Being bad at fighting games is the single most frustrating thing in my gaming history

D

Dr_Boris_Goltz

Banned
I just don't get them... I was practicing Sub Zero in MKX and learned a bunch of combos and when I go to fight somebody I forget everything.

I can't get timing right. I'll try to pull moves off and the other guy is so aggressive it's just destroying me. So I'll try blocking more... Nope he goes from high to low at random and there is absolutely no way for me to guess. Okay... I'll try being aggressive as well. Wait his hits seem to take priority over mine and I can't do shit.

I have never been good at fighting games even though I've been trying for probably over 25 years, starting with Street Fighter 2. It's so incredibly frustrating, especially since I'm decent at other games.

I don't even know HOW to get better is the real problem.

Anyone else feel the same way?
 
I felt that way in SF2HDR until I got good in time for SF4. Now I love em!

The important thing is to learn how to be smart and outthink your opponent. Then you learn combos so you win faster and don't have to outthink them quite as many times, but it's not as important. If you're even a little bit clever you'll be able to beat most randos online. That's why once you're good at getting in your opponent's head, you can be reasonably good at pretty much any fighting game, those skills transfer even with different mechanics.

Basically:
Learn fundamental mechanics of a fighting game > Play until you get a feel for predicting your opponent > Once you know what your character can do, learn good combos.
 
Graffgor said:
I just don't get them... I was practicing Sub Zero in MKX and learned a bunch of combos and when I go to fight somebody I forget everything.

I can't get timing right. I'll try to pull moves off and the other guy is so aggressive it's just destroying me. So I'll try blocking more... Nope he goes from high to low at random and there is absolutely no way for me to guess. Okay... I'll try being aggressive as well. Wait his hits seem to take priority over mine and I can't do shit.

I have never been good at fighting games even though I've been trying for probably over 25 years, starting with Street Fighter 2. It's so incredibly frustrating, especially since I'm decent at other games.

I don't even know HOW to get better is the real problem.

Anyone else feel the same way?
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Yeah, I adore fighting games but I'm terrible at them. I played a lot of Injustice and did alright with that but MKX is far more strict with timing than it was so its taking some getting used to.
 
JazzmanZ said:
Don't worry OP I am bad at every fighting game not named Smash bros.
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I'm even bad at Smash Bros! In that game I felt like I could never connect without the other person connecting first. Since you have to charge smashes I could NEVER get one off. It always felt like dogshit to me.
 
Graffgor said:
I'm even bad at Smash Bros! In that game I felt like I could never connect without the other person connecting first. Since you have to charge smashes I could NEVER get one off. It always felt like dogshit to me.
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You've never had to do this ever lol
 
I played some dude earlier in MK X that started out as Sub Zero, he lost every match we had but one. I even started to use characters I hadnt ever played as and won.
 
Play against people who suck more than you do

That's what I do, and I feel like a fighting god each time
 
Find someone who's at the same level as you and play them. You'll grow together and get better if you dedicate yourself to fighting games.
 
Right there with you! Been struggling with fighting games my entire life. I ended up getting decent at MK X, had memorized a handful of good Stryker and Scorpion combos to be competitive, but most of the time I freeze up in a real match and am terrible at reading my opponent.

I've always felt like I've missed a fundamental aspect of fighting games that the majority of the community seems to understand. Maybe it really is just a number of hours you need under your belt before you're even competent.
 
Graffgor said:
I just don't get them... I was practicing Sub Zero in MKX and learned a bunch of combos and when I go to fight somebody I forget everything.

I can't get timing right. I'll try to pull moves off and the other guy is so aggressive it's just destroying me. So I'll try blocking more... Nope he goes from high to low at random and there is absolutely no way for me to guess. Okay... I'll try being aggressive as well. Wait his hits seem to take priority over mine and I can't do shit.

I have never been good at fighting games even though I've been trying for probably over 25 years, starting with Street Fighter 2. It's so incredibly frustrating, especially since I'm decent at other games.

I don't even know HOW to get better is the real problem.

Anyone else feel the same way?
Click to expand...

