and still be safe. Only problem is though, you still made no progress. The second method of jumping is to aim to jump over the fireball. This is an all or nothing situation since if you mistimed the jump; you would just be jumping straight into the fireball (you’re now traveling along the Y and X axis). Of course this is game theory applied to real life so, the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.

           So what can the fireball thrower do all this time? Once you got the Mario wanna be jumping around like a monkey over and around the projectile it seems it’s only a matter of time before he closes in and smacks you in the head. Remember that the level of punch you throw will dictate the level of fireball thrown, so mix it up. We all want to take the other person down as fast as possible, so its almost natural instinct to throw the hardest and fastest fireball that we can. Once the opponent gets used to them, throw a slow and small hitting fireball, just to throw them off their timing. Depending on how they react, they may totally take the fireball in the face or stutter step, recover in time but have no choice to block (remember, chip damage). You can of course do the opposite of throwing a bunch of slow ones only to have a fast one to catch your opponent off guard. Nothing is guaranteed though since your opponent can quickly learn your pattern and still jump accordingly. Yet the most logical response would be to fight fire with fire and throw a fireball of your own.

            Throwing your own fireball will make the overall action (between the two characters), a zero sum situation since both the fireballs will just negate each other. At least when you tried to jump over them, there was a chance you could press the advantage should you choose correctly. In most fighting games, the fireball does so little damage; even if it does hit, you would better trying to press the advantage yourself by getting close for combos and throws. Some characters’ slowest fireball is actually so slow, that you have enough time to walk right behind the fireball. This gives you (the fireball thrower) the opportunity to use fireballs not only as a keep away weapon, but as a traveling protection barrier while you get in close to your opponent.

           With the basics of the fireball game explained, the simple act of throwing a bunch of fireballs now actually seems like a game. Yet fireball “spamming” is still frowned upon in the noob community. The simple reason is most of them never develop a repeatable working strategy around the fireballs, making the person throwing the fireballs have a much easier time than the person dealing with them. That is unfortunately true to which I have no concrete answer to. Once again this is game theory applied to real life. In theory, getting past the fireball game will reap much bigger rewards (You can easily take a few fireballs in the face and make an easy comeback when you do finally get close enough; that’s the reason why pros move on past the fireball game even if they have the advantage). However, there is still no guarantee that the game will not degenerate down into solely the fireball game when both parties don’t know better. This topic if further discussed in “Advanced stuff and frame counting”.

Just like any game whether it’s an FPS map or a football field if you control the playing space, you control the game. Except this isn’t a team based game and instead one on one match. Every move you do takes up a certain amount of space on the screen. The more of it you control the more you are likely to win. It is essential that you think of the game in this fashion and not just a series of pretty animation. Remember that fireball you love to hate? It represents being in control of the horizontal space (X axis), that’s why the simplest counter is to go vertical (Y axis) and jump. Yes we all want to see the money shots of specials and super moves that is high damaging and really cool looking; but for the same reason why you don’t go for a Hail Mary throw every play in football (or just straight up try to sprint to the goal and kick the ball in original football), there are tactics involved in fighting games.

           In certain games there is a training mode where you can turn on the hit boxes to see exactly how the game calculates out how space is being controlled. In general every move you do controls more screen space, but this comes at a cost.

           Every attack in the game has frames of animation your character uses to convey space being controlled either by punches, kicks, or special moves like the fireball. However, right after the control comes the recovery phase (Certain moves have the inverse of that called the wind up phase). This is the time when you are open to attack and there is nothing you can do about it. If your attack had landed, the amount of time they are stunned will be longer than your recovery phase, giving the advantage to you. If not, vice versa.

           This ultimately makes you want to understand why you would want to throw certain moves at certain times; much like key play calling in sports ultimately wins the game. Since this guide is not character or even game specific, you are still left on your own if you just cannot do a move. Rest assured that most games come with some sort of tutorial to get you started on at least learning how to do basic moves. What you want to keep in mind is how your character is controlling the screen space during that time and the risk and rewards of all moves.

Now if one was to start out playing the game they would most likely want to have the settings set to infinite time, just to erase another variable to keep track of. However having the default time tick down to zero from 60 or 99 seconds is as essential as the game clock itself in any sports game.

           The reason why this is also important is the same reason why there is a game clock in all sports games. Because it is a fighting game, by nature you don’t want to get hurt and of course hurt others. It becomes a pure game theory put to practice. When you put yourself on the offensive, you leave yourself open to be countered. However, if you let the other person attack you and counter with the correct tactic, you win. This ultimately becomes a game of chicken, further exemplified when you factor in the time clock. The time clock will make even the most defensive player go on the offensive at least once.

A charge character is one where to do a special move (like fireball); you have to press a certain direction for at least two seconds followed by another direction and some attack button. A “twitch” character is one that you can do a special move by a sudden “twitch” of the direction pad followed by an attack button. Which character you play is totally dependent on your style of play. For a beginner that probably doesn’t have much of a game plan and is playing a reactionary role, a “twitch” character may be easier to play, but the charge character has other advantages. For a clear example, I will use Brad’s example of Guile versus Ryu.

           Now in a pure fireball battle between these two, Guile would be at a serious disadvantage. Ryu can simply throw fireballs all day long without moving backwards at all and guile has to charge back two seconds before being able to throw one. Specifically for Guile, he has a couple of advantages over Ryu (just not in the fireball department).

           Guile’s overhead kick and sweep (as well as backhand) is longer than Ryu’s own respective attacks so as long as guile can get close and within range, his pokes will outreach Ryu’s own punches and kicks (meaning free hits). Ryu has to have a certain amount of frames to wind his fist up to throw his fireball; and to top it off (if you’re one of those that frame counts) his body moves forward before the fireball is released. During this time, if Guile is close enough, he can simply poke Ryu with any of his regular attacks that has a longer range than Ryu’s and Ryu will take damage. Sure it may not look pretty doing these normal attacks, but the point is to whittle your opponent’s life bar down (At high level play, some games boil down to only this since both parties are smart enough to never leave themselves open for major moves).

           Guile however has the problem of getting close to Ryu in the first place. Simply negating Ryu’s fireball will not give him the advantage, yet the simplest motion will help him. Be like Mario and jump! If timed right, just like a Mario jump, Guile (or any character facing a fireball) can simply jump over it getting closer in range for his pokes. If Ryu should play a very good fireball game and even throw a fake one Guile would be jumping into a trap. But then again, nothing is full proof.

           An advanced tactic specific to Guile would be his bazooka knee. Done by pressing back and short kick, he lunges forward with a knee strike bringing him closer to Ryu. Since this move is done by holding back, he is still technically charging and can throw a negating fireball at anytime while still pressing the advantage. Of course this would require planning ahead of time which brings me back to generalizations.

