Part VI - What makes fighting games so great?

Fighting games are all about one-on-one competition. Having the skills to best somebody in a match, whether you're online or sitting next to them on a couch or at the national EVO Tournament, is a huge ego boost. Winning a fair fight against a peer gives you a great sense of accomplishment and power. Losing hurts, too, though, but it makes you want to try harder, to practice, to become better, to be the best.

There have been many fighting games over the years, from Street Fighter to Guilty Gear to Dead or Alive to Marvel Vs. Capcom to Tekken, and they've all shared one thing in common: two people enter, and one person leaves. There is a lot of testosterone flowing around the fighting field with all the one-upsmanship inherent in the battles. The well-balanced fighting games are never about button mashing - they about about counter attacks, blocking, canceling, and waiting for your chance to strike with a well-placed combo.

Super Smash Bros., while technically a fighter, is more of a party game that you pull out to play with a bunch of friends. "Pure" fighting games like SFIV won't allow you to win if you merely mash buttons. I think that's the appeal. To be good at fake fighting, just like real fighting, takes a lot of practice. There are strategies all over bookstands and the Internet about how to be and beat the best in the world (including this humorous but ultimately accurate Ken flowchart). The national champions know all about how to best utilize their distance from their opponent, their combos and special moves, and their blocks and counters and throws. Just the fact that people can devote hours a day to one game says there must be something important there. Many fighting games have the "easy to learn, difficult to master" appeal, and, hopefully, they won't go away.