Due to the always respawning thread of “What’s the best fighting game ever?” on the Gametrailers forums I started to write my personal thoughts on why do people always ask this kind of questions, and here are my conclusions. Again this is my personal opinion and of course I can be wrong, so no offence. I’m no fighting game expert but I’ve played most of them on consoles and arcades and have met lots of players around the world.
I believe the fighting game community is dividend into the following categories:
Capcom guys (Street Fighter, Versus games, Vampire Savior, etc) who mostly can’t see past it and belive SF is the best game ever without giving other games a chance (for the most part at least).
SNK guys (King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, Garou, The Last Blade, etc) who enjoy good fighting games but are always consigned to 2nd place given SNK games weren’t that popular outside Japan, and also play SF and other fighting games for the sake of fun. I might sound a little biased towards this category, but I’m just stating what I believe is the real situation.
3D fighters guys (Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur) including some rather casual games like Super Smash Brothers or Power Stone. This category is mixture of people who deeply enjoy 3D games and those who like both 2D and 3D. Most of them also consider their favourite 3D series to be the best around.
All Fighting game guys (Guilty Gear, crossovers, Hokuto no Ken, Arcana Heart, Melty Blood, etc. including the 3 previous categories). Why such a broad category? Because there are tons of cool games that are overlooked most of the times and have the potential to be among the best games of the genre. Besides isn’t the fun and the competitive aspect what we’re looking for in a fighting game? That’s why I consider myself part of this last category.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions as well. Peace.
Just wanted to share my thoughts, I’m not proclaiming to hold the only truth nor to be a fighting games god, just wanted some discussion.
I know SNK games are more popular in different regions, I’m Cuban myself and have lived several years in various Latin American countries. What I was aiming through this topic is trying to discover the reasons why some people prefer one of my “categories” over the rest.
You’re right, I should have included those in the 4th category.
“SNK guys” (I’m generalizing, of course) are as obnoxious as the “Capcom guys” in countries where SNK (KOF) is popular. Around here most 2k2 players will play only 2k2 and think anything Capcom sucks, and a large percentage of those players won’t even play other SNK games. And '98 vs. 2k2 is kind of a ST vs. 3S rivalry.
It’s not about “SNK guys” vs. “Capcom guys”, fans of the most popular franchise / game tend to be arrogant and the fans of the lesser games can be pretty annoying and closed minded too.
