When you hear the phrase “an acquired taste,” you will likely prepare yourself for immediate revulsion or disappointment. Whether it be your friend’s new significant other or a particularly gaudy piece of home decor, it is rarely a prelude to greatness. With that acknowledged, let it be known that I am quite comfortable calling fighting games an acquired taste.
Because anyone who’s tried to get into fighting games has probably been through hell.
Whether it’s jumping online on “Tekken 8” to find a King who majored in crushing dreams and minored in hunting the weak. Or hopping on “Street Fighter 6” to find a Ken who has been hitting DP (dragon punch) motions since you were in diapers.
It’s a harsh environment for new fans, which makes you wonder why anyone would stick with it.
Personally, aside from a yet-to-be-documented form of Stockholm syndrome, the thing that keeps me coming back to fighting games is the fact that no other genre captures the feeling of self-improvement.
Fighting games, unlike other competitive genres, are 1v1; there are no teammates to blame. This makes it incredibly easy to interrogate your own shortcomings, a missed input or a whiffed punish (Attacking someone when they are unable to block, like right after they miss an attack, making the damage guaranteed).
Even times when I’m on a 17-loss streak — like when fighting the aforementioned King player — I still find myself having fun. Because when the odds are so stacked against you even a single round taken feels like an incredible personal victory.
But even still there is far more appeal to fighting games than just the incessant drive to get better.
“I used to really try to actively get better, and do consider going back to it all.” Christian Moody, a fighting game fan, said. “What really drew me to fighting games was the community that came with playing locally or even online.”
“It’s this sense of friendship mixed with competitiveness that really kept me coming back,” Moody said
On any given day if you walk through Danner Hall, you will be given a microcosm of the fighting game experience, the highs, the lows, and the upsets. This blurred line between competitiveness and friendship.
“The uncertainty of how each game is going to play out,” said Evan Delph, one of the Danner Hall players. “So many different characters with so many different possibilities, it’s just, it feels endless.”
“I just feel like it’s a lot less toxic than other games in general,” said Delph. “People in the fighting game community tend to bring other people up along with them”
For a lot of people, fighting games are far more than just a hobby, it’s a skill to be honed, a way to build relationships, or even just a reminder of when you were younger. It’s more about the personal challenge and the striving to get better.
They are technical nightmares, demanding far more from its players than other genres — things like motion inputs are quick to scare off new fans — but once you love them, you’re bound for life, like marriage before King Henry VII.
If you want to get into fighting games the best place to start is to just find a game with a character you like and just play. If the execution scares you then it’s always a joy to watch the competitive scene, evo japan was last month and the skill on display can often be a substitute for actually playing the games. At least enough to understand the appeal.
