Recommendations for games to get started with Fighters

[Rurouni_Fencer]

My picks for beginners looking to take a stab at fighting games:

2D - Street Fighter Alpha III (so much replayability,) Guilty Gear 2 (furious combos make this easy to mash and play - hard to master,) King of Fighters 97, Samurai Shodown II (best balanced SamSho game ever,) Mortal Kombat II (peak of the series - kick-started the 'juggle' combo)

3D - Soul Calibur IV (gorgeous and fluid weapons-based fighting,) Tekken 3 (took a great 3D brawler and perfected it with smoother gameplay and crazy combos,) Virtua Fighter 5 (it's reputation as a technical fighter's fighting game is well deserved,) Bushido Blade (3 words: One Hit Kills. Great for casual play.)

2.5D - Rival Schools (take one part crazy anime, and two parts Street Fighter - stir and serve over ice,) Super Street Fighter IV (deepest SF to date, yet simple to pick up and play,) Smash Bros: Melee (Lots to do, arguably the best balanced of the three games in the series, and the single player mode's side scrolling levels are a treat to old Nintendophiles!

[Gamerforlife]

I noticed no one mentioned pocket fighters. Seems like a good beginner's fighter

[jfrost]

2.5D - Rival Schools (take one part crazy anime, and two parts Street Fighter - stir and serve over ice,)

Rival Schools is actually 3D. You can sidestep.

[Gamerforlife]

2.5D - Rival Schools (take one part crazy anime, and two parts Street Fighter - stir and serve over ice,)

Rival Schools is actually 3D. You can sidestep.

Feels 2d in terms of gameplay though. I also agree with it being a good choice for a beginner

[Rurouni_Fencer]

2.5D - Rival Schools (take one part crazy anime, and two parts Street Fighter - stir and serve over ice,)

Rival Schools is actually 3D. You can sidestep.

True, but by this logic - Fatal Fury would then be 3D..

[AppleQueso]

I'd be cool with considering fatal fury 3D gameplay wise

I played Fatal Fury 3 the other day and it really felt like a 3D game imo.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

I'd be cool with considering fatal fury 3D gameplay wise

I played Fatal Fury 3 the other day and it really felt like a 3D game imo.

Go play Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, and when you wake up in the morning after crying yourself to sleep, feel free to strike that comment from the record..

Seriously, though, if you liked Fatal Fury 3, you'll probably get a kick out of the Real Bout series..

[Frizz.Meister]

X-men vs street fighter.

Real easy controls.
Ai isnt to brutal.
All the playable characters are well known.

However infinite combos can kill it (though they're crazy hard to pull off)

My big gripe about fighting games is that the controls take an hour and a book to learn. Its why i never really got into the genre and why i think soul calibur is awesome(3 attack buttons yet soooo much depth)

[jfrost]

2.5D - Rival Schools (take one part crazy anime, and two parts Street Fighter - stir and serve over ice,)

Rival Schools is actually 3D. You can sidestep.

True, but by this logic - Fatal Fury would then be 3D..

I think that's what the developers were getting at anyway.

(The only Fatal Fury I can play, however, is Dominated Mind, which has only one lane.)

[Zerodash]

SFII is a beginner's game?

Technically, SFII is as deep as just about any newer 2D fighter. However, given that the entire genre is basically built off of SFII, its an essential game for beginners to understand. SFII isn't shallow, but it is so fundamental to the basis of 2D fighting, practically an entire introductory course in 2D fighting would be SFII.


As for Fatal Fury being 3D- it might be stretching the barrier of 2D vs. 3D a bit too far. KOF 94-96 all had sidestepping which can also be considered to be 3D. Fatal Fury and its line shifting is more along the lines of an elaborate sidestep given that you only have limited attack/defense options when actually in the fore/background. Had you had access to your full array of basic and special moves while on the off-plane, I would be more comfortable considering FF to be 3D gameplay.

Of course, this description gets even more nebulous with Real Bout (the original) and its use of 3 planes and ring-outs- making spatial positioning an extra important part of gameplay.