That’s a bit of an exaggeration. 3S and GG is still way more popular here than both SNK and ST…just like every other place in the US.
The simple fact is that ST is too old for most players to get hooked at. That’s the long and short of it.
Most of the old-school veterans have either moved on with their lives or otherwise play a lot less, but the majority of the scene’s populous is younger and more console-based. In other words, many of them were too young to play ST when it came out or they were old enough but were only stuck playing at home on console.
I’m probably a rare case in that I’m old enough to have played ST in the arcade but still young enough to have been a part of the console explosion.
Both statments are not true for gg. I’m replying cuz I share the same opinion about fighting games as you but I think you are just a little misinformed about GG. Since GG and ST are my 2 favorite games and thus the 2 games I know the most about, I’ll just use ST as an example in this reply.
1st the execution part-
For every hard character like I-no in gg there’s a hard character in ST like Zangief. I hate when games require hard execution for no reason as much as you do, but in this case you can still enjoy the game if you play the rest of the cast, and not Zangief or I-no. Sure, it makes both games less great than what they could be, but it’s not a reason not to play them.
Dragon punches in ST are hard to perform cuz of the small window, not to mention tigerknee motions and guile’s super
GG has much easier motions and much bigger windows. FRCs are stupid I agree, but they play a much smaller role in Accent Core. Instead, many characters just use Force Breaks which are performed like specials, no timing needed.
Also, while combos in ST do require timing and aren’t so easy, the free combo system in GG allows you to find the best combo you can pull off and just use that. In japanese match vids you see some players do the hardest combos, and some players do much easier combos. The difference in damage between those isn’t that high. It’s not like 3s “if you can’t hitconfirm c.mk into SA2 you can’t play chun at all”.
2nd the rushdown part-
The gameplay system what made to make the players attack. It rewards the player who attacks and penalties the player who turtles. Think of it this way- You fight for position but you also fight for momentum, you fight to keep attacking.
But every rushdown in the game has holes in it (even eddie’s rushdown), and the developers also put anti rushdown tools for you to use (invincibility moves, deadangle, faultless defence, instantblock, slashback, burst). It’s not rare to see rushdowns get beaten by using the right tool at the right time. It also costs alot of resources to keep the rushdown going (shadow guage, coins, super guage for FRCs etc.).
So the rushdown isn’t mindless at all but based on pure yomi as well. In street fighter terms, it’s like giving every character in the game a unique fireball trap of thier own. In order to keep the rushdown going or to escape it, you need to get into the opponents head and use the tools you have at the right moment in a wise manner.
That aside, in GG you don’t always want to be on the offensive. it all depends on the matchup and the situation. Testament can’t pressure w/o super gauge, so he turtles with traps while trying to get his super guage filled. Eddie w/o shadow is mostly about running away and stalling time, and even with the shadow he sometimes just wants to zone and keep away.
Venom can put up a great pressure/mixup game when he has the opponent cornered, but in midscreen he goes mostly for zoning with pokes and balls.
Vs Baiken you can be offensive only if you set up a situation where she can’t alpha counter you, or you just want to bait and punish it.
Every character can go from pure turtle or keepaway into pure rushdown than to pure turtle/keepaway again all in the same fight.
Not hating this game for some unknown reason yet still not playing it just cuz 1 or 2 characters in the cast still need an FRC seems silly to me.
Yea online, which you could do now If you really wanted.
Hmm yea this makes me wonder in the next 5-10 years will people still be playing Marvel or 3s etc, I mean ST lasted along time, and some games die faster than others cough KOF03/CFJ but they all seem to die out over time like say CvS2.
For this guy’s opinion to really hold any weight, he needs to be an equally skilled expert in the new ones and the old ones. Otherwise, I think he’s just gonna sound like another player who’s learned one game and acts like that’s the only one that matters so he won’t have to get out of his comfort zone.
