All Games Should Be Fighting Games (sort of)

I think fighting games have the perfect gameplay design. I’m not a huge fan of the fighting game genre, but I think the mechanics used in fighters is something many games could learn from. Keep in mind, I’m not a game designer, so my ideas are not incredibly specific. However, I do think they are specific enough to get my point across.

Most fighting games have a core 4 actions that players can use: crouching attacks, standing attacks, jumping attacks, and grabs/throws. And each of those actions can be countered or blocked by crouching guard, standing guard, or grab counters. It’s essentially a slightly more complicated version of rock-paper-scissors, but instead of guessing, players have a small window to react. This complex, hectic rock-paper-scissors game is what allows every battle to be unique and exciting.

So, how do you apply this rock-paper-scissors mechanic to an action game like Zelda, or a shooter like Uncharted? Well, the one thing these games lack that is present in fighters is a dynamic defensive system. These games need something equivalent to a fighting game’s crouching and standing block, different ways for players to defend against different types of attacks. And if they choose the wrong defensive maneuver, they’ll get punished. This applies to not just the player, but the enemy AI as well. Enemies have to utilize their defenses as much as the player.

Fighting games (specifically Street Fighter and Tekken) also utilize an automatic health regeneration system. Many people are of the belief that health regen makes games too easy. Again, that’s not the case for fighting games. Even though players receive a full health bar at the start of each battle, many people think fighting games are some of the hardest games to play. If players actually manage to win a fight, they probably don’t have much more than a quarter of their health remaining by the end of the match. But you can’t just give players all their health back after defeating an enemy in Zelda, so how does it apply in a game like that? Again, I’m not an expert in game design, but I know at least one solution that would work.

Elder Scrolls utilizes a system that allows players to regain their health by “waiting.” The wait system makes in-game time go by at roughly one hour per second. After waiting for as little as the minimum one hour, players will have a full health and magic meter. The catch is, players cannot wait when enemies are nearby. This prevents players from using the feature mid-battle to come back in full health. It also just makes sense, because if a player waited for an hour mid-battle, they would be standing in place for an hour while an enemy was attacking them. There are two key components to this type of health regeneration: 

  • Enemies are not nearby
  • Players cannot be moving

Other games use somewhat similar styles of health regeneration, such as Shadow of the Colossus. The player can regain health by remaining still and crouching. There aren’t really enemies trying to kill you in Shadow of the Colossus, but I think it’s still applicable.

What it all comes down to is making each encounter with an enemy a battle that really challenges players, but is still fun. With a combat system that utilizes a variety of attacks and defenses by both the player and the computer, each battle will be unique and challenging. By giving players the ability to enter each encounter with their full health, the frustration of entering combat with almost no health is eliminated, making the game more enjoyable. 

There are many more aspects of fighting games that other genres can benefit from, but I think these two are some of the most important, and will improve games more than the others. 

Do you agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment, or contact me in whichever way is easiest for you. 

Can’t Get Enough DQIX

I’ve been playing lots of Dragon Quest IX lately. I bought it a while ago, but never really got into it until recently. It’s the first game in a long time that I’ve been able to really immerse myself in for hours at a time. Whether I’m collecting materials to alchemize items, progressing through the main story (I’m still not done at 60 hours in), or collecting maps and exploring grottos, I always enjoy the time I spend playing DQIX. 

I really feel like I’ve hardly even scratched the surface of this game. I accidentally skipped the Alltrades Abbey Fygg mission, so I only recently opened up the ability to change jobs. I changed from a Minstrel with a fan proficiency to a Thief with a knife proficiency. I’m excited to try out the other classes, as well as max out the ones I’ve started. 

I also only recently explored my first Grotto, the boss of which apparently drops a new treasure map every time it’s defeated, so I’ve gone through that dungeon a handful of times to collect some maps. I’m currently making my way through a level 3 grotto, and I’m excited to see what’s at the end of it. 

Dragon Quest IX really has a ton of depth to it, and I feel like I will never be able to finish it. The nice thing is, I don’t see myself getting tired of the game either. Most games that I spend so much time with, I end up getting burnt out on, but DQIX has so much to do, that I can constantly jump around between tasks and never get bored.

