@Pertho , try Under Nigh In-Birth Exe Late, if you like Melty Blood, you will like UNIEL.
I wasnt huge in melty. Actual weeaboos turned me off on it. I can definitely respect the things it does well though. As far as american games go, this is a pretty amazing time. Almost none of the games are straight japanese clones. I’m not a huge fan of NRS but MKX seems to be interesting at high level play. SF4 is uggo on a lot of places, but its really tense at a mid to high level. KI and Skullgirls are getting the downplay at the moment (some of it they deserved), but the games they’ve turned into are really damn good.
Being american for the sake of america (which is what leads to a lot of the NRS issues) and being japanese for the sake of japanese leads to some shit game making. Why MKX doesnt have ggpo is beyond me.
I just think that American devs can contribute something different to the fighter genre if they were to really go at it hard. Not make cash grabs like in the 90’s. I mean look at MKX and how its story, and extras are bringing in people who would normally not bother with the genre. And KI with characters like That rock dude who creates artificial walls. And Skullgirl’s Beowulf with his “hype” mechanic and Squiggly with her stage shrinking mechanic. Imagine what other innovations could be made if more American devs joined in? Also did you list SF4 as an American made fighter?
After Iron Galaxy is done with KI I would like to see them make an original IP.
No, USF4 is an example of a game that may not be the prettiest or have the best mechanics but still be really interesting gameplay wise. As long as the game is interesting to play and can keep players engages, it doesnt always have to be the prettiest or the straight best.
Therefore it doesnt matter how i or people feel about certain mechanics. I have, and still am, very critical of all backwards shit NRS seems to do. But if MKX leads to good matches and compelling gameplay (which is thankfully the way its going) then that doesnt matter as much.
As far as american devs doing their own thing, KI and SG are in a better position than NRS because keits and mike z are basically scholars of the genre. There are other similar people whom have the knowledge of things that dont work and mechanics which are underexplored. If american devs really wanted to go in on this genre, tapping these people would be incredibly important.
The reason why is that its really easy to make a bad fighting game. OG skullgirls was bad, had potential but it was basically bad. KI was cool but underwhelming; NRS basically releases betas and then fixes them. Minimizing the odds of an initial release being shitty is insanely important; especially if you want there to be a bigger scene of american devs making these. It takes time to fix a bad initial release and even then the scene for that game may not recover. Look at the beating SFxT got even though the patch turned it into a really cool game. Skullgirls still hasnt really recovered (but that is a case study into a bunch of different things at this point).
Even then is the genre worth investing in. Japan has a huge scene compare to the rest of the planet but these games arent exactly home runs on their virtues alone. You’d need some really casual firepower to motivate people. NRS is the best positioned since it basically sells western fan service. New IPs would need to be attached to some popular properties to get over that new ip barrier. An american sequel to tmnt: tournament fighters or some other comic booky thing would be good. Fun fact: Ready 2 Rumble was one of the more popular American fighting games amongst casuals. Lots of weird things would have to happen for american devs to make a dent.
Mike Z also helped make KI.
Very good points. I mean hell MVC2 is regarded as one of the G.O.A.Ts despite the imbalances. Maybe Mike Z and Keits could be the guys who start a fighting game renaissance here in the west amongst devs. Fighters are arguably the most trickiest games to design, and it’s hard for new IPs to take off. Only during the 90’s did new fighting IPs make a big splash in the market. It does seem that a fighter’s best bet is to be based off of an existing franchise or brand. But maybe a couple of fighters based on existing franchises could open the door for brand new IPs, it could get people excited for the genre thus more open to other games that don’t have recognizable faces. I think the genre is worth investing in and I don’t say this just as a fighting game fan. fighting game devs just need to get with the times and realize that vs, arcade and training mode isn’t enough anymore. MK series was already ahead of the curve before MK9 and X. All they had to do was put it all together in a fighter with solid mechanics and gameplay thus MK9 and MKX Oh and Ready 2 Rumble was da shit. Johhny Bad Blood ftw.
