#tekken tutorial

[k9streams]

YES, YOU CAN play PS2 ONLINE and FOR FREE!

Here's the Ultimate guide to get yourself gaming on the coolest console that won't break the bank! All you need is a PS2 or PC!

[alexr-fightgames]

Tiny Tekken Tutorial, stupid Law tricks that you should know about!

If you're ever going to fight against a Law, you'll want to know about these. And if you *play* Law at a beginner-ish level, you might want to use these! Learn a little bit of gross onlinery that you can start using *right now* to give people conniptions! Be like water my friend.

[fightinggamegirlfriend]

playing tekken 7 and I remember why I have a complicated relationship with this fighting game series. (The complicated part being that I hate it’s button layout system).

[shawnthebro]

A 3D fighter needs 3D hitboxes! Let’s start using “Complex” hurtboxes when expected!

[willvolution]

NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO IS UP!

In this video, I talk about how to deal with Kuma's common attacks.

https://youtu.be/qbST1RkiOcY

[cerastes]

So, Tekken 8. I'm pleased with the direction it has fundamentally taken. In general, high profile fighting games have taken a far more welcoming approach towards newcomers, which is much needed and has thankfully gotten pretty good results so far: Street Fighter 6, for example, went lengths to provide a good, welcoming experience for new players, Granblue Rising retains its beginner friendly nature while expanding on systems to give it more depth at a higher level without stopping to be a fundamentally simple and 'easy' (but fun) fighting game with gorgeous flair, and Tekken 8 is following on the same road. It did this to some degree with Tekken 7, but Tekken 8 definitely goes a step further.

In general, Tekken 8 is much better geared towards user experience and perception than Tekken 7 was. I was a bit surprised to hear about friends that never really deal with Ranked in any game ever, tell me they were queueing up to climb the ladder. I started playing Tekken 8 a few days ago, and when I hopped into Ranked, I noticed small changes that carry a big impact with them in the UI, particularly in the loading screen pre-fight: What it shows.

So, in Tekken 7, you can see both players' Tekken Power, total wins as the character, rank, the results of their last 10 games, their 3 highest player tendencies, and personal match-up win and stage win rates.

That is a lot of information, and you'd usually think "more information is better, right?", I think in this case it was a double edged blade, however: If you're a newer player who's gotten wiggity washed four games in a row now, with your 13 total wins and 9k Tekken Power (or Prowess, as it was in 7) and your B/C/C tendencies, and get matched up a guy with a rank you've never seen before, with over 10 times your Power, triple S+es, 2.3k wins, on a 7 win streak... Well, you're probably going to be more than a little intimidated before the game even starts. For a lot of people, understandably, this immediately becomes the moment of "holy shit, I'm about to get ragdolled", so you go in with a different mentality than you might go against someone whose stats you don't know. Some people don't get affected by this, but a lot of people do, especially curious people that are trying to get into the games and might get put off when they mentally lose before the fight even starts.

In contrast, the Tekken 8 loading screen offers less information, but it's a far better user experience:

3 highest Tendencies, Tekken Power, Rank, and that's it. There's other stuff like console or PC, area, but it's otherwise a lot more laconic. And this works better! You just know their Power, their tendencies, their rank, and that's that. In the actual fight, you can see their current win streak, but no one can see if you or the opponent has 8 loses in a row. You don't know if they have 100 wins or 6000 wins, and so, you don't really think about it, you just go and fight. And if you lose, it's a world of difference to be "ok I got outplayed, that was some solid play from them" than it is to be "ok, yeah, they had ten times the amount of wins than I have lifetime games of Tekken, this was inevitable". So you can go and fight and win and keep playing. The user experience is much better.

I also really appreciate Arcade Quest: It's basically a short, very interactive tutorial: Instead of going through hours of dry tutorialing, a more inductive style like this is far better for newcomers, it's got basic, colorful characters, lots of tutorials peppered in throughout its run time, and a friendly coat of paint so you can get acquainted with the different systems at a nice pace: Your initial opponents are pushovers, letting you get a feel for movement and attacking, then you reach the third or so arcade, and your tutorial guy goes "hey, I heard they defend really well here, and they like opening you up with lows, let's learn how to deal with these" and you get your tutorials on how to open up opponents as well as dealing with lows, and then you fight the people in that arcade and it's mostly opponents like Law, Lili, Bryan, Dragunov, who have snake edges (strong low sweeps that offer good oki or launch for air combos, depending on whether its a counter hit or not) and their AI is specially geared to using these lows, as well as having better defense against highs so you use throws or lows. It's less a story mode and more a series of flavored tutorials, and I think it's really good for a game to have to ease players into the game's meatier systems.

The high level good ass Tekken is all there, it's just, there's a far more concise way of getting there for people that didn't grow up playing these games or had the raw gumption to deal with the sometimes Spartan fighting game community standards for onboarding. It's not a dirt road leading to the beach anymore, they paved it nice and easy so more people can get there, at their own pace, whether it be speeding there on a car, or through a nice leisurely stroll. It's something that I can appreciate both as someone who grew up in arcades playing fighting games with randos and regulars, and as someone that loves good, welcoming, efficient game design and wants more people to discover the joy of the fighting game.

[sketchy-the-changeling]

I think both Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6 have set new standards for teaching newcomers to the fighting game genre/newcomers to their respective franchises.

I think where Tekken 8 shines specifically is how its tutorial teaches you how the flow of combat works in Tekken games.

