The Tragedy Of Fighting Games.

The Tragedy Of Fighting Games. Perhaps a spicy video, but I think it's important to keep it real (sometimes). Today I am talking about one of my favorite video game genres of all time, fighting games. Fighting games are in my top three alongside shmups and beat em' ups. I have been playing fighting games in a competitive and then semi-competitive since around 2010 or so, so I've been around and plugged into the genre for a long time. Today I am discussing what I like to call the tragedy of fighting games, in that no matter how good a fighting game is, no matter how much the player base loves that individual game, all fighting games are doomed to an early appointment with the grim reaper. Even games that have longstanding player bases like Super Smash Bros Melee and Street Fighter 3, Third Strike (or even Street Fighter 2, Super Turbo) cannot continue onward into future generations and be played in a full competitive manner. What I mean is that just being able to match make in a game every now and then is not good enough. In reality most fighting games are only intensely explored and played during a five year window or so, and then that game is put aside for the next iteration of the series.
What I find tragic about this though, in the literal sense of the word, is that this fate is inescapable from what I have observed. No matter what approach a developer or fan base take, the end of the game being played at full capacity seems fated. I go into specific detail of why this is in the video.
So this video is not meant to be a critique or warning against the genre, but rather a somber celebration of what makes the genre so special and also, ultimately, tragic.
I thought it would be fun to discuss this video in light of the upcoming releases of Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6. At this point I am fully planning on playing Tekken 8 unless it is some kind of abomination, and my interest in the Street Fighter franchise as it is currently being made is gone. But I think I will review and discuss both games here on the channel as I think that will be interesting, as fighting game reviews from impartial experienced players are rather rare. I also am really into Guilty Gear XX Accent Core right now as well as DOA, so I plan on doing some vids about those games in the future as well
Thumbnail made by me this time! Though ‪@boghogSTG‬ still helped with advice on how to touch it up.

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||MY ESSAY ON MELEE'S POPULARITY||
As promised here is my little essay on Melee's popularity. So if you ask melee players – maybe not so much now but def up to 2022 – most melee players firmly believe that the game will be played very far into the future. That melee is the one exception to the rule and that it will not fall into the fighting game graveyard. Why exactly this is, melee players rarely spell out, but it's usually based on the idea that the game is extremely great and unique (which I fully believe as a massive melee player myself).

That being said though, there are actually many amazing and truly great and unique fighting games that have fallen into the graveyard, such as Soul Caliber 2, Dead or Alive 4, Guilty Gear XX, and pretty much all of the Virtua Fighter Series. In my opinion, quality of gameplay helps extend the life of a fighting game, but it will not stop it from crashing. That being said, melee is absolutely a unique case and has bucked the trend more successfully than any other game. The reason for this though has to do much more with perfect timing, being associated with the most powerful gaming franchises of all time, and an extremely powerful social network developed around the game.

Also Nintendo accidentally helped melee a bunch by fumbling with the Smash series so much.
To begin with, since the follow up game to Melee, Smash Brawl, was so truly bad that even casual players noticed how dumbed down and lame it was (and yes I know the sales of the game are very high, but it can be argued that those high sales are due to the legacy that Melee setup, just like how Star Wars Ep 1 had a massive box office), Nintendo for many years did not offer a valid alternative to Melee.

[Due to word limit, Essay Continued on this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x... ]

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