Drew doesn't know how to play Rising Thunder [video]

While this is not official Giant Bomb content I think it's definitely worth checking out. @drewbert is as new to fighting games as anyone I've seen. At first he mashes buttons, doesn't understand the purpose of said buttons and doesn't know any fighting game lingo, but by the end of this video (with the chat's help) he's undoubtedly a solid beginner level Ryu player with Rising Thunder's Chel.

At one point this stream was tweeted out by Seth Killian as a prime example of Rising Thunder doing exactly what it was created to do, reaching gamers who are put off by the heavy execution of standard fighting games like Street Fighter.

Drew really gets the fireball game down as the stream progresses, if eventually becoming a little predictable against competent players. He also briefly mentions a willingness to do a "Jason teaches Drew how to play fighting games" series on GB somewhere down the line.

With that said, I firmly believe that whenever anyone makes a thread about "I'm new to fighting games, where do I start?" You point them straight to Rising Thunder, which in its alpha stage has taught Drew more about fighting games that the last 20 years of Street Fighter titles combined.

So well done Drew, here is your homework for when you next play Rising Thunder (obviously not all the lessons will apply to Rising Thunder but you'll get the theory which you can use in your Chel play!):

Dope! Thank you for sharing this. Didn't know he was doing this!

Having a Chat there definetly helped him as well by answering any questions he had, so I wouldn't give all the credit to the game. It was a fun video though, I rewatched it today.

The chat is the modern day, strangers at arcades giving u random tips.

This is pretty awesome, faith in humanity +1

Watching this now. I'm in much the same place as Drew in that I like the idea of fighting games but am completely unable to memorise combos. Watching Drew get to grips with this give me hope that I will be able to do the same. If I can learn to play DOTA I can get to grips with a fighting game made for people who are bad at fighting games.

This could be neat.

"Teach me how to <blank>, <blank>"

Needs a comeback.

That's a nice way of looking at it.

As was alluded to in the video, I would love to see a Jason teach Drew fighting games video series.

I think it would be alot of fun to watch.

That was great, i'm super impressed with the progress Drew made within an hour and half.

Some advice for Drew and anyone else who's in a similar position, the key to the fireball & uppercut game is to make your opponent THINK you're about to throw a fireball -> they jump -> you uppercut INSTEAD of throwing a fireball. There's not enough time to uppercut right after a fireball (due to length of fireball animation). You have to get inside your opponent's head. Same with attacking opponents who are about to wake-up; you can either block, throw or attack based on what you think they're going to do, which in turn is based on what they think you're going to do. It's essentially rock, paper, scissors. Here are a few options:

• If you think they're going to special attack, you block and then punish.
• If you think they're going to throw, you can neutral jump (to avoid the throw) into heavy normal as you're descending (while they are still in their throw animation).
• If you think they're going to block, you throw.

Timing is important; you typically need to have already committed to a decision as soon as they're up. Or you can play it safe if you're not sure what to do and crouch block while staying slightly beyond their throw range. Being able to predict opponents attacks comes with playing the game more, so don't worry if it doesn't come to you at this point in time.

The GB FGC is here to support Drew in his endeavours.We will give him all the hot tips and strategies.

I think some of the more recent fighting games have had some really good tutorials in them. They've been a little lacking in specific situation and character tutorials, granted, but both Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- had good tutorials for at least learning the very basics. I've also found that taking notes has helped me a great deal in getting to grips with new fighting games quicker. I have a file folder that is full with hundreds of pages of move lists for just about every fighting game I've played since the first Street Fighter IV.

These are my Guilty Gear Xrd notes. 12 pages of the stuff the tutorial covers, no character specific moves. This is mostly common stuff, about half of it is stuff I already knew and mostly had a grip on, but the other half is either stuff I never knew, or stuff I knew about but couldn't execute. For instance, it helped me understand how and when and why I'd want to us a Roman Cancel, and I've been playing Guilty Gear games since the first one came out on Playstation in Europe. (It's probably worth noting I only really play fighters casually).

The coolest looking thing about Rising Thunder is that it's removal of a lot of execution based moves looks like it'd make it a lot easier to teach new players a lot of the basic stuff, especially mechanical things like when and why you'd use an anti-air. And even for someone like me, who's sort of in deep enough to know just enough to get himself in trouble more often than not when he's playing online, it looks like it'll help with the timing and the strategy of fighting games.

Or maybe I just have a problem and enjoy writing up fighting game tutorials and move lists too much >_>

It was really cool watching the stream and seeing Drew go from knowing literally nothing about fighting games to starting to understand them and have fun.

If this game manages to become a hit with people who normally never touch fighting games, then most other companies might need to rethink how they get new players invested in the competitive aspect of their games. For a while now fighting games have been obsessed with trying to make things easier for new players by putting come back mechanics in their games with things like ultras, rage, and x-factor. Even v-skill is somewhat of a comeback mechanic. These don't seem to have really helped anyone new, and in the worst cases (x-factor) made things more difficult for them.

Rising thunder has no come back mechanics whatsoever. For instance the super gauge fills up about four times as fast dealing damage as it does taking damage. The game even retains being put into a dizzy state upon taking too much damage, which I would view as an extremely new player unfriendly mechanic. It'll be interesting to see in the coming months if this game really does get people who don't normally play fighting games into it, because it really doesn't do much to help them other than remove special / super motions.

@drewbert this was really awesome. I learned a lot just watching you. Thanks!

Drew should've just removed the Gamma button from his keyboard, but yeah, seeing him gradually learning some basics was cool.

I started off knowing way more about fighting games than he does and by the one hour mark I'm pretty sure he's better than me at them. Just add this to the long list of jealousy issues I have regarding Drew Scanlon. I've got a few regarding Xavier Woods as well. This thread's a real blow to my ego overall.

Need to watch this.

Cool to see Drew taking a more structured approach to it than i did.

While my chaotic approach got me a bit further in the start, i feel like Drew at the end of the video made a pretty big leap in skill to the point where he's probably better than me.

@dazzhardy said:

These are my Guilty Gear Xrd notes.

Now you're speaking my language.

@drewbert: Ha ha, awesome - as soon as I saw @dazzhardy 's post with notes, I thought to myself: "now, thiswill speak to Mr. Drew Scanlon."

@dazzhardy: I just started playing xxrd myself and it really does have a great tutorial, I'll definitely have to do the Roman Cancel part over again though once I start getting a better feel for the game. There doesn't really seem to be anyone online ever though which is disappointing.

Hells yeah, Drew!

That Xavier Woods video was fun as well.

Drew is adorable in this. After super: "That looked like a block, huh, how did you block this"

I hope he plays more of it. It doesn't have to be a GB video, but this was a fun watch.

Hey guys, this was really helpful for me to get some of the basics down. If only we all had a chat to guide us ;)
I feel like this is probably just the goto crutch of a beginner blaming the controller but i swear some of my button presses weren't registering with my 360 controller. I probably just have to get used to the move priority, though I remember jeff mentioning something about the controlls so i thought id check if it was just me.