The fighting game community has exploded with its latest debate following a comment made by the might Ryan Hart on the premier episode of Chris Tatarian’s podcast. In a discussion regarding how much easier modern fighting games have become compared to their more aged counterparts, Hart claimed that better players tend to lose to worse players more often in modern titles, thanks to the ease of gameplay.
This sparked quite the discussion as there are multiple factors to consider in this loaded concept, and DreamKing, MajinTenshinhan and I decided to throw our respective opinions into the ring in our latest episode of Talk and Block.
To be quite clear, older fighting games are decidedly more difficult and require more time to learn and become proficient at; strictness of inputs and windows for successful combo links are easily observable differences that tip difficulty in the favor of the older, for instance.
Developers have gone out of their way to get away from the old stereotype that fighting games have an especially steep introduction curve, and have done this by creating input shortcuts and getting widely rid of one-frame links and super hard execution.
So yes, it’s easier to dole out damage, but how important is this one aspect when it comes to answering our question? We are talking about being good at a game relative to other people, so one has to consider the various ways a player can go about separating themself from the rest of the pack.
The art of footsies, of which general skill in games like Street Fighter has been widely based, doesn’t seem to be as heavily favored in modern titles when compared to older ones.
Neutral skipping maneuvers and powerful comeback mechanics often seen in modern titles offer shortcuts to big damage without requiring as much critical thought, but one could argue (and DreamKing does) that perhaps this just means players need to shift their focus to another part of the game in order to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
Instead of prioritizing footsies, for instance, perhaps the game is lost and won more in the avenue of positioning and meter management?
Then comes the question of whether or not this is within the window of expectation fans have for the type of contest they wish to engage in.
So on and on the discussion goes, and while coming to a concrete answer everyone will agree on surely isn’t in the cards, let’s see if your opinion develops or changes entirely after you listen to our respective thoughts on the matter via the full video below:
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro, Ryan Hart’s statement
16:13 – “If 3S were released today, everyone would be doing the Daigo parry”
25:03 – Engagement vs Balance
31:43 – Are modern games actually harder to be good at?
46:34 – Skill-based interactions aren’t everything