Ultra Combos is the one I have a problem with. By just pressing a button you can sit back and watch your character drain 50% of your opponents health, just because they did a simple mistake.
X-Factor wasn’t a bad idea, but they made it far too effective. It recovers health, can be cancelled out of moves, no chip damage, and double the strength. That’s far too useful to just be considered a comeback feature. And one of the reasons it also annoys me is because they have people like Hulk, Phoenix and Sentinel on the roster who are almost impossible to defeat when X-Factor is activated.
3s isnt the only game that had it, although they did take it to a whole new level.
all street fighter games post st had this mechanic minus cvs2 k groove which is probably the beginning of a stupid comeback mechanic for getting bodied.
even in the marvel vs series, whiffed normals built meter in every game except cota.
Dark Phoenix is the only character you mentioned that are insanely tough to beat with X-Factor. Hulk and Sent already basically kill you in one touch, they just use less meter to do it.
IMO comeback mechanics are a side-effect of capcom making their games more defensive in nature. either way, mechanics that limit the options of the winning player are stupid.
That mechanic is now present to appeal to a larger audience. The more people who play it = more money made.
Personally, I don’t like it. If someone wins with a comeback, it should be from their own skill, not what the game spoonfeeds them. Justin Wong has great comebacks in MvC2, Daigo has great comebacks in ST/3S/CvS2 without any of the bullshit, and those, imo, are the greatest comebacks of all.
I never saw the problem with a game providing more options. The more things you have to use and think about, the better the game in my mind. Deeper anyway. In theory it seems like BS since there is an ‘attack’ that does 900 billion% of your life, but usually in practice it doesn’t work that way. Ultras don’t just hit themselves randomly. You’re not SUPPOSED to get hit. I think easy to hit ultras are generally quite balanced, the ones with huge comeback potential[Abel/Rufus/Makoto/Etc.] are tagged onto chars with generally offensive ideas with poor defensive ones whereas the ones that are more like tools [Chun/Sim/Makoto again you sexy beast] are tagged onto chars that are generally defensive with poorer offensive options. There’s quite a bit of middle ground like rogs generally defensive nature combined with easy hittability combined with craptacular scaling. So I think ultras are actually quite balanced, stop walking into shin shoryus guys.
X-Factor I think would be great if it stopped at level 1, level 3 and B&Bs start killing people. One thing to think about tho - a level 3 means they’re just one guy. In a game that lets you have 3. Not exactly ideal conditions, depending on your team anyway. I play Wesker/Mags/Doom and its relatively easy to play keep away for that 20 seconds, esp from sent and his huge telegraphed ‘mixup’
I think one thing people overlook is the amount of meter the loser gets for getting hit in MVC3/SSFIV. The ‘loser’ is often not too far behind the winner in terms of meter and hes gaining it all just by getting hit.Ultras would be a more balanced comeback mechanic if you didnt nearly always have about 2 bars of EX by the time you were down to 40%. This problem is worse in MVC3.If you do two combos that build you 3 hyper meters you’re opponent gets about 2 hypers meters just from being hit.
Haha, it’s funny. I always used to say that K-groove in CVS2 was unneeded. I only used to use it for 1P Survival mode.
In fact, I dislike all SNK games (to be honest, I’ve barely given them a chance). And one of the reasons I used to give was the reward systems. And yet, with SFIV, I don’t mind it too much. There are better ways of doing it, but it’s ok, aside from being slightly overpowered. Bit of a contradiction, I guess.
My opinion on the Comeback System gives people that sense of a much needed ‘Okay, the game’s not over yet, I can still do this’ which amps up the skill level in the last 10-20 seconds of the game. I’ve had plenty of matches where I was getting taken down to my last leg in both SF4 and MvC3 and I still had enough fight in me to keep on going. Do you know the satisfaction of Avoiding Ken’s Ex Shoryuken only to Anti-Air him on the way down with the Shisso Buraiken from Dan? It’s a feeling that says ‘You didn’t give up, and here’s your reward.’
Sure, in some instances, it can take the place of skill. Like with Phoenix, She goes Dark Phoenix, the meter gets filled twice, blammo, game’s over. Maybe that’s not exactly what players need, or want, in situations like that. It seems less of a ‘Good work, now let’s end this’ and more of a ‘Just wait, That Ultra Gauge is gonna murder your ass!’
I play a lot of NHL and Street Fighter. I always say, “In hockey, if I’m down 4 or more goals in the third period should each each goal count for 3?”. The answer is definitely “no”. It’s anti-competitive to me. Let everyone get what they deserve. Don’t make things easier for the lesser player. You don’t see it in many other games or sports. Why here?
Don’t like them. If I win using because of a comeback mechanic I don’t get anything like the same satisfaction and if I lose specifically because of it I feel cheated. Lose lose situation
I am all against comeback mechanics. As a MvC2 player, you want to win? Fucking earn it. Don’t need to be spoonfed some extra power just because you’re about to die.
Justin did it with his Cyclops comeback. Didn’t need no stupid comeback boosts. That’s skill right there.
Comeback mechanics = “I love winning by capitalizing on an opponent’s one mistake after he just capitalized on three of mine.”
Did the programmers forget that health handicaps were introduced years ago? Why not just emphasize this more? If online play was ever good, I’d like to see the option to allow custom challenges for x : y health…just straight up fighting and not having to retreat after a rush down because your opponent has a new move / properties.
Side rant: low risk / high damage is in the same vein; less decisions needed to be get the win. If a good player can win through 5 decisions and a bad player needs 10…a rush to 3 decisions means needing more matches to be played before the better player is recognizable between evenly matched players. With rage quitters and best of 3 tournaments, where is the incentive to play these new era fighting games long term? But I guess companies only want you to play until the next one comes out, so question answered. Just let the kids push buttons and watch the pretty colors.
edit: big fail…meant to say low risk / high damage, not low health.
Funny how the exact same argument is made in reverse for low damage games, namely that it means that a player can make mistakes with minimal consequences.
I used K-groove for Just defense, Rage, and THe Super High damage. I don’t get the hate for ultras, since these moves were first called super desperation moves in FF2. I’m good with them. Hell I just now started to accept parries.
If you hate focus you should hate parry.
It’s funny how many of you goofs just started out on SFIV and think that Ultra is somehow “New and wrecks the system”
Hello, SFIV was developed by dimps, developers of KOF. Who implemented both a super meter and super desparation moves/cancels.