Welcome back to part 2 of a mini-series of combo systems posts within In Third Person’s Universal Fighting Game Guide. Part 1 dealt with the elements that make up a combo system in most fighting games, which you can find here. This post will take those fundamental elements and try to outline a process you can use to help you establish a knowledge and execution foundation to build your combo abilities on.
Last year, I dipped my toe into the competitive gaming waters by participating in Fan Expo 2010’s Super Street Fighter IV tournament. While I was bummed out that Fan Expo didn’t run any fighting game tournaments this year, I am attending something that will most likely be way cooler.
To even the most diehard Nintendo fans, the name Fire Emblem means nothing to them outside of Marth, Roy and Ike, who all appeared in various versions of Super Smash Bros. They may not be household names like Mario or Link, but little do they know that those three guys come from one of Nintendo’s oldest and longest-running franchises, which dates back to 1990. Most people also don’t know that the Fire Emblem series of games are awesome. I don’t think I could do my love for this franchise justice in a blog post, but I’m going to try anyway.
During a time when the Wii was getting ragged on hard by the community for its inability to process graphics to the level of the XBOX 360 or PlayStation 3, Muramasa: The Demon Blade was one of those Wii-exclusive games the hardcore Wii gamers held up to the haters in response. While its in screen shots and in videos were enough to get me to pick it up on the cheap during a Blockbuster closing sale, I wasn’t ready for how gorgeous it actually looked and ran on my TV. Like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, it uses strong art direction and stylistic graphics to overcome the Wii’s technical limitations to great effect.
Although it may have the looks going for it, games can’t survive on pretty looks alone. Having played a few hours of Muramasa: The Demon Blade so far, I can tell you that there’s a lot more here than just a pretty face.
During my 14-year hiatus from fighting games, I missed out on some of the genre’s biggest franchises. Since I’ve come back to the scene, I’ve caught up on Street Fighter Alpha I and II, as well as Marvel vs. Capcom 2. However, the biggest fighting game I’ve yet to play is Third Strike.
That is, until now. Street Fighter III: Third Strike is available now on PSN, and will be available on XBOX Live tomorrow. I’ll for sure pick it and see what I’ve missed all these years.
Up until now, I’ve been fairly impressed with the games I’ve picked up at many Blockbuster closing-down sales. Split/Second, Vanquish and Enslaved have all been quality products that I enjoyed greatly. I was hoping that I’d find another surprisingly fun experience Metro 2033. Would this game win me over like the other ones did?
If you’ve ever had any sort of interest in fighting games, you’ve probably stumbled across a combo video or two. They’re very cool to watch, and you may have even taken it upon yourself to be as good as the person in the video by going to a guide and learning how to read an execute something like this from BlazBlue:
214D -> B (FC), 623D, dash, 3C xx 236236B, 214D -> C, 5C 2C 4D -> D, [j.C x n] [dj.C x n] xx j.214B – 50% Heat
While you may be tempted to learn the big fancy combos the moment you start playing a new fighting game, it’s not the best way to level yourself up. Mastering the physical execution of big combos is nice, but learning the big combos without knowing the context behind them first is like trying to run without learning how to walk. This is post 1 in a two-part mini-series about understanding combo systems. Part 1 will deal with the elements that make up most combo systems, while part 2 will discuss how to put context to those elements to shape your offensive capabilities. Let’s get moving with part 1!
Long before I ever watched an episode of the Japanese anime Bleach, I owned an import copy of Bleach DS. During the apex of my Nintendo DS love, I was importing almost many hot Japanese games that likely would never see the light of day here. Of that set were two notable fighting games: Jump Super Stars and Bleach DS . I imported both. While Jump Super Stars had more hype surrounding it, I had a really hard time getting into its Smash Bros-inspired gameplay. Bleach DS on the other hand was much more up my alley. Bleach DS was a hardcore 2D fighting game that played in line with many of the modern fighting games at the time. Bleach DS came out in North America as Bleach: The Blade of Fate almost two years after the original Japanese release.
As awesome as the original was, Bleach DS 2nd (or Bleach: Dark Souls in North America) was even better. In my opinion, it will forever stand as the gold standard for 2D fighting games on the Nintendo DS.
Hot off the heels (cold off the heels?) of Shadows of the Damned, Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture are back with Lollipop Chainsaw. Having never played a Suda 51 game, I can’t comment on the quality of his works, but his portfolio of work has no shortage of weird games. I guess then it should be no surprise that his latest game would be about a cheerleader who also massacres zombies with a chainsaw for some reason.
If you’re interested in seeing the announcement trailer for Lollipop Chainsaw, check out the rest of this post!
Vanquish has the dubious distinction of being Gamespot’s 2010 Best Game No One Played. Back when it was released, I paid no mind to it, as I had no interest in a Japanese interpretation of Gears of War and Halo. However, despite my initial disinterest in the game, the general buzz about the game was that it was pretty good. With that in mind, I kept it on my list of games to pick up on the cheap. I was able to do just that a few weeks ago during the big Blockbuster closeout event in my country. Do I recommend you follow suit?
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