           For any charge characters, your game plan for the most part will be ABC (Always Be Charging). You can hold diagonal back/down and it will count as both a charge for down and back opening up your move list. Of course, this puts you in a predictable position (but even if you have to mobile and jump around) but always stick with ABC. When you have to jump up, it only takes a certain amount of frames to actually jump. During this time, you can start charging your character while your character is still jumping up. By the time you hit the ground, if you follow up with some strikes you will achieve the 2 seconds needed to register a charge move making it possible to immediately pull off a move as if you where a “twitch” character.

           While the last several paragraphs seem to make Guile and Charge characters shine over “twitch” characters, I am in no way stating that “twitch” is strictly for beginners. After all, the infamous Daigo uses only “twitch” characters (like Ryu); but the difference between us and him is that he has enough experience of not only knowing attack patterns from all characters, but also being able to read his opponents.

So you’ve just picked up a fighting game and don’t know how to throw a fireball much less have the timing down on how to jump over them. Who should be your first character? Well if you don’t even know how to throw a fireball, start off with Ryu. All his commands for his special attacks have set the bar for all 2D fighting games ever. (Street Fighter literally built the Fighting game Genre). Knowing how to pull off his moves will essentially make you learn how to play all Ryu like characters in every other fighting game in the world (believe me; every game has a Ryu type character).

           For those that don’t know, Ryu has the most balanced three moves in the game. His fireball controls horizontal space as a projectile, while his dragon punch controls vertical space for those that want to jump on him. Finally his third move is the hurricane kick, which is mainly used as a way for Ryu to be mobile but controlling the space around him at the same time.

           The trick is not to get too comfortable with him and graduate to other characters. Players like Daigo may specialize in Ryu, but that’s after he has played all the other characters enough to make an informed choice. In my opinion, Ryu was chosen by Daigo because he is so balanced that he has no weaknesses either. This of course is a generalization since he has been known to play other characters depending on the game. In the infamous Chun Li parry in Street fighter 3, Daigo was using Ken and not Ryu (mainly due to the parrying system making fireballs nearly worthless against an expert player.)

All tournament players specialize. Whether they specialize in one character for life or for a specific tournament, specialization is essential. Of course it always helps to have a back up character since other than arguably Ryu, no character is perfectly balanced making some character match ups have an inherent handicap.

           This is only true if you are playing for blood and winning is absolutely necessary. If you are playing a single player game to hone your skills, play anybody, play everybody. It’s a single player game, and much like the first months of learning how to play a musical instrument you will be terrible. However that is what practice is for.

           When you find yourself frustrated because your character is deficient in certain aspects, that is when you are a cross road to either start studying tournament videos on your character or simply make a lateral move and choose another character. The lateral move is recommended since you would be expanding your character selection possibilities. Who knows, you just might find that one character that you just click with.

“OMG that is so FN cheap, there is like no way I can beat that….” Yeah, we all heard it before and we all meant it before at one point or another. However, nothing is “cheap”, but rather the reason why fighting games has become very niche in the past decade.

           The parry system, roman canceling, custom combos, alpha counters and even the lesser entry fee of reversal timing, super moves and tick throws are all just barriers of entry to play the game. If you don’t know them and your opponent does, you are at an inherent disadvantage. This is apparent when you keep losing match after match to game play which you never knew was possible much less don’t have an answer to; its enough to make you call the other player cheap and just quit.

           Ultimately it’s all fair game though, but just like in real life, have some mercy every now and then. You don’t have to play like your life depends on it every match. After all you run the risk to plateau your skills when you just stick to the same old habits even though they work for the majority of players you encounter. You get cocky and think you’re the bomb, only to be utterly destroyed when enter yourself in a tournament.

           The truth is your tactics may have worked in a small pond of people that you play with on a daily basis, but the ultra serious people that play at high level tournament play have found ways around it long ago. Since you were stuck with your pride that your tactics work for most opponents, you never got around learn a second tactic once your original wall is broken.

           With online play, it has never been easier to throw down against someone that could be potentially better than you. Add to it internet videos of the pros and general message boards, no tactic is too cheap since there is almost a transparency of disputed broken moves, making a response counter faster than ever. However, the harder the move is, the even harder the counter is likely to be. Depending on the game this could just make the entry fee too high as people simply will refuse to learn those advanced tactics (hence, niche).

Glitches like negative edge, piano method, storing moves and general canceling stuff into other stuff is all fair play as well. In fact the ability to combo at all was first a glitch that has since turned into standard game play (just like all the other glitches mentioned). Just because there is a glitch, doesn’t mean the game is automatically broken. In fact it just enhances what your character can and cannot do.

           However, there are limits; More specifically, your own personal limits. Whether it’s an unintentional glitch (like roll canceling in Capcom Vs SNK 2), or an intended system (like parrying in SF3), if you’re not willing to learn it; you might as well quit. Ok maybe quitting is too harsh of a word, but you can never say you are an expert player in that game. Learn however much you want to learn, but always know that unless you’re a true pro, somebody will take more time and effort than you and understand the game on a much deeper level than you.

           If you should ever come across a player that just destroys you in every way possible, all you can do is pray. You can either pray he never faces you again, or you can pray he at least shows you how he’s doing it. Depending on how you feel about the game, you are at a crossroad of stepping it up to the next level, or calling it quits and play different game.

           Once again, there are limits. Only this time I am talking about the community here. In some fighting games, if a glitch is too powerful or a character is just too unbalanced, any serious tournament around the game would place effective bans against certain characters or using that glitch. The reason behind it is to keep the level of competition up, without the game degenerated down to only using the most powerful character and the same glitch tactic over and over again. A real borderline case is Capcom versus SNK 2 and the infamous roll cancel.

           In Capcom versus SNK 2, a roll cancel is performed by doing a roll (a roll is a move that renders you invulnerable while your character moves forward) and canceling the roll into a regular special move (or anything really, even a taunt is possible). Because you are supposed to be invulnerable during the roll, the same invulnerability is transferred over when you do the special move. The result is being able to do a move without any repercussion of being countered. Your roll canceled move will go through all normal moves including supers. The only trick is; this move takes very precise timing that you do literally have to practice with a metronome and frame count to get the timing down. The highest of all entry fees, there have been countless tournaments won by players that know roll canceling as opposed to those that don’t. However, just like any move (even if it’s a glitch move), the window of being invulnerable has a limit so it’s not considered to break the game (Every character can do this glitch), but instead the highest level of play.

           The more niche the game is, the harder it is to keep the community around the game viable. Some tournaments do ban roll canceling, but the highest level of tournament playing (Evo Championship series IMO) just accepts this as regular game play and still somehow gets enough support to keep the game in tournaments. Perhaps the pros have just gotten used to that game play and have even developed a counter against roll canceling; I hit my own personal limit when it comes to learning roll canceling much less finding a counter for it.

So far all I have done is just give you a rough guideline to understand the complexity/depth of the game. While everything above may give you a better understanding and perhaps respect for the fighting game genre; I realize I still haven’t given beginners anything to build off of.

