So in answering the question it's got me thinking about fighting games in general. Seems there's been a few years we've not had any new fighting games - except from the few stables of Tekken, Soul Calibur, Street Fighter etc.

Now I'm aware the sequels are coming, though not all that quickly, but aside from these there's no new IPs or anything to get excited about. Makes me think is the genre on its last legs?

What I'm seeing in fighting games has been the movement from a small tendency to include online play - to at some point the start of it being expected in a modern fighting game. This dissapoints me as time and time again I've argued on forums that there's no way of beating the experience of being sat next to a real human opponent and getting some good old gaming in.

I think my point is that while online play in these games is possible, and makes sense to do it. I think the growing demand and expectation for it might be what's making the genre die out. In the UK, a massive part of gaming, though not necessarily among the hardcore, is to get a bunch of people round and play FIFA or Pro Evo, and while the recent games have included online play, I think it's been all but ignored in favour of a proper competition with proper opponents you can see.

It's probably just nostalgia but I'm happier with it that way, I'm happy with the little trickle of fighting games we're getting, albeit reiterations and some regurgitations of old IPs, but I'm pretty opposed to this new demand for online play in them.

While possible I'd say online can remain a second priority or an additional feature in my eyes, or it may not be long before we can't return to the true way of playing these games.