Man the fighting game scene is falling apart.

[Blueskunky Blueskunky]

Street Fighter needs no explanation, Tekken is apparently impossible to fix, Guilty Gears fandom is getting even worse every day, Fatal Fury is using AI to make trailers.
And it's all so sudden, it's almost like... They're...


Where's Mortal Combat?

(I have a gut feeling no one is going to get this reference)

 

[Aldia Aldia]

Mortal Kombat 1's flaw seems to lie at the storytelling, I heard the gameplay itself was pretty solid.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

And BlazBlue seems to be too concerned with its crossover (which is great) to actually improve or innovate.

 

[Netra]

Fighting games were always a niche genre and relatively cheap to create. Now for the last couple of generations, they've been entering the standardized world of AAA titles, spending brutal amounts of money on design while they still have the same players numbers.

If they don't focus on improving the technology for online play instead of spending millions on celebrity cameos, crossovers with other franchises, and using generative AI to save money on one or two artists they will just end losing they players.

 

[NeonKnights]

As someone who played MK1-2 on the Genesis/SNES and in arcades when they were released I can say these games have not aged well in terms of playability to me. Now there may be some die hard MK players who never stopped playing these games and still think they play great, and more power to them. I was there when the first two MK games released and I remember the hype, however to me after playing Street Fighter I can never go back to early MK as anything other than a passing novelty. Mortal Kombat with a C is wild.

 

[contrail_]

I don't mind fighting game communities getting weeded out a little. At this point everyone is just tryharding and uses the same combos, playstyle, top-rated characters, etc. I'd rather play against someone who had to come up with a unique, yet flawed playstyle of his own, then slowly perfected it, than against someone who's 'done his homework' and adheres to a template.
And while we're on the subject, some new franchises would be nice too...

Where's Mortal Combat?
View attachment 172761
(I have a gut feeling no one is going to get this reference)

You mean"...Where's Kinger?"

 

[Deleted member 14682]

Street Fighter needs no explanation, Tekken is apparently impossible to fix, Guilty Gears fandom is getting even worse every day, Fatal Fury is using AI to make trailers.
And it's all so sudden, it's almost like... They're...


Where's Mortal Combat?
View attachment 172761
(I have a gut feeling no one is going to get this reference)

Post automatically merged: Apr 10, 2026

I heard the gameplay itself was pretty solid.

Compared to X, no it's significantly worse.

 

[polter99]

For every bad thing that happen, good thing happen to the other.
For every shit fighting games get, there will always be a good shit on the side.

Just check out BattleQueen developed by ix9, and has everything for everyone. It has yuri, it has ohoho ojou-sama-type girl, it has easy control, it's very light to your PC, and it has yuri too.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

No Virtua Fighter mention???

(oh that's right because you asked about ones falling apart, my bad)

 

[BrawlMan]

Street Fighter 6 is doing great, Alex's story mode aside. There will always be ups and downs, but it's not apocalyptic scenario the hardcore FGC likes to pretend it is. Seriously though, a big surge players came back in again, because of Alex coming out a few weeks ago.

As for MK1....it sold 8 million copies. I would not call that a failure.

Guilty Gear Strive is still doing great, and is getting that 2.00 update.

We got a new Avatar: Last Airbender fighting game releasing in the summer. The scene ain't falling apart, and we got Invincible Versus coming out soon. People are playing the beta right now. Granblue Fantasy VS has been getting new updates and characters for nearly a decade now. Where the hell have some or any of you have been? I know Tekken 8 got fucked recently by the devs, but it is not doom for the entire genre, nor every other fighting game out there, because of one developer's total mess up.

