Is it friendly to people new to fighting games? I’ve only played fight night before in terms of genre
Honestly, your best bet is to jump in with SF6. It has thorough tutorials, and a "modern" control scheme to facilitate new players (and it doesn't suck, there are examples of highly regarded players doing impressive shit with it, but it is different from classic controls).
If you get into it while the community is fresh, you can grow along with it and find more people of your skill level, as opposed to coming in late when it's mostly the hardcore, super-dedicated people roaming around.
EDIT: I want to add, when i say the tutorials are thorough, I don't want to imply that they're overly long or tedious -- they're actually fairly short and straight-to-the-point. Like, they go over what the character's intended / ideal range is, they just tell you what moves you should be using at what ranges, etc.
That sounds great, I saw there is even a demo so I’ll check that out
If you play Zangief with Modern controls, I will mock you out loud alone in my room while seething and malding when I lose
Thanks for the tip!
On a less ready to grief online note. Damn this game is polished. Like, the polish is so shiny I feel the same as being a kid in an arcade. It’s wild
Pogging out like a Marvelhead whenever Cammy's critical art goes off
for managing your expectations: boxing (and wrestling/mma/etc) games aren't really designed like fighters any more than action games or open world games with melee combat are. don't expect any more skill transfer from than you would from gauntlet, the witcher, or trying to melee/not get meleed in halo.
a couple other things i remembered that are unusual for the home gamer to care about outside of fighters:
the d-pad is much better than the thumbstick for 99% of people on 99% of games,
if you're having trouble with motion inputs on a pad try using a different make of pad if you can, i've heard bad things about the ps5 pad but the dualshock 4 and recent xbox pads are usually fine.
if you can borrow an arcade stick or a
hitbox"leverless arcade stick" give those a try too because the different mechanical dexterity might feel better, but it's hard to recommend the investment if you're not sure you'll even like the genre.more generally, if anyone is hitbox-curious, playing a fighter on a keyboard is broadly similar although the layout and switch-feel might have you brood war-ing the keys. if you like it on keys you'll probably like it better on real arcade buttons.
Others have already mentioned, but I will def agree that it is more friendly to newcomers than any fighting game in literally 30 years.
Instead of having an arcade mode and combo tutorials, sf6 makes an effort to explicitly teach fundamentals like spacing, canceling, and footsies.
The modern controls are awesome as well and help that process.
Oh there's also a competent and silly single player mode for once too
single player modes are way way more important for getting used to inputs than serious business players give credit. most people don't have the mentality to beat up the training dummy for hours but can spend all day on a survival mode or soul calibur 2/3/maybe not 4's campaigns
Its probably the friendliest in the series to people who are new to fighting games in that it:
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Has a ton of gameplay content that will actually teach you how to play. And I don't mean combo tutorials: I mean shit thats actually important like footsies and antiairing. Basic fundamentals. That kind of thing
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As part of its universal system mechanics has tools that sort of allow you to bypass the neutral game street fighter is known for (they cost a lot of resources though and leave you vulnerable, so high risk high reward).
Now having said that you should be aware that the game still isn't "easy". If you want to fight and hold your own you're not going to be able to get around the fact that a lot of people especially if they've had a head start are gonna just gonna be better than you. The grind is very real. As with any fighter be prepared to get your shit kicked in a lot and slowly learn how to counter and punish. It's just the nature of the genre.
Thanks for the advice, mindset being key sounds like something to keep in sight.
Absolutely. Honestly playing a fighting game, competitively or otherwise, is kind of a contradiction in the way fitness or training in a sport is I think.
You can and should look to the community for resources and tech/matchup knowledge and you should play to win, but one of the things you have to keep in mind is to stop comparing yourself to other people who have been doing this a lifetime and to see the small victories as you level up.
Maybe you lost the set but did you antiair your opponent successfully? That's a Victory. Did you antiair them every time to the point they got scared to jump? That's a huge victory. Did you punish an unsafe string/move so badly they stopped throwing it out casually? Hell yeah, you're getting stronger!!!!
Once you get past a certain threshold and you start seeing the game as it's actually played at a high level it becomes some of the most rewarding fun you can have in gaming imo.
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Playing sf6 made me remember that I loved sf when I was a kid. It's like that goddamm scene from ratatouille
Design wise it also looks dope. Will likely grab it at some point when I'm done with Zelda.
It's so fucking good. I played injustice competitively in it's heyday. Best ranking at a major was 13th, but I actually was the only green arrow main to make it to the top 10 on the leaderboards (also only one in the top 100, lol).
It's a bold statement but by God: I think I might love playing Jamie more than green arrow and I know Im not even 1/10th as good as I potentially can be once I really fully understand his toolkit.
It absolutely slaps. I know it's so early but this game feels like an absolute revelation. I genuinely am looking forward to playing it for the next 10 years.