Basically, every fighting game has a flow to its combat, and understanding that flow is crucial to learning the game. In FighterZ for example, combos start on the ground, then transition into the air, then you either knock your opponent back to the ground or use your assist characters to keep them in the air a bit longer.

By teaching you the flow (and how your character of choice executes that flow), you're no longer just pressing buttons. You're making deliberate decisions. It also helps that the move lists are more organized this time around.

Looking for a combo starter? There's a section for that. A punish combo for when the opponent does something stupid? A section for that.

For the first time, I actually feel competent at Tekken, and it feels good.

[stardustlives]

GOTY 2024

The games keep comin'. Another list of games I played throughout the year I thought could be worth mentioning during a game of the year discussion. This list continues to omit games I've replayed and games I didn't think were good or interesting enough to get a mention.

Games of the Year

1)Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom Now is the era of indie 3D platformers all about insane movement tech. Was utterly elated by the energy and level design in this car based platformer where your primary traversal ability is ramping off of stuff. Please give the demo a shot I think you'll find something really special here.

2)Metaphor: ReFantazio Fantasy Persona. After just being okay with Persona 5, I got completely engrossed with this one and its world. I enjoyed how demanding some later fights became as they had me actually do significant changes to my party and strategy to overcome them. In these times of games that are way too fucking long, this was a rare instance of me getting bummed by seeing the end of the adventure on the horizon.

3)Astro Bot The degree of polish in this thing is on another level. Individual stages feel like an entire event as they'll each treat you to lavish set pieces and elaborate, unique mechanics. A joy to give yourself to while looking for cute cameos from PlayStation's history. Now, concerning those cameos, you might think they would prioritize the recognizable mascots or big sellers, and while those are in there, Astro Bot will also grab you by the shoulders, look you straight in the eye and go: "Arc the Lad." It's awesome.

4)Nine Sols Fresh off of their struggle against Xi Jinping, narrative horror game developer Red Candle Games decided to take a swing at a tight, execution heavy, parry focused, action exploration game. And boy what a swing it is. Its intense action is backdropped by a cool comic book art style that it uses to deliver a beautiful melancholic story about one's time passing. Strong mood and fantastic boss fights.

5)BAKERU The Kirby's Epic Yarn developer made a Ganbare Goemon spiritual successor. Everything's bouncy and joyous. This thing's a non-stop party with regular enemies spread across levels having a silly good time just for the fun of it. The bright colors and bad guys hanging out gave me Ape Escape 3 vibes.

6)Animal Well There used to be a time where video games were occult and mysterious. Not because they didn't have tutorials but because the tutorials were written down inside manuals and we didn't read those. Nevertheless! This feeling of mystery kids make for themselves by being impatient is what Animal Well wants to emulate in its own atmosphere and design. The game refusing to textually explain itself instead presenting you with situations that nudge you towards uncovering its functions yourself leading to great feelings of discovery.

7)Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Elden Ring 2 over here. Loved the new weapon types and its gorgeous environments. Don't got too much new to say about more Elden Ring other than I mostly enjoyed the controversial high difficulty. But, boy, they can ease up with the next one. They gave entire boss move sets to regular respawning enemies. They don't got nothin' to prove it's okay.

8)Tekken 8 Tekken's fucking awesome. As a casual player, the intuitive nature of the controls allows them to be easily expressive. It's a great time at even lower skill levels which is not always the case with highly regarded fighting games. The (on release at least) downright reasonable progression mechanics made me reevaluate Mortal Kombat 1 from the prior year pretty negatively by reminding me that even in a "live" game, progression systems can be about drip feeding game elements and rewards to the player without being entirely about maximizing their time in a microtransaction store.

9)Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines Grapple Dog is back and he's the latest platforming mascot to find an interdimensional portal with an edgier version of himself in it! She's got a gun too, watch out! Develops the design of the first game further with some new powerups that bestow special abilities for the duration of a level.

10)Crow Country A uniquely stylish nostalgia play on your classic Silent Hills and Resident Evils. It has a grainy 90's atmosphere over toy-like characters and environments that seem to either elicit a creeped out "analog horror" vibe for some or nostalgic coziness for others. I lean in the second camp. Either way, a very compelling diorama world to explore.

An Ample Selection of Runners-up

11)Penny's Big Breakaway Era of insane movement tech again. Same developer as Sonic Mania which I'm more critical about than most people. Mania is beautiful and has wonderful music but I frequently felt like I was just holding right and watching the game happen rather than playing it. Not here, this is a very involved 3D platformer with many synergizing movement options. Difficulty can be a bit inconsistent as some challenges give me the impression of having been only tested by people who got very good at the game as members of its development team. While most of the game is pretty chill, it will sometimes spike and demand very sharp execution from you. The high skill ceiling is definitely its own appeal though.

12)UFO 50 I spent the entirety of this thing's development thinking it was going to be 50 minigames so I was like "what's taking so long?" but no, this isn't 50 minigames, it's 50 games. Mostly at the scope of NES games but still. In the 50+ hours I put into it I ended up clearing 11 games and cherry clearing (completionist clearing) 7 of those. There's some meat on them bones and I want to go back to 'em. Getting into specifics for each games would be an essay on its own, but, hey, you want 50 NES games that are almost all at least pretty good?

