Maybe throws should stay SFA/SF3 styled to start. The key, then, is having a better means of escaping or countering throws. Multi-part grabs should start with very low damage for the first hold. This give the opponent time to realize what's coming, and possibly even reverse the hold. Reverses would make a nice twist on the escape. If you've been grabbed you can either try to turn the tables or escape. Escape would be easier, but turning the tables would give you an opportunity to do more damage with the more painful, latter parts of the throw.
Of course, if the game was mostly about grappling the punching and kicking mechanics would probably suffer.
Blah, already losing my place and some of the details of my thought. Such short attention span...
elvis wrote:I quite like this idea.marurun wrote:I would like to see a wider variety of throws and grabs used for relative positioning instead of damage. 3D fighters like VF and DOA have been OK about this, but 2D games tend to rely on dashes and rolls instead. I'd also like to see more involved grab moves for 2D fighters, something like what you can do in Streets of Rage, where you can grab someone but flip over top of them to change the type of throw you'll do. The risk would be that that buys the opponent an opportunity to try to escape the throw. DOA did multi-part throws pretty well, and I think they'd translate to 2D alright.
To a point, it's done a little with some characters. Zangief is certainly the most well-known command-throw character there is. In SF2:WW his throws were more varied, and the throw depended not only on the direction plus button press, but also the distance from your opponent that the throw was executed. Expanding on that across all characters is worthy of consideration.
The downside to throws is that you can't counter them. They can be escaped/avoided to a point (look at SF3:3S and other games where command-throws can be blocked), but in order to counter them more complex escape situations need to be investigated. I personally dislike DOA's throw/escape system. But I'm sure something could be worked on to expand it.
Although with that said you risk the game degenerating into an entirely throw-based game. And with *that* said, it might be a worthwhile take on the fighting game series to investigate a 2D fighting game that concentrates on throws/grapples, and has more depth to it than the pathetic 2.5D and 3D wrestling games on the market.

