Fighting Games are currently enjoying a surge of popularity not seen since the early 90s perhaps. Recent entries in established franchises such as Street Fighter and Tekken have released to widespread critical acclaim, and shown very strong sales. Lesser known franchises such as guilty gear have shown franchise high sales as well.

There seems to be a new fighter popping up pretty often. Fatal Fury is set to return after 26 years, 2KXO a fighter based on League Of Legends is also on the horizon. Although not confirmed by any means, there’s even speculation of another entry in the Marvel vs Capcom series after the surprise announcement of the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection, a franchise many hardcore FG fans thought would never return. There’s even more speculation for Capcom vs SNK 3 as both Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui are set to be playable in Street Fighter 6, as well as the announcement of the Capcom fighting collection 2 which features both Capcom vs SNK 1 and 2.

Despite this however, as a competitive fighting game player I still hear that many people find fighting games daunting and intimidating to play. This stance is certainly understandable. Fighting games can be very fast paced, require strong reactions and historically have been known to have some complicated inputs for those that aren’t used to them. Compared to other genres such as shooters they’re also harder to learn. Some also may not wish to deal with the competitive environment due to more… colorful individuals.

Many modern fighting games have tried to address these concerns however and as a result, some people that couldn’t enjoy fighting games before are enjoying them now. I’ll go over some ways developers have tried to help more people enjoy a fighter.

Addressing the more complex inputs.

As a way to help some people feel less intimidated by the more complicated inputs, many fighting games have added alternative control schemes. Street Fighter 6 gives you the option to use a classic control scheme or a modern control scheme which forgoes the complex inputs in favor of just pressing a button and a direction to perform a move.

The recent Granblue fantasy fighting games also offer something similar, although both control schemes are meshed together rather than being chosen.

While there are some downsides to using either of these ( you lose access to certain buttons in Street Fighter and the simple moves in granblue do less damage while also being on a small timer), I’ve seen multiple stories of people being able to enjoy the games as a result of something like an alternate control scheme. Whether that’s due to being easier to learn or something else such as a disability.

Other games have simply made inputs either fully unnecessary or forgone them altogether. Recent examples of this are DNF duel as well as the upcoming 2KXO.

Keep in mind using these tools won’t put you in the same vein as a more experienced player. If the inputs were an issue however, perhaps this would give you more confidence to try.

Offering more to do than fighting other players or the CPU.

Naturally, fighting games will be more enjoyable if you have people to play with. I remember plenty of family coming over and we’d all just play games like Capcom vs SNK 2 for hours on end. If you don’t have people to play with locally however, your options are either playing against the CPU or jumping online. Playing against the CPU can run its course fairly quickly for most and some may not want to jump online as they might feel intimidated running into more experienced players.

Thankfully nowadays many fighters do offer more options for single player experiences. Mortal Kombat has led the charge for this as it’s been known to have strong story modes since the 2011 game. Mortal Kombat 1 also introduced an invasion mode which features a board game mixed with fighting and RPG mechanics.

More recently, Street Fighter 6 introduced world tour mode, which is a single player experience where you take a custom character and play through a semi open world brawler. Street Fighter 6 also has a battle hub system where they offer a virtual arcade where you can go in and play older Mega Man titles among others.

You can also meet up and play against other people’s avatars in fights that are meant for pure fun and chaos as opposed to a competitive setting. I don’t do avatar battles myself, but I frequent the battle hubs often and always see plenty of people doing avatar battles in the middle.

2KXO is also trying something a bit different in that it allows you to learn the game together with a friend with its Duos mode where each of you control one character while being on the same team. So it can help if you have a more experienced player helping you learn along the way.

The games have gotten better in teaching people how to play.

Although the game had its issues early on, one thing Street Fighter V was consistently praised for was its strong tutorial and training mode. The game teaches you the basics as soon as you first start the game it actively helps you learn the game through options with its training mode. Other games that were praised for this were the 2013 killer instinct reboot which featured a detailed tutorial known as the dojo. Another added bonus is that many of these games also tell you how difficult a character is from jump now. If you’re not experienced with fighters it can be good to know which characters are the easier to pick up.

Every modern fighter features a pretty good tutorial now and Capcom continues the trend with the options in Street Fighter fighter 6’s training mode as it teaches you things such as how to properly anti air as well as when it’s your turn to attack after defending, which is something plenty of newcomers struggle with.

In conclusion

With everything being done now, it’s probably a better time than any to give a fighting game a shot. With the newer control options, I know people who couldn’t play a fighting game before due to disabilities or other reasons who are enjoying them now and some who are even competing. If you don’t always want to play other people, many games are giving you options and while fighting games will never be easy to master, there’s probably never been more resources to understand the basics than there are now. So you never know. Like so many others have, you may find a new enjoyment picking a fighter up and there are plenty of options both now and upcoming and even some blasts from the past to choose from.