You should try playing fighting games!

Fighting games have been my main hobby and I'd go as far as to say it's been part of my life style while playing video games in general took a backseat, as if it were something completely unrelated, because sometimes that's what it feels like! The gratification of playing fighting games with people is something I can't compare to other experiences with multiplayer games I've had in my life, and I'd love for more and more people to enjoy them. In this article I'll list a bunch of reasons as to why you should try it, and I'll try to tell you how!

#1: What is the appeal? Why should you invest your time?

While the main appeal will vary from person to person, I can tell you what mine are. These games to me are all about finding a character I identify with and want to pilot, I want to make my character justice and make them seem cool! I usually gravitate towards them for their style and personality, which is the best way to pick your first character in any game regardless of what they play like. Hopping from title to title you'll start seeing certain personality tropes associating with function archetypes: the fiery easy to pick up protagonist, the more technical edgy rival, the burly grappler which is usually playing their own game... You'll start seeing the obvious twists in these design tropes and it may spark some interest, be experimental!

Counterpoint: "This is a multiplayer game isn't it? The effort to win against other tryhards doesn't seem worth it just to enjoy my character"

It's true that the most popular aspect of the games are head to head matches, but you might just find more things to do and more people to talk to than just other players if you look into the FGC (fighting game community), as everyone brings their piece of love for fighting games from fanart and animations, discussions of characters and lore, and even then you can still find people in your skill range to get some matches going, without needing to follow any competitive mindset. Try to have fun with people you know!

#2: It's more accessible than you think!

You ever heard of fight stick controllers? Maybe "leverless" is something you heard around as well. I want to make it clear that these genre specific controllers are just for personal preference, they were initially made for arcade players who wanted the arcade control layout available at home and then later became part of the culture as they're heavily customizable and you might have seen some beautiful and horrendous controllers out there. But any controller for fighting games will do! Even a PC keyboard! There are MANY keyboard players around the world and I'm very sure even with the popularity of sticks and button boxes, "the regular controller that you have" is still a more popular choice for most players.

Counterpoint: "I can't do these combos and inputs"

Many game developers know about this sentiment and each has their own answer for it. Street Fighter 6 has a "Modern Controls" layout that lets you do special and super moves with the press of a button and a direction, the Marvel VS Capcom and Darkstalkers games have always had the "Auto" option which lets you mash buttons for auto combos and press all punches or all kicks for instant supers. There are also fighting games with easier inputs such as the Akatsuki Blitzkampf series, Persona 4 Arena, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Blade Strangers, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, the Phantom Breaker series, Blazblue Crosstag Battle, and this little series you might know called Super Smash Bros. (But I personally couldn't tell you anything about it, sorry) I just wanted to say, there is no execution test to study to in order to enjoy these games, most of the combos I know I can't do them on the right side of the screen and there's no fighting game judge sending me to wifi hell for it.

#3: Locals are the best!

While the online fandom space is awesome and the most accessible, locals are the easily the best space to socialize within this shared interest you will have with other people. Everyone speaks your language and they all have the same goal as you: have a good time and play some matches. You can look up online if your city has any local scene with keywords like the game's name, tournament, FGC, and maybe you can find something on the global FGC locals document

Are you convinced? Or at least curious? Here's some extra information you should be aware of to be on the same page as the FGC:

What's Rollback?: Rollback Netcode is the modern standard for online play in fighting games, inspired by its implementation in shooters, it tries to make online matches feel closer to what offline matches feel like. Before the 2020 pandemic, this was not the standard and online was generally terrible unless your game was blessed by a community mod or just happened to have devs aware enough of the online situation. Here's a video that might help you understand how it works: