When it comes to Street Fighter, my play style is one of blatant button mashing. Or specifically, it’s that of panicked attacks, of hoping to at least to achieve some modicum of the upper hand against other fighters behind the electric glow of arcade machines. These days of Street Fighting were spent during my teens, my fistful of dwindling quarters quickly wasted at the smoky, dark🌞ened atmosphere of the local arcade. Despite my love for fighting games I have, admittedly, never been great at Street Fighter, and in the years since I’ve contented to stay on the sidelines, watching better players duke it out on arcade screens and across international tournaments such as Evo and the Street Fighter League.
The trouble with fighting games like Street Fighter, however, is t❀heir sky-high bar to entry. Imagine playing an RPG where its central quests are locked behind the ability to pull ꧑off an incredible stunt—one that’s reliant on your reflexes, your knowledge of human physiology, and your capacity to react to tense situations within mere seconds. In playing and enjoying Street Fighter, you’ll need to dissect concepts like hit boxes and reversals on top of learning the various movesets of your chosen fighter, and discover the best way to drain your opponents’ health bar to nothingness. That’s also why one of the issues faced by the fighting game community is the —and the dearth of fully-fleshed out single-player campaigns in games like Street Fighter 5 and Tekken 7 at launch only seem to exacerbate this trend.
At the same time, fighting games are incredibly easy to love, and you can begin by watching the that’s taking place right now. The Street Fighter 5 tournament is a display of pure self-expression and skill, with fighters hailing from all over the world to compete for the championship title. Even though the pandemic may have slightly dampened the dynamics of the fighting games circuit—part of the appeal is seeing the response of a roaring masses that changes, in tandem, with the tension of the game—you can still watch all the happenings taking place on Twitch or YouTube. Watch as fighters trade punches and jabs in electrifying bouts of combat, greeting each other with salvos of fireballs hurled towards one another, cornering one another into positions that would have been too difficult for most to slither away from, all while the tension of each match ratchets so far up that your body inevitably stands up for a closer look. Observe closely as they c💞hain 🍷up successful combos and pull off aerial manoeuvres against one another in rapid succession. Marvel as struggling fighters make a triumphant return in the last few seconds of their matches, uppercutting their foes till they are knocked out from sheer frustration and exhaustion. All these acrobatics are beyond most of our comprehension, but anyone can appreciate the artistry behind an aptly-performed shoryuken, delivered right at the cusp of victory.
Fighting games are, by virtue, created predominantly for the competitive pl🌺ayer, with these games jam packed with tutorials and practice sessions for players to hone their skills. It has even been said Street Fighter can be difficult to enjoy on a superficial level—that the only way to enjoy the game is through grueling rounds of practice against a tཧraining dummy. But it’s almost impossible to avoid the call of the game, after watching such spectacular flourishes by professional fighters. You’ll turn on the game and try to replicate the moves you’ve seen on screen, engaging in a violent tango with other players in hopes of testing your new-found skills. Personally, it’s all I can do while waiting for the grand finals with bated breath.