Do you care about fighting games?

It's not my favorite genre, but I really like them. And frankly it's a genre that makes for a good spectating experience.

Much respect for people who are good at them, takes a lot of skill.

Nope. I even watched a bit of Evo last weekend just to give it another try, and... still nope. I mean, some of the players were pretty entertaining and all, but actually paying attention to a fighting game competition is beyond me. I get about five mins before being overcome by a strong urge to open my laptop and do something else.

Also I'm really bad at modern fighting games. Which probably doesn't help.

For me personally, I've always enjoyed fighting games more as a spectator than an actual player. I simply don't have the time or patience, repeatedly try as I might, to wrap my head around some of the higher level mechanics and roster knowledge. My natural skill set seems to lean more to FPS, so I stick with that.

That said, I do have friends that primarily play fighting games and they have had a noticeable influence on how much I value the genre. So, now, I think they're every bit as important as the more popular genres of video games.

Always have at least played casually, and ever since SF4 I can't help but go back every few months and play a fighting game with the intent to reach my "level" of yesteryear. I'm hoping that the slowly rising tide of UNIST will get me back in, because that game is fucking rad and nobody wanted to play Melty Blood ever so this is the closest I've got.

If I didn't also love a ton of other genres of games and tabletop games, I'd surely be dedicated to FGs even more now that I'm older and have some disposable income for travel.

I’m not hardcore, but I dig them. I was pretty damned good at Street Fighter 2 back in the day.

nope, dont really care about them. there are a handful i fighting games i enjoy solo but i have 0 interest in playing against other people or watching tournaments.

Yep, they're great. I tend to go back and forth on how often I play them, though. I'm currently not playing them, but Evo got me pretty excited about them, so I'll probably end up playing them pretty regularly for the next month or two.

I do quite a bit, but don't have much time to play them much these days.

Sort of, but not really? I was way into them in the 90s but fell off after that. I Have bought Street Fighter 4, both new Mortal Kombats, and Tekken 7 in the past 10 years but none of them have gotten me addicted again. There's also the fact that I kind of stink at them nowadays

Do I like them? Yes. Do I buy them? No because losing all of the time online sucks.

Yes. Wish I had more time these days to play them.

I've watched a bit of EVO for the spectacle. I bought a bunch of them at one point and a fight sticking to try and get better at them and I am still awful. Sooooo, I realized it's not a genre that's for me. Do I care? Not really. But the DBZ finals were hype!

I loved the hell out of Mortal Kombat II and Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES edition) as a kid, and spent a lot of time playing the single player modes of games like Clayfighter, Mortal Kombat III and 4, that bad game with Frankenstein-like experiments that I keep wanting to call Bioshock right now but definitely wasn't called that, Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct Gold, Tekken II and III and Tag Tournament. I have fond memories of renting Dead or Alive 3, and I really enjoyed the versus mode from Turtles in Time. I'm probably forgetting quite a few.

That said, I had a moment with MK vs. DC, Mortal Kombat (9) and Street Fighter IV, it just so happened to coincide with having some friends that also enjoyed fighting games a lot and owned those fighting games, and I really do look back fondly on those times as well, but no, I can't say I care about fighting games anymore. Ranking of Fighters is one of the shows I routinely pass on, frequently while cursing the relative bounty of new episodes compared to Demo Derby or Game Tapes, and I really think it's pretty clear the genre has its dozen or so standout franchises and all the rest are just variations on a theme. But I do understand that it translates well to watching video games played competitively, better than really any genre other than maybe card-based games, so I get why there's such a fervor surrounding it, and I'm sure if I still had friends that liked fighting games I'd feel differently.

But right now, I don't care about them much at all.

I don't play any , but i like to watch obscure games fly by every once in a while. And the Scrub League they did years ago was great.

They're fun but I'm really not good at them so I tend to lean towards netherrealm's recent outings.

I really wish I was good though. I'll also say watching pro fights is really exciting.

No, because I'm absolutely shite at them. I really want to like them, I bought Dragon Ball Fighterz day 1 thinking that this was my golden chance to finally get into them..... traded the game in 2 days later. Fuck em.

The only fighting game I've ever been good at is Divekick. Ranked number 1 on ps4 with my character at one point.