Street Fighter 6 revealed to have sold over 6.36 million units as of December 31, 2025

 

[Badseed Badseed]

Look this is simple when you really think about it, the year of Critical Mass for fighting games
was 1992. SF2 was the undisputed king and going into its second reign, then an upstart called Mortal Kombat comes along and pulls the rug right outta under SF2's legs. You don't more epic than that. So I argue the PvP tournament fighters has been on the decline since then. Run numbers do whatever, and I mean this In the nicest way possible: PROVE ME WRONG

Post automatically merged: Apr 10, 2026

And dont give me no crap about sales. E.T. 2600 sold over 2.6 million copies

 

[prnzoDraGoonZweiOrta]

more negativity-by-default scapegoating... let's magnify grasping-for-straws in a who's-with-meh? cynicfest n ignore the avalanche of shit goin right cuz takin shit for granted is how the world troLLroLLs

my bad, I guess this counter-complaint applies to a lot more than just my 35-yr K.O.-mance with my beloved niche that goes back even further if you count proto-shit like Street Fighter 1, Karate Champ, Yie ar Kung Fu, Urban Champion...

glasses half-empty are just waitin to be shattered n shat on

if this sounds vindictive or just musing about shit in general, my apologies. haven't posted for several months n haven't acclimated to its tropes again quite yet (but I never do anywey xD )

 

[Badseed Badseed]

more negativity-by-default scapegoating... let's magnify grasping-for-straws in a who's-with-meh? cynicfest n ignore the avalanche of shit goin right cuz takin shit for granted is how the world troLLroLLs

my bad, I guess this counter-complaint applies to a lot more than just my 35-yr K.O.-mance with my beloved niche that goes back even further if you count proto-shit like Street Fighter 1, Karate Champ, Yie ar Kung Fu, Urban Champion...

glasses half-empty are just waitin to be shattered n shat on

if this sounds vindictive or just musing about shit in general, my apologies. haven't posted for several months n haven't acclimated to its tropes again quite yet (but I never do anywey xD )

Dude you are a duchenozzle just only for your font. I didn't even bother to read any.

 

[NOTthatHARD]

Meh, it could be worse. Also we still have some good fighting games to play so don't worry.

 

[prnzoDraGoonZweiOrta]

Dude you are a duchenozzle just only for your font. I didn't even bother to read any.

I had a feeling that was gonna be an issue (I keep my screen zoom'd in unless playin a game or other shit where zoom is impractical)

n I'm a douchetooL bro get it right ^_^

let's see if this font is more legible...

 

[Badseed Badseed]

This thread is a moot point, fighters are going nowhere. The could put out total bs if they wanted and will still make millions from name recognition alone.

Post automatically merged: Apr 10, 2026

I had a feeling that was gonna be an issue (I keep my screen zoom'd in unless playin a game or other shit where zoom is impractical)

n I'm a douchetooL bro get it right ^_^

let's see if this font is more legible...

Font is much improved thank you. But what the hell is a Douchetool?

 

[prnzoDraGoonZweiOrta]

This thread is a moot point, fighters are going nowhere. The could put out total bs if they wanted and will still make millions from name recognition alone.

Post automatically merged: Apr 10, 2026

Font is much improved thank you. But what the hell is a Douchetool?

I don't think all the high-profile fighting franchises are guilty of that in every regard... yet. but I have little doubt that you could be theoretically right but I guess only time will tell how much lack of accountability the genre (or industry) will clearly devolve into abusing

'douchetool' is just a compound insult word I use as an alternative to the (IMO) archaic 'douchebag'. a lot (read: 99.9x%) of my made-up words since very early years never actually catch on anywhere. n that's mostly by part of the point of the design. I sometimes tone down my shameless nonconformist shenanigans but I will never abandon fastidious individualism even if it's to detriments the likes of grand-scale alienation. I lose sense of purpose easily so I counter this defect with ambitions/creations. anywey those are the elaborations you never asked for xD

 

[Deleted member 14682]

No Virtua Fighter mention???

(oh that's right because you asked about ones falling apart, my bad)

Virtua Fighter 5's latest content update is amazing. The newest patch for Guilty Gear is pretty impressive, too.

 

[NotReallyHere]

Personally, I kinda miss the janky fighting game glut of the 90s

It felt like everything had a fighting game for a minute. TMNT. Ranma 1/2. The Justice League. Then you had the original IP stuff that was just trying to get its foot in the door - Rise of the Robots, Brutal: Paws of Fury, Clayfighter, and so on. There were so damn many. Seemed like even money that any random game you might rent from a Blockbuster would wind up being a fighting game...