Body Blows, Shadow Fighter, Mace: The Dark Age, Weapon Lord…
decent franchises fading to oblivion
Franchise usually means having more than one installment.
I don’t know about the others but Mace The Dark Age was pretty cool. Remember playing it with my best friend and my lil brother on N64. What came first Mace or Soul Cal?
I’m taking notes on a lot of information at this point until I can contribute, but I do have some questions. What made Skullgirls bad before? And what makes it more appealing now?
I’ve dabbled with Skullgirls and enjoy it, but stopped playing the game due to my own personal gripes.
@d3v You said that Mike Z contributed to KI? Was that before or after Iron Galaxy continued development with KI? I’m just curious…
Mike Z was a consultant from when Double Helix was working on the game. You can see his influence in places, for example the KV (knockdown value) system is similar to the drama/undizzy system from Skullgirls (which Mike adapted from MvC2).
American fighters are like modern anime, they all suck.
Except SG, which is like a good 80/90’s anime.
The big issue was the length of combos and a couple of other ridiculous things. The ridiculous things were Double’s HK bomber assist and Painwheel’s flight. The first was basically the only assist in the game. It was an anti air, covered ground like a projectile, had a bunch of invincibility, did hella damage, was somewhat hard to stuff and was even great in combos. HP Updo and Parasoul’s Hp pillar were also good, but hers was better. You could beat it if you knew how to punish assist (which I did), but smart use of it made just that much better. Painwheel’s flight had a really silly property (probably an oversight on Mike Z’s part) where she could fly higher if you jumped at her. This effectively meant that nobody could touch her. She could even fly over the anti air assists. Mind that this isn’t the same as super jump with MvC2 stages, she was basically jumping over fierce shoryus. The game also accidentally had the DHC glitch which let some characters do absurd damage.
Combo length was the most ridiculous thing about it. The infinite prevention basically worked to make killing people in one hit less accessible to all. It still came down to touching and doing some ridiculously long combo, incoming mix up and killing the next character with the same combo. Low to Mid level it was pretty great, high level was just the bad parts of MvC3 with actual assists.
The game is so different now, we might as well call it SkullGirls 2. Undizzy bar, tighter infinite prevention to shorten combos, all sorts of nice visual cues that weren’t there before etc, etc, etc. The game now to how the game is just a different beast altogether.
SFxT and Skullgirls show that you gotta get it right the first time. If the game isn’t fun at the first go, it is dead in the water even if you fix all the problems later and say “everyone come back and give us another chance.”
NRS gets a pass on this though. I completely agree, but for some reason releasing a clusterfuck then slowly patching it appears to be the most approved choice.
Well, in the case of NRS, they have strong casual following while SG is a niche game and SFxT is just a terrible game that no one wanted.
As the way it should be. You release a broken or sub par product expect people to not care for it. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s admirable that Lab Zero has stayed the course and continues to support their game and try despite that setback. But people are paying money for these games and expect them to be at least decent out of the box. Now Skullgirls is an indie title so I think people were more forgiving with it, I mean it’s still fairly active and attracting new players. Now SFXT no excuses. That’s what happens when a company gets greedy and puts money before making a good product I.E Microtransactions, On disc DLC, busted gems that can be bought vis said microtransactions. Where as had Capcom just focused on making a good product first, the money who’ve flowed in with that game. NRS, not sure what you’re getting at?
[quote="BB_Hoody;10240220"NRS, not sure what you’re getting at?
[/quote]
Seriously? Maybe you shouldn’t be commenting on any of this shit if you don’t know why is it that NRS is relevant to the “lets release a pile of hot shit and have people beta test it until its something that’s passable”.
Seriously? Maybe you shouldn’t be commenting on any of this shit if you don’t know why is it that NRS is relevant to the “lets release a pile of hot shit and have people beta test it until its something that’s passable”.
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The main issue I see with NRS fighters is that on-line is ass. The fighting system isn’t spectacular but it has come along way since the days of the original MK. And take it easy buddy, relax.