           For the first day of play (whether it’s a 20 minute session or 2 hour gorge fest), don’t worry about winning or losing. Enjoy the animations, and just get an overall feel of how characters play. If you are an ultra noob, so much that you don’t know how to do basic moves, hit the tutorial or play with a friend (hopefully he’s on the same page as you or he’s truly your friend and let you win a couple of matches). Depending on your attention span and your ability to learn, hopefully you have found some character you can reliably do special moves off, or at the very least some character that you believe is interesting enough to learn for whatever reason (whether its because of his animations or character tier).

           Once you have found a character you like at the very least try to beat the game with your character on the default difficulty; this is just another step in getting familiar with your character. Once you have found all the tactics and moves you can learn by yourself; hit the training mode. In training mode, turn on infinite supers and have your opponent be a pure punching bag. Now they aren’t even fighting back and you can see all the pretty animations you could possibly want.

           The punching bag version of training is recommended first since it lets you learn the offensive capabilities of your character. If you once again find your instinctual abilities to learn more moves to be limiting, then its time to look up videos of your character mainly in the form of combo videos.

           The next step is train to be defensive. If everybody only did offense, the game would degenerate down to a pure slug fest without any grace of bobbing and weaving around attacks. Once again training mode with everything turned on but this time the computer will fight back. Because you are in training mode, you will not have to worry about your health, the timer and all other variables that make the game, a game. Yes this might seem weird, but not worrying about the game is much like doing drills in practice; it serves a purpose. You seriously have no reason to not try out anything since there literally is no punishment for not taking a chance now.

No worries if it this takes some time; after all a fighting game isn’t like an RPG where your character gets better. The only thing improving as you play is you. If you find yourself struggling with even how to pull off the most basic of moves reliably, then spend 20 minute practice sessions in training mode just doing that move over and over again. Yes at this point, it seems like more work than it is play, but the fighting game genre is almost an instrument in some ways. The barrier to entry can be high depending on how intuitive you are. However, across the board in all fighting games, it seems the top players are always the same people over and over because the skills have translate from one game to another. This is of course true for other genres such as FPS, Platformers, etc.

Finally, if your character is not a charge character, I recommend you to take one up. The reason behind it, is that charge characters have to ABC (always be charging), and as a result would make you plan your attacks out. It is almost too easy and simplistic to keep playing “twitch” characters on a reactionary (for lack of better word) “twitch” role. A better player that has a game plan can simply bait your reaction leaving you open for their actual attack. Once you have learned to play with a game plan in mind, all characters you play will be much more efficient.

I will mainly expand my guide from now in this section by showing great fighting game videos that exemplifies what I’m talking about. All these videos are not mine, and instead of the Pros at various tournaments. My only contribution is my commentary on them as I try my hand at being John Madden (in a good way) explaining the game at high levels.

Disclaimer is that I do not own any of these videos, and while I thought about ripping these videos off and putting them on my own profile (just to really secure the availability of the videos), I have decided not to and instead just link and embed them in. The reason behind this is out of respect for those that did take the time to post the videos up. Ripping the videos would saturate the server with duplicate videos and it would only result in less page views for the original poster whether they have the right to post it or not. So out of respect I will just link or embed.

Ok, just to show that I do actually know what I’m talking about; I’m going to show all my theory put into practice. There is no one better to prove this than the legend himself Daigo. To be clear, the video I linked is of Daigo in some competition match in .

           In this video titled “miracle of Daigo”, Daigo and his opponent both use Ryu. This mirror match up with the most balanced character from both sides will come down to the wire as many variables are taken out from this match up. The winner is the person that plays the best mind games of being able to anticipate their opponent and adjusting tactics on the fly. Daigo is player 2, and I have no idea who player 1 is other than he would probably kick my ass with my best character any day of the week so much respect for both players.

          Round 1: The match starts off a quick hop and hurricane kick (controlling space as you move) only to be met by a dragon punch (controlling vertical space). After some trade off later, the bread and butter of the game comes into effect as both characters are on the opposite sides of the screen (best position to throw fireballs btw). Notice how both characters are quick to jump over them, and even use hurricane kicks to alter their landing times making sure the fireball miss. When Daigo corners Player 1, he distances himself at the correct spot to throw fireballs where it would be very hard to react. Player 1 then gets out of the situation by a quick hop and hurricane kick over Daigo to get some space. At 30 seconds into the video both characters come closer to the magic spot where both players can do some major damage to each other. The distancing between both the Ryus make it so that it is possible to jump in on each other for some major damage if the other Ryu throws a fireball. However, both players know this. The reason for the fake fireball in HD remix, both Ryus start doing the motion for the fireball but not pressing the punch button. This is done to fake out the other player into jumping in when they think it’s safe. Some more mind games appear as both Ryus now plays defensively just waiting for the other person to leave themselves open for attack. Some more bait tactics leads to end of the round as the tiny openings are only good for minor pokes and sweeps. Daigo ends the round with a super fireball that will hit as soon as the opponent gets up; being low on life Player 1 has no way of retaliating as its check mate round 1 goes to Daigo.

           Round 2: The match starts off with similar tactics for both players utilizing hurricane kicks in the air to control space as you move and of course the extended poke of the fireball. What should be noted is how both Ryus does a forward fierce punch to travel forward instead of walking forward. Even though, the sliding fierce punch will never hit the opponent half the screen away, the move does control space as you move (as opposed to being neutral just walking forward). Also, as a frame count reference doing this move will make you move forward faster then if you had just pressed forward to move forward. The quicker reaction time of Player 1 to do a super after both Ryus slide punch toward each other is the big decider of the match. A great follow up with a quick hop and hurricane kick allows Player 1 to continue the pressure. Daigo reversals out of the pressure however, but a cross up tick throw is reversed thrown by Player 1 to officially seal the deal. Round 2 go to Player 1.

           Round 3: Once again Player 1 puts the pressure on immediately with hurricane kicks to get in close and quick sweep and pokes making sure he doesn’t leave himself too open for retaliation. This works with great efficiency as Daigo is down half a life bar and barely made a dent into Player 1. Some more normal trade off blows later, Daigo is down enough to lose the match if he keeps this tactic up. Player one wants to chip at Daigo’s life away not afraid to trade blows and throws a super at pretty close range. Daigo becomes Mario and jumps over it even countering with a kick on his way down. With no super left for Player 1, the time ticks down with 20 seconds left on the clock. With such a great lead in life, Player 1 decides to play defensively (playing keep away now) and hope to wait the game out. With 4 seconds left on the clock, Daigo corners the turtle-ling Player 1 and unleashes a super only to be blocked. However because Player 1 was ducking, Ryu’s overhead punch (forward medium punch, a move that can only be blocked high as in you are standing and not ducking) connects just in time for the timer to run down. Round 3 by a tiny sliver; Daigo wins.

