It’s worth remembering that casual gamers need to be interested if Skullgirls is to sell. Nobody will care if it’s balanced if it isn’t engaging enough for the casual player; Capcom seems to realise this, which is why they’re doing as well as they are.
That’s why in Marvel 3 we have XF and TACs and so on which were primarily designed to make the game more interesting and stop the game being boring to a casual player every time they look like they’re losing.
In any case, it remains to be seen whether Skullgirls actually turns out to be balanced or not. Or more importantly, imo, whether the community actually perceives it as balanced.
I honestly (and to nobody’s surprise) wasn’t gonna buy it 'cuz it wasn’t my thing, but indie developers get me right here, so I gotta give him some money.
Taking a big risk to do something you love should never ever ever ever be punished.
Not interested in SG but as an aspiring fighting game developer I wish MikeZ and his boys the best and I will watch intently how the game is received. We need more fighting games from sources other than Capcom/SNK/Namco/Team Ninja. The next breakout franchise will come soon enough.
you shouldn’t force people to support a game. Mike Z is under the same pressure every developer is. Release a good game, sell a lot of copies. If the game is not good, I’m not going to support it. However, I do plan on trying it out and I think that’s all developers can ask for honestly. The game gets a fair shot like I give every other new fighting game and if I like it, then yea I’ll buy it. With the game using GGPO out the gate, it definitely caught my eye but that isn’t the only that will get me to buy it.
but yea if the game ends up being good, it will show developers that you don’t need to dilute the play so bad and we may end up getting tougher games. Who knows, maybe Mike is picked up by Capcom and he helps make the next SF game.
If the game is fun, I’ll purchase it.
If not, then I won’t get it.
I mean, it’s that simple.
I know buying it is to support the community and all that good stuff, but the game itself has to have some kind of value so that it’ll be easier for others to support it.
See that’s something we can all get behind; pining for the day when demos are the standard for fighting games (like all other genres) rather than some amazing exception.
While many people are turned off by the art style (or maybe by an all female cast?), I strongly recommend everyone try the demo at the very least. The gameplay is solid, fun, fluid, and the characters really do grow on you. I guarantee that once you sit down with the game, all the aesthetic issues you previously had won’t amount to anything. You won’t even notice them because you’ll be having too much damn fun.
This game is worth at least 30min of your time. Support a well thought out and crafted game. It’s time to have fun again!
I am (very) excited for this game, but I think a lot of the sycophancy around it is silly. Mike Z is a smart guy with good design sense, but he isn’t some infallible genius. People need to stop acting like some of the game’s features are straight-up evolutions of the genre rather than interesting ways of approaching problems with their own positives and negatives. The infinite prevention system, particularly, is not the no-brainer “every game should have this” mechanic some people seem to think it is, but an interesting approach with problems that accompany its benefits. People who’ve never played MvC2 in any serious capacity seriously need to stop calling it “fixed MvC2” too, jesus.
Also if you’ve ever read the general discussion thread in the Skullgirls forum you’ll know the game has by far the worst most obnoxious community on SRK. I think a lot of that is the fact that the art style appeals to terrible people, and the fact that the game isn’t out yet means a lot of people who only care about gameplay aren’t getting involved. A lot of the current “community” (to the extent that people on the internet can be called that) will probably/hopefully be replaced by cooler folks once a) the novelty appeal of the game wears off and b) they realize all the anti-cheap-stuff safeguards in the game don’t suddenly make them not suck at fighting games.
