It's been awhile since I've posted anything, but I suppose this is the aftermath of inspiration.
I've always just liked them, but now, weirdly, on the page turn of age 30, I want to say that I love fighting games.
Why is this a big deal to me? Well, because I've always had a certain kind of inconsistency with it. Let me explain.
Growing up I wasn't particularly hooked on the genre. When people talk fighting games and how much they play them they often talk about their "scene." Their scene shapes them. From learning the basic jab to learning 234P all the way to their long BnBs (Bread and Butters) that define them, a "scene" can have a profound influence on them. In a fighting game you develop a language all your own; a means of expression forged in the fires of your community beat downs.
I never really had that growing up. I grew up in a military family and the friends I had made on that journey weren't particularly into fighting games. That being said, I would eventually find some games that did light a fire. When I lived on a military base in Keflavík, Iceland (age 13) my local pizza joint had only one arcade cabinet. That arcade cabinet was Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. I wouldn't say I was hooked. I would say that in between pizza sessions, my first part time job, some after school, and whenever I was just in it's general vicinity without anyone around I would hop on. After all, I did love video games in general and who didn't want to play as your favorite super heroes?
A couple of times a week I would hop on, throw in a few quarters, and pick my favorite 3 characters: Blackheart, Doctor Doom, and Storm. Mind you, this was the age of dial up and I was far away from America so I wasn't particularly aware of anything like tier lists or any knowledge of the game really. I just either liked how the characters played (Blackheart) or my own personal knowledge of lore as a comic book fan (Doctor Doom and Storm). It would be a repeating cycle: I would beat the game's arcade mode, get to the top of the score standing, enjoy that satisfaction, and walk away. It was also unfortunately my ceiling and honestly, not the best mindset to get into. It could never make me understand the nuances of playing against a human player; someone who adapts on the fly, punishes me for my mistakes, pushing me in ways that would make me truly better. But hey, did it matter at 13? I had my own general problems (curse you puberty) and the satisfaction of being #1 at something for a kid with insecurities (even if it was fake because I was only really competing against the AI) was good enough.
Eventually I would buy a Nintendo Gamecube and here and there I would rent Capcom vs. SNK 2. Originally it was just to check out a new game, but once again I felt there was something there. The grooves system and the way characters played made me come back every so often. I didn't understand it, but there was something there that just FELT good. But with no one to share my newfound form of expression I would just go back to my my JRPGs, something I still enjoy and more fitting for someone who didn't need another person to play.
Luckily, in time, I did find a game that was incredibly fun to play single player. It is the masterpiece that is Soul Calibur II. That game had all the right fixin's. A crazy fun single player mode, one of the coolest exclusive characters on Gamecube (Link) and a 3rd dimension for sidestepping (a completely new concept to me having only played 2D fighters). Of course I would spam Raphael's horizontal pokes and get by because I didn't know any better, but who cares? I was having fun in a genre I had prior thought had a limit in it's enjoyment. But while my enjoyment of the game overall was infinite it did still have that skill development limit. Other friends around me would dabble in it for the opportunity to play a character as cool as Link, but there wasn't really any kind of commitment to get better or challenge each other. If there was a fighting game of choice with people my age at that time (and it would be going forward when I moved to Italy) it was definitely Super Smash Bros. Melee.
It's crazy to look back and see Melee compared to now. I do really like the game, but I'm very glad I never committed to it in a sense. I'm in awe when I watch good players play it, but in a weird way I'm glad I never got sucked into all that. It's a fun game and it's enjoyable to kick someone's ass in it, but I suppose something in me still longed to beat someone in the games that had kind of lit a fire. Did no one play MvC2? What about that game I was kind of getting into? What was it? Capcom vs. SNK 2? It wasn't something to get me down, so many games were great at the time. People played Melee, Halo, NBA Live, all that was a playground for me. It's just weird to think now, in my weird current obsession with fighting games, that I didn't have an insane fighting game phase growing up. Once again, looking back, I had no "scene."
How long would it take until I found that fuel? Who would actually push me? Who spammed jump kick low kick to let me know I was bad at fighting games? I would find that in Jacksonville, FL, during my senior year in high school (which was when I moved from Italy) and during a huge turning point for the fighting game community: Street Fighter IV.