           The reason why I choose this match was because it exemplifies most of my points on the basics of all fighting games. Controlling space at every opportunity, and showing even the pros still do the fireball game. However, notice how the fireball game stopped (or slowed down) after round 1 as both players move on past that since both players have shown the ability to get around the fireball in round 1. Also, the importance of the timer was put into effect as the big decider of the match was down to the clock. Overall, Daigo won because of being able to make key decisions when it was crucial. Player 1 had actually out framed (Doing your move a couple of frames earlier than your opponent, <both Daigo and Player 1 was doing their super moves at the same time, {you can see Daigo's Ryu winding up the super as well}; but Player 1 won because he did his super fractions of a second earlier>) Daigo on several occasions as he was the young gun trying to dethrone Daigo. Just like many great sport comebacks, Daigo shows why he is a beast at the game, by being able to play call all the right moves at the right times and literally get into the mindset of his opponent. Perhaps if Player 1 had continued to risk a little more trading blows in round 3, Daigo may have lost. But the mentality of “I have such a great lead that I will win”; was what brought Player 1 out of his element (as his rhythm beforehand was beating Daigo handedly). That shift was also what Daigo needed since he knew what his opponent was thinking now and in a quick Hall Mary combo (even if it’s blocked) got enough life down for the win.

           The ending was a lock since if the blocking Ryu had been standing, that overhead punch would have been a throw instead. Unless the throw is softened, that throw would have ended the match as well. However, we can never calculate out the Chaos theory too much since Player 1 had decided to block low and not high. That wrong decision by itself cost him the game. When you are at a high level of play, any tiny edge you can get will be the deciding factor; videos like this is why Daigo is constantly on top since he can make up an answer to your game plan on the fly.

Even though Daigo doesn’t win every tournament he enters (just like your favorite sports star doesn’t win every game either), his play style of reading his opponent and making a win out of a losing situation is what Daigo does best. Here are the two best moments of classic Daigo that I could find.

            This first match is Daigo versus Afrolegends. The game is good old classic Street Fighter Anniversary Edition (think before HD remix), and the match up is going to be Balrog/Dee Jay versus Ryu. Evo 2006 both competitors wouldn’t place in top three, but just like some of the best sports games may not be the final match these videos are just fun to watch and show to people.

            Match 1, round 1: Balrog being a charge character with no fireballs is going to have a tough time with fireballs. He only has one move that would get him past fireballs, and that is his buffalo head butt. Balrog tries to position himself to within striking distance but Daigo sees Balrog’s attack coming a mile away and dragon punches him back while pushing him further away with fireballs. Daigo plays it safe with such a great lead on life, Balrog gets desperate (throws a super) and Daigo capitalizes by countering the super. Round 1 goes to Daigo.

            Match 1, round 2: Despite having no fireball and being a charge up character, Balrog is top tier because when he finds an opening, Balrog brings the pain. This time, Balrog starts the match with a low rush and does several pokes and other moves to keep the pressure on. Just like a true boxer they are just meant to bait the opponent only to have Afrolegends pause and strike again when Daigo was open for attack. Afrolegends has been charging various TAP (Turn Around Punches) as well as rush punches (charge back for two seconds, etc) and timing them to attack one right after another. Sometimes a regular punch is needed to keep the pressure up while a move charges. This flurry of moves can only be done if you have a game plan and input your moves like Guitar Hero/DDR (where you are thinking of what button to press next instead of what you should be doing now). Ryu gets dizzied and it almost seems like Balrog is going to perfect Daigo. But a dragon punch starts Daigo comeback. A nasty overhead punch (must be blocked high) and sweep continues Daigo’s rampage. Should be noted how he canceled his sweep afterwards with a small hurricane kick to lesson his recovery frame so that Daigo can keep the pressure on. Cross up hurricane kicks and Balrog is Dizzy. A super finishes this match. Round and match goes to Daigo for such an amazing comeback.

            Match 2, round 1: This time it’s Dee Jay versus Ryu and just like how I said before for charge characters versus “twitch” characters you do not fight fire with fire. Fireball for fireball, Ryu has a much easier time throwing fireballs than charge characters. The only time Afrolegends hurt Daigo was when Dee Jay got around Ryu’s fireballs instead of fighting fire with fire. Would have worked too if Afrolegends went with it, but Daigo had closed the gap to the magic sweet spot for the fireball. Cornering Afrolegends, Daigo’s magic spot essentially makes Afrolegends think on his feet more and react to the fireball before it even comes. Using Dee Jay’s own fireballs to push Daigo back, Daigo made Afrolegends fight fire with fire and when Daigo has a super ready to be unleashed, check mate. Round 1 goes to Daigo for another amazing comeback.

            Match 2, round 2: Round 2 is almost a repeat of round 1, where for any other opponent, Dee Jay throwing fireballs may have been good, but not this time again. The majority of Dee Jay’s damage came from being able to get around the fireball and smack Ryu in the face. Once again a super ends this match and Daigo sweeps the set.

            I don’t blame Afrolegends for his game plan since I’m pretty sure his Balrog and his Dee Jay can kick my ass. For the first match, Balrog had several slim chances to make that one last dent to finish off Ryu. The overhead punch and cross up hurricane kicks can be reversed (as in doing a reversal to get out of) but it takes very accurate timing and for Balrog and 2 seconds of planning ahead (Balrog’s reversal is a charge move). Perhaps it was shell shock or not being able to perform under pressure but all those moves are possible to get out off. Dee Jay in a way had to throw a bunch of his own fireballs (even though it takes more effort for Dee Jay than Ryu) just to condition Ryu into throwing a bunch of fireballs so that Afrolegends can jump over them. After all, if Afrolegends had just jumped in, Daigo would simply dragon punch his way out. It was the super that was the big decider for both rounds as Afrolegends should have kept an eye out for Daigo’s super meter and when not to throw a fireball. Overall Afrolegends played a solid Dee Jay game to anybody but Ryu with a super (many fireball traps with slides to those that try to jump in).

            For the most famous of all classic moments, the next video is going to be the infamous parry video. The game is third strike and the two competitors are Daigo and Justin Wong. Third strike has this system that absolutely makes fireballs useless called the parry system. Performed by pressing forward at the last second right before you get hit, you would “parry” the hit by essentially absorbing the hit and leaving the attacker open for attack. If you cannot master the parry system or at least do it reliably enough, you already lost the game. Because a parry does no chip damage, this system absolutely makes anyone that knows what’s coming essentially win. Fast reaction times and devastating moves are not enough as you literally have to outsmart your opponent to win. Set in Evo 2004, this is actually the losers’ bracket to determine who places second. I somewhat feel bad for the actual winner seeing as how people will remember this match more than anything else.

            Match 1, round 1: Chun li versus Ken, both players dance around to play the foot and throw game. Just like a real fight, both players want to charge up their supers and till then will only do the equivalent of small jabs and holds (or small plays in any other sport) that you see in boxing and MMA. Daigo with a huge opening (after weaving in and out of range) capitalizes with a super and even taunt afterwards. Daigo ends the round with a beautiful parry into a flaming dragon punch.