That said I do agree with the OP’s argument. The nicest thing about this game IMO is that you can actually talk to the designer and figure out why stuff is the way it is. That goes a long way towards easing frustration with a game for me, even if I don’t agree with the rationale. Having to deal with the outright moronic design decisions that plague new Capcom games is one thing, but it’s really having nobody to scream “WHY IS BLOCKSTUN SO SHORT AND THE WALKSPEEDS SO SLOW?” at that makes me say fuck those games.
ill be nabbin it…i like the art for what it is and what they where going with as a theme…Im old school and like more sf2 sf4 style gameplay over Marvel ,blazblu ,Ah ,combo exhibitions ,But i will be buying it,on release , good or bad , i bought all the blazblues just for the story , dont even like the fighting system… i never did ask or read, will there be real kick punch buttons or is it like blazblue marvel where it a ABCD type of thing
You know what? I have no tournament experience and I’m generally pretty bad so I can’t talk why SG is good from mechanics standpoint. But as Russian I want to say that members of American FGC probably should support game made by one of them. SG is catering to its fan-base in all kinds of little fanservice. It has in mind interests of tourney scene and newbies alike. And… Uh… Aren’t you, American players (I’m assuming that major part of people here are Americans) you know PROUD of your compatriot trying to do something in the field monopolized by Japanese? I’m not trying to start nationalist talk I just can’t understand why some people can’t just say “yeah, we can do it as good as Japan!”. And instead of MK, SG is designed by Mike Z who have shitload of tournament experience. Who knows ins and outs of all greatest established fighters. He knows how genre works. He knows what’s wrong with it. He have enough of tester and programmer experience to fix it. Why do someone will be ungrateful to such man? I can’t understand it >>
You can hear FGC this and FGC that… So maybe said FGC could probably appreciate something made SPECIFICALLY FOR THEM, eh? >>
SkullGirls is a day one buy for me.
Like many others the game gives me a pedo vibe but I can look past that because the game looks fun. UMvC3 had such a terrible netcode and I dropped the game entirely based on that. Skulls girls using GGPO with ping numbers means so much to me and I love the number of features this game has. 15 dollars was probably the most shocking announcement imho. Also if Mike Z is reading this, I am hoping for more guilty gear type character designs for future titles,like less pedo… thanks.
I’ll buy this on XBL and PC (if it -hopefully- ever comes to that) for this very reason, but I’ll be honest, I don’t care too much for what little I have seen of the game. Maybe it’ll turn out that I love it, but either way, it’s worth supporting indeed. If only because some companies are getting too big a head for their own good.
I don’t think people are saying Mike Z is an infallible genius when they mention him as one of the selling points, I think they’re saying Mike Z because most of us are familiar with who Mike Z is and he hasn’t really sugar coated anything, he’s been flat out honest from the start telling us Skullgirls is the game he wants to play and hopes TOs don’t ban him from entering. He’s also open to feedback and ideas.
When Keits mentioned the game was hard to see for him because he’s color blind, the next day at EVO, Mike called him over to ask if this is better because he had adjusted it. Another guy at Reverge (I think Peter) wanted to see if there were anymore color blind people a few months ago so he could ask them along with Keits about the lighting on the new stages and check with them. He also has the good button config, left in an option to toggle versus to training mode that they just used for demoing purposes because people liked it, hold start to pause to prevent accidental pausing, and added a who’s in the lead note. Someone said wouldn’t it be easier to read meter if it filled towards the screen instead of to the outside and he agreed. There’s also the game speed change which at first he didn’t think it needed but tested it out anyway and kept it because he actually liked the change.
Anything you need to know about the game before release, you can go to the forums and ask and you’ll receive an answer that can be found in the wiki, forum search or from one of the “obnoxious” members who’ve been following the game who are eager to answer or link you to the post from one of the people working on Skullgirls with the answer.
People would probably be more open to Skullgirls if its supporters weren’t constantly harping on how it’s the savior of fighting games and everyone should buy it even if they are not interested. It’s like when a salesman tries to sell you something and you say no thanks, and then he keeps trying to sell you on it, you’re just going to get annoyed and become even more set against buying it
As far as how to do accessibility right, this claim is not pretentious at all.
After seeing various attempts at accessibility by Capcom, Namco, Arc System etc. Mike Z’s solution seem to be the only ones who are extremely thought out and implemented carefully so that they won’t make the game worse at higher levels.
If all the companies above see the support SG will hopefully get, and learn from Mike’s features all the genre will become better.