Stagnation of fighting games

I’ve never been a fighting game maniac, and indeed, the only games I ever played competitively is Super Smash Bros. Melee and Project M. However, I do like to play fighting games for fun, and with the horror that is Brawl, I understand why many fighting games fans get so angry when they receive an inferior product in a sequel.

Much like Brawl removed most of the franchises’ technical aspects; most fighting games in general have been getting on people’s nerves lately. It seems that fighting games are either getting more casual or we’re just paying for less.

There are many examples of this: Guilty Gear for example has pretty much retained the same gameplay for as long as it has existed. Buying Guilty Gear X or Accent Core pretty much amounts to buying the same game with a different balance and a little more content, but the roster generally increases by one or two per game, and sometimes, characters are flat-out removed. The re-balancing isn’t that good, with middle tiers being nerfed and high tiers getting buffs. It’s like the developers don’t know what they are doing. Mind you, Guilty Gear is a fun game, but with the gameplay being fundamentally the same, it always felt like a ripoff to always buy a balance patch at full price.

The same problem occurs with Blazblue, where Continuum shift got two more characters. Sure, there were four DLC characters, but they weren’t given to us and were incomplete, none bearing a story arc in story mode for example. It’s like they were just slapped onto the game for a quick cash-in. Two free characters is not enough to warrant a buy. Sure, there was a balance patch and modes like the new legion mode. The interactive tutorial was nice and helped people understand the mechanics a little more. Additional stages are pretty much pointless because they’re all flat surfaces anyways; it’s no more different than changing your wallpaper. There were a few more character songs, and the music plays an integral part in Blazblue (Playing Blazblue or Guilty Gear on mute is a crime in and of itself), however one wonders why there was no Jin vs Tsubaki song or other obvious pairing choices. Daisuke Ishiwatari’s music is very fitting for a fighting game and more music form him is always welcomed. Continuum shift got a continuation to the actually interesting graphic novel-style story of Blazblue: Calamity Trigger, but it was still not enough. I skipped this one and we ended up getting Blazblue Continuum Shift II, which is a rehash of Continuum Shift but with some balance recalibration and now free DLC characters. That is all. Anyone who bought Continuum shift must have felt horribly ripped off, and this taught me that the best thing to do when interested in buying a fighting game is to buy the game at the end of a generation, so that one can get the final version of the game. Continuum Shift II was a big insult to the fans, and arguably, could have been just a patch.



Mortal Kombat on the other hand tried a whole bunch of different things but went too far and denaturalized the series to a point where it was unrecognizable from its origins. Again, you gained new features, but they would most often be gimmicks and they would remove fan favourites just to fit the storyline. I understand the concept of Mortal Kombat... as in, it is about fights to the death, but in a fighting game, characters get fans who are attached to them. If you kill them off, you piss their mains. In other words, Mortal Kombat should have just gone “screw continuity”. An example of this is when they decided to kill off Liu Kang, the main character of the series and resident nut-puncher. Reviving him as a zombie was not consolation enough. Even as a non-fan, I was legitimately angry. I don’t care what people say about MK 9 right now, since there is one thing I must say about it: they screwed with the continuity, and that was a good a good thing and it may be what the franchise needs to get back on track.

Of course, Capcom is one of the biggest offenders with Street Fighter. After the release of a Street Fighter game, I’ve come to expect a super version, a turbo version, an arcade edition, etc... In other words, once a Street Fighter game comes out, you know that if you buy the first version out, a new, better one will come out very soon after. Street Fighter IV for example was soon followed by Super Street Fighter IV, then the Arcade edition. I mean, sure, they added characters, changed the balance, etc... but it is still on the exact same engine and could have been a downloadable patch. Not to mention that the original Street fighter IV had less characters than some of the earlier versions of the game. I don’t really care about a graphic overhaul and bad dance remixes; as a gamer, I want a reason to play this game, and I will not buy a game that does less than an earlier version that I own. Oh, and Street Fighter X Tekken? Yeah, that’s Street Fighter IV with Tekken characters. I’m no lord of Tekken, but that seems again like a lazy cash-in.

And that brings us to Marvel Vs Capcom 3. The game was heavily anticipated and was supposed to be huge and flashy. The game indeed sported very detailed graphics, but for some reason looked less good that the sprites from MvC 2, which seemed to move faster thanks to frame animation skips. It had 36 character, 38 if you count the DLC. That is still much less that the PS2 version that had a whopping 56 characters. MvC 3 was lacking many fan favourites like Gambit, Guile or Megaman. And Characters like Jill Valentine or Shuma Gorah (the later was an unlockable in MvC 3) had to be bought as DLC. So you got much less and had to pay to still have less. Then, when everyone got suckered into buying the already overpriced MvC 3, they announced Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3. The game in itself is a balanced patch with 12 new characters including the highly anticipated Phoenix Wright, bringing the default roster up to 48. That is still nowhere near 56. Where are the other 2, you may ask? Well the two DLC characters... Well they’re not included, so you’ll have to download them if you didn’t own MvC3 before. At least Blazblue had the decency to give them to us in Continuum Shift II (although they are guilty of putting too few new content on the new disc).



It is obvious that these companies are ripping the consumers off, but there’s a reason why they do this. We let them. Consumers fail to realize that they are actually the boss of the market. It pisses me off most of the time, because the market is full of fanboys and casual gamers these days, and they are the reason why Super Smash Bros. Brawl and other idiotic games of the sort exist. However, in this case, this complacent attitude gaming giants have taken to content in fighting games affect all us, hardcores and casuals alike. If anything, we should unite against this practice and just stop buying their scrap. Companies makes games not to please us, but to fill their pockets, and that is because they are corporations. In other words, they will only change their ways if they realize that their cheap practices are hurting their sales.

Take the 3DS for example: Nintendo has a habit of releasing new versions of its portable systems. The GBA was followed by the GBA SP, GBA Micro, etc.. the DS by the DS lite, DSi, DSi XL, etc... They also release new colours later, bundles, price cuts, etc... This has helped Nintendo get a lot of sales in the past because everyone wanted the latest one. But now, that bit Nintendo in the posterior because first: they have too few games, second: people are waiting for a 3DS lite or another colour. And now, look at what Nintendo is doing. Twenty free games through the ambassador program, a price cut very early... They are now paying for teaching people to wait for a better product. And you know what? I don’t feel an ounce of pity. Some companies (e.g. Nintendo, Square enix) can just makes ton of money by plastering some popular franchise name onto a pile of garbage and thus, their products become of lower quality. They know they can get away with it because we still buy them. People will buy Skyward Sword even though it’s a gimmick; people have bought Final Fantasy XIII even if it was a terrible experience. The only way to increase the quality of our games is simple: be more picky. If Super Smash Bros. 4 is like Brawl, opt out, if The Legend of Zelda forces you to swing a Wiimote like you’re on crack, don’t buy it either. As for Ultimate MvC3, Street Fighter IV Arcade edition and all of these rip-offs, just forget about them.