            Match 1, round 2: With supers stored up, Justin waste no time as his first opening hit he combos right into a super and corners Daigo. Justin changes his game plan a bit by doing a punch canceled into a fireball (it may have been an overhead punch I’m not entirely sure). Mixed back up with the foot game and more pokes, it seems as if Daigo was going to lose this round. Justin does win as this is not the magic parry moment yet.

            Match 1, round 3: With max super bar already for Daigo, he has no reason to charge up anymore, yet Justin still needs to charge. So then Daigo just sits back inactive as a taunt with in itself (you can hear that the crowed gets the joke). The match finally starts off just like before with Justin doing a small hit to combo into a super. Daigo once again goes inactive (he just reads Justin’s move style), and Justin once again does a tiny hit and combo into a super. Justin, with no supers left and Daigo with 3 supers uses his supers for EX fireballs. That is only so effective before Justin starts parrying the fireballs. With no life left for Daigo, Justin decides to say fuck it and do a super without the small hit opening (with the intention of chipping Daigo’s life away). Big mistake as every hit is parried including the last one where Ken jumps up, and counters with a kick, an uppercut canceled into a super (Daigo didn’t have to jump up to parry the last hit, but did so because a jump kick is easier to combo than if Ken was standing). Check mate, the set goes to Daigo.

            Match 2, round 1: More fancy footwork and throws to charge up super meter. Once both players create an opening, a round of supers is on the house. I love how Daigo does a taunt at the end of his supers. Justin actually takes round 1 using a mix up of standing punches (canceled into fireballs) and foot game with throws.

            Match 2, round 2: More of the same as there was a part of the match where they didn’t even play for space but rather just pressed punches and kicks to charge up super meter. Daigo capitalizes once he has a super and does a lovely taunt. A rare deviation was how Daigo didn’t go for a small opening to combo for the super, but rather just go straight into it (A gamble that paid off). A simple cross up combo and Daigo wins round 2.

            Match 2, round 3: Nothing you haven’t already seen as its once again simple small moves to position them to hit off bigger moves. Some note worthy examples is when some of the footwork was parried into a dragon punch. A flaming dragon punch then gets canceled into a super and a simple cross up does the job.

            Yes, even at its flashiest, 3 strike doesn’t seem like a particularly fun game. With exception of the parry, just about everything you have seen from the foot game and throws to canceling hits into supers can be learned in a week or month of playing. However the same could be said of Boxing and MMA in general. If it wasn’t for all that keeping your body in shape and training to build new muscles, the amount of moves boxers and MMA does isn’t that complicated either. Yet, it’s still a high level of game play when you take into account that 3 strike is all about mind games. Sure 90% of the moves are simple pokes and sweeps with supers and EX moves making the rest. But how many times have you just seen a bunch of small plays in football (or the players just kicking the ball around for position in original football). For all you basketball fans consider the foot game and throw the equivalent of a lay up. Just like any good mind game it almost seems magical when you know what coming and stop it in the best way possible. Part of me believes that Daigo did that intentionally since he just stood still for Justin to super him twice in that round (conditioning him into thinking it’s a safe move). The taunts after the supers and the fact that the two were playing to determine second place are all indicators that Daigo was just having fun or it’s just a very unorthodox way of getting in your opponents head. Either way, while many have beaten Daigo before, none has gotten close to imitate his style.

Just to make it seem like I’m not an ultra Daigo fan, the next video is you’re going to see is Daigo lose. Who else would I show beating Daigo than a Californian representative Alex Valle? Set two years after the infamous parry “Evo moment”, Alex Valle was on a comeback from taking a break from fighting games in general. But, his motivation for it all was that he was never truly the best, since he had never beat Daigo (In fact, no American had ever beat Daigo on American soil before Alex Valle did. I’m not sure if this was indeed the first time or not, but Alex had a goal and he completed it).

            To set this video up, this is the third set of the semi-finals match in Evo 2006. The game itself is Street Fighter 3: 3 strike. There is nothing too new here since the most effective fighting style isn’t exactly the best looking. Especially with the parry system, high level game play of 3 strike is much like boxing or MMA in real life (the most hyped matches can be the boring because winning the match is what’s on their minds, entertainment is secondary). This is the third set of the overall match up with it being tied one each. This last game would decide who wins overall.

            Round 1: This is a mirror match and those are always super deadly since anything you can do, technically your opponent can do as well. The game starts off with the foot game (sweeps) and some throws. This is all set up to build up super meter as 30 seconds in the video, Daigo jumps in only to get parried and a quick punch canceled into a fireball, canceled into a super brings Daigo’s lead down to nothing. Another low punch gets parried and flaming dragon punch to the face of Daigo. When it seems all hope is lost after being thrown and poked, Daigo makes a comeback. Just nice simple moves of cross ups, low kicks and throws are fundamentals in all fighting games. The overhead kick can only be blocked high so Alex Valle has no choice but to take that in the face as well (Even parries have a difference of hi, mid or low). However, a mistimed jump in combo wasn’t as full proof as Daigo thought as Alex blocks a super and simple punch for the win. Round 1 goes to Alex Valle.

            Round 2: The supers from previous rounds extend over and for the most part both players are either fighting for space with the foot game or doing pokes to charge up their super meter. Daigo gets Alex with well timed jump kicks and capitalizes with a super for a huge lead. Not much retaliation from Alex as Daigo bobs and weaves taking small shots whenever he sees an opening and rides it to the end. Round 2 go to Daigo.

            Round 3: With super meter built up from the past two rounds we start seeing EX moves. EX moves are like special moves except they take some super meter to perform and are amped up versions of a special move. Depending on the move, EX moves may hit harder, have more range or be able to absorb a hit (Yes this game mechanic makes a return in SF4). Again throws and foot game plays a major role but this round also shows why the Parry system has killed the fireball game. Yes, even if it’s an EX fireball (these fireballs hit twice) both hits can be parried away without the need to jump over them or ability to throw a fireball back. Daigo, being down on life decides to save a super and throws a regular fireball instead of an EX one. Fatal mistake as Valle’s EX fireball goes through (only one hit gets negated) Daigo’s and its GG. Round 3 goes to Alex Valle as he has shown, he can indeed beat Daigo.

            This match may not be super spectacular in the same way that a boxing or MMA match has nothing but small jabs and holds to whittle down your opponent for a TKO (or some ref decision to stop and call the match). But this is a high level of play and just like I written in controlling space, the bigger the risk usually means the bigger the reward/punishment. Round 1 was won because the big risk of performing a super had failed miserably for Daigo. Round 2 had one super in it, but was overall decided by a solid basic game of foot game and throws. Round 3 was essentially the same once again except some EX moves was thrown in. This major match up may have been a major disappointment for those that were expecting more. It certainly was, even to Alex Valle himself.

