Aggressive Negotiation: Fighting Games

[shinygerbil]

Hey Everyone,

Hope this is not too far off topic, but I've noticed many times and in many areas of the Netrunner community that there are quite a few fighting game aficionados around! It's not hard to see why - both 1-on-1, both full of mind games and both very in-depth and intense.

I must admit that Netrunner has pretty much stolen all my free time which used to be for fighting games, but I still enjoy the odd bout of Guilty Gear Xrd, and I may or may not dip my toes into the Street Fighter V waters when it hits shelves. I've always had truly terrible execution - another reason I enjoy Netrunner - and I've never been very good at any of them (save maaaybe SF4, Chun 4 Lyfe) but they're still a ton of fun to play.

So who else here enjoys a bit of simulated fisticuffs? What games do you play?

[steve_houston]

I'm not much of a fighting game guy although I did play a ton of casual SFIV on the 360 when it came out.

Just wanted to say that I watched the top 8 of this year's EVO in SFIV and good gravy was it some of the most fun I've had watching a competitive event in a long time. It's truly beautiful at the high levels of play. I hadn't watched EVO before and kind of stumbled across it after a friend was hyping it on Facebook. Glad I watched, will do so again.

[kiv]

I used to play a lot of Super Smash Bros Melee, but now I'm getting too old to have the reflexes needed to compete against the youngsters

Still like to watch big tournaments now and again, it's good fun to see how far the level of play has risen.

[bahram]

I don't play as actively as I used to, but I enjoy Uniel, Guilty Gear Xrd, and Arcana Heart 3 LM quite a lot. I got all of these for PS3, and if anyone ever wanted to play, we can swing that. :3

I was huge on Guilty Gear AC+R but that has less that great netcode sadly.

If anyone has an interest in most games, I can direct you to resources to learn pretty much anything you have an interest in.... besides Smash. Thats too wild for me.

[Kore]

I play Persona 4: Arena myself when I get the chance though I'm still quite bad at it. P4:A is my preferred game because the control scheme is relatively simple but everything you do looks impressive. If you can manage to do a quarter circle movement left or right, you can do 90% of all the moves in the game and look amazing while you're doing it. The game itself is very combo heavy with most attacks chaining into each other and the pros are able to pull out lengthy combos.

Here's one of my favorite players going full force in the 2013 EVO

[GreedyGuts]

I've been getting into Smash 4 after a long time away from fighters, but I just don't have the reflexes and memorization capacity necessary to enjoy most of them easily.

Have been getting pretty heavily into Yomi, though, which isn't quite the same but which does a pretty good job of replicating that experience, or so it seems to me. Has helped with my netrunner reads, too.

[shinygerbil]

Yep, I always try and watch as much EVO as I can - living in the UK it would be difficult for me to attend!. Sadly I was busy this year (at a store championship) - only had time for the Marvel Top 8; Marvel being probably my least favourite fighting game, but it was still enjoyable. And I was very happy to see KaneBlueRiver take it, as I know he is a huge KOF fan too

One match from this year that I did happen to catch live, which has got to be one of the best games of the tournament:

For context, Hugo v Sagat is hugely in Sagat's favour, and Bonchanis the best Sagat player in the world (and last year's EVO runner-up.) This is a masterclass in using unfamiliar matchups to your advantage

[cmcadvanced]

I love fighting games, and directly compare every game I play to one. I like kof more than street fighter, and I'm glad to hear the guilty gear love, cause that's my favorite game series. Whenever I land net damage or trash something of the runners, I think of it as landing a jab

[x3r0h0ur]

I played SF3 a lot, I'm not great, but can put up a good akuma game. Dabbled in 4 and a little in Skull Girls, Eternal Champions, Smash and Marvel Vs Capcom 3. I'd play if it were around.

[Zolend]

I'm threatening to get into the fighting game world with the release of Street Fighter V, under the tutelage of my sparring partner @AaronSolon who has been playing them competitively for quite some time.

We'll see how it goes, I've never really put the time into them but I do really appreciate watching them and the depth of decisions they offer. I have pretty good reflexes but perhaps Battlecon is more my pace

[x3r0h0ur]

I'm old AF now, and can tell my reflexes are shot, I play for fun, so people who are good at fighting games will murderlate me....which is fine

[kim]

I started getting into Ultra Street Fighter IV after reading Patrick Miller's Beginner Guide to fighting game primer, practicing on a friend's extra stick. After I figured out how to do quarter-circles and z-motions, I bought a stick and mained Ryu and Elena. Practicing links is pretty brutal, though, so I've lately been playing more Persona 4: Ultimax as it has a lower barrier to entry, the combos feel better, and I am in love with the Persona franchise.

[x3r0h0ur]

You should try skull girls, the chains and combos feel so much better, and its pretty accessible while still having a fairly deep high-end.

[kim]

I'd like to! I even have a copy of the PSN version. The main problem is getting friends to play it with me, and my social circle is much more into either SF or Arc System Works games.

[BillyKumo]

I AM REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD AT THE FIGHTMANS.

Specifically: 3rd Strike, VF5, Bleach DS 2nd, Skullgirls, SF4, MVC2, and UMVC3.

[shinygerbil]

Q is absolutely my favourite fighting game character ever. Shame I sucked at 3S!

[BillyKumo]

"I sucked at 3S!"

Probably because you mained Q. (just kidding)

I like to think Q was just a bunch of Ibuki's raccoons under a trenchcoat.

[MondoPeregrino]

3rd Strike is still the king, but Samurai Shodown 2 is pretty close.

[BillyKumo]

I've been playing Yomi since it's inception, and even introduced mediohxcore prior to the both of us getting into teh Netruns.

Recently started playing once more since the Steam version is finally out.

I'm always up for a match!

[d1en]

3s, Capcom VS SNK, Mahvel fiend, and some SSFIV back in the day for me. Dropped that all for Netrunner. And well, DotA 2. Here's a old gem, I used to compete in a small game of Naruto, placed 2nd at Anime North, a big convention in Toronto. Here's some footage to go along with it.