Good fighting game for an inexperienced fighting gamer?

[pakopako]

I would just suggest you pice a fighting game franchise that really appeals to you and practice practice practice. Eventually it will become easy and second nature to execute moves.

This.

Fighting games, as covered by Ack, are all about three things:

• Movement
• Defense
• Timing

Once you learn how each character walks, runs, and jumps, you learn how and when to block. When you learn how to defend, you also see holes to poke and counter-attack. After that, it's all memorized flash. (Huge combos, reversals, etc.)

Pick a game you like, be it frantic-offense (2D -- Marvel vs Capcom 3, 3D -- Power Stone 2), counter-frenzy (2D -- King of Fighters 98, 3D -- Virtua Fighter 5), or something in-between (2D -- SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millenium, 3D -- Dead or Alive 4), just play it and make a go at it. There are, quite literally, hundreds of fighting games out there.

[J T]

As a theatre major in college, they started our formal acting training with Shakespeare. It seemed intimidating at the time because the language is archaic and difficult to parse, but once you nail down exactly what it is you're saying, it's quite simple. Characters in Shakespeare are pretty much emotionally transparent. Unlike real people, they always say exactly what's on their minds. They don't have layers of deception (or self-deception) to take into account. It teaches an actor to express a character's intentions simply and honestly.

And that's why you should start with Street Fighter II. It doesn't have the layers of fighting game mechanics that have been bolted onto the genre over the years. It's just two dudes on a two-dimensional plane, punching, kicking and jumping at each other. The special moves are the only things you have to "learn." But it's such a well-balanced game, and the characters' basic moves are so intuitive, that all of the mechanics of fighting games we know today (combos, juggles, etc.) sprung organically from SFII's basic template. And if you ask me, there's never been a better cast of fighting game characters than the twelve World Warriors in SFII Turbo.

I really like that analogy.

I recommend SFII as well.

[kelsoanim]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I played some Street Fighter II for a while. I found that it is not like riding a bike and I am way less skilled than I was when I was a kid (which wasn't really that skilled in the first place). In the end I ended up finding out that I had some left over credits in my XBLA account. So I decided on Marvel vs. Capcom 2. I picked it mostly on the advice of finding a game that you really like first and foremost. I've read reviews of the game and it's previous incarnations and all are really good. I have fond memories of playing X-Men Vs. Street Fighter in the arcades so playing this has a bit of nostalgia for me. On top of that I honestly really like the over the top presentation and Hyper Combos. That kind of flash just hits a cord in me.

I spent a few hours with it over the weekend and I think it definitely has what I need to keep me practicing. I really appreciate it's training mode. I think I've narrowed down the list of characters I want to practice with: Cable, Ken and Jill. They all have a nice feel to me. It's fun to jump around and try all of the characters, but I know I'll need to focus on a few if I want to get better fast.

[Niode]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I played some Street Fighter II for a while. I found that it is not like riding a bike and I am way less skilled than I was when I was a kid (which wasn't really that skilled in the first place). In the end I ended up finding out that I had some left over credits in my XBLA account. So I decided on Marvel vs. Capcom 2. I picked it mostly on the advice of finding a game that you really like first and foremost. I've read reviews of the game and it's previous incarnations and all are really good. I have fond memories of playing X-Men Vs. Street Fighter in the arcades so playing this has a bit of nostalgia for me. On top of that I honestly really like the over the top presentation and Hyper Combos. That kind of flash just hits a cord in me.

I spent a few hours with it over the weekend and I think it definitely has what I need to keep me practicing. I really appreciate it's training mode. I think I've narrowed down the list of characters I want to practice with: Cable, Ken and Jill. They all have a nice feel to me. It's fun to jump around and try all of the characters, but I know I'll need to focus on a few if I want to get better fast.

The thing with MvC2 is that you need to playing the god/top tier characters and nothing else to even stand a chance online. Pretty much everybody uses some combination of Sentinel, Storm, Magneto, Cable, Cyclops, War Machine, Iron Man and Strider.

[t0yrobo]

I don't think it's been suggested yet, but how about Street Fighter 3. I found it to have a good mix of familiar Street Fighterness, with a whole lot of technical stuff that was surprisingly easy to get into. For me the familiarity helped get me interested in the game, but how different it is from other SF games kept me at it for longer than I play most fighters.

[Curlypaul]

You should read this guide about footsies: http://sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702

It gives you some idea about the mind games that make fighting games interesting. After you get more experience in a game, it might be a good idea to read the guide again.

I would start with newer games like Super Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs Capcom 3, just because there's a lot more information available to help you out. There are guides, articles, and glossaries at http://shoryuken.com, http://option-select.com, http://eventhubs.com, and http://sonichurricane.com. Be sure to check out the forums at those websites too.

Thats an awesome guide, thanks for the link

[brunoafh]

I don't think it's been suggested yet, but how about Street Fighter 3. I found it to have a good mix of familiar Street Fighterness, with a whole lot of technical stuff that was surprisingly easy to get into. For me the familiarity helped get me interested in the game, but how different it is from other SF games kept me at it for longer than I play most fighters.

Street Fighter is definitely a good starting place, but SF3 seems like the worst one to start with.

[Niode]

I don't think it's been suggested yet, but how about Street Fighter 3. I found it to have a good mix of familiar Street Fighterness, with a whole lot of technical stuff that was surprisingly easy to get into. For me the familiarity helped get me interested in the game, but how different it is from other SF games kept me at it for longer than I play most fighters.

Street Fighter is definitely a good starting place, but SF3 seems like the worst one to start with.

Why? I still think it's the greatest in the entire series. As do a lot of people.

[brunoafh]

I don't think it's been suggested yet, but how about Street Fighter 3. I found it to have a good mix of familiar Street Fighterness, with a whole lot of technical stuff that was surprisingly easy to get into. For me the familiarity helped get me interested in the game, but how different it is from other SF games kept me at it for longer than I play most fighters.

Street Fighter is definitely a good starting place, but SF3 seems like the worst one to start with.

Why? I still think it's the greatest in the entire series. As do a lot of people.

I think you may have misunderstood me. I too think it's the greatest in the series (although II's cast is my favorite).

I just meant in terms of accessibility, when compared to the learning curves of II, IV, and even the Alpha games, it's kind of the worst place to start.

[Niode]

Why? I still think it's the greatest in the entire series. As do a lot of people.

I think you may have misunderstood me. I too think it's the greatest in the series (although II's cast is my favorite).

I just meant in terms of accessibility, when compared to the learning curves of II, IV, and even the Alpha games, it's kind of the worst place to start.[/quote]

Gotcha. Yeah, I guess so, but I love the difficulty.