            As a guest star in a podcast for gootecks.com; Alex Valle told his side of the story as well as tournament fighting in general. Even to Alex, he didn’t feel he was at the top of his game when he beat Daigo and in fact challenged him to a money match afterwards. Alex did win that, but there were rumors that Daigo wasn’t focusing on 3 strike that year but instead a different game. I call BS on that since the best Daigo didn’t place in any game at Evo that year except taking 2 in Guilty Gear as a team. Personally, I believe because Alex wasn’t in his rhythm, Daigo found it impossible to read his opponent (Daigo’s strength) and lost the match that way. This however wouldn’t be the last time Daigo and Alex faced off.

Daigo versus Valle (the rematch)

            Yes, once again fate brings them together once again when Street Fighter Anniversary edition () kicked off. This is the exact same tournament and year except a different game. There are actually two announcers commentating on this set. Who else than “Mr. Low Strong” Sirlin and some other announcer I have no idea who. My only wish was the other announcer’s mic would be turned down a bit to match the volume of Sirlin’s mic.

            This time the match up is Daigo’s Ryu versus Valle’s Sagat. For some of you in the know, this set up by itself may be a tad controversial. The reason is because in , they have always had a “soft” ban in tournament fights. The reason behind it is the fact that Sagat is so top tier that only a couple of characters have the ability to beat him. If anybody chooses Sagat, the opponent would almost be forced to pick those few characters that can stand up to Sagat if they want a fighting chance. Hence a “soft” band was put in place so that all tournaments don’t degenerate down to the few characters that either is Sagat or can battle Sagat. By “Soft” ban, I mean all the top players have a gentleman’s agreement that they will not pick Sagat. Only the non top players would pick Sagat in any attempt to edge out the competition. However, this is not Japan but rather Evo in America. Picking Sagat is totally allowed. Another thing to note is that in that version of ST they where playing on, you can actually choose which version of what character you wanted. Daigo had chosen Ryu from the super turbo era (hence ST) and Valle had chosen Sagat from the Champion era (aka Old Sagat). Champion era Sagat has no super meter, but just about every hit he does is a lot harder to make up for it (before he was “nerf” in later versions).

            Match 1, round 1: When both characters can pull off fireballs on a “twitch” there is no reason why you shouldn’t (basically stalls or slows the game down some despite having heavy action since most the fireballs cancel each other out). Sagat tries to jump, but Ryu anticipated it enough to jump right back with a punch. Just like in a previous match when Ryu did a sliding punch to move around, Valle’s Sagat does tiny tiger knees to quickly move himself forward. Sagat’s uppercuts are just too much to deal with as Valle takes round 1.

            Match 1, round 2: As soon as Ryu has a super, Valle does back off a bit which Daigo responds with many regular fireballs. Valle does have to be careful since if he was to continue throwing fireballs like before, Ryu’s super will simply go right through them and hit Sagat for big damage. After Alex presses the advantage with tiny tiger knees, Daigo misreads Valle’s action and gets punished with not only losing his super but a kick to the face. A huge throw brings Sagat back in contention and Sagat has Ryu cornered. Several jabs are used as fake fireballs (or just poking in general trying to keep Daigo to stay in the corner). What should have been an easy combo starting with a light kick Daigo reverses for the win. Round 2 go to Daigo.

            Match 1, round 3: This time Sagat plays the fireball game while Daigo plays the role of Mario and jumps. Not too smart a decision as Sagat’s range with his pokes is deadly. Sagat goes for more fireballs but this time Daigo immediately responds with a Super. However Daigo did the super a tad too late since Sagat recovered in time to block it and once again Ryu is without a much needed super. Role reversal as Daigo plays the fireball game and Valle becomes Mario. A throw and a hard kick is the big decider of the match and it’s only a matter of time before Valle patiently waits for an opening to finish Daigo off. Match goes to Valle.

            Match 2, round 1: Once again a simple fireball game sets the tone but Daigo willingly and eagerly goes to the corner. This signifies Daigo is playing a defensive game as Alex Valle’s rush tactic (fireballs and quick tiger knees to get into position to either throw or uppercut) is making Daigo come up with a game plan. One again, we have a brief moment of both players faking the fireballs as they to motion but stop short to try to psyche each other out. Again the big rush down tactic of quick tiger knees to close the distance makes Sagat be in range for a quick jump in kick over Ryu’s fireball (its all about controlling space). Round 1 goes to Valle.

            Match 2, round 2: While Ryu does have his hurricane kick to control space and move forward, it simply isn’t as quick as Sagat’s tiger knees. But what the tiger has in quickness, the hurricane kick has mobility (mainly the ability to safely jump over your opponent). Besides bobbing and weaving about with fireball pokes and hurricane kick mobility, Daigo is trying to build up super. Don’t know if its just Daigo’s off day or what, but once again he wastes his super only for chip damage. An opening for Daigo was taken advantage of by air juggles as that was the big decider for this match. Round 2 goes to Daigo.

            Match 2, round 3: A very good fireball game from Alex as Daigo can’t do much except try to build up meter while either negating or jumping over the fireballs. Once Daigo has a super, a fake poke was called a bluff by Daigo as he unleashes a super to even the odds. A quick hurricane kick was done to lesson the recovery time and be mobile in the process. Still, overall Daigo just couldn’t come up with a solid game plan when facing old school Sagat. Valle’s rush down, lock down tactic was just too much as Valle takes the match. Alex Valle eliminates Daigo from Evo that year.

            There you have it. Daigo in a brain fart moment just cannot come up with a solid retaliation against Alex Valle. Some may have an excuse and say Daigo doesn’t have experience against Sagat (since he’s “Soft” banned there). That may have been true to some degree since I find myself losing to stupid shit that I should be able to get around in online matches due to facing characters that are not a popular choice. But, just as all tournaments go, the players have to respect the tournament rules and picking Sagat is totally legal. The gentleman’s rule of banning Old Sagat in simply backfired here as well as it just simply Daigo wasn’t on it that year.

It wasn’t all fun and games for Alex that year either since in both ST (SF: Anniversary Ed) and 3S (third strike), he didn’t place in top 3 in either games. Maybe both of them are just getting old and other players just wanted it more badly that year. Just like any intense competition, you can only be on the top for so long before someone knocks you down. Alex Valle would come back for Evo in 2007, but Daigo didn’t make an appearance. In fact rumors was that Daigo started developing an interest in other games (I believe it was Pachinko/Slots or something totally different) and when you cannot devote enough time to be on top, others will simply eat you alive. The fact is however that Daigo just semi-retired and took a couple years off to get some perspective. After all, Capcom took some time off as well and didn’t develop a new fighting game in a while as well. That is until Street Fighter 4. From the card tracking system in ’s arcades, it is confirmed Daigo is playing street fighter once again. I will try as hard as possible to make this the last video with Daigo in it. There are a bunch of other good players out there that should get recognition for good game play that can be analyzed. The only problem is the more famous the player is, the more likely people will capture video of their game play to show to the world.

