Fighters: More Complex Than You Know

A few months ago, at the beginning of Summer, a friend of mine gifted me a copy of Skullgirls, a 2D Fighting game by Lab Zero. I had previously heard of the game when it first came out, but not being interested in (or particularly good at) fighters, I had mostly ignored it. While fighting games even have several well-known tournaments dedicated to them (most notably EVO, or Evolution Champion Series), my complete lack of skill and knowledge about them in general meant that, apart from the occasional casual play of Super Smash Brothers with my cousins and an aborted attempt to play Melty Blood, as I’m a fan of other non-fighting works in that setting, I did not play or follow any news about fighters. Seeing as I was given a copy for free, however, I decided (mostly on a whim) to try and get into this entire genre of games I had neglected until this point.

Reading up on my newly acquired game, the first thing I found was that the tutorials were, apparently, considered some of the best out there, and an excellent way to learn how to play. I considered this a very good thing, seeing as the only method of gameplay I previously knew involved charging at the enemy, whacking random buttons very quickly, and hoping for the best (otherwise known as button mashing). So, I began to play through these tutorials.

The first few covered the basics, movement, blocking (which I had never done previously, except accidently, or even really considered), and attacks. Then it got more complex: combos, special moves, and the like. These, I had never been able to do, but the tutorials were as good as claimed, and I eventually mostly got the hang of things. (Some of those combos get complex!) The last few tutorials were dedicated to individual characters, which came with an explanation of play styles, such as one character being focused on keeping distance and harassing, or another centered on getting in close and grabbing the opponent. Putting it all together, these individual things built up into a complex gameplay, with strategies and tactics varying on character matchups and the composition of teams.

With this new knowledge of mechanics, I…got to winning? Somehow became awesome at fighters? Took over the world with my newfound skill? Ha no. I still completely suck, but I now know how to actually improve, a huge step up from “mash harder.” As with most things, that comes down to practice and watching other people play. I was able to go from “die at the first boss” to “consistently get to the end levels” when playing The Binding of Isaac, a roguelike game, I can improve in fighting games too. Thankfully, many things learned in the tutorials apply to other games, and I’m currently taking another shot at Melty Blood. Super Smash Bros., on the other hand, is quite different than the standard, and as such not as much learned applies to it. Either way, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of material offered from a genre I had never previously considered.