Air juggling

[Drakon]

I hate it. I think most people hate it. It's not very fun when you lose 3/4 of your life bouncing in the air without any ability to stop it.

[Peffico]

What fighters are you talking about? If it's street fighter 3 then it is a pain but usually the person who learned how to air juggle practiced it night and day for half a month and I say yeah let them use it if they trained their ass off to do it.

Now if it's say smash bros then i say just air dodge or don't land directly on them.

And finally say if it's X-men children of the atom or Marvel vs Capcom 2..... Haha I can't help you there because those games are really unbalanced .

[Ack]

I'd say the two worst are MvsC2, because you can air juggle into infinite combos, and Soul Calibur as a few characters that could do it, specifically Sophitia. I know because I've had it done to me, match starts with one of her launchers, I get kicked and launched again, until finally I die. It'll piss you off, but it is pretty impressive to watch.

[andymol21]

First time I read the post I thought you meant like the juggling version of air guitar.... Juggling without any sticks... Got me very confused.

Never been much of a fighter fan but I can see why this would annoy me. Still, let them air juggle the hell out of you for 10 mins, then suggest playing a game you rock at for 10 mins and annihilate them until the cows come home, refusing to switch games.

See how they like it then. No one likes to lose.

[Gamerforlife]

When you think about it, juggles and combos have always been inherently cheap. It's so ingrained into fighters and beat'em ups though, and admittedly fun when you're not on the receiving end, that they'll always be around

[marurun]

I know fighters pay only limited homage to physics, but could you imagine hitting someone hard enough that their 150+ lb body, already in motion in the air, gets bumped back up? Ridiculous. Air juggling shouldn't exist. I think blows should knock people down or down and away but never up, or at least not up much at all and then only in extreme cases. But I guess the way characters can jump it would be hard to justify. Characters just need to fly into the air less and come down much faster. That'd clean up air juggling right there.

[Doctor Fugue]

I love air juggling. I suppose I'm in the minority. And if it is happening to me, then it's my fault for letting my opponent exploit the system.

[marurun]

And if it is happening to me, then it's my fault for letting my opponent exploit the system.

This sounds an awful lot like kicking yourself for letting your opponent cheat, in a sense. No, in many games air juggling is relatively balanced... relatively... but games with excessive air juggling (Capcom VS games) do tend to be a little less about the back and forth.

I prefer games where each hit is calculated and counts as opposed to combo-focused games where the first hit is only the entry point for many other hits.

[Doctor Fugue]

I don't believe in cheapness or cheating. It doesn't exist. If the game mechanic allows me to throw someone 20 times in a row or perform a 50-hit air combo, then I will do it. Obviously if I feel that a fighting system is not very well worked-out, then I will play another game...but for the most part I accept whatever rules have been set up, intended or unintended. I can't change the rules, so I'll exploit them.

Again, if my opponent has figured out a way to completely punish my mistakes, good for him (or her!).

But, this thread is about whether or not air juggling and massive unbreakable combos cause a game to be unbalanced. Don't waste too much time complaining about games that don't tickle your fancy. Otherwise, I would spend the rest of my life talking about turn-based battles.

And for all the people that seem to dislike long combos and air juggling and prefer more deliberate games, why do Mortal Kombat 1 and 2 get so little respect?

[Ack]

I'd say MK actually gets a good bit of love, though I'd also argue that the games have always felt extremely stiff, at least to me. Part of what I like about air juggling and big combos...they tend to flow better. Motion feels more natural to me.

As far as I'm concerned, it's mostly infinite combos that piss me off. Sure, they're hard to figure out, but if one person's got one, I'd prefer everybody to have one. Just my two cents on that.

And finally...did you ever play Fighter's History, Marurun? If you like your hits to count, I'd definitely suggest you try that one, for the Nintendo 64.