I initially wanted to do more videos, but the charm of these things can only last so long (for both you and me). With Street Fighter 4 being released soon (and the fact that I want to write a proper guide for that) I’ll leave this with one last video. Yes it’s still a Capcom game, but this one is insane. Set in Evo 2007, the game is Marvel versus Capcom 2 (MvC2).

            The main reason why this is such a great moment is because the game itself is so reliant on split second timing and the craziness of 3 on 3 battle at once. But what should happen if the other player had knocked out two of your characters leaving a 3 on 1 game? That was the exact situation Justin Wong (yes the same guy that got Daigo parried 2004) was in when Yipes made a great start of the match. As for the rest, I’ll just let the video play itself out.

            That’s right; you have Storm, Psylocke and Magneto versus one lonely Cyclops. But seeing as we just joined the match in progress, during the time Justin Wong got his team whittled down to an army of one; he has many supers stored up and that means many, many Hail Mary (Hole in one, Homeruns, 3 pointers, or whatever really big plays in whatever you sport you enjoy). Just like 3 strike, Justin Wong will do a simple hit (or simple special move) to make an opening for his supers. Seeing as this is about controlling space, Cyclops’ ability to shoot laser from his eyes is a real godsend. For more in depth stuff on MvC2 see my previous section “All fighting games are the same”; but my main goal is just to show that you should never give up. Sure Yipes may have gotten a huge advantage in the beginning, but many lesser opponents would have just crumpled and admit defeat before it’s truly over. The only take away message here is never give up. 

I had originally wanted to put more videos up but quickly find myself and the videos somewhat redundant. After all, seeing great game play can only get you so far, its actually practicing those techniques and being able to pull it off in a high pressure situation (when you’re behind on life) that makes you actually be a great player.

            But then why is it that all these fighting games play the same? I mean what more can you do? Add more characters, more modes, backgrounds, etc? Then again, I could make the same argument for FPS games? More guns, more maps, better graphics; and just like the how all fighting games boil down to doing damage to your opponent, all FPS games does boil down to shooting your opponent. But we all know there is a difference in FPS games and of course the reason why some FPS games are popular over another (I only choose FPS games as a genre to compare just because I’m banking on that being most relevant to other gamers out there).

            First off, the backgrounds in a fighting game mostly don’t matter. The only real purpose in most fighting games the background is there is much like the yard marker on a football field. Various objects in relation to each other gives you an indicator just how far you are from your enemy. Why is this important? Well unless your character shoots laser and not fireballs, you need to gauge if you are giving your opponent enough time to react since even fireballs take time to reach their destination.

            But what about adding more characters? Well sure, you can also add more guns in an FPS, but after a certain amount of time some guns are just going to be too similar to each other or just absolutely worthless online. Same principle applies to characters. A simple example would be: Street Fighter 3: 3 Strike has 20 characters; but only about half of them are considered good enough to play competitively. Capcom Versus SNK 2 (CvS2) has 48 characters but only 16 of them are used consistently in Pro tournaments. Marvel Versus Capcom 2 has 56 characters and again about 20 of them are used competitively. It seems the more characters you throw in, the more it doesn’t matter as it has <50% chance of being used competitively.

            Speaking of tiers, it is all relative to what kind of fighting you’re playing. When it comes to games like CvS2 or MvC2, the game makes you choose a team of three to begin with. For the sake of argument lets just say Ryu is the best (he’s not), but you now have to choose two other players to make up your team. Because the game forces you to choose more players in general more players will be used. This would skew the numbers a bit. For CvS2 where it’s all one on one fighting, the fraction of characters considered competition worthy is about 1/3. But for games like MvC2, where its team based the percentage goes up just because some might choose characters based on their assist attack (more on that later). One final note on tiers in fighting games; I personally just look at them just like I look at frame counting. It scopes out what kind of characters I would most likely have to face online and in tournaments, but doesn’t have an effect on my personal choice, (well if I was a beginner than maybe yes). Why? Simple; if the supposed good characters I don’t click with, it’s going to feel more like work than fun when I use that character. After all, for most of you the point of this game is just to have fun (plus the more popular {that’s what tiers really are} the character is the more likely people are going to know their tricks; if you pick an unpopular character you just might win some rounds just because your opponent doesn’t know what to expect).

            Back from the tangent; all fighting games is about controlling the space on the screen. Based on what game type it is however, you can see that fighting games are indeed different. The first is of course Street fighter. From SF2 through all the iterations to HD Remix, all this game did was add a few more characters and a slew of revisions. The Street Fighter series will always be the most basic type of fighting game there is to me. Sure the pacing of the game may not be the fastest, but that’s one of the selling points IMO. The game is slow enough to give you time to think and when you are really good, you can easily end the round in less than 10 seconds.

            SF: Alpha series then places the series on speed as the overall pacing and new mechanics makes every match seem almost too fast. To get good at this game, you have to be prepared to play the equivalent of expert mode in Guitar Hero. For those of you that always complain that people don’t combo enough and just spam fireballs/do small moves, alpha may be the best game for you. The game mechanic is simply so combo friendly that while I found it fun to play, I just cannot deal in tournament play.

            Then SF3 got around and it brought it to the roots of good old fighting mechanics. You don’t have to know many combos and even the pros don’t practice them either. Just a couple of simple effective combos are needed and the whole game boils down to reading your opponent and countering their moves (Parry system anyone?).

            If all those games seemed too similar to you, then you should be glad that they put it all together in a game called CvS2. Every fighting mechanic is there and the major characters as well. This to me is the pinnacle of fighting games as you not only have SF2, Alpha, and SF3 mechanic, but you also have the SNK fighting mechanics as well.

            Then you have the crazy stuff. Games like MvC2 take what you thought about a fighting game and shot it into space like a space monkey. MvC2 is a team based fighting game and really exemplifies the control of space. When you control one character and have two other characters on standby, this game goes bananas. You can at any time call your team mate to go on the screen and do one move. This adds to the ability to control as the screen. Then add the fact that many characters have supers that fill the screen and the ease of generating super meter; MvC2 is essentially a drag race. Fast reflexes and a game play mindset of controlling 3 characters at once are needed. The people that will win most games are the ones that get to initiate their lockdown tactic the first. Just like a simple mistiming of a shift can cost you the drag race, a simple mistiming of a move can just give your opponent the opportunity they need to make a big comeback. After all, every character in that game has an infinite combo (all unexpected glitches, all accepted by the community). However, because the pacing of the game is like a drag race, most people play overall sets to determine an overall winner. MvC2 has all the flashy graphics anybody ever wanted, and it only gets faster and harder as you get better. Forget trying pace around and pick your shots like 3 strike, MvC2 is all about getting in each other faces as everybody is so combo friendly (like infinite).