I'm a massive, MASSIVE no. I'm going to say they're bad, because it's subjective, but I really cannot stand them at all.

I've actually reached a point where I skip through the Bombcast whenever the conversation moves to fighting games. It's not that I hate hearing about it, but I have a limited amount of time in my car in the morning and I don't want to spend that precious time hearing about the roster of Street Fighter.

That all being said, I'm glad they exist. People seem to really like them and that can only be a good thing. I like how happy Jason gets when some good news about a fighting game drops. His giddiness is pretty uplifting.

I really like fighting games, but I don't get to play them all that often with others, which causes me to fall off of them really quick. I always get stuck in a weird place where I can crush any and all of my friends, because they don't really play any games, and go online and just get destroyed immediately by my competition. So I end up in this weird place of basically treating every fighting game like a single player game. I really, really like Injustice 2 for this reason, since the Metaverse stuff finally gave me a reason to keep coming back to the game.

I've played and absolute ton of fighting games, primarily between 2014-2017. Less so now. But I definitely enjoy them greatly, and have for years. Though that said, I mostly get my fix from other sources or my own playtime. GB isn't neccessarily in deep enough to be super interesting. It is fun to watch their reactions and general opinions on stuff in Ranking though.

Can't lock science behind a paywall! Knowledge is for everyone!

Also yeah, I've always liked fighting games casually but have gotten pretty deep into playing Tekken 7 since last year and I really loved what I played of Cross Tag Battle when it was free this past weekend so I'll probably pick that up eventually.

I don't care about them, no dislike or anything, just not my genre, that said I don't skip fighting game segments on UPF on other features since there's always some interesting/fun chatter between the crew, I don't skip other genres I have no interest in either. I did read some stuff from EVO but that was mainly because of the internet going crazy about it and I loved the story of SonicFox for example without no prior knowledge.

I’ve never gotten properly into fighting games. I’ve tried out a bunch of different Street Fighter versions and collections on the PS1 and PS2 and they are super fun. It’s just that unless you have people to play against the Training and Arcade Mode will only take you so far. Of course modern fighting games have online mode but I’m a bit hesitant, I feel like I would only get frustrated playing random ppl online.

I have a huge soft spot for fighting games even though I suck at them. Probably a holdover of years of playing SF2 and all its variants through high school.

I’ve literally platinum’ed Skullgirls and Guilty Gear while absolutely sucking at both. That’s how much I enjoy them.

Nope, not anymore. The last fighting game I played was Dead or Alive 3 on the Xbox back in 2001-ish. My friends and I had a lot of fun playing "winner stays" while the loser passes the controller to the next person. Once we stopped doing that I stopped playing fighting games completely.

I used to love them when I was a kid, but actually watching someone else play either fighting games, racing games or sports games is really boring to me and I don't get any enjoyment out of it. It's a shame cause I think Ranking of Fighters is a great idea, I just have zero interest in watching it.

Yes, it was one of my favorite genres; although I am more a fan of couch play, so I have been playing less and less of them as I grew older...

I'm fascinated by them, and I wish I were really good at them. Picked up SFV, Injustice 2, Tekken 7 and even DBZF in a vain attempt to get my head around them, but typically I find myself repeating the tutorial modes often in these games just to get a flailing grasp on the bare basics. But hell, I was even eyeing the Blazblue game yesterday highly tempted to give that a whirl, yet I rarely even get far enough to dip my toes in online matches. I have a problem.

I feel if the draw is strong enough I should just pick one and stick with it. Injustice 2 of that batch seemed to grab me the best, though I guess there's something to be said for Tekken 7's directness (though I seem to have real problems inputting everything just perfectly with that one). I fear it's too late for either as however much time I devote to them I'll just get my ass handed to me online. It also feels like these things come so easy to other people. I'm also probably too old for them at this point, hah.

RoF is the best thing on Giant Bomb right now though, imo. I just can't get enough of watching Ben, Jason and Jeff hashing it out on badobscure fighting games.

They're fun for like a week then they get old to me, so I rent them.

I enjoy playing fighting games a lot. Not in a compeitive way at all though. 99% of my time is spent on playing single player modes or playing with friends. I've been more into them more recently than I ever have been before even although they certainly showed up occasionally in the past. Spending some time getting good with a few chracters is quite fun even if I don't take it online at all.

