Topic: What is your favourite fighting game and why?

@Wargoose Well, no offense, but it's just not for me. Ever since the N64, I've tried several outings, until the Wii version, and although I've had some fun with these games with friends, I never really got into them like all the real Smash fans and players do. However, I do own the N64, GameCube and Wii versions, but not because I like them, but simply because I'm one of those weird people who like to buy and complete the collection of games that simply belong and/or NEED to go with a certain console, and Smash Bros happens to be one of those titles.

And if I have visitors that DO like these games, then I can at least let them play.

But as a die hard fighting game fan, I cannot and will not ever see Smash Bros as a valid alternative to any of the games that I do like. And not because of the cartoony style, but simply because of its mechanics, which I just don't classify as a real fighter, regardless of the option (kind of) being in there, because it's not the heart of the game, and as such, it's not a comparable fighter in its native form.

Yeah not everyone can like everything in a genre. I really like RPGs but Dragon Quest has never quite gelled with me. I can see why people like it, but it's just not for me.

@Wargoose Well, maybe you're just not into JRPGs, then. After all, most of them are quite different from Western RPGs. But I could also understand it if it's the graphical style of the game. Not everyone appreciates Akira Toriyama's way of drawing anime characters.

@ThanosReXXX

I think it might be the blade runner effect. Dragon Quest games were probably incredibly unique and revolutionary at the time. I didn't play them at the time, but I have played a million games inspired by them. So now when I go back to the series, they feel a bit bland and tired.

I like JRPGs and WRPGs. I'm unbelievably hyped for FFVII and the first half of Xenoblade Remastered(after the halfway point I hate the story and the characters). Mass Effect and Fallout New Vegas are a couple of my favourite games.

I absolutely loved Virtua Fighter back in the day - nothing else really plays quite like it. Tekken is a button-masher’s dream - nobody I played with ever knew what Eddy was going to do, whether they were playing with him or against him. Mortal Kombat was ridiculous, packed with secrets, and so easy to control.

I’m going to go vanilla, though, and say Street Fighter II. It’s probably the arcade game I’ve spent most money on, and the one I’ve spent the most time hanging around watching other people play and wishing I had the money to play myself. Never did get particularly good at it, but SFII is childhood, summer holidays, ice cream and trash-talking with your friends like very few other titles.

@Krull

Yeah eddy was banned in our circles lol. I think Tekken is the fighting game I've played the most and understand the least.

@Krull

For the longest time Street Fighter 2 was the only fighting game I'd ever played. Me and my brother would play Ryu and Ken mirror matches for ages. It took me ages(years) to realise shoryuken was just forward plus a fireball motion.

@Wargoose Ah, okay. Fair enough.

Really tough to choose, but if I had to choose one fighting game to play for the rest of my life, it would be Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown. The amount of depth that Sega AM2 was able to achieve will 3 buttons is amazing. The game is so incredibly deep and does such an awesome job simulating the different martial arts and fighting styles of the characters. The characters are all fun to play in their own way and have incredible animation, but my favorite is Sarah Bryant (those kicks!). I will never exhaust all of the layers and techniques in that game, and it is just plain fun.

Second place would be Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. The sprites and animation, the music, the pace and movesets, the parrying system, the specials. Capcom created an incredible fighting game that most people (including me) didn't really appreciate until years later.

Other honorable mentions:
Soul Calibur series
Dead or Alive series
Street Fighter Alpha 2

@Kanbei

The animation in SF3 is great, I think I prefer playing the Alpha games because of being able to use multiple supers in one bout. I just wish the inputs were a bit more lenient in the Alpha games. Much prefer the snk way to do supers. Charge supers and whatever the ultra flash kick motion is need to be retired

@Wargoose Yes the inputs are definitely more lenient in SF3, but the flexibility of the supers in Alpha (especially in Alpha 2) is great. Happy to live in a time where we have 30th Anniversary Collection on Switch. Just wish you could play Alpha 2 online!