            Finally, the last game type I would name is the Guilty Gear Series. In that game, just about every character has an unfair advantage but everybody has many stopping game mechanics to make it all fair. To give you some examples, don’t like having fireballs thrown at you? Well there is a character that can set up max 5 projectiles to come at you from different angles. Controlling space gets more extreme when you can summon a drill to appear underneath your opponent. What more? The pacing is just extremely fast as well as the harder game mechanics of roman canceling (you have to get a metronome out to practice these moves) simply lets you do an unless chain of moves. That is until your opponent uses his resources to counter your tactics and puts the pressure on you. How the GG series is different from MvC2 however is the fact that GG has a bunch of stop gaps put in place to stop an unlimited combo. Hence the characters in GG are designed to be unfair. You can think of GG series as F1 car racing. Super fast pace with so many offensive moves that would be broken in any other fighting game, but everybody has so many defensives to counter it it’s the ultimate bipolar experience.

            Not to make this portion be too much of a rant, not all fighting games are the same. While the evolution of SF2 to HD remix may not be so radical to the untrained eye; Halo 1 to Halo 3 just added on what works as well. There is a reason why some fighting games (Street Fighter) gets a following while others (Mortal Kombat) don’t. The depth of the game determines how long it last since ultimately people put money on the line and uses fighting games as the big decider. I’m not sure how much of this actually got through to you; but no matter how mainstream or niche the fighting game genre will be, the game will always build off the simple concept of beating your opponent up. Yes it may all be shades of grey to those that doesn’t know better, but every FPS ultimately boils down to shooting each other in the face.

I have talked about the 2d fighting games for some time now but have never even touched on the 3d type. Just to give a shout out the main three 3d fighters of Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Soul Calibur. Adding a third dimension to games changes how ypu have to think about controlling space. No longer will you just have to think about somebody jumping in on you, but now you have think about somebody side stepping your move as well. As a result, most of these 3d fighters have no fireballs and the difference between a poke, an overhead strike and a sideway slash are worlds apart. However, the point of this section isn’t to talk about 3d fighters, but to talk about a controversial fighting game. Smash.

            Yes, the entire Smash series from Nintendo. My first knee jerk reaction is to say this ain’t no serious fighting game. But then again, I used to call fireball throwers cheap as well. To settle this one and for all, Smash is a serious game. Despite its one simple button press to perform moves and the fact that getting your opponent’s life bar down (or up in Smash’s case) is secondary to winning the game, the game is still all about controlling space.

            Yes it may be an unorthodox fighting game, but remember fighting games are all about being able to control space using your character. In smash, this is further exemplified by the fact that the stage you play on actually matters now as the overall goal of the game is to knock your opponent off the ledge. Yes all the moves are simple but that just makes all the timing that much more important. There are crazy advanced stuff on par with parrying (perfect defend) and roll canceling (wave dashing) that does require skill to pull off. The overall game does boil down to controlling space more than you think, and it has been and still is a supported game in the Evo tournament. However, it’s not my type of fighting game as this fighting game is just a tad too different from the Street Fighter type games I’m used to.

So once you get the basics down now what? Go online; get your ass handed to you there. Try to at least spectate matches if you don’t want to embarrass yourself. Seeing what others can do can open up your world since this isn’t a computer opponent that can string together impossible moves anymore. It actually is another player on the other side and everything he’s doing is humanly possible.

           This should give you some inspiration. Since you have the basics down already, just seeing the end product of some really brutal combo or perfect timing of a move should not be above you in deconstructing how it was all done. If it somehow still is, there are plenty of forums out there.

The fighting game genre to me is mostly intuitive and being able to pull off a long string of combos or any advanced game play is akin to playing guitar hero (or DDR for those old enough to remember) on expert difficulty. You almost have to know what happens before it comes and your brain will have to input moves way before the screen animation even shows it.

This is the essence of the combo. Originally a glitch, it has since been natural game play. While the simple act of throwing any level of punches or kicks takes up a certain amount of frames, this is made longer when it actually hits. Well not really; what actually happens is the other character is stunned and a small attack like the jab punch has a shorter recovery frame than the opponent being stunned. This give you the attacker more free hits; but the big kicker is that while the first jab is being thrown you can simply do a special move motion (during the stun) and time the last button press to be your second hit. More importantly, you can do a big hitting move like a fierce punch and as soon as the hit registers (all this time during the punch animation, you have been doing an input to a special move), cancel it to a special move.

With modern fighting games, there are systems put in place to essentially cancel moves into more devastating moves. Usually this does take up some of your resources (like a super meter), but opens up a new world of being able to attack your opponent both for flashy long combos and general attack tactics (what would leave you open for an attack in the past can now be canceled into more moves). If you can stop your move before it fully completes (remember to at least let the animation go through enough to register the hit; the point is to stop all recovery frames), you can just keep a string of moves going. Another way to think about it is the old school Tony Hawk skate boarding games; you can always just do one move at a time, but the big money shots is stringing together a bunch of tricks. While it’s nice to see all the hits in a hurricane kick connect, you’re better off canceling the last hit into a different special move (or super even) for more damage.

From what I have written so far it seems I care enough to frame count. The truth is I don’t. It should be noted that I do at least look up how many frames each move has and understand which frames in each move has priority. Priority frames are the essential frames in any move where no matter what happens, your move will connect. This brings the game down to knowing when to do a move as well as which move. If two priority frames (from two different people) connect at the same time, the result is both players will be hurt. Just like you shouldn’t need a metronome to play guitar hero on expert, you shouldn’t have to literally count the frames when you are playing a fighting game. Your own personal rhythm and timing of your moves through practice should suffice. Looking up frame counting should only be used as a reference (This is of course is only my opinion since I am in no way a true tournament level player. True pros like Daigo may take it to the next step and literally count frames, but my refusal to may just define my own limit with the game.)

Wrapping this up, I want to bring this back down to fireball once again. Just like I hit my own personal limit when it comes to advanced game play (like roll canceling and Parrys); what if beginners cannot even go over the first hurdle and get around the fireball game? I feel sorry for you, but that’s just tough. Forget trying to go the three pointers when you cannot even get your lay up game on. With the evolution of fighting games, it seems there are mechanics put in place to get past the fireball game whether it negates it (Parry system) or goes around it (super jumps). The fireball game may seem as cheap as the camper is in FPS, but just like the invention of the flash bang (or any grenade like weapon); there are ways around the fireball. If you cannot get around it even with the help of online forums, that is just your problem.

So, do you need an arcade stick? Short answer is no. Even local tournaments don’t use sticks (well the smaller ones don’t) but to get to the bottom line; yes you will have a slight advantage if you do use a stick. Why don’t I suggest getting a stick? Well if you’re a beginner getting a stick is like getting a thousand dollar guitar as your first instrument. It is better or worse just wasted on you. There is no say that you will get serious enough in fighting games to actually need it and ultimately you’re just buying junk that you will never need.

           No matter how crappy a controller is, the more you practice a move, the better you will be at it. Blaming your execution inadequacies on the lack of stick is an easy cop out. Yes there is a chance you can miraculously do the move once you get a stick, but the worst case scenario is you just spent 70+ dollars and find that the problem was your hands and not the controller.