Why you should play fighting games

If you’ve never played a fighting game before, you have no idea what you’re missing out on. Fighting games allow players to test their skill, strategy, knowledge, and play styles in a fast-paced environment not unlike real life professional fighting.

Fighting Games are Not as Hard as You Think

One of the biggest fears keeping people from playing fighting games is the perceived barrier to entry. Long combos, difficult setups, and flashy special attacks all look difficult, but, at a fundamental level, everything you watch high level players do is built upon basics that anyone can learn in under thirty minutes.

Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Learning the basics might not take long, but just because you learned how to throw a punch doesn’t mean you can go toe to toe with Floyd Mayweather.

Fighting games teach you how to handle conflict

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” - Mike Tyson

There is no avoiding conflict in your life. Sometimes, conflict might be someone actually trying to punch you in the mouth, but more often conflict will arise as unexpected bills, natural disaster, your car breaking down, medical emergencies, and so on. Everyone will need to learn how to deal with a bit of conflict in their lives, and fighting games can teach you the right mentality to take.

At the end of the day, a fighting game is between two people trying to outthink and overpower one another until one wins and one loses. Nobody can avoid losing, and that’s kind of the point. What kind of player are you? Are you the kind to back down and quit after a couple losses, or are you the kind who learns from their losses?

Fighting Games Reward Dedication

Don’t let losing scare you off, fighting games will reward your commitment to the genre. The time you spend and skills you learn stay with you across games and throughout life. This can come in the form of muscle memory, dexterity, or, my personal favorite, decision-making. Being games which test rapid decision-making and the ability to execute those decisions makes you very aware of what your personal limitations are, how you can expand them, how much time you have to make a decision, and how well you can execute that decision.

When you reach a certain point, you’ll find yourself put into a frame of mind where you can focus with clarity against an opponent who challenges you, and the payoff is ecstatic.

There are loads of options

Learning a fighting game is like learning an instrument. You pick a game/instrument you like and you figure out how to execute/play notes. Can take hours, days, weeks, etc but you will understand that learning this skill is what keeps you motivated to challenge yourself.

— Alex Valle ➡️⬇️↘️+🏡 (@TheAlexValle) July 24, 2019

In the modern fighting game community, there are more than a dozen major fighters to choose from in addition to many smaller, niche fighters. If none of those appeal to you, there are hundreds of older fighters to sink your teeth into. No matter who you are, no matter how you want to play, no matter what aesthetic appeals to you, there is a fighting game out there that you can play.

In general, the more modern a fighting game is, the more inviting it is to new players, so if you’re looking for a place to start I’d recommend Street Fighter V or the more niche Granblue Fantasy: Versus for 2D fighters, and Tekken 7 or the simpler Soul Calibur 6 for 3D fighters.

If you prefer something that wears its complexity more openly, Dragonball FighterZ or the interestingly named UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[cl-r] (don’t ask) might be more for you. And if you prefer something that can blend between complex and simple, and can be played with friends easily, definitely don’t forget the Super Smash Bros. series.