13)Instruments of Destruction Red Faction: Guerilla developers got together to make a hybrid between Blast Corps and Besiege. In the main campaign you use a kinda shocking amount of unique vehicles to fulfill destruction objectives in various combinations of destroy this, don't destroy that, do it fast, dodge the missiles… always with a new kind of goofy ass car that might just act like a bulldozer or have a giant flipper at the front. Then, in the second campaign, the game fully turns into Besiege asking you to build your own motorized solutions to the blight of upright man-made structures. I fell off of that second one but the Blast Corps style main campaign was great fun the whole time.

14)Dread Delusion A tiny indie team taking on the task of making an entire Elder Scrolls game taking particular inspiration from the odd vibes of Morrowind. Extremely ambitious and inheriting the limitations of its inspirations both in the form of simplistic gameplay and not infrequent technical issues (though they did patch the game heavily and quickly). Limitations or no, I cannot speak highly enough of the creativity that courses through the world and its distinct lands. From its blighted medieval countryside to its, uh, blighted but worse and more fucked up industrialized Siberian snowlands. The real appeal to me is hanging out in the wonderful, imaginative world to learn of its factions and takes on supernatural concepts like ghosts, undead eating habits and relationships to what one might call gods.

15)Children of the Sun Devolver Digital presents: JFK Reloaded. You're a young psychic woman with a Mandy-esque beef against a freaky forest cult. The game has you scout the positions of cultists whom you must then take out with a single bullet whose path you can influence with a small suite of powers. Starting with the ability to "refire" the shot in a new direction after a kill. Each level is a pathing puzzle all about achieving some real grungy Yondu shit.

16)Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Oh boy. I have such mixed feelings here. Remake's excellent combat system is still here as good or even better than it used to be thanks to new playable characters and new mechanics they sorta have to sneak onto the controller. The environments are mostly great (except the jungle which sucks) as well as beautiful but much of the game is spent doing map clearing stuff, uneven sidequests, and mediocre minigames. I find much of this version of the story awkward as well. The pacing suffering most of all both from the sluggishness that comes from the map clearing open world design and the relentless maximalism that comes from the developers' decision to turbo stuff every moment of the story. High highs low lows and a whole lot of mediocre faff in-between.

Something I've thinking about a lot is how much substance is actually present in longer games and how that compares to games of more modest length. My somewhat thorough replay of the original FF7 in 2020 took 60 hours. My similarly thorough playthrough of FF7Remake (covering the 4~7 hour Midgar section of the original) took 40 hours. Rebirth, which runs until the end of disc 1 of 3, took over 100 hours and its mostly mediocre 6 hour final dungeon lasted longer than a full playthrough of my third favorite game Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner and its extra mode, Zoradius, a simple take on a 3D Gradius. Just something I couldn't get out of my mind all the way through that dungeon. The fights against the red dragon and wall monster were very good.

17)Great God Grove You're on your way to vacation in the titular GGG when you come upon the near divine instrument known as the Megapon which allows you to speak to people! Or, more specifically, repeat shit you're told! Wow!! From the same developers as Smile For Me this is also a wholesome little adventure about getting an adorable cast of oddballs to understand each other. If you've any taste for Psychonauts this is absolutely down your alley.

18)Frogun Encore Tiny sequel to Frogun (mentioned in the Catch Up section) with new mechanics and camera perspective. Encouraging even wackier speedrunning tech than the original. Very much worth playing both.

19)Pepper Grinder Handful of tiny games down here. A Devolver published joint in the style of a GBA game all about zooming through dirt with a large drill to collect treasure and perform sick jumps.

20)The Rise of the Golden Idol Outside of some quality of life adjustments to the UI this is mostly more of The Case of the Golden Idol. Which is good because while the original deduction game is very good you kinda can't play it again. You've already deduced everything there is to deduce. Taking its world that's much like ours but not quite to modern times means taking modern technological trappings in consideration while thinking through the incidents.

21)Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door A mostly slightly better version of Paper Mario: TTYD. Still a great game but not different in ways that are excessively worth noting.

22)Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Ups and downs. It has a 6 hour long prologue that is almost lethally boring but once it gets going after the first war segment I enjoyed it. A word I kept coming back to when I was trying to figure out my feelings for it was "cozy". This is sort of the platonic ideal for a PS1 style JRPG and how appealing you find this will depend on how cozy the PS1 JRPG form is to you. Unfortunately, carries over the PS1 JRPG characteristic of a wonky localization where it seems the writer and voice director simply did not speak to each other. Very odd changes ignoring what the original work was going for especially in sidequests. There's group of 4 characters that are clear parodies of shonen archetypes in their dialogue and designs but the voice direction is just doing something else. So similar to Suikoden 2 I might recommend you just play Suikoden 1 then that instead but if you want something comfortable and familiar I enjoyed it as comfort food.

23)Dragon's Dogma 2 Second attempt at trying to "get" Dragon's Dogma. Really loved the skill system but did not vibe with its idiosyncrasies and caprices. I wish its game design had either been way more normal or way weirder. Appreciate that if they're gonna have ridiculous fantasy slut garb the dudes can put it on too.

24)Berserk Boy We will simply never run out of indie takes on Mega Man and we should be grateful, frankly. This one's not the best out there with some frustrating jank, even softlocking me during an optional challenge which turned me off of all of them but it's neat all the same. People who make these have a good tendency to ensure they feature unique ideas and make their games interesting in their own right.

