Why can't little kids seem to grasp special motions?

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
1

There’s some kids that live in my apartment building ranging from 9-12 years old that come over once in a while to play video games, and even though they’re kind of annoying at times, I still let them play because I feel kind of bad that none of them really have many games of their own.

Well, they saw me playing SSF4 one day and thought it was cool and tried it out. Of course, they couldn’t really grasp any of the mechanics right away, and so they asked me to teach them how to do special moves and such.

I’ve sat down with these kids with SSF4 perhaps 7 or 8 times and not a single one can throw a fireball, no matter how many times I show them.

I show them step by step, I’ve even tried guiding their fingers on the analog stick, I’ve tried everything I can think of, but none one of these 4 kids can throw a fireball, much less do something like an Ultra.

And the thing is, they want to learn. They get frustrated when they can’t do it. Of course, this doesn’t only extend to QCFs. They can’t even do charge moves no matter how many times I show them the timing for it. I’ve even tried snapping my fingers like a metronome so they could get the timing, but even that didn’t work.

I remember when I was little, playing SF2, I didn’t understand special motions either, but I didn’t have anyone to show me how to do it, but these kids do, and they don’t get it no matter how many times I show them.

So what all of their matches amount to is senseless button mashing. I mean I can’t blame them for not knowing any strategy or combos, but if they can’t even use specials, there’s nothing there but banging on the controller.

So… Is this a widespread thing that you guys have noticed or are these kids just dumb?

2

Solution - Hang out with people your own age

3

When I started my first fighter(SF2WW) I had a hell of a time doing a fireball. It took me many tries and even more doing it at the other side.

Though I was 6 years old, but yeah I can see kids who don’t have experience in fighters, having a hard time doing a motion.

4

My nieces, 8 and 13, pretty much haven’t evolved from mashing. Resources are available - me, MVC3 strat guide, training mode. It’s hopeless, I gave up.

5

odd, when I was like 8 I could do hadouken on arcade that I used to visit and many kids around my age at that time were also able to do it.

I can remember there were 2 kids that was pretty solid doing charge moves, one of em played claw the other one dictator. They were abusing 1 single charge move all the time, but it worked against many people at that time.

6

You can learn footsies, patience, and restraint without specials. It’s even better to learn fundamentals without specials because when people learn how to do special moves, they just spam them without reason.

7

Only thing I can think of is maybe their thumbs are too small that they slip off the thumbstick. Yes it sounds ridiculous but who knows. Maybe get a stick and see if that is better for them?

This. If nothing else, they can at least feel like they are playing the game without having to mash.

8

Kid’s today are too used to the easiest command inputs. I have a friend who is 16 years old, never touched SF or any FG, he played smash his entire life. I tried to show him how to throw a fireball, but he says that it is too hard.

And I’m like “???..!!!..???”

I showed him a million times, if not a billion. Just move the frikken joystick from hear to hear. Don’t press the buttons individually, let it flow, make a cirlce and press the button, and he still has the hardest time with it. When we play MvC2…BODY. MvC3… Less bodying thanks to smash-like simple mode.

Is smash THAT bad of a simplistic game. He couldn’t even get a wavedash down in melee, and it’s easy as hell. I body him in those games to. Brawl mane, don’t play it, 4real.

9

Let’s not turn this into a Smash thread. Smash has its positive points. People here don’t like it. Let’s leave it at that.

10

The title sounds like some complaint from a NAMBLA member…

11

When I was 8 I would sit down with my rented copy of Street Fighter II Turbo for the SNES and try to beat the CPU at max difficulty just by throwing fireballs

it’d take maybe 40 continues but eventually they would all succumb to mindless fireball spam

whenever I threw a red one it was the coolest thing ever

anyway I guess the point of this story is, yes, those kids do have stupid fingers. Be sure to tell them they’ll never be able to play the holophoner.

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I didn’t have that problem…16 years later, I totally do…it’s the whiskey I tell you

13

Then I have a feeling your friend is a little slow. I had a friend who was 19, and had only played smash, and I showed him the motions for specials and his execution was better than mine in THIRTY MINUTES!

Even more humiliating, when I switched to stick, I was struggling with retraining the motions, and he got it down in 5 minutes.

I told him “I hate you,” and left for work with him laughing. :lol:

14

Man when I was 6 I was beating my dad and uncle is SF2:Turbo (they were probably letting me win). But still I could sonic boom, flash kick, hadouken, and lightning legs like the best of them. It just that mysterious DP motion that eluded me. Kids today are retarted.

15

Their motor skills and hand/eye coordination hasnt fully developed maybe. It could be that most kids now dont play games with complex d-pad/joystick motions + button presses. Were you guys using a pad or an arcade stick? It could be that they just didnt care about your instruction and wanted to do what they wanted to do. They’re kids, they just want to have fun.

16

some people just arent cut out for fighting games. Age doesnt really have anything to do with it.

Don’t worry, thats why RPG’s were invented.

17

I dunno, kids are different. I recall that I managed to teach one how to do a fireball, so I dunno.

But I generally think that traditional fighting games are very non-intuitive. Moves that require dynamic motion sequences are just something that can be difficult in general to teach to people who aren’t familiar with that concept. The act of combining timing, motion, and order in a command is something that I think is generally not common outside of video games, especially fighting games.

Actually I’ll correct myself. That concept actually is common in driving. However learning to drive properly I will argue is also very non-intuitive and requires experience.

18

Or maybe it is because you are a bad teacher, you certainly sound it.

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.
?_?

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MY little cousins are 9 and 12 and they can easyl do basic stuff like fireballs,ultras even focus attacks and so on, dunno it isnt that hard if they rly wanna learn it