Edward 1Complexity of Fighting Games
July 18th 2010 12:17
How can a game based on either a 2D or 3D plane, with normally two fighters hitting each other until one’s health bar is empty, be as or more complex than a RPG? Well, like in a relationship, it’s all about the small details.
Each major fighting game is complex in its own way, like the Tekken and Virtua Fighter series focus on 3D plane fighting, Soul Calibur with the use of weapons, and Street Fighter on a 2D plane. I’ll be focusing on a game entrenched with the hardcore of the hardcore, some depositing hour after hour since the first game arrived in arcades in 1987: Street Fighter 4.
The Street fighter series uses six button types, three different types of strength for kicks and punches. Using a combination of the six buttons can result in a combo or an entirely different move. Combined with the control stick, which can pull to eight different directions, each direction combined with a button press, can result into a move too.
Being special
Each character in the game has their unique move sets, special attacks and Ultra combos. The multitude of cancelled single moves and stick movements that connect in a row are combos. All characters have a special move, which are normally projectile attacks. And the ultra combo is a combination of button presses activating an automatic combo usually ending with a humiliating look of the other character’s face hitting the screen and doing major damage.
What type are you?
Each character also falls into categories based on how they execute special attacks. They can both be charged characters or a character that uses a specific joystick motion and button press to unleash their special attacks. A charge character, like Bison or Chun Li, would hold the joystick at a specific direction for 2 seconds then move the joystick to the opposite direction with a button press to do a special move. Then there is grapple orientated fighters like Zangief and Haken, who have to turn the joystick 360 then press a button to do a special move.
Cancelling
The complexity in combos starts to become evident when applying the ability to ‘cancel’ moves, which means being in a state to do a second attack, usually an ultra combo, after a combo ends. By interrupting the last move’s animation, the player can immediately do another attack or combo to do further damage to an opponent before they can have a chance to block or use another move. This is made possible thanks to a move called Focus Attack Dash Cancel. By tapping the joystick twice in any direction while in Focus Attack state, it will stop the animation and immediately allow the character to follow up with an attack.
Taking priority
When two moves seem to connect at the same time, one move would normally register while the other is doomed to not even happen and the losing fighter will receive damage. The move connecting would be called a high priority move, which is essential to know in a character’s move set to ultimately get the upper hand when fighting someone who is relentlessly offensive.
High priority attacks, focus attacks, cancelling, combos and special attacks are all small details which add up into a complex fighting game. At the core of a fighting game, hitting the person repeatedly until their health bar is zero is enough to win. But today, as many people have played these games over and over, the use of all the small details I’ve mentioned will differentiate between a beginner and an experienced player. Unintendedly, the complex nature and matured community in Street Fighter games has made it nearly inaccessible for new players to get involved, unless that person can go through hundreds of losses and still have the motivation to continue to play to get better. Thanks to high priority moves, the casual player will be hitting buttons and won’t see most of their moves on the screen as the other player continue to pummel them. You can say your opponents are cheating because their character is always dominating your fighter, but the game is known to be well balanced. I can concur because I’ve got my ass kicked by all 35 characters, and thoroughly.
Fighting games are complex, more so than your average RPG. I find Street Fighter 4 more complex than Modern Warfare 2. I’m not saying the First Person Shooters (FPS) are not complex, but it is a lot easier pulling a trigger than connecting with a punch and following up in Street Fighter 4… Now I’m going into another topic entirely. Anyways! What comes from a complex genre is a reward from beating the odds heavily stacked against you, normally a real player in multiplayer games like the popular Real Time Strategy game Starcraft and FPS’s Modern Warfare 2. Fighting games can be included.
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