25)Froggo's Adventure: Verdant Venture Teeny weeny little Kirby's Adventure inspired tiny small thing. You're a frog who suspects a witch girl might have maybe stole something from your well so maybe you should go to her house and beat the shit out of her? Maybe! It's less than $1.50 CAD and a good time for it.

26)Nightmare Kart Formerly Bloodborne Kart until Sony said no literally a day from release. Kinda funnier than it's fun but benefits from a "you get what you pay for" valuation as it's free.

27)Starstruck: Hands of Time A meditation on the blurry line between inspiration and plagiarism and the ways one is necessary to enriching an ever developing creative inner world while its nearly indistinguishable sibling is a harbinger of rotten, even apocalyptic, stagnation. This game has right in its main menu a bibliography of inspirations featuring the likes of Chulip, Kare Kano, and Richard Wagner. On that last one, it's impossible and arguably irresponsible to discuss ol' Deutschland Dick without mentioning his influence on Adolf Hitler which the game will momentarily do, awkwardly maintaining a wholesome veneer while non-specifically gesturing towards a "dictator". I'm gonna be blunt here I did not like this one. It has an issue typical of creative projects without much oversight where it eventually ends up with its head a ways up its own ass with the metaphors and references. I spent most of its climax muttering "fuckin' wrap it up" to myself. Some of its gameplay is a not great rhythm game with an uneven soundtrack. "Break the Mold" is the closest it has to Gitaroo Man's Legendary Theme and it sucks ass.

Despite all that it's an interesting text worth interacting with if the word "different" is important to you when used in relationship to video games.

Catch Up

God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010) Bastion (2011)

Tyranny: Gold Edition (2017) Tyranny is set in a world where evil has won and you, as an exceptional individual, have been scouted to be a "Fatebinder" a sort of a wandering lawyer/judge/executioner representing the judgement of Archon of Justice Tunon the Adjudicator, highest authority beneath Kyros the Overlord. The game denies you the ability to make a morally clean character as before the game begins in earnest you'll be made to determine your history as mediator between two of the empire's brutal armies: The uncompromising supremacist Disfavored and the infernal snarling horde of the Scarlet Chorus.

Regardless of how many games I play I still have blind spots, CRPGs being one of them. Ahead of playing Baldur's Gate 3 I wanted to get my feet wet and train my ability to lean into roleplaying, play a character whose values differ from mine and accept less than optimal resolutions. I struggled at first but what really unlocked the roleplaying for me was the Reputation system. The first companion who joins you is Verse of the Scarlet Chorus and I utterly hated her. Going through her dialogue tree and learning about her was initially exhausting to me and threatened to make me bounce off of the experience until after a particularly unpleasant story the game gave me the opportunity to bluntly call her disgusting. The way Reputation works in tyranny is that you concurrently build Favor and Wrath with factions and Loyalty and Fear with companions. One does not take from the other like in say, Mass Effect, there's no wrong answer there's just what your character would do. Leaning into my hatred for the Scarlet Chorus committed me to a character which let me have a great time learning about Tyranny's layered world. Sorta peters out in the 3rd act in, what I'm told, is common for CRPGs but the way there was always compelling.

Yuppie Psycho (2019) Demon Turf (2021) Demon Turf: Neon Splash (2022)

Scorn (2022) First person atmospheric adventure all about diving into an H.R. Giger-esque world. Freaky and gorgeous. Many people struggle to get what the combat expects of you which is that as much as possible you do not want to be in a fight. You want to let creatures pass and you only want to hit them so they're staggered enough to let you bail. Worth playing if you want to be in this sort of atmosphere.

Frogun (2022) Adorable platforming adventure with tight levels where you use the tongue of your "Frogun" to zip across gaps. Every level is to be done twice: first as a collectathon and routing exercise and then as a speedrunning challenge where the level design allows and enjoys ridiculous skips that will satisfyingly cut down your time to a fraction of your initial playthrough.

Marvel's Midnight Suns (2022) Okay so the on-ramp is too long and it drags real bad at the end and it's got (pre-mcu) Buffy era style Joss Whedon dialogue you might find grating but hear me out: Once the game gets going for real its system of one-shotting mooks, tossing them into each other, to build Heroism points that can then be cashed in for bigger moves produces a rhythm and strategizing I've never seen in any other tactics game. It's a great time.

Lunacid (2023) I was never really impressed or into creepypasta style horror but this thing marries it to shockingly potent effect with King's Field style pacing and atmosphere. Made by a very small team its got some wonky balancing but the mood is something else. Very high recommendation for anyone who takes pleasure in exploring odd, eerie spaces.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (2023)

Turbo Overkill (2023) First weapons you get are dual wielded laser magnums followed by laser SMGs that are also dual wielded. A button press will make a chainsaw burst from you cyborg leg and launch you into a high speed slide at no cost. In some ways this thing feels like it's trying to be The Final Boomer Shooter, going for peak stupid meathead video game fun.

Orbo's Odyssey (2023)

Lies of P (2023) My favorite non-FromSoft Souls game. Can Timothee Chalamet become a real boy? Derivative in nonnegligible ways but things like the weapon combining system and Pinocchio theming help keep it apart.

Baldur's Gate 3 (2023) Oh boy I might have played this gigantic thing twice in a row. Spunky little indie sleeper hit you may not have heard of; I gave it a year to truly complete its early access period. I loved it. I loved roleplaying as a Vengeance Paladin struggling against the Dark Urge, I loved the party (except Lae'zel) and loved the build making. My second playthrough was all about goofy multiclasses and gave me a real taste for it.

PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (2023)

A More Modest Than Usual Selection Of Retro Games

Jumping Flash! (1995)

Jumping Flash! 2 (1996) Hadn't played this since I was 6 when I got lost in the second world's "maze" level even though these are little games for little babies that a little baby could play. Don't know what was wrong with me. Very neat looking and a fun look back to a time before standardization when there wasn't a set way to make a first person shooter or any sort of game for that matter.

Final Fantasy IX (2000, HD 2017)

The Adventures of Cookie and Cream (2001) FromSoftware experiment in making an entirely co-op game where each player runs through puzzle platforming to allow their partner to make progress. Played through this with a friend and it was a great time.

Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider (2001) Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf outside of North America, a puzzle game based on the Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog Looney Tunes cartoons where you as Ralph have to use ACME contraptions to steal sheep from under Sam's nose. I was impressed by its capacity to emulate the cartoon's animation style with PS1 graphics and each stage having unique mechanics that never show up again. There's some real head scratchers in there too.

Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (2003)

Ratchet: Deadlocked (2005) Going Commando was alright but I was annoyed with every part of it that wasn't just Ratchet & Clank combat. Then I remembered a rental from my childhood, like, hey, you know what game is nothing but Ratchet & Clank combat? All about leveling up your goofy ass guns so they get even goofier. Awesome time.

Call of Duty 2 (2005) You like that? You like me calling Call of Duty 2 a retro game?

Missed games I'd like to get around to when I can make time. The video games… Please... they are too good…

FANTASIAN Neo Dimension Freed from apple arcade, rub and tug diorama Final Fantasy.

Sorry We're Closed Resident Evil: Dead Aim by way of Silent Hill and Grasshopper Manufacture.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown I bought this months ago and never made time for it! Despite being a lifelong Ubisoft and Rayman hater, it's my opinion that Ubisoft Montpellier's Rayman Legends is an all-time great so you can imagine how upset I was when their next highly well received game didn't sell enough for Ubisoft's tastes so they shot the whole team in the back of the head. Eager to play it and complete my mourning period.

Dungeons of Blood and Dream Nasty ass grungy first person roguelite sorta thing.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven I gotta actually sit down and give a SaGa game a real shot and this one sounds way weirder than its art style suggests.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Genuinely not sure if I wanna play this one. It'd be the first Ryu Ga Gotoku game I skip but the length preemptively exhausts me. If I choose to play it, I need to figure out how I want to interact with it.

Flintlock: Siege of Dawn Played the demo which was alright and was intrigued by the exp system which has you gamble a multiplier. You never lose the exp but you might lose the bonus.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Great demo for a well focused, weird game; couldn't make time for it!

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Neat looking "good kind of a 7 out of 10" I don't want to pay for. Maybe after a deep discount or through alternative means once it's fully updated.

Gundam Breaker 4 Don't know if I could make time for it but I love designing robots.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Do I wanna play this? Do I wanna just replay the original?

Judero Whole stop motion world made with old customized figures, I wanna see it!

Slitterhead Demo for this one by the Silent Hill 1 and Siren director was rough but I'm still intrigued.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership Need to hear more about this one to know if it's a return to Superstar Saga quality or if it carries the issues of later Mario & Luigi RPGs

Sonic X Shadow Generations They made a good Sonic game? Seemingly titled like a slashfic?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Want this to be my way to "get" S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Gonna do the same thing I did for Baldur's Gate 3 and give it a year of updates.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Got frustrated at how effusive the reception to this was because it made it something else to add to this bloated list. Good problem to have.

Kura5: Bonds of the Undying A free Boktai fangame that seems very cute.

[smoqueen]

now im jealous. you should be asking me for negan tutorials. if 5 of you picked up tekken and only listened to dima coaching you would become an unstoppable tumblr crew

[dangan-kagura]

Why I Don't Like Street Fighter

After seeing this new trailer for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, I knew that it was time for me to write this. I know I’ve written about something like this before, but now I’m including more of it.

See, even though I’m a fan of the fighting game genre, I do have particular tastes. Out of the most popular fighting game franchises out there, I’m not big on Street Fighter.

Street Fighter IV was my introduction to that series. At the time, I didn’t really get the big deal about it, nor did I understand the hype most people at the time had when it came out in 2009. And unfortunately, when I decided to try the game out, it must’ve been a bad first impression.

Let me tell you that the opening to the game is no good. The theme song was just… what, unbearable to listen to? Well, it’s been like over 15 years since the game came out, but when I first played the game, I skipped the intro since the theme song wasn’t cool enough to listen to, and I thought that maybe they didn’t have to go so far as to make a really long intro for a game that I failed to see the big deal about, because once I got to the gameplay, that’s where things felt like a mess.

Street Fighter IV felt like a really slow and sluggish fighting game.

I think that maybe since I was still a little new to understanding how 2D fighting games are played, I had a hard time trying to input certain commands. Namely the charging commands. I could barely get Chun-Li, Vega and Bison to do any special moves, I just had to rely on using heavy punches and heavy kicks multiple times to clear their story modes. Not to mention, the tutorial menu for commands was too small and wasn't specific enough. It didn’t say anything about doing a fireball special move with the entire control stick.

My bad opinion about Street Fighter IV led me to think that this has to be one of the worst fighting games and the world is too blind to realize this.