Combos are actually one of the least important parts of learning how to play a fighting game. All a combo does is give you more reward on landing a hit, but it doesn't help you at all in getting that hit or preventing you from getting hit.

Basically, fighting games are like poker: it's about making reads and controlling probabilities, and combos are like the pot limit. Combos lets you win big on good decisions, but they don't help you make better decisions.
 
It's better than me atleast. I've played tons of fighting games, but I'm afraid to play online and break the illusion to learn that I actually suck major ass at fighting games.
 
Im with you man! I love fighting games but the only one ive been decent at was SC2... I have a friend that really good at SF so when we hang i play against him alot, i basically always lose but im still having fun
 
Beelzebufo said:
Are you waiting for someone to reply to you? There were only two or three posters in between the first and second time you posted this :p
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no, I'm trying to point out the importance of this. Most people don't understand footsies or fundamentals and just want to say that the genre isn't for them. Most people lose due to how they view the game and its important to think of fighting games in a specific way.
 
Frustrating is when you dominate an opponent in FIFA but fail to finish him off, then give away a PK at the 90th minute. I don't rage quit, but if I ever did, it would be due to FIFA.
 
Memorizing combos should be way lower on your priority list if you want to learn the game, or fighting games in general.
 
I'm not good at learning fighting games, but I'm pretty good at bullshitting in them. For instance, I tried Melty Blood, didn't really know combos, but I figured out shit like approaching, defensive play, baiting, etc. But I'm never, ever going to be able to be great at any fighting game I don't think.
 
I suck at fighting games too. I mostly lack in match ups and punishing opponents for their mistakes. Though I do go to training mode, I mostly practice combos which shouldn't be the only thing you practice. It's just I don't have the patience nor time to learn. After practicing combos, I go straight to online which to me was a bad idea. I sometimes win matches but most of the time I keep losing and not knowing why.
 
How I usually learn fighting games is to play through arcade mode or whatever the single-player offline mode is, in order to choose a character.

I then hop into training mode and learn the special attacks of that character, along with how "unsafe" each one seems to be and when I can use each one. I also start thinking about the combo potential of those special attacks at this point.

After that, I'll look at a characters normals and think about what ones have the best range/priority/comboability for any given situation where I can feasibly punch or kick the other guy.

Finally, I either come up with some simple combos or see what sort of BnBs are posted online if the game's been out for a while.

Even after all this, I'll hop online to get used to the netcode, the feel of the game and just how other people play. The more fighting games you play, the less losses you have in this period. Nowadays I find myself hopping online and still winning despite the fact the other player has more experience at that specific game because I've played quite a few fighting games over the years.

I feel like I'm still a newblood to fighting games compared to some people. The first fighting game I ever took seriously was the original release of Street Fighter IV in 2007. Before then I just button mashed and had fun. The most important thing to remember is to think about what's happening and why you lost or won. Even if you spend a large part of the fight over-analyzing and missing opportunities, it's better than switching your brain off, cheesing a win and learning nothing from it.

With time and practice, your muscle-memory will make combos second nature and you'll realize how little combos actually matter in fights compared to tricking your opponent into giving you an opportunity to do damage. Obviously at that point doing a maximum damage combo is better than a low damage one, but it's worse to never have the opportunity to do your insane 60% health combo than it is to make many opportunities to do a 15% damage combo.
 
Practicing combos and with the CPU will only take you so far. I was pretty bad in fighting games until a friend of mine started playing with me. Soon, we were like rivals.
I was winning, he would train to beat me, then I would train to beat him and so on.

I think learning the basics is the most important step. Street Fighter II is great at that with the help of a guide. You understand your area of attack, when to attack and when to block. How to put pressure on your opponent. How to mess their defenses. And so on.

I only played MK X once, so I cannot say if it's noob-friendly game. From my first impression, I would say no. Increase the Computer difficulty, learn some basic combos that you do not miss (simple combos are great) and study how you are playing (see replays).

Also, remeber that online has lag. The timing of some combos might be off, so simple combos are best in this scenario.
 