Used to love them back in the 90's. I sadly can't get invested in them anymore.

The only fighting game I've ever actually gotten into and enjoyed was SoulCalibur 2 on the gamecube. It's a genre I've wanted to enjoy for a while, but I'm just terrible at them. Seeing Jason's enthusiasm for fighting games really makes me wish I was better at them.

I’m a big fan of scientific methodology, but I don’t play a whole ton of fighting games anymore. I don’t live near my friend who I used to play with all the time, and it’s the only genre where playing online and getting my ass beat by random people drives my anxiety crazy. It’s to the point where I haven’t even tried playing Dragonball Fighterz online because I assume I’m just going to lose over and over again without learning anything.

I wish I had the time and patience to get good at them, but for now I suffice with playing with friends whenever we’re in town at the same time.

Only Mortal Kombat

In the middle of yes, of course, and they're alright, I guess.

I respect fighting games, but they are not for me.

Very much so - though I do wish I was better at them/had more time for them.

Back in the day, I was really into the Virtua Fighter series, especially 2. SF4 reignited the genre in many ways, but SFV really got me back into it big time.

Today I'm playing SFV heavily (G is awesome despite what Jeff says!), and currently loving Fighting EX Layer - which might be my favorite fighter to come along since SFV.

Absolutely, in fact it the one genre where I buy most of them just to check them out. I'm lazy about getting good at them like labbing combos and playing smarter, but I still appreciate a good fighter immensely. Don't go online a lot, although I've been hopping into BBTag online matches more than usual, so I'm trying to ride the wave for as long as I can while the player base is still decent.

I'm terrible at them but I still love them. I've always had to have some form of competitive game going, and fighting games are quick to get going and very rewarding when you realize you've gotten better.

Of course I always end up hitting a wall at some point, but I always find myself getting ever so slightly better. I just hate that I don't have my stick anymore because I had to move countries and arcade sticks are expensive, so I'm currently playing BBTAG which is fairly doable on pad for me.

This dog don't care but I sure get educated on them via hardcore science, and that part I love.

I like the concept of fighting games, but I do not like how they have been executed. It feels like fighting games have been focusing more and more on the competitive/e-sports aspects of the genre at the expense of fun lately... but maybe I am just old enough that there is a generational divide on this one. I don't want to have to go to some external resource to be able to study a video game, just so I can actually play it? That whole concept seems crazy to me and, basically since Street Fighter Alpha 3 (edit: when they started limiting the average gamer by introducing "-isms") it seems like game designers just keep adding mechanics to make things more balanced for pros at the expense of the casual fan. Then there is the fact that it seems like single-player content has really gone to the wayside ever since online gaming became a thing, it's like Soul Caliber is the only fighting game left anymore with any meaningful single player content.

I'm already big on fighting games, have been trying to get more Giant Bomb members to watch and play fighting games for the past 10 years of the site's existence and am a member of the Giant Bomb Fighting Game discord.

So I threw a vote in the way of yes. And now I'm telling you to check out the Giant Bomb fighting game thread and the Giant Bomb fighting game discord.

Have no interest on them, and really don't enjoy watching them play them on GB. The fight sticks are quite loud and annoying to listen to.

Never liked them and I don't care for any of GB's videos about them. I don't watch Ranking of Fighters and I tend to turn off UPFs when they start playing them. I'm not a big fan of "inch wide, mile deep" games or competitive games in general, to watch or to play, and fighting games are the epitome of that design philosophy.

I don't mind watching them be played, but I am absolutely awful at pretty much every fighting game I've ever played and I don't care enough to get good at them. I like that they exist and I respect them from a distance, but I steer clear of playing them myself for the most part. I bought MKXL on PS4 a couple months ago because it was like $8 and I gave up on it pretty quickly because I just don't have the patience for it.

However, Ranking of Fighters is a fantastic series, though one I mostly enjoy for the exposure of bizzare/bad/obscure fighting games and the crew's commentary. I do also enjoy just hearing them dissect the mechanics and what makes them good or bad. So in that context, I do care about fighting games, but not enough to get heavily into watching EVO or anything.

Fighting games are the only GB content I just skip