It also led me to believe that Capcom should not have made Super Street Fighter IV, because if Street Fighter IV felt like a piece of shit game, there should be no reason people should play SSF4, it could be an even crappier game. Shit, it also led me to think that Capcom should not have made Marvel vs Capcom 3, because again, it would feel like a slow, sluggish, and broken fighting game.

But I will admit to this, there were a few, only a few, things about Street Fighter IV that I thought were interesting. The EX specials concept was interesting, performing a special by pressing two of the same types of punches and kicks. The problem however was that at the time, all my favorite fighting games like Tekken, Soul Calibur, and KOF were all 4 button fighting games, and since I play these games on console, I just stick with using X, ⬜, ◯ and △. Street Fighter is a six button fighting game, so I wasn't used to using the shoulder buttons, I just swapped the medium attacks with the heavy attacks since I figured they’d work the same way in KOF. Anyway, the EX specials concept I figured was cool and thought how cool it would be if KOF got to feature that, and they did with The King of Fighters XIII which at the time I thought was a more interesting 2D fighting game than SSF4. The brave edge attacks in Soul Calibur V & VI are also based off EX specials.

Also, Street Fighter IV had a feature where you can select which characters can speak English and which ones can speak Japanese. It was a little interesting, and it reminded me of how half of the cast of Virtua Fighter speak English and the other half Japanese. However, the anime cutscenes ruin this since those cutscenes won’t use this feature. In fact, I couldn’t really picture Street Fighter being an anime game series. Maybe it’s because all the anime games I’m used to have a certain moe (MOH-ae) theme to them. Guilty Gear and Blazblue felt like they had moe themes, but there was nothing moe about Street Fighter.

Now let’s just ahead to 2013. That was when Capcom vs SNK 2 came out on the PS3 via the PS3’s online store. While I was against the idea of Street Fighter having a crossover with Tekken, I thought that KOF was a better crossover. The game was fun at first, but it has its moments where it makes no sense to me. The final bosses are random, with two of them being so super powerful, I couldn’t clear the game fighting them. And the AI for characters like Vega was bad, he always blocks your attacks even on the easiest difficulty.

As the years went by after that, I got fed up from seeing everyone obsessed with Capcom. Things like…

Mega Man and Ryu in Super Smash Bros.

The crossover with Professor Layton and Ace Attorney

Akuma in Tekken 7

The Resident Evil film series (which sucks btw)

I think after playing Capcom vs SNK 2, it gave me the impression that Capcom doesn’t do a good job at making fighting games. I'll say it again that I was concerned that Marvel vs Capcom 3 would also be a piece of shit fighting game if it was gonna play the same way Street Fighter IV plays. Yet, everyone loves those games, which puts me in the minority.

I later got the impression that Capcom was sold out and only cares about getting rich and not actually caring about the quality of their games.

Here's what I mean by that. The same year Street Fighter IV came out, a Street Fighter movie centered on Chun-Li came out. It wasn't that well received of a movie from what I remember, and let me tell you that I come from a generation where I've been told that live action movies based on video games are never good. The only reason they made such a movie was to promote Street Fighter IV's release. Did they really have to make a redicous movie to promote a game that I didn't like?

Not just that, but also the Resident Evil film series. Just as Street Fighter got a movie to promote Street Fighter IV's release, the 5th Resident Evil movie came out to promote Resident Evil 6's release. Knowing that there's a lot of hate surrounding that film series, why did Capcom think it was okay for Hollywood to make such a movie? I don't need to mention that the first two Resident Evil movies are among Roger Ebert's most hated list, which consists of some of the most poorly received movies that have their place as being titled as the worst films ever. Most surprisingly to me, Resident Evil 6 ended up getting hated by fans.

Despite what I have to say, the world seems to love Street Fighter. Pop cultures like Wreck It Ralph, Ready Player One, Gravity Falls, Shazaam, Neptunia, and even Danganronpa have their moments of Street Fighter references.

Granted that Gonta Gokuhara is one of my favorite Danganronpa characters, I can probably let this slide.

The truth is, if I had to pick the number 1 best fighting game series, I’d pick Tekken.

Why? Because to me, playing Tekken wasn’t any different from playing Metal Gear Solid. As a teenager, not only did I take interest in PlayStation only games at the time, I wanted to lump Tekken with some of the biggest AAA games out there, like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and Final Fantasy. Yet when Tekken 6 was being made, I read comments that everyone was gonna play Shit Fucker 4 instead. Some of them were probably trying to lump Street Fighter with those big three games mentioned. But I couldn't see Street Fighter as being on their level of popularity. I admit it, I could list a bunch of fighting games at the time that I think are better, Tekken 6, Soul Calibur IV, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Heck, I'm perfectly fine with playing Castlevania Judgement. Compared to them, Street Fighter IV just didn’t sit well with me.

Due to my jealousy and perhaps hatred for Capcom’s popularity, it led me to boycott not only their games, but also boycott Tekken 7 and Super Smash Bros. and I don't think it made a difference.

To this day, I’ve never played Tekken 7 and don’t even have a clue what the plot is or what the character endings are. And what’s worse is that the trailer for Akuma’s guest appearance made it look like it was gonna be canon, and I only just found out that it apparently is canon. Fucking hell man! It even pisses me off to know that the arcade at my mall doesn’t have Tekken 8, yet they have Shit Fucker 6. I just can’t picture Capcom being number 1. To me, they’re more like, what, the bottom 20?