Street Fighter IV was such a damn cool game. How did this series, etched in many gamer minds, evolve to just be... accessible and stylish? I remember one of my friends bought the game and our crew would come over just to play. I remember doing so much yelling the first day we played that I practically lost my voice. We weren't particularly good, but whenever you land those surprise hits and figured out Ultras... well, I just about lost it. It's crazy to think what fighting games would just... spring forward into my life from that point on. I would fall in love with Guilty Gear, Blazblue, and even MELTY BLOOD! The anime fighters made a lot of sense to be honest. MvC2 was pretty much an anime fighter. But Melty Blood? Really? We played it on a lap top my friend would bring to the community college campus lunch area and I would actually slowly improve. I learned concepts like canceling and aerial dashing. I would realize that moves from the older games I played were actually the catch all terms for all the fighting games that came after it: TK (Tiger Knee), DPs (Dragon Punch). It was all so crazy the vast nuances these games had that I never realized because the small ember I had burning for these games never really had any fuel to fan it outside of me just trying to keep it alive in some weird sense.
Even with that though I would in time move to Tallahassee for my stint at FSU. There was a gaming community there, but 2 things really got in the way. One, the fact that I did film school stuff (which took up a lot of damn time) and two, I'm not really outgoing. I wouldn't say I'm an introvert. I'm definitely an extrovert if you think of someone who draws energy from being around others, but I am also socially anxious. Even then I would still buy more iterations of Blazblue and MvC or new games like P4U and the like. After all, I could gain enough satisfaction in training mode or when I visited Jacksonville to play with a couple of friends there.
After awhile though, things do change. I was in Atlanta, living with 4 other people who didn't play fighting games, let alone games at all. When that venture was over I would come back to Jax and just wouldn't be as close to the people I played fighting games with prior. It was that or they moved away in pursuit of their passions. I clinged on. I found a used copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for PS2. I bought an arcade stick to emulate the feeling, but I was alone again. The fire had dulled down to an ember...
Fast forward a couple of years. I'm ready to move back out of my parents house again and I needed a roommate. Luckily, once of my friends from community college who consistently kicked my ass in Street Fighter IV wanted to move out too. We found a place, moved in, and I still live with him to this day. It wasn't quite like the old days. We didn't really touch any fighting games. I much preferred my anime fighters and even then we often got caught up in other things. I also do love other video games that took up a lot of my time (Mostly League of Legends). One day though, 3 years ago I'd say, he asked me if I wanted to watch EVO.
EVO made my jaw drop. This... this is the highest level of play for all these games I've enjoyed. I was lucky too in regards to timing, the best moments were yet to come. I got to see Tokido climb out of losers bracket and exclaim about how fighting games are so great!. I got to see the rise of Arslan Ash and in turn an entire nation: Pakistan in the Tekken scene. I got to see Leffen defeat a god in Melee. Don't even get me started on the entirety of the GO1 and SonicFox saga. There were too many to count! I wondered why a much older game like UNIST can burst onto the scene and when I saw it in pro play I became incredibly convinced. There are countless moments I missed, but looking back at it, it's absolutely better late than never. I dug into FGC history. I missed this this whole time? The fire raged on and I went and picked up a number of new games.
Fast forward to the present. We're in the midst of a global pandemic and EVO is going online this year. I've somehow convinced some friends to play the occasional fighting game online. These include DBFZ, UNIST, and Tekken. I have a couple of games in the back pocket: Them's Fightin' Herds, Skull Girls, and Soul Calibur VI. Yes, I know netcode for these games isn't particularly favorable but whatever man, I'm playing games that I LOVE...
I am ready to say it. I LOVE fighting games. They've always been there even if it started as just the occasional hook up. I've joined a couple of Facebook fighting game community groups. Now, I'm still not ready to go out and be a part of Jacksonville's very strong FGC, but it's actually not because I'm worried about social anxiety or anything that has kept me from participating before, but it's rather simply being safe in the pandemic. In the mean time I'm very cool with the training sessions and the occasional throwdown with my friends in Discord. I know when I'm ready and when this is all (hopefully) over I can go out there and surely be welcome with open arms (I have friends who competed in a number of games and they assure me I'm welcome). But in the mean time I can break out the Obsidian Qanba fightstick, throw on some LoFi, and sound the horn on Discord. Even then, training in Tekken (I just got into the series for the first time a week ago) gives me the satisfaction of improvement (Thank you everyone on Youtube who makes guides). So I'll end with this. To those of you that love fighting games I have only one thing to say:
A Challenger Approaches.
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