Dragon Quest IX might take the role of my favorite DS game ever, a title I’ve usually devoted to the magnificent puzzle game Meteos. That’s a big achievement.

Uncharted 3: 3 Team Deathmatch FTW

So, the Uncharted 3 Beta worked today. I played a handful of different competitive match types, most of which I enjoyed. My favorite of the available modes is definitely 3 Team Deathmatch.

3 Team Deathmatch is a 2v2v2 deathmatch, which, unlike anything I’ve played before, practically forces players to work together. With only two players per team, it’s easy to stick together and cooperate. And the buddy system works spectacularly for this mode, because you don’t have to travel across the map alone after you respawn. Instead, just spawn on your buddy, and you’re back in action with your partner. 

It’s almost impossible to play this mode without cooperating with your partner. If you and your buddy get separated, you’ll most likely end up in a two on one shootout with another team, so sticking together is a must. Even when playing with total strangers, I rarely was separated from my partner, and I rarely encountered an enemy whose teammate was nowhere near him.

I’m thinking 3 Team Deathmatch will be my mode of choice for most of this beta.

They call it beta for a reason.

I tried out the Uncharted 3 beta after it finished downloading. The first thing I did was customize (with what little choices I had) my hero and villain characters, as well as create an emblem. My emblem turned out pretty cool, I think.

After checking out the customization options (and seeing I didn’t really have any options to choose from), I went to matchmaking. Well, I intended to access matchmaking, but my PS3 froze.

Reboot.

I checked to see if my customizations had saved, which they had. I moved to matchmaking again, this time without any freezes. I was excited to try out the new levels, so I decided to play team deathmatch, because that was what I typically played in Uncharted 2. Matchmaking apparently had a problem, because I couldn’t find any other players. A quick search on Twitter (you can follow me @schmete!) revealed that I wasn’t the only one experiencing the matchmaking problem. I checked out the loadout customization and messed with my audio settings to work better with my mic while letting the game try and find some players.

After a few (probably five) minutes of waiting, I figured I’d shut down and try again later. I was a little disappointed, but not surprised. These problems are the reason betas exist, so I can’t complain.

I would have given the beta another shot tonight, but I had a date with the lady (laser tag!), so I’ve been with her. Hopefully most of the larger bugs will be gone by tomorrow, when I get back to the beta. I know the matchmaking has been fixed, so at least I know I’ll actually be able to play.

I’m excited to see how this beta pans out. I’ll probably pick up a retail copy of Uncharted 3 if I really enjoy the multiplayer. Probably.

Uncharted 3 Beta is tomorrow.

I’m actually moderately excited to play. I started playing Uncharted 2 multiplayer a couple months ago for the first time, despite having no interest in shooters (I’m not good at them!). I received Uncharted 2 as a part of my PS3 Slim’s bundle, but never invested more than fifteen minutes into the game.

Fast-forward six months and I started watching some competitive Call of Duty matches on YouTube, which were surprisingly interesting. Watching those videos made me want to play an shooter online for the first time in around 4 years (the last one I played was COD:3). The only online shooters I owned were Uncharted 2 and Medal of Honor, both of which came packaged with my PS3 and were mostly untouched (MoH was actually still shrink wrapped).

I knew Uncharted’s online had a good reputation, so I decided to give it a shot. Conscious of my inability to play shooters well, I went into my first match with no expectation of killing anybody. I was my team’s top scorer. After a couple matches, I was somehow managing to score more kills than high level players I was being teamed up with and against (I later came to the conclusion that those players must have been incredibly bad, but had been playing for quite a while (although I really wasn’t that bad at the game)).

I played Uncharted 2 multiplayer for the next few weeks, managing to level up to somewhere in the mid-twenties. I surprisingly enjoyed the experience, but have since put it away to play other games (like inFAMOUS 2 and Dragon Quest IX).

I never got the chance to play Uncharted 2 with any friends, because they had all had their fill of the game back when it launched, so I’m looking forward to playing the Uncharted 3 beta with a few friends. Hopefully I don’t suck at shooters again!

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