A Fighting Game to Choose (and enjoy the genre to the max)
Gaming is a vast universe with so many galaxies - they shine bright, inviting gamers to join the exciting fun. The fighting genre is one of those galaxies, but to reach the true dimension of joy there, you should buy a ticket for your personal best spaceship.
Ok, let’s keep aside those weird space analogies (even if I still love them) and delve into the topic. You are interested in the fighting games genre, want to try one of many games, but don’t actually know which one? Or you are interested in a specific fighting game, for instance, one of those highlighted on DashFight, but don’t have prior experience with the genre and have concerns on how to approach that title? No worries, this article will help!
Accessible? Stylish?
There are two aspects to pay attention to:
● Accessibility
● General style
With the style everything is pretty clear. Just take a look at a game trailer to grasp the atmosphere around the fight, and then feel whether you like it or not. That would be enough to make your decision.
Obviously, the style of Smash Bros. is totally different from that of Mortal Kombat. And Tekken animations give a different experience than those of Dragon Ball FighterZ. But you know what? No one except you can decide what’s better. That’s your personal choice.
The accessibility aspect is a bit trickier. Most players want to jump into the game and enjoy it from the very beginning. Then, the genre demands a game be deep enough and allow non-beginners to coin excellent combos, develop fighting strategies, and bring the whole game to the level of esports competition.
Some games sacrifice the fighting depth to lower the accessibility level. Others are not-that-good at accessibility but start shining especially bright after long practice.
Again, no one can say what accessibility level is the best for you. But you can know how accessible the game is before even starting it - thanks to the list and explanations below. The game trailers will help to feel the style.
Accessibility - close to perfect
We skip the level of shallow accessibility, which leads to no gameplay depth. While such games could be fun, they will not help you to enjoy the genre. Even more, simplistic gameplay might develop the bad habit of button mashing and prevent you from getting the max from objectively better games.
So, we start with perfectly accessible games that still are pretty deep with their fighting mechanics.
Smash Bros. Ultimate
It’s a Nintendo game, and it’s dedicated to a vast gaming audience: from kids to life-long fans. No limitations here - just pick up and play.
Smash Bros. is kind of a celebration of a huge phenomenon named gaming. You’ll meet here lots of familiar heroes, even if you don’t read gaming news regularly. Mario, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Minecraft Steve - most gamers already know them, so there’s no adapting period. The characters, their stages, and even soundtracks are familiar.
The fighting mechanics are intuitive and (deceivingly) simple. Button mashing (pressing everything without thinking) doesn’t allow progress in the game, but you start feeling your character and learn their abilities while having fun playing.
Adventure and Classic Modes give the entertaining progression and motivate players to face difficult opponents and thus improve their skills. If you wonder how fat this path can take - check out the action at pro tournaments.
Brawlhalla
The fighting rules and general mechanics of this game are very similar to those of Smash Bros. You fight on the platforms and should kick your opponents off the ground. Controls are straightforward, but they open their depth with combining attacks and movements.
The downside of Brawlhalla is the lack of famous characters - the game has heroes from Adventure Time or Kung-Fu Panda, but they are only skins to the primary, not that well-known fighters.
Aso, you don’t have a story mode here, so the accessibility is limited only to mechanics. The game motivates to play more by offering players clever unlockables, but to get to know the characters’ lore, you have to read their stories.
The positive aspect of Brawlhalla - it’s free and available on most modern platforms.
Dragon Ball FIghterZ
The mechanics of this game are much closer to the traditional fighting than of the previous two. Light, Medium, and Hard attacks, various special moves, and splashy combos - they are easy-to-learn in Dragon Ball FighterZ, and they allow you to feel the fundamental principles of the whole genre.
It would be beneficial to know the Dragon Ball Z anime and its characters before playing the game, but that’s not crucial. Play through the story mode to meet the fighters, feel the world, and complete many tutorials.
The game cares for newcomers quite well. But also, it gives lots of stuff to enjoy for the genre fans. If you like anime, it’s a perfect starting point for you.
Be ready to put some effort
Games in this category of accessibility ask for a bit more work from the player’s side. It’s not like you will have some boring learning, though. The adapting period in this game is certainly fun.
BlazBlue: Central Fiction
This series has typical anime characters and accessible fighting mechanics. There is nothing too complicated for beginners in attack execution or defeating first opponents, but the attempts of developers to make a detailed tutorial add a flavour of chores into the starting hours. It’s especially true when you decide to finish tutorials before the story mode - some portion of internal motivation is needed to go through them all.
The reward will be great. The game gives an excellent understanding of the genre, so you could proceed to further titles and grasp their core quite quickly. Take a look at the trailer to decide whether it’s your cup of tea.
Tekken 7
On the one hand, Tekken is super accessible - you take the controller and defeat a few first bosses in the story mode. But on the other hand, the developers got this beginner-friendly level by allowing players to use simple button mashing. And after those initial successful matches, you meet such challenging opponents that you need to forget those mashing habits to try and actually learn how to play the game.
The transition from the initial goofy fun to developing fighting skills obviously asks for some effort. Tekken is a bit different from many fighting games - it has a 3D environment, and you need to adapt to it. The neutral attacks here are simple, but the lists of combos for each character is impressive, and learning them is quite a process.
Mortal Kombat 11
Some gamers might have issues with the art style of this game - blood and broken bones in animation don’t make everyone happy. But if you are ok with such over-the-top violence, you’ll find a solid fighting experience beneath it.
Mortal Kombat doesn’t allow players to feel the power in the neutral game - you may land many basic hits but then get destroyed by just a couple of awesome combos from your opponent. Learning those combos is an essential part of playing MK11.
The game has an excellent roster with fighters of different types. If you like dark mysterious worlds, you might find your perfect fighting game in MK11.
Difficult for beginners
This category is rather for enthusiastic players who are sure in their dedication to learn the fighting mechanics and are patient enough to make it through the practice period for reaching the level of enjoying the game. We’ve added only one game here - but any game, a legendary one.
Street Fighter V
This game series is one of the most difficult in the whole fighting genre. The execution of many Special Moves and Unique Attacks reaches the level of nightmare for many players. Lots of practice is needed to understand your character and really be competitive in online matchmaking.
In addition to that, SFV doesn’t give a step-by-step path for newcomers. You have super-easy Character Stories, a relatively easy Arcade Mode (with powerful bosses), and complicated Trials that teach basic combos. Without deep dedication from the player, it would be hard to learn how to play Street Fighter.
Of course, the game is worth the effort. After you get the pace and start to feel the character, the playing experience becomes deeply satisfying (most of the time). Sky’s the limit in developing your skills here - and the more you play, the more possibilities SFV opens for you.
Finding a fighting title that resonates with your gaming personality might be a long process - but you could keep it exciting by simply enjoying the matches. In fact, there are no rules on what to do to have fun in fighting games. Someone is happy in the easiest fights. Someone is happy in the most complicated ones. You are the best indicator of the perfect harmony of accessibility and the style. And you are the only one to decide to play that game or move to another one. Gaming is meant to bring happy moments in your life.
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