But let’s talk a little more about me being annoyed by Capcom’s popularity. Even though Tekken 8 doesn’t have guest characters (for now) what annoys me is when I play online and fight against someone’s custom character who’s dressed like Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil. Seriously, I think I’ve lost count on how many people I’ve fought against dressed like that. It shows that...

The only reason people love Capcom so much doesn’t have anything to do with Street Fighter, it’s because of all the money Capcom is making for all the Resident Evil 4 ports that have been made.

Why? Because Resident Evil is a fucking horror game and everyone is a fucking horror nerd who don’t even give a shit about poorly made horror movies and games!

*Ahem* Granted that Resident Evil 4 is a great game, it just wasn’t fun to play anymore. It really annoys me when gaming sites make coverage for all the lousy Resident Evil spinoffs that are made every year. I once wrote that I didn't take interest in Resident Evil 6, thinking that Resident Evil 5 was gonna be the series finale and a sequel wouldn't make sense. On the brightside, I have read that Resident Evil 6 wasn't well received. Is it because the game feels less like a horror game and more like your typical action game? Is it in any way similar to the live action film series? I remember IGN's review of RE5 where they thought the game had more of a Gears of War experience. Despite was everyone had to say about RE6, Capcom later made Retarded Evil 7.

Heck, I would probably go in a rage if I found out that Capcom was making Resident Evil 8. I admit it that I live in denial of the existence of Street Fighter V & VI and also in denial of the existence of Resident Evil 7, Mega Man 11, and Devil May Cry 5. Ask me about those games and I’ll be all like, “Nope. Doesn’t exist. No such thing. I don’t believe it.”

But I can’t lie to myself forever and it was bound to happen.

The new Fatal Fury game is gonna have Ken and Chun-Li as guest characters and I’m not excited about it. Ironic, because I do see KOF and Street Fighter as good rivals and even thought that a crossover game with the cast of Street Fighter IV and KOF XIII would be interesting to see. The problem is not only did I not like SF4, but I’m in the minority that prefers KOF as my favorite 2D fighting game series.

Is that okay to say? Is it okay to also say I prefer Battlefield over Call of Duty because I think Battlefield has better storytelling and doesn’t have a string of controversies like Call of Duty? Is it any different from saying I prefer Bleach over Naruto because I think Bleach is cool looking and Naruto just looks childish? Is it different from saying I have no preference when it comes to Coke or Pepsi? Or how about saying I prefer Limp Bizkit over Linkin Park because I believe Limp Bizkit is what true nu metal should sound like and Linkin Park is just sold out to Michael Bay.

But I will admit to this. I did enjoy Fighting EX Layer.

While it uses the same 6 button layout as with Street Fighter, I feel like it’s a game that has everything Street Fighter needs to be a better series. Fighting EX Layer plays faster, doesn’t go over the top with things like a long intro with a bad theme song, and also has a feature where you can input commands without doing it the old fashioned way (I hope that makes sense). It was only after playing it that I found out that its developers Arika also developed the Street Fighter EX games, and I probably thought, “Okay, this is better than what Street Fighter is like”. But the only reason I played Fighting EX Layer is because Terry Bogard is the game’s guest character. While he is fun to play as, the unfortunate part is that his ending makes a Street Fighter reference.

And there is actually a fighting game I like that is, in a sense, kinda like what Street Fighter IV was like, the 2019 Samurai Shodown game. If I had played it as a teenager, I would probably think that it feels like it has the same slow and sluggish feeling SF4 had. I don’t know… I probably liked it since it didn’t feel any different from playing KOF XIV. And unfortunately, playing it didn’t change how I feel about SF4. What exactly was Capcom's objective with that game? Make a modern fighting game the plays more like an early 90s fighting game? Kinda sounds like the objective with Mega Man 9.

As I mentioned, to this day, I’m still boycotting Capcom and games with Capcom characters. Heck, I've never even played Senran Kagura Peach Ball all because the game opens up with Haruka making a fucking Shit Fucker 5 reference! But with this new Fatal Fury game coming out, that could sadly make the boycott list too. No way am I gonna enjoy the game if I have to deal with Street Fighter characters being in the game, and I’ll be fucking pissed if SNK made it canon. Even though I like Fighting EX Layer and the 2019 Samurai Shodown game, playing those games won’t be enough for me to give Street Fighter another chance. If I ever did play a modern Street Fighter game and found out that it plays the same way Street Fighter IV plays instead of how KOF XV is played, that’s just gonna piss me off. At this point, it’s too late to start over.

And I’ll be fucking pissed out of my mind if Akuma fucking returns for Tekken 8.

[coldbloodeddevil]

/* I'm not ready to absorb all of the Tekken lore just yet, but which game is the most beginner friendly? */

(Normally we'd recommend to start from the beginning but Tekken 1 is notably wonky in it's difficulty. But the good thing about the series is that aside from newerr mechanics and characters, the inputs remain relatively the same in each. We'd personally recommend tekken 4, 5 or head straight into 8. 4 is our personal favourite, and the start of having a dedicated story mode. 5, depending on the version has a full tutorial mode as well as the arcade versions of 1-3 bundled in. 8 being the newest game is the most accessible and has story recaps)

[alexr-fightgames]

... OK! We did it, that's everybody, that is the entire cast of Tekken 7 at purple ranks or higher!