@Kanbei Every time I think that I'm alone, a VF fan rises to show solidarity! Good on you!

@Ryu_Niiyama Yes us VF fans seems to be a dying breed. I really hope Sega thinks about putting out a new VF in the next gen. Do you still play online? I have trouble finding a match on Xbox 360.

@Kanbei Yeah Sega likes to pretend it doesn't exist (barring stuffing it into Yakuza 6). Unfortunately no, My 360 is in storage currently along with most of my sticks, and I don't have an xbox one stick and I can't play pad worth beans lol. VFDC is still up and kicking if you are looking for more players though. That being said my gamer tag is in my profile... I may pop in from time to time.

@Ryu_Niiyama @Kanbei I respect the genre but have never gotten far enough into any one the games to know much about it. I have a feeling Virtua Fighter is one the IPs I've never tried. Was just looking it up now and it's strangely absent from Nintendo systems - is there any particular reason for that?

@gcunit @Ryu_Niiyama Well, since it is a Sega IP, the first 3 games were on Sega consoles and arcade boards. VF4 was a PS2 exclusive, and VF5 was on PS3 and Xbox 360. It would really be cool to get VF5 for Switch, but I don't have much hope. My next best hope is seeing VF6 on the new Xbox or PS5. That would really motivate me to buy one of those.

If you ever get to try one, both VF4 Evolution and VF5 Final Showdown are really worth playing.

@gcunit Ah @Kanbei beat me to it. Sega property and it used to be one of their flagships. It has a diehard following (I am among them) but Sega kinda handled VF5 wonky from the get go. They had really strict guidelines for leasing out the cabs to arcades plus they had a network restriction as well which was partly done so that the SEGA arcades had that as a killer cab..but it instead had the opposite effect (it also made importing a cab impossible as you had to have access to sega.net). Then porting it to consoles was a mess. Ps3 got Ver. B which had no online and this was in 2007 so during the Fighting game resurgence, so that kinda killed it a bit more. Ver C was released on Xbox 360 as their bragging point (and the reason I bought a 360) as it had online (it is my favorite version.) Then to make it worse VF5R stayed Japan arcades only for years (2008-2010) and then the latest revision Final Showdown got released in Arcades in 2010 and Ver A of FS got released to console in 2012. I remember that drought and watching all the R matchups...it was agonizing.

So if you didn't already love VF you couldn't keep current at all and since it was released so luke warm on consoles its hard to build a tourney scene around it ( there is still the Beat-Tribe cup and side tourneys at EVO) but its kinda a mess. But that is all mismanagement, as the game still holds up fantastically well. Sega is just fine with leasing out characters rather than making a new game. I'm just glad that its BC on xbone and ps4 (and via yakuza 6 before the BC versions hit). I mean I'm in a Fighting Game Club and I'm the only VF5 player.

VF does get ragged because its story is kinda...non existent but if you want a hands down good fighter full of mix ups, footsies and an actual wakeup game then you can't go wrong learning it. I think VF2 has been on VC at some point though. Even VF4evo was weird because the last revision (Final Tuned) was Naomi only (arcades). So even if you liked VF4Evo on ps2 you weren't current.

Boring answer but Smash Melee. It is still my most played game ever, I had well over 1000 hours when I was still playing it regularly. I played it so much that I got bored and deleted my save data just so I could unlock everything again.

But beyond boring Smash answers, back in the day I liked Tekken 2-4 and loved the first two Soul Calibur games.

@Kanbei @Ryu_Niiyama Thanks for your replies. Particularly useful that you mentioned BC on XBOne - means I can get it and try it out myself 🤼

@Ryu_Niiyama awesome to hear someone who is serious about Virtua Fighter. I am not quite as hardcore, but love the series. Speaking of the non-existent story, have you ever checked out the YouTube channel Virtua Bros? They make lore videos for many of the VF characters, piecing it together from the games, anime, and the Virtua Quest game.