Watching Deadpool play on an escalator's rail... *hypnotized* Er... What? Anyway...
Just picked up King of Fighters XIII a few days ago and surprisingly, it came with the 4 disc soundtrack. Safe to say, KOF has one of the greatest soundtracks. I don't count Super Smash Bros since it's a mishmash of different games with great soundtracks and a couple of its own tracks. The game itself, mostly XIII, drew me in aesthetically. KOF XIII has a really slick art style compared to the bulky Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken. Having only played Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as my "traditional" fighting game, I see the difference in the combat system right away. In UMvC3, you can string normal attacks with normal or special attacks easily. Since I'm learning, I don't really know how to string combos in KOF and unfortunately, can't find a lot of beginner tutorials. I'm thinking this is because KOF isn't that popular compared to other fighters.
From what I found, the series never really had a tier system found in other games, though there are some "high tier" characters, and aside from them, everyone else follows after them. So that's cool when you go or watch tournaments and find various characters instead of these 10 characters that whoop ass. Shen, Kim, Joe, Flame Iori, Robert, and plenty of other characters are considered beginner friendly. Really? That sort of means that I can pick anyone and learn right away except for some characters like Duo Lon who uses different inputs compared to the rest of the cast. Despite using only for one day and joking that I might end up using as a "main", I'm drawn to King's fighting style. Also, it's fun to use Joe Higashi since Nobuyuki Hiyama voices him; the voice actor of Ocarina of Time Link. Shen's kind of hard to use since he has such a limited move-set and while that makes it easy to learn his move-set, it makes Shen hard to master. Worse since the AI does spam projectiles and command throws aka "cheap tactics" against you and since Shen has no projectiles, it's hard to fight when you're starting out. Hey, the AI is actually smart on easy mode unlike other games where they just stand there like idiots. I had a fight on arcade (easy mode) where Kyo spammed his fire grab and I could not get out of the loop, so I died and beat him up as someone else. Also, Billy Kane's voice is annoying, "Nobody can stop me!" in high pitched slightly accented English every time he wins. I don't have him yet and I don't want him on the cast. I don't care how good or cool his fighting style is.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, my first traditional 2D fighter. The game where I learn how to do shoryuken and hadouken inputs although clumsily. I can hold my own offensively without button mashing, but defensively, not so much. I was able to go through half of almost every character's trials on the DualShock 3. Let's just say some of them were based on luck more than skill when I finished them. Man was it painful to do. The reason I picked this up was because Dante, Vergil, Deadpool, and I guess Spidey were in the game. I ended up liking pretty much the whole cast save for Sentinel, Nemesis, Hulk, and Super Skrull. Not a fan of heavy characters and Super Skrull's timing in one of his trials is really tight same with Zero.
Soul Calibur, liked it starting when I played Soul Calibur II. It was just fun to screw around as Link. Then I got 3 and I actually ended being somewhat decent in a fighting game while playing as Siegfried and Mitsurugi. By decent, I mean I could go through easy mode without dying and button-mashing. IV and V came up and I only owned IV. I didn't like where the art direction was going. I mean really? Yun-Seong is 18 years old but his body looks like a 30-some-year-old man on roids. Mitsurugi for whatever reason didn't look as badass as he does in his concept arts. V had him as a veteran fighter on paper, but he ended up looking like an aged, ripped hobo. Fun to play from time to time, but it wasn't something I would be serious in.
Blazblue and Guilty Gear look great, but I never actually played them, so I can't say much. Same with Skullgirls and Persona 4 Arena.
Super Smash Bros. had all of my favorite characters from Nintendo and more. Plus, it introduced me to several series I wasn't aware of at the time: Metroid, F-Zero, Kirby, Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, Game & Watch. Though I like Link, he wasn't that great in any of the games I think. I used Snake in Brawl a lot since it was during that time when I was really into Metal Gear; stopped after it became a bit too easy to use him. Luigi's my old-time favorite since I known him from Super Mario Bros. I was drawn to Ike for some reason besides not liking Marth - I just don't like him -, against my preference for speedy characters and I ended up being decent until I was out of range for recoveries. Sonic was fun to grab-and-run; just screwing around every match. Yoshi ended "replacing" Ike since I last picked up the game. Kind of weird since I don't play as Yoshi a lot. Captain Falcon, need I say anything? Except that he was gimped in Brawl, but he will forever remain as the Captain Falcon we all know and love. I never took the series that seriously, it was the type of game to relax, let loose, and have fun. In fact, most games are designed like that, but people end up forgetting. Why do you think I charge at tanks in Battlefield 3 while shooting it with a pistol? Funny enough, I think that actually helped my team when the tank guys were focused and shocked at a pistol-wielding madman.
By Ninja Gaiden, I technically played Dead or Alive, which I don't have much interest in. Ninja Gaiden's combat system I believe was based on Dead or Alive's. Correct me if I'm wrong. In a way, Devil May Cry's (and Dragon's Dogma's, Monster Hunter's, and presumably Soul Sacrifice's) combat system was influenced by Street Fighter's. Maybe not the inputs, but the feel of it.
Street Fighter was okay I guess from playing 3rd Strike's demo and IV on my cousin's Xbox 360. I was never drawn to the series, so I can't say much about it. But this is funny:
Tiger Uppercut.
