Combo-centric/Highly competitive Capcom and SNK Fighters I should avoid?

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

Hello guys. I’m new to this place.

I’ve enjoyed playing some fighting games since the 90s, but the genre was never my specialty. I never dug too deeply into it despite knowing how they work at a basic level. My focus was more into things like beat 'em ups, shoot 'em ups or just action games in general.

However, I’d like to (casually) focus on the genre a bit more. The thing is, I don’t really enjoy combo-heavy/highly competitive stuff so I’d rather avoid them as much as I can. I’m also not interested in post 90s fighters, so I’d rather focus only on the older ones, such as Capcom’s CPS2 or SNK’s NeoGeo MVS titles.

I read somewhere that most of the 90s stuff is pretty simple and not too combo-oriented. There are exceptions though, such as Third Strike for Capcom and KoF/Garou for SNK. Not really sure about any others.

Which games from that era a casual player like me should avoid?

2

I would focus less on what to avoid and more on what to play. Anything that still active is going to have skilled players along with new players, you can’t really avoid it. How do you intend on playing?

3

Fighting games are highly competitive by nature.
If you try to play any of these old-ass fighting games on FightCade or whatever, you’ll get your ass whooped, HARD.

If you have no desire to get better, play something else.
Seriously.

4

I think thats a little extreme. There are plenty of games that have less of a focus on combos. I’d also look for games with less tech going on.

Before going into it. “Combo” can be misconstrued too. Check the glossary on here for words like Combo, Target Combo, Chain, Link, Cancel, Drive-Cancel. You may find their are certain combo types you like - a lot of players enjoy Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct style games that allow you to combo more freely and with less of a dependeny on timing, which is often the of putting factor. You may be ruling yourself out of games that you would enjoy.

Without knowing that though:

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike has a lot of things to learn; combos, links, parries universal crossups, CAs, EXs.

Likewise, Garou MotW from that era has a lot going on. I’d argue you can play it without having to learn too much, but there are other games if you’re playing it safe.

Avoid the Marvel versus series, mostly due to having to learn how to build and manage a team, as well as meters.

Same goes for the Capcom vs SNK series. Lots to learn. (I feel sad ruling out a lot of these games haha…They’re all so great!)

King of Fighters titles after a certain point require a lot of player knowledge and almost take pride in their demand from the player.

I’d agree with BurnYourEgo though, easier to find games that aren’t going to feel overwhelming (which isn’t to say they won’t require you to learn and grow)

The obvious ones are the earlier Street Fighter 2 variants, although they’re all pretty straightforward, at most you’ll be putting 3 or 4 moves together in a match, but good footsies can win a match equally.

Mortal Kombat through to UMK3 are all good shouts - admittedly, they’re the sort of games I’ll put on if I’ve got mates round that don’t play fighters.

Any Art of Fighting/Fatal Fury/King of Fighters games up until around 1995? They have a rough fanbase though if you plan on playing online. That’s always going to be an issue with playing a 20-30 year old game though…you’ll have some catching up to do :stuck_out_tongue:

3D fighters from that era, Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers, Tekken etc focus on being able to juggle the opponent, more than combo, but have a LOT of command-style moves to learn.

Party games would be a good move - Power Stone, Smash Bros, Wrestling games

If you’re playing for enjoyment and want a slow builder into “the community”, you can’t go wrong with SF2’ Turbo/Hyper Fighting. It’ll always have people playing it, no meters or weird systems to worry about, you can get proficient with a single character and not have to practice daily to remember how to play them…am I hitting the mark here?

5

Play Breaker’s Revenge

6

Dive Kick.

7

Haha, I literally came in here to recommend Dive Kick. OP, there isn’t a single game that fits that description except for like one single game that fits that description. And of course Dive Kick. So literally two games that fit that description. Others there is literally nothing. Play Mortal Kombat 1. It has punch and kick and some movement. You wont find any games of course because nobody plays it. And as far as Dive Kick goes, it has a jump button and a kick button. No combos at all. You will have to deal with the extremely competitive scene of the game.

So scratch Dive Kick. And don’t bother with MK1.

If you want to play fighting games you will have to be competitive. You can skip combos if you don’t want to put the time in to learn them. But you can’t avoid competitiveness if you are going where people are competing. But why would you want to. If you play a game where there is a winner and a loser, why not always try be the winner.

Because real thing you could do is find any fighting game you like the look of, and get a friend to start playing with you. That way you will both suck and at some point one of you will start the lead. Motivating the one losing to be better, making them take the lead, motivating the new loser to do better. And hopefully someday motivate you both to want to always win.

Or you could end up like me. With no friends to play against because I am better than them all and they cry like scrubs if I don’t give them a chance.