So this is a pretty basic question. There are tons of fighting game out there. Personally im pretty bad at all of them except for super smash bro’s and lets not get into whether or not thats a real fighting game or not. Simple put ive wanted to get into fighting games. i really enjoy the competition and the genre in general but i cant seem to find a good way of learning the basics. Like timing and ways to learn combo’s and all that. Ive like street fighter but unless your willing to play hundreds of hours your not gonna come close to beating anyone with alittle pratice under their belt. So im asking of all the fighting games out there which is the most user friendly at teaching the player the basics. Now i know all fighting games are different but they also have alot in common so i feel if i can master one with a lower level of entry i can eventual move up to something such as street fighter. So what do you guys think? Or am i just talking crazy? Either way would love to hear opinions
Play Super Turbo if you want to learn fundamentals.
If you want to get better at game X, play game X. This shit about “play this other game to get better” doesn’t really make sense.
If fighting games weren’t deep, we wouldn’t play them for as long as we have. If you want easy wins, go play Call of Duty or something. Losing to the same person for “hundreds of hours” means that you’re learning…
Why not just start on Street Fighter? You’re best off learning off a game like ST. See, the thing about ST vs new games is that ST has a certain aspect to it that commands learning basics first, and then advanced stuff like canceling and combos.
ST is about controlling space, footies, and reacting to your opponent. Learn to use your normals first and foremost. Find out which ones are going to be your bread and butter pokes and hit confirms. After you get those 4 basics down, then you should focus on special moves and how their properties will help you in your battle. Without knowing normals, specials aren’t really all that useful since advanced play will require you to use normals to cancel into specials. Without knowing the basics of your normals, specials won’t be of any significant help. Then, you can focus on combos, since those usually require a moderate level of skill to combo normals using either chains or links and then finishing off with a cancel to a special of some sort to gain advantage, such as a knock down.
ST is an amazing game, because it doesn’t rely on come back mechanics to get you wins, there isn’t a such thing as focus/super armors, you don’t get trip guard, and the game is more strategic than simply fishing for a combo like many newer games are, no x-factor, pandora, or large tag combos. ST is simplicity, and if you truly want to learn fundamentals then ST is your game. Alpha 2 is another great fundamentals game, although it has a bit more possibility to dish out combos and you get multiple super moves, it still has a beautiful simplicity that was lost once Alpha 3 hit the scene and isms started taking over.
I’d say Super Turbo, Hyper Fighting, Alpha 2 and Capcom VS SNK 2 would be the best for fundamentals.
While i see what your saying Kikuichimonji but also your not really making sense yourself. some game is gonna be better at teaching the basics rather than others. fighting games might be hard to learn overall but that doesnt mean their isnt one that might be better at teaching someone fundementals a little better than others. I get that if i wanna be good at game x, play game x but if game x has a high level of entry then it wont matter how many matches i play the skills needed to be good aren’t going to just come. Practice makes perfect but not when the practice mode offers nothing for a someone really new to fighting games. So thats why im just asking the general question of is there a fighting game out there that others feel can teach someone better than others. Thats all i asked
Ok now that i got that done id defiantly be ok with play a street fighter game Moonchilde. I bought SF4 AE with a fight stick a while back just learning the combos for makoto (the character i like) is really difficult. But getting good will take time. Do you have a recommended way of mastering a character?
I find Soul Calibur to be quite a good teacher for the reason that it doesn’t have demanding execution. You’ll learn the general applicable skills like mixups, frame advantage, spacing, oki, punishing, etc. and you’ll probably learn all of these theories faster than you would playing SF. Another thing is, however, that SC is a 3D fighter, so there will be some big central differences, but everything I said still applies. As for 2D games, people are right in suggesting Super Turbo. Mortal Kombat 9 would also be a good 2D teacher. Ultimately, I wouldn’t suggest playing these games for the sole purpose of learning general skills and theories that AE shares with them, but be sure you’re actually interested in them as well. Elsewise, I’d tell you just to keep playing AE.
regarding timing and combos, play Sengoku 3. Really.
SF2. Spacing dependant, no Ultra bullshit, tight commands, mashing and frothing on the buttons isn’t as easy as the retarded 4th version.
Play the game in which you want to become good and which makes fun for you
The answer is completely dependent on how much time you have. In the “natural” development of fighting games people who nailed down their execution, normal, spacing, throw game, etc. during SF2 had far less thing to focus on when more hectic games like the xmen/marvel games and GG came out. Its a good way to learn, but it also wasn’t by choice, because there was no marvel style game back then.
(just reread original post)
Wait are you asking about learning FROM the game and not a person? Never ever learn how to play a fighting game from the game. If you learn how to play from the game and not other skilled players you will still lose to everything except the lowest skill level of players.
Lol black shinobi i think you answered my question. Guess there isnt a game out there that teaches you well enough to compete like i was hoping. I knew online was probably the way to go but just wanted to see others opinions on it
Playing a different game to learn another game is redundant… people played SF2 and went on to do well in SF4 because they didn’t have a choice, it’s what they did. If you wanted to learn Starcraft 2 right now, you shouldn’t spend a bunch of time playing Brood War… if you want to learn how to play SF2, then play SF2. If you want to learn to play SF4, then play SF4.
