What's the Best Fighting Game Franchise? A Gamer's Lounge Community Question
FINISH HIM! Fighting games have fans who will fight just as hard in the real world to stand up for their virtual favorite brawler. Through the years many different companies have tried their hand (fist?) at fighting games. This week we asked the Gamers Lounge Facebook community what their favorite fighter was and why. Here are the results:
Rubin: Street fighter! When SFII launched, the characters were big, beautiful. Balance has always been taken seriously (even if the execution wasn’t consistent). It’s a series that has aged very well. New entries are staples of the tournament scene, and SFII itself is still fun.
I appreciate what Mortal Kombat did--the moves were over the top and hilarious, but the first two entries are so, so slow. Like the characters are fighting in mud. It also gets major points from me for the graphics of those early entries, with the digitized characters really adding to the effect of the gore.
Ill also mention Tekken, which starting with 3 had great speed. I also appreciate how Tekken's controls eschewed complex inputs and instead varied moves based on your character's relative position. For a new player, you can button mash and see your character pull off a bunch of cool stuff, but as you learn, it becomes more of ballet, limited not as much by thumb speed as your fighting creativity.
But yeah, Street Fighter for the win.
John (Site Founder): My favorite is Virtua Fighter. Loved playing them in the arcade. Once they came out on the Saturn my mind was blown.
Brian: Super Smash Brothers. Easy to pick up and play. Great party game.
Erik (writer): Torn between a few Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur or Power Stone. Honorable mentions go to Capcom vs series, Darkstalkers or Dead or Alive...so many good games!
Ryan (me!): Many made fun of me, but I loved the mechanics of Dead or Alive. The dodge/block/attack rock/paper/scissors were strategic and fun, and I always found the games to be well made. As the series went on they focused a bit too much on....assets, so it became harder to say you liked the actual game play without eye rolls. I’m kinda looking forward to the tone down on DoA6, and want to see how it pans out.
Barry: Mario Kart (note: I get this! You can get into serious wars there, on screen and off!)
Jacob: Mortal Kombat! (Admittedly, tho, I just loved the soundtrack 😏)
So there you have it! Interested in putting your two cents in on the next article? This week we’re talking about what classic franchise you want to see make a comeback. Head over to the Facebook page and join in!