But it was such a fun time. Much less of a competitive scene (unless you played SFII and / or lived in Japan) and most of us playing the games wanted nothing more than just to grab a buddy and start crackin' skulls

 

[RageBurner]

Fighting games have become more streamlined, surely. More mainstream; whether that's good or bad depends on a person's personal optics.

I sort of completely dropped off the genre and was never massively keen. I have a few favorites I go back to for a few rounds on occasion, like SFA3, Garou, Soul Calibur 3, but I certainly don't care to keep up with what's current.

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

So, do i have to fight any of you to revive the scene in a good way?

Expectation:

Reality:

 

[Rocket2049]

i wad playing the MK legacy collection and man... i liked them back then on SNES and PS1 but they are SO TRASH, input reading AI on every game, games are hard as shit even on easiest modes, boss fights that are just absolutely unfair.
UMK3 is still a great time, but only because you just as easily can be cheap as hell spamming until you win, before the AI does
i always had more fun against human players of course

but anyways lately the only fighting games i enjoy are Melty blood actress again, (not type-lumnia which much too boring and "balanced" heavily and missing more than half the playable cast of Actress)
street fighter i still always just play Alpha 3 OR capcom vs snk 2

 

[Ephemera1_]

Street Fighter needs no explanation, Tekken is apparently impossible to fix, Guilty Gears fandom is getting even worse every day, Fatal Fury is using AI to make trailers.
And it's all so sudden, it's almost like... They're...


Where's Mortal Combat?
View attachment 172761
(I have a gut feeling no one is going to get this reference)

Street Fighter 6 is selling well and has an overall positive reception across the board.
Tekken is fixable but the entire situation between the fans and devs is... weird.

In short its a situation of the devs only half listening to its fanbase, fixing some issues while causing more. A very frustrating spot to be in. Many fans believe the game CAN be fixed, and is worth fixing, but don't have hope because Bamco is just doing....whatever the hell their doing.

Guilty Gear strive is the highest selling game in its franchises history(its pretty good honestly, if anyone hasnt checked it out you should) but yeah, the fanbase is annoying. But what fighting game fanbase isnt? That has no bearing on the gameplay.

Kombat* MK1 also sold pretty well but yeah it wasnt great, hopefully the next game fixes the flaws of MK1.

As a fighting game fan theres a couple of games to look forward to, Marvel Tokon looks interesting to some, so does Invincible VS. The Avatar the last airbender fighter is getting some buzz and genuinly looks like they put some time into it.

The problem with modern day fighting games(for me atleast) is the games becoming much more aggressive or atleast the FEEL more aggressive( Melty Blood type lumina and KOFXV are the only games i can think of currently that have great defensive mechanics, you guys should play them when you get the chance!) however the reason i may feel that was has already been talked about in a great video by FG commentator: Sajam

Mortal Kombat 1's flaw seems to lie at the storytelling, I heard the gameplay itself was pretty solid.

X is the peak of the modern MK games gameplay wise, with MK11 things got slower, more defensive, MK (NRS games in general honestly) has always been a series with a pretty low skill floor (but with a decent skill ceiling) only this time things were maybe a bit TOO simple. It was a very repetitive game once you got to higher levels of play. I was in the minority of liking that game, and i still am unfortunately. I didnt play enough of MK1 to speak on it so i won't but i will mention that the roster also kind of sucked. Atleast in my opinion. I thought the DLC character choices were ass.

lately the only fighting games i enjoy are Melty blood actress again, (not type-lumnia which much too boring and "balanced" heavily and missing more than half the playable cast of Actress)

Laughing so hard because in the middle of typing my reply to this thread i mentioned type lumina and recommended people to play it only to see what new message was sent before mine and its this, perfect timing LMAO

 

[χKai]

Never been a fighting game scene
They made damn sure of that by gatekeeping the fuck out of it since literal day 1 and making sure to keep it a closed-off community so nobody could join without already being close buddy-buddy with all the assholes lucky enough to participate or rich enough to run it.

 

[RageBurner]

Never been a fighting game scene
They made damn sure of that by gatekeeping the fuck out of it since literal day 1 and making sure to keep it a closed-off community so nobody could join without already being close buddy-buddy with all the assholes lucky enough to participate or rich enough to run it.

That's the long and short of it in a lot of cases. The gatekeeping is indeed insane, often enough.