Thanks so much to @jaguar-bomb for the suggestion, that was a silly thing to do and it possibly annoyed a fair number of actual-red-ranks players, but we did it!

Out of this last batch, by far the easiest for me was Shaheen. He's Normal Tekken The Character. He just like... plays Tekken. You want a df1, a hopkick, a nice mid whiff punish from range, some fairly low-commitment low-pokes? And you want a Law-style slide? And an orbital? OK! That's Shaheen! The interesting thing for him was that the recommended combo (which does a bunch of damage) in the spreadsheet involves like three stance cancels but it's not hard at all. Kinda satisfying actually. Once I got that one combo down, he was just like "alright, let's play Tekken" and I got him from "never played before" to 24 dan in a sitting. The combo was satisfying, and Normal Tekken is pretty great, but Shaheen does like nothing for me as a character.

Steve was much more of a struggle. I'm going to go ahead and say my Steve is bad. Steve is really strong when played well, but he's kind of fundamentally about timing mixups to set up CHs, but I think I'd need to spend a lot more time playing him to make him work; he seems like a very specialist character. I struggled to set up good offense and really open people up. But maybe he's not supposed to do that.

My favorite out of this batch -- easily YOSHIMITSU. Yoshi is just extraordinarily fun, and once I got into using his kincho stance more aggressively (and going into KIN out of, say, a 2,2 block punish), he started to really come together. NOTABLY: the combo that they tell you to do in the Applay spreadsheet and some tutorials, where you end with d+2,2,1 -- I don't think that combo is suitable for new Yoshi players. Way too inconsistent. Screw as soon as you can with f+3 and end with b+2,1,1+2 KIN f+2 . Yoshi is super good times, and not to toot my own horn too much here, but my Yoshi costume is sick as heck. He's just really satisfying to play, and I might spend some more time with him. I'm not normally into "what the hell is happening here" complex characters, but Yoshi is so loveable, and the Manji clan is there to give to the needy, so, y'know. Party on, Mr. Mitsu.

So uhhh... that's everybody! Challenge complete!

[fightinggamegirlfriend]

I genuinely think tekken really brings the worst out of me. And the thing is… I do genuinely want to improve my skills with this game series but it feels like such a fucking hopeless task because Tekken demands SO MUCH from you, and I don’t want to think about/reduce a game like that reduced to numbers, data frames, priority, damage output, cancels, combos etc. because if I only EVER thought about a fighting game like that, it would be extremely unhealthy and harmful for my own mental well-being.

tekken is going to be the absolute death of me. <- is having a Sisyphean experience in the offline modes of tekken of losing a lot the closer I get to the higher rankings <- understandably so, it’s supposed to get difficult and yes I know I fucking suck at playing tekken. but sometimes I desperately want the games to throw me a bone every once in a while for even trying to be okay at the game.

[shawnthebro]

In 3D fighters, it is normal for the characters to “orbit” each other. Let’s implement this!

[iidsch]

I've finally started playing tekken 7 here are some thoughts:

There isn't a single male character who doesn't look incredibly bad in a suit or a regular shirt or anything that isn't their regular outfit and I 100% blame this on how massive their muscles are. @ bandai namco make them skinnier so I can put them in outfits like barbie dolls

Who tf thought it'd be a good idea to not put tutorials on a fighting game I'm literally going through hell right now to learn the most basic stuff

Regarding the Mishimas' feud, I'm on Heihachi's side just because I think he's very funny. No devil form like everyone else in his family, just an 80 something-year-old who refuses to die. Goals honestly

Lee and Alisa should have an anime where they are besties and get into cartoonish adventures together. Everyone else in the main story can die for all I care honestly

Speaking of power couples Bob and Miguel should fuck nasty

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE that each character speaks in their mother tongue. Tekken gets extra points over all the other fighting games just because I get to witness a conversation between a Japanese, an Italian and an American all in their respective languages

That said more characters should speak a foreign language. Alisa should speak Russian and Eliza Romanian or something

The fucking bowling minigame? 10/10

I was ready to roll my eyes because of the swimsuits for the female characters until I saw the BDSM gear for the male characters. Equality wins the men are sexualized too

I just realized that Shaneen is the guy from this fucking post that has been making me laugh for 8 straight years

The characters are such a hit or miss for me because I couldn't care less about very obvious bait characters like Lucky Chloe but my god if Katarina doesn't shove her heels down my throat I will die. Same with the men btw I haven't even checked all the "muscular guy who is angry" characters but Eddy baby boy who I love and I'll defend to my grave

[violet-morrison]

So I'm starting to get into tekken. I've had the disc for tekken 3 for a while, but only recently got around to playing it. Out of the base roster, Xiaoyu clicked with me the most. Idk if she's good in the meta or whatever, but she feels the best to play so far. We'll, it's been a couple days and I finally beat arcade mode for the first time. Damn this game is fun. I'm normally not super into competitive multiplayer games, especially fighting games and their complex inputs, and I figured ESPECIALLY not tekken since I know how hard it can get to master, but like... I might be wrong on that. I'm pleasantly surprised to find I can comprehend most of what is happening. This is the first fighting game I've really put in effort to be good at (besides my 3rd Strike phase) and it's cool to see it actually paying off. I'm using very minimal tutorials, just learning on my own, which feels very gratifying (I've always been like that though, I pretty much taught myself how to make music too). My only complaint with tekken 3 is that I have to use the ps1 dpad, which is very uncomfortable, but aside from that? Really vibing.