Yeah it took a lot of losing for me to get good at fighting games. Too bad real life friends don't do the same and end up quiting fighting games when they vs me lol.
Surprisingly they all bought MK10 but I put off on playing it so that I'm their level when vsing them.
 
I accepted losing alot since i suck alot.
Always good to face off against people on your level first or slightly lower.
The rest is working on what you lack and improving what you know you are good at. Like offense or maybe spacing.
 
It's pretty common for people to learn a few combos and think they are good then get crushed in all of their matches because they completely ignored fundamentals.

I'm guilty of doing this too. And by that I mean placing importance of combos over everything else.
 
Being bad at fighting games is nothing to be ashamed of, it it the most skill intensive game genre in my opinion. If you can overcome the frustration to become good in fighting games, I think anything else in life would seem easy by comparison.
 
Renekton said:
I haven't played MKX, how is its execution difficulty compared to say... SF4 or KOF98?
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Combos are way easier to pull of than SF4. I'd say they're even easier than MvC3 depending on which character you pick. Execution for most characters is laughably easy in MKX, but it does vary. Jax's BnB's are almost impossible to drop online for example, while Johnny's are hard for me sometimes offline. I can also do them easy with the PS4 controller alone in MKX, which is unusual for me.

It's basically "dial-a-combo" through and through, it only gets hard with running set-ups and the rare tight link which are character specific. For most characters though you can do it without thinking, I can only assume the people having trouble are either picking one of the few difficult BnB characters or don't realize you're supposed to buffer inputs.
 
I'm bad at fighting games presently (partly due to not really being into them anymore), but there was a time back when Mortal Kombat was new on the arcade scene that I could dominate. One quarter would get me between 10-20 matches most times, and it would get to a point I'd randomly pick characters just to make it interesting.

But today... not so much.
 
There's a lot of small puzzles in fighting games. If you block their attacks, they're at a disadvantage for a certain amount of time. So after blocking x attack, you are guaranteed to hit with y move, and then you can optimise the damage off that move with combos, depending on how much meter you have. That's just blocking though, there's also hit confirming, mixups, footsies, and optimising scenarios for each of those. If you want to win, focus on one character, learn their best damage combo off each starting move with any amount of meter, then focus on their matchups and how to beat specific characters. It's a lot of info and some people have decades of experience putting it all together.
 
I can pull off the hardest and most badass shit in a lot of single player games, but I feel like a damn cripple when trying to control any fighting game. Weird as hell, so I feel you.
 
I feel your pain OP

I bought Guilty Gear on a whim and it's a fantastic game with gorgeous visuals and great music and tight controls but when I get into a match I just have no idea what I'm doing. I did all the training and tutorials but I just can't remember it or properly use it for the life of me
 
CO_Andy said:
My advice: practice against the CPU on the highest level.
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I don't mean to insult anyone, but this is usually a bad idea. There are often exploitables in AI that will cause a player to learn bad habits for when they play against human opponents. That, and sometimes there's just some straight bullshit that throws out the rulebook completely.

Practicing in training isn't a terrible idea to learn a command list/combo, but you'll hit a skill wall fairly quickly. To get better at fighting games you just face human opponents... and lose... a lot. But if you approach those matches as learning experiences you'll start picking up on behaviors, patterns, timing, etc. and you'll figure out how to react to them.

EDIT: And don't ever think that you can learn one character really well and then start kicking ass. You haven't studied the move sets enough until you've learned them for every character in a game. It's not just about knowing your own capabilities. Knowing what your opponent is capable of before the match even starts is just as important.
 
MKX is the first fighting game I've decided to become proficient in. I'm absolutely terrible, but I see no reason to get frustrated that people are better than me. There will always be people better than me. So long as that list shrinks a little every day then I'm satisfied.
 
VanillaCakeIsBurning said:
It's pretty common for people to learn a few combos and think they are good then get crushed in all of their matches because they completely ignored fundamentals.

I'm guilty of doing this too. And by that I mean placing importance of combos over everything else.
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I did this too, big mistake on my part.
 
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