^^^ Well, if you continue to have execution issues, I would suggest experimenting in the following games:
Garou MOTW: feint combos, links to super.
Blazblue: Pick any character except Ragna/Jin and try all combos on Dustloop.
SFIII:3s: Just play it and try to learn the ins and outs of the system.
If you can handle the inputs in those games then you are set… It’s a bit harder to find someone to play atm though. Sorry if the selections too advanced but I learned how to use a arcade stick (no modification) with those games. I don’t feel restricted at all now.
Its not really the games’ fault, they do what they can but it is a flawed medium for that kind of teaching.
Imagine that you don’t know how to fight and you (for whatever reason) have to fight a skilled martial artist with match experience in two weeks. Learning from the game is like trying to prepare for that fight by saying which book will teach me how to fight the best in the next two weeks? If you looks at 10 different books, yes one of them will have more complete or better explained information and that will be the book that helps the most. But the real answer to your question, even though it isn’t the one you asked, is don’t learn martial arts from a book. Learn by playing, learn by asking people questions, learn through videos, learn through forums, learn from a medium where the information changes as the game changes.
Ya i kinda knew that was the way to go after i posted the question and did some research. Its defiantly a harder genre to get into but i believe the pay off will be nice. Just gotta start making friends on here, watching videos, and doing my own research. Oh and id add you guys as friends if i could figure it out but i dont think this site has that. idk
I’d say AE over ST for practical reasons. AE’s the current SF game most people play so if you start with AE, you can just keep playing here rather than starting with ST and then going to AE. The reasons supporting ST that involves the lack of Ultras and other things people mentioned assumes the player is going to big bad habits immediately, which isn’t always true.
Instead, you can play AE and simply ignore Ultras, Focuses and other mechanics for the time being. You would still be learning basics, and at the same time get used to playing the game you intend on playing in the long run (which I’m assuming will be AE for the sake of the argument). Once you got basics down, then proceed to start learning about the other things of AE.
as someone who plays ST and HF and doesn’t fuck with SFIV anymore, even I would say if you wanna play SFIV, the best place to start is SFIV. Just make sure you stay self aware and be humble, you will lose most games for months but as long as you think about why you are losing them and make an effort to change, you will get there. I sucked for like years just playing instinctively and just coasted on being able to do combos, all the practice in the world didn’t help because I wasn’t really practicing as I never tried to change my bad habbits.
The question was originally how to get good at basics of fighters, which ST and HF will ultimately teach. Even if you load up some MAME cheats and disable the timer and make it have infinite life, you CAN learn basics. For one, the CPU is amazing at using normals to stop any attack coming its way, which if you pay attention you can make use of and learn from how it uses normals. For example, if you play Vega against Ken or Ryu, and use cr.RH to slide at them, the CPU will always use cr.SH to stop it. I wouldn’t have ever really known that had I not played the CPU, because most human opponents aren’t doing that at the last split second like the CPU does. It’s good knowledge to have.
Also, the CPU has patterns which you can learn and then counter against, so that you learn your basic normals and how they work. Of course the CPU does a bunch of bullshit and doesn’t think, but you can still learn from playing against one in an infinite time/life round. Improvement is possible because you can eventually start to get more hits against a CPU over the CPU getting more hits on you. There are many things I learned from playing infinite CPU rounds.
Never shrug it off.
I would also note, that learning online can teach many bad habits, like tactics that abuse lag but don’t work offline. For example, in SF2, someone playing M.Bison could Psycho Crush through you to the corner, and then throw. Or do Scissor Kicks, and get a throw. Problem is, this is all unsafe and M.Bison is actually at a frame disadvantage on Psycho Crusher / Scissor Kick recovery, because anyone who blocked it will be out of block stun faster than the recovery of those moves and can throw. Bison players who do these unsafely are not learning the game, they’re learning to abuse lag because frankly, online lets them get away with it. Online can teach you spacing and zone strategy, but it does not teach you the game.
However, if you want to get good at SF4, then play SF4 because ST and SF4 are completely different games. ST forces you to work on all the fundamentals. SF4 is a completely different style of game, a vortex game about fishing for a combo, getting it, and then constantly capitalizing on frame traps, cross up, jab hit confirm into some more BS, and COMBO COMBO COMBO. I absolutely hate the game because the core is such a piece of shit and isn’t SF, it’s far too removed from past SF games like the Alphas and the SF2 series. I’ve played people locally who won’t beat me often because they have weak fundamentals, but they’re much better at combos than I am because that’s all they focus on in training mode. Combos. And that’s all they do, is fish for it, and if they get 1 jab then they get a pretty punishing combo, which is frustrating because all the other aspects of their play is weak.
It’s just a different game. It may not completely fit into the narrow box of what you personally consider fundamentals, but it has it’s own unique set of skill requirements. Someone who started with SF4 and tried ST might think “At any given moment I only have two or three options, this game is boring and simplistic.” That opinion really wouldn’t be any more or less valid that what you’re saying here.
I think Street Fighter Alpha 2 is a pretty good place to start. It’s a basic, well-constructed fighter that’s light on exclusive features. You won’t be messing with parries or cross assaults or a T.O.P. meter… you just get the fundamentals of a simple counter system and a super meter split into three segments. Everything you learn in Alpha 2 can be applied in all the major fighting games released afterward.