Fighting Games: In the Muscledome

👊🕹: ➡ 💪🏚

 

INTRODUCTION

EVO Moment #37: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzS96auqau0

THE BASICS

What are fighting games, and how do they work? An introduction to the genre, and the basic rundown of their universal mechanics and concepts.

• Analysis: Why Button Mashing Doesn't Work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R0hbe8HZj0
  • An introduction to the system mechanics to fighting games, in a general sense that should be easy to understand for the average person.
  • (In case this assumption is made) When you get to it-- No one actually calls it “Shen Long.”
• Analysis: Tekken - The Difference Between 2D and 3D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGSkWVXE2mo
  • Self-explanatory: What makes 2D games and 3D games so different from each other?
• What is the FGC? How Hype, Sweat and Tears Saved Gaming’s Oldest Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY176IOvS_c
  • Also self-explanatory: This is a simple introduction that will set up the dive for the other videos.

CULTURE

[Some backstory] Playing with others, an in-depth view of going past “playing online against a bunch of randoms.” What kind of things can you expect at events? What can you find out there?

• FGC: Rise of the Fighting Game Community [FULL MOVIE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkdCdrzj7Ik
  • A light introduction to the fighting game community, focuses on a couple of players, and introduces a few tournaments.
  • The most notable things to understand:
    • What goes through the mind of the community members when it comes to tournaments?
    • What ideas keep getting brought up?
  • Pay special attention to what you see of EVO and the (names of) players.
• The Story of EVO: Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qppcyLgFuK0
  • What is EVO? What is it? How did it start?
  • EVO’s roots, the events before, and lead-up.
• The Story of EVO: Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYZXGtxaU1Y&
  • The recent years, retold.

[The life of …] ...How have some of the current fighting game series survived? How have they influenced the sphere of fighting games as a whole? Which ones were saved, and by what or who? What have people done to sustain the FGC?

• Inside Combo Breaker - Games, Culture, and the Midwest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXoHFeG5Baw
  • Insight into fighting game tournaments
  • This takes you into the eyes of Rick “TheHadou,” the director of Combo Breaker
• Long Live The Night: An Under Night In-Birth Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9GXR5Y4mU
  • Under Night In-Birth, a game in the anime genre that rose to popularity and won in prominence over the others due to pure passion of the players.
• Road To King of Iron Fist - Tekken 7 Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugCiMKCLzk4
  • Tekken, its competitive history, and a focus on the Tekken 7 North American tour early in the game’s life. Features several players and their perspective on the game.
• Locals #2: Fighting Tuesday (Feat. Majin Obama): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcBlb69aM2Y
  • Fighting Tuesdays! These are the locals in Tokyo’s Red Bull Sphere. What does it take to grow and feed a scene?
• Core-A Gaming and Making Good Content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78nRAilQYe4
  • The face behind Core-A Gaming, the man who created the first two Analysis video, and many others (on his Youtube channel).
  • Content-creation and what goes behind making a good piece?
• The Story of Super Smash Bros.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmqbRcmZeMU
  • The tumultuous history of Nintendo’s most popular franchise

STORYLINES

Live either the origin or life of a player throughout fighting game history. What have they done? Who are they?

• The Story of Leffen: The God Slayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m5RnRySsEU
  • Learn about the villain and God Slayer of Smash.
• The Story of Arslan Ash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-fZciAKvho
  • The origin story of Arslan Ash, the nobody from Pakistan who became a Tekken God.
• The Story of Tokido: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY1EDYluZ58
  • (Street Fighter) What makes fighting games so great?
• The Furry Who Beat Everyone: The Story of SonicFox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R77ZNA5n-Ok
  • The greatest Nether Realm Studios and one of the best Dragonball FighterZ players of all time!
  • Voted best eSports player of the year in 2019
  • Read comments

DLC

Some of the hypest matches in fighting game history.

• Combo Breaker 2018 BlazBlue Central Fiction Grand Finals SKD vs Fenritti https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfxr5Vl2UTA
• Dragon Ball FighterZ Evo 2019 Grand Finals (Go1 VS Sonicfox) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm8PT07pdyA
• Daigo VS Poongko @ EVO 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ooeBDyARug
• Mortal Kombat XL: EVO 2016 - Grand Finals - SonicFox VS TekkenMaster! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozly_lhg9sQ
• Knee vs JDCR, TEKKEN 7 @ REV MAJOR 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6yhSH1_RCU
• UMVC3 EVO 2014: Grand Finals - EG Justin Wong vs GG Chris G https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pPKV8lH9qI

Supplementary information: Fighting Games Glossary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_fighting_games