Fighting games are not my thing. While I have played some Tekken in the past, some Soul Calibur here and there, I've never really been into the learning of moves and tactics. Instead it's been more about trying to beat friends in local multiplayer while pretending I know what I'm doing. Ultimately playing such game often seemed to come down to a meta-game of sorts, involving disguised button mashing.

The release of Street Fighter IV brought about a renewed interest in the fighting game genre within the gaming community. While for many it was the latest fighting game released for the home consoles, the generation of gamers who grew up in arcades full of 2D fighters saw it as more than that. A generation who are well represented by gaming journalists both on the web and in print.

Due to this, I was always a little suspicious of the coverage given to Street Fighter IV. As with all news stories, reviews and opinions, I interpreted the coverage with my relationship to fighting games (and often that of the journalist) at the forefront of my mind. In general coverage seemed to have a lot of hype behind it due the games strong history. A history I personally have no connection with. So despite the strong reviews and positive buzz surrounding the game, I dismissed it.

That wasn't quite the end of it though. Recently, over the Easter break, some friends back home had started playing Tekken again on the PS2. While I've always had the edge (being the best at disguising my button mashing, and having some knowledge of the move set at least), this time I didn't do as well as I would have liked. This started to make me consider the fighting genre again. Without going into detail this eventually led to me downloading Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD remix (Based on it being the cheapest option, and therefore the least lost if I really didn't like it).

Turns out it didn't really change my stance on the genre. I spent some time in the training mode, tried to learn the special moves, look into some of the strategy involved, but all it did was confirm my suspicion that there was some kind of secret knowledge required, hidden from the general population. So I put it on easy and went into the arcade mode and was awful at it (yeah, easy difficulty - That's what I mean by fighting games not being my thing). Not particularly enjoying the experience, I wasn't too keen on replaying matches over and over either. The end result being a failure to make any real progress.

A few days of frustration went by, and some friends came over. Together we worked through the arcade mode and made much more progress than I would have alone, as I would have given up. I was astounded by how my friends were doing better than me (with a similar level of fighting game experience). About the 6th match into the arcade mode, my friend suggested that I was thinking about it too much. This was, of course, exactly my problem, and returning to pretending to be able to play fighting games worked much better than trying to learn.

While I'm not going to be taking the game online anytime soon (read as: ever), it at least made the game a little more enjoyable. Even if I am still only on the easiest difficulty. Even if fighting games still really aren't my thing, and probably won't ever be. At least now I know for sure, and can filter gaming coverage as before without doubting whether or not I'd given the genre a fair chance. I also realise that considering myself as someone who enjoys gaming a lot doesn’t mean I have to master everything. All that does is take the fun out of playing games.

Practice.

A lot of people have said that the Easy mode on HD Remix is brutal. I agree. It's too hard to be called Easy, really. Street Fighter IV, on the other hand, is much, much easier.

That game is terrible for new players... including myself. SF4 is much easier and much more fun.

I would have to agree with you in some way. I certainly enjoy fighting games, even if I do suck at them. However, I have no real idea on how to get better without having to buy a stupid arcade stick or consult a poorly written combo FAQ, which is the biggest flaw of the genre as a whole.

Also, it doesn't help that a decent chunk of the people who are playing HD remix online are all exceptionally good, and I am rarely able to even get a hit in if I do a player match. (Ranked Matches? I spam Fireballs and the Hurricane Kick and sometimes I win)

I'd consider myself an avid fighting game player, but - someone needs to step in and change up the genre a bit. It hasn't really changed much compared to other genres.

I realise HD remix may not have been the best choice for trying to get into 2D fighters. I might try and pick up SFIV over the summer if I can find it at a low price.

One of my problems with sticking with it for a longer period of time is that you can't really have that anymore in a modern games, they've moved on. I realise HD remix isn't exactly a modern game, making it a bit of a moot point, but this is my real problem with the genre. If you played it back in the day, it's great. But for people like me who didn't grow up with them have a high barrier for entry. Is that me being lazy? Expecting too much from my games? Maybe, but if I've got the choice of jumping into a game that I can learn relativly quickly and enjoy or have to work at getting better for a long period of time, there isn't much competition.

That said, I've not completely given up on it. I'd still like to improve and perhaps it'll be a bit easier if I get hold of SFIV. Your guide looks interesting @StaticFalconar, I'll have to have a closer look.

I have adapted a certain playstyle with Street Fighter IV that did not carry over to Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix in my early runs of the game. However, I am slowly teaching myself that it needs to be played differently. It's been almost 15 years since I touched the original Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and I never played it at high levels, however, I am familiar with the pace, zoning games and some other basic practices of the game.
 
The best thing I can say is you need to understand the way the game is to be played before you pick up the controller and try to learn a character.