Violent fighting to come again!

September 7, 2016 7:31 PM

Now is a great time to get into 2D fighting games, with major recent releases like Street Fighter V and The King of Fighters XIV. It's not immediately obvious that, at their heart, they're about controlling space, so it's easy for beginners to not even understand even the basic gameplan. This series of tutorial videos for Street Fighter will teach you the fundamentals of how the genre works. Feeling a little more ambitious? Want something a little faster, looser, and more exciting than Street Fighter? Why not check out DandyJ's Beginner's Incomplete Guide to KOF (and part 2) and learn the fundamentals of King of Fighters, a series that, by the video's own admission, you probably aren't familiar with if you're from an English-speaking country.
posted by DoctorFedora (16 comments total)

If you like David Sirlin's Street Fighter videos and want more, or you prefer text to video instruction, Patrick Miller wrote a good (and free*) ebook that goes fairly in-depth into the kind of decision-making process that plays out during a Street Fighter match. I found it pretty useful - now I can occasionally beat the computer. But at least I can understand what's going on during tournaments!

* the site hosting it wants to sign you up for a newsletter before download, sigh
posted by Kortney at 7:45 PM on September 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

God I miss having both the time and, more importantly, inclination to get good at 2D fighters. At this point I'm at that perfect sweet spot where no one I know IRL wants to play w me bc I am too good, and I am not even remotely fit for online or competitive play without first sitting down and seriously devoting myself to a single game. There's a fighting game "arcade" in Sunset Park and I watch it on Twitch but I'm straight up scared to go there because I know for a fact it will be an evening of having my ass handed to me repeatedly.

Also is it me or did KOF around '99 go from being a relatively accessible fighter to an extremely technical one?
posted by griphus at 8:11 PM on September 7, 2016

a series that, by the video's own admission, you probably aren't familiar with if you're from an English-speaking country.

Eh, I dunno. Pre-Dreamcast era or so this was acceptable, but after these games started being released en masse on modern consoles I really don't want to hear about your ignorance re: Geese Howard.

KOF XIV is not available (or announced) for PC at this time, but I would be remiss in not pointing out that KOF XIII is on Steam for a very reasonable $19.99. It's wonderfully animated (honestly a much better looking game than XIV) and the perfect entry point to the series.

There are also some older KOF games on Steam, such as 2002, but those are emulated versions from Dotemu and they are... eh in quality.

Now, if you want to play the hypest SNK game of all time, you'll have to head over to the Humble Store and buy yourself a copy of Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Once again, this is a dotemu version that is not perfect, BUT the download includes a copy of the full ROM, so you can just buy, then load into whatever emulator you like.

The Last Blade is also really, really good. Sequel is good too... hopefully they release that at some point.
posted by selfnoise at 8:11 PM on September 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

Also is it me or did KOF around '99 go from being a relatively accessible fighter to an extremely technical one?

It was just kind of shite for a while. The people who were making them at the time added a bunch of weird crap that didn't stick. I'd consider KOF XIII roughly equivalent to '99 in terms of accessibility.
posted by selfnoise at 8:13 PM on September 7, 2016

Yeah, SNK got really experimental and gimmicky starting in '99 and going for a good long while. KOF XIV feels a lot more old-school and straightforward, in much the same way that SF5 feels a lot less gimmicky than SF4 did.

I see no problems with folks sharing SNK love here. I actually visited their old headquarters in Esaka a month or so ago, and saw the underpass nearby that was used for Team Japan's KOF '98 background. They put a lot of little references into the Esaka stages — the "Neo Esaka" stage in KOF XIV even features an SNK building with a curved corner like their old headquarters had, and an elevated train line off to the left (Esaka station on the Midosuji usually-a-subway line).
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:15 PM on September 7, 2016

It's also worth noting that even if you can't find people nearby to play with (which is always optimal), SF5 and especially KOF XIV have shockingly good netcode, especially now that KOF got patched. I'm in Kyoto and I can play against a friend on the east coast of the US, and somehow it actually works.
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:17 PM on September 7, 2016

I thought the decline in SNK was around the time Playmore took them over, 2000/2001.

I've enjoyed 5, sorta, but I really just want a damn vs. CPU mode. I pop on 4 when I'm working sometimes and just play a few rounds and keep it paused in the background. I'm not really up to date on all the latest greatest technical ends of it, and don't really enjoy playing online.

Also fightcade is magical if you like playing older SNK/Fighters or watching matches of people better than you.
posted by lkc at 9:20 PM on September 7, 2016

1994-97 was a great time to be into 2D fighters too. or were they 3D ????
posted by mrgrimm at 9:38 PM on September 7, 2016

Fighting games are not my bag, and these videos do a lot to remind me of why that is, but they're very nice introductions to fighting game strategy.
posted by JHarris at 2:00 AM on September 8, 2016

DandyJ's Virtua Fighter tutorial is also superb.

But keeping with the spirit of the FPP and its 2D focus, honourable mention to Guilty Gear Xrd and novriltataki's video tutorial series.
posted by Bangaioh at 4:49 AM on September 8, 2016

And then the newest GGXrd had a remarkable tutorial that is basically a game all by itself
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:27 AM on September 8, 2016

I pray nightly for a VF5 Final Showdown PC port. Sega is basically a PC publisher at this point right? Valkyria Chronicles sold well, right? (weeps quietly)
posted by selfnoise at 6:07 AM on September 8, 2016

Now, if you want to play the hypest SNK game of all time

...then I'd dust off my 25 year old copy of Baseball Stars?
posted by davros42 at 6:32 AM on September 8, 2016 [4 favorites]

This reminded me of two things, both good:
Kingdom of Loathing

and... I just lost The Game.
posted by joecacti at 8:01 AM on September 8, 2016

I really want to learn how to play fighting games - my housemates said that Street Fighter was 'less complex' than Mortal Kombat! Maybe these videos will school them, and me.

The new Guilty Gear looks really fun too.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 11:53 PM on September 12, 2016

Also, Darkstalkers was just on sale and is amazing.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 11:54 PM on September 12, 2016