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Fighting Evolution

by Dick Ward August 5th 2008 6:20 PM CDT1 Comments

Videogames are easily the most rapidly evolving form of entertainment available today. Movies from 2003 are pretty much the same as movies from 2008, but with staggering generational leaps in all aspects, games from five years ago just don’t hold up. Not only is the graphical difference staggering, but gameplay, online capability, customization and even storytelling have changed drastically. Why is it then that fighting games have failed to evolve?

Don’t get me wrong, I love playing fighting games. I remember in high school I’d invite my friends over and get into a sort of mini tournament. We’d get some Cokes and a few pizzas and have a ton of fun, especially if I managed to squeeze out a victory. I’m not in high school anymore though, and though I can toast my friends in Team Fortress 2 without any problems, and we can still play Starcraft, there’s not a fighting game available with satisfactory online play.

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Virtua Fighter 5 was the best so far and the lag in online play was still noticeable. Soul Calibur IV is a step in the wrong direction, and for the sake of fans everywhere, I’m hoping that Street Fighter IV finds a way to solve the problem. In a genre where even low level tournament players know their chosen fighters moves down to the frame count, even a small amount of online lag is unbearable. Freezes and slowdowns on the other hand are inexcusable for any level of player. What’s the point of facing off online if the best of the best aren’t there?

Speaking of the best of the best, something needs to be done about fighting game stories. Need an example? Alright, we’ll play ‘guess that game’. Fighters from all over a globe take place in a winner take all tournament, each with their own reasons for entering. If you guessed, well, practically any fighting game ever made, you’d be right. Hey, I loved Enter The Dragon too, but if the plot’s gonna be used, it may as well be used for an Enter the Dragon game.

The point is that fighting games are never taken to task for their complete lack of stories, or if they are, it’s as an aside rather than an actual issue. Since they’re still pretty unreliable online, the single player mode is all a lot of people have. It’s a great way to build up some basic skills on the game, and it has amazing potential to be a great storytelling device. Sadly, the ‘story’ we get in every fighter is a cutscene or two that don’t really make a lot of sense and a video at the end that wraps up everything fairy tale style. “And Ryu Hayabusa lived happily ever after”. When I played Street Fighter II for my SNES it was excusable, now it’s just ridiculous.

Also nearing the point of pathetic is the creation system in modern fighting games. SCIV is the example that people seem to put forth when talking about creating their own fighters, which is really quite sad. Sure, there are a few options available, and there have been some really decent Youtube vids of famous people duking it , but when all is said and done, it’s just Mitsurugi vs Taki with a different look.

Fighting Games are notorious for using the old palette swap trick to flesh out their rosters. They change some colors, and voila, a new challenger has arrived. It’s always been a cop out from the beginning, but for some reason, when players are able to do it themselves, it’s a bonus feature. It’d be nice if fighting games would take a hint from wrestling games and get an honest to god character creator in there. Smackdown vs Raw has one, hell, Wrestlmania 2000 had a great one! So why is it so hard to let me make a unique fighter in 2008?


Anyone who has seriously played a First Person Shooter or Real Time Strategy game knows that balance is a huge issue with fans. The smallest difference in strength can make battles insanely unfair, and completely ruin a game. Players will complain on forums until they’re blue in the face about a miniscule change to their class in WoW if they feel that it changes the balance in the game. In fighting games though, it seems to be embraced, rather than discouraged.

Overpowered characters like Soul Calibur IV’s ‘Apprentice’ can completely take the fun out of a game. In online play, or even at home, either the cheesy way too buff characters are the only ones played, or they’re never touched. While some games like Street Fighter IV are tested for balance in the arcades before being released wide on consoles, other games have to have banned character lists at tournaments.

It’s an old adage – “If you’re going to do something, do it right”, and modern fighters don’t seem to be following it. If I’m going to get a sorry excuse for a story mode, don’t call it a story mode. If I can’t really create a character in the character creation mode, why even have it in there? Solid head to head gameplay is fine, but one amazing feature shouldn’t excuse endless terrible ones.