How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?
Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
“Write what you know,” yeah? Well, if there’s one thing I’ve come to know and love lately, it’s the fighting game community. Playing, competing, watching, learning – you name it, I’ve become a little obsessive with it.
I touched on this topic in a couple of articles on competition back in the day, so I won’t rehash too much, but suffice it to say that I’ve come to find a little healthy competition is one of the best things you can give yourself. Having a hobby that provides just that is simply great. Pitting your skills against other people, finding and shoring up your weaknesses, having something that provides measurable growth in a skill (even an admittedly niche one) – I just think it’s neat.
I’ve got a long, spotty history with these games. I remember playing Street Fighter 2 with my brother in the basement of our house in upstate New York, getting wildly frustrated at losing over and over and him and his friend Stick chuckling, chanting “forgot to block loooow.” I played that, Marvel vs Capcom in the arcade, a couple Tekkens and Soul Calibers, some Budokai Tenkaichi (Wow, I actually did spell that right), never really taking any of it seriously, just enjoying some button mashing with friends. It was fun even when we were all terrible, and the thought of trying to “git gud” never really crossed my mind. In my gaming life I was busy trying to be good in team games or PvE – WoW, DotA, Counter Strike, things like that. 1v1 games always struck me as a little intimidating. They are, after all, solely a reflection of your own skill. Can’t hope the team carries you or blame the carry’s terrible farm when you fail. There’s only the mirror. Well, and the internet connection, but what can you do?
I’d hoped to pinpoint a place when my mindset changed, but I guess it came down to a two things. One, I got tired of team games where I took improving much more seriously than the random people I paired up with online did. It was immensely frustrating to throw myself into the meat grinder in Dota2 playing a solo queue support where I was truly at the whims of the other 4 people on my team. Try as hard as I could, there’s only so much I could do to affect the outcome of the game. That would have been fine if I’d had a full team of people I knew who could grow together, but the constant assortment of randos became more frustrating than anything, and it got me burned out on the genre. And then, the ultimate targeted product landed on the market.
For those who aren’t aware of my level of nerddom, there are a couple of things that I would say defined my childhood. Squaresoft, Star Wars, Redwall, and, of course, Dragon Ball. I used to rush home so I could go hang out with my best friend Zach and watch Toonami to catch the next episode. I didn’t care if it was looping the Frieza saga over and over, or restarting all the way back in the Saiyan saga. I loved that damn thing. Hell, I still do. I own all of Z, and watched it and Super with the kids.
What’s that got to do with anything? Well, back in 2018 they released Dragon Ball FighterZ, a true fighting game in the DB franchise, the first of it’s kind. It was a tag fighter, like Marvel vs. Capcom, and I was immediately sucked in. I fell in love – the design, the art direction, the cinematic nature, the competitive aspects. There was depth, skill, absolutely wild stuff, and it was all, gloriously, on me to learn.
I never did get very good at it. I was passable, and I enjoyed the hell out of it, but I hit a wall pretty quickly and mostly just played solo or with the family.
Along came Granblue Fantasy Versus, a game that, while fun, I didn’t really enjoy as much as I did FighterZ. However, a good friend of mine was very interested in that and we started to play together. Let me tell you, having a training partner is absolutely the best thing that can happen in these sorts of games. Being driven to get better for your next session is so very motivating. So, despite GBVS not having that same spark, I played far more of that than I did FighterZ.
And then came the the one that set everything off. Guilty Gear -Strive-. Hoo boy. My taste of the genre was given a new spark. It’s beautiful. Fast. Mechanically deep. I loved everything about it, and for the first time I wanted to get better not only for my local, friend time, but in general. I wanted to win. To compete. To really learn. I started watching things to understand more. I watched tournaments, found players and streamers to follow. In short, I fell in hard.
The result? I’m halfway decent. I won’t be winning anything, but I’ve reached the top “floor” of the ranking system in the game a few times. I’m #400something rated on the character I play. Again, not great, but passable. And improving. I love that game, and will continue to play for sure.
However. The new big name is on the block. Street Fighter 6 released at the end of last week, and man, what a package it is. It is, without a doubt, the next generation of fighting game. It’s beautiful, it’s loaded with features and gameplay modes most studios ignore, and it’s fully designed around one central concept. Fun. Want to learn the basics? There’s a control setup for that. Want to really play right? One for that, too. Have an 8yo at the house who wants to do cool things? Yep, got one for that, too. Want a big single player game? Yep. How about weird mini-games that teach you the concepts needed for the main course? Mmmhm. Wild modes that are there to spice regular matches up AND teach you some core mechanics? You bet. How about places to play older games, in this game? Naturally!
Out the gate, Street Fighter is very different than the games I got back into the genre with. It’s slower, more methodical, and more based around reaction to and dealing with spacing and situations. It’s difficult for my head to get around the fundamental system differences, but that isn’t turning me off. I’m invested in learning more. My typical character crisis is in full swing, of course (I never know who I want to play), but that’ll work itself out soon. I’ve spent most of my time in the game doing the single player stuff – unlocking new costumes, building my personal character, and just messing around for fun. Soon, though, comes the training arc. Am I going to end up using a tried-and-true military officer? A man framed for crimes and driven from his family, forced into hiding? A girl obsessed with 90s hip-hop who also just happens to be a ninja? Or a French runway model, actress, and Judo champion? There are fourteen others to choose from, but I’ve at least got my list narrowed a bit.
Long story short – play fighting games. They’re sick. Gear is amazing. SF6 is amazing. A new Tekken and Mortal Kombat are on the way. The new age of fighting games is here, get on the wagon. You’ll be bad, but don’t worry, everyone starts there. It’s a genre full of jargon and information needing to be absorbed, but learning is part of the fun. We’re all learning together.
If you do happen to get on, look me up. ThemeAttic in both -Strive- and SF6. Let’s spar. It’ll do us both good.
Well, it happened. I hit a wall. No Lego this week, but… I don’t really know if I can consider it a failure. It’s not that I didn’t have the time because I was out of town or that I got lazy on it, I literally couldn’t get to where I’m keeping them. I guess I technically wanted 52 done so there’s still plenty of time to catch up on a missed week (or two, depending), but it’s annoying.
I’d mentioned before that the plan was to get things organized, and the below is how that starts. You can also spot a bunch of builds in the works – oh noes, previews! This is everything in the room shoved off to one side so we have room to build cabinets and get them set up on the wall behind the camera. Should be fantastic once done!
Themeattics 