Re: Fighting Games Died When Anime Based Games Were Born

Ok, this is the first review of a review I've done so bear with me.

While checking my email, I get a Google Alert about someone who recently wrote about how fighting games died when anime games were born . But recently games have been showing up on Youtube and Gametrailers showing some nice scenes of the next Soulcalibur, Tekken, and Super Smash series. They look amazing. I have faith that they will be amazing. But time will tell.

And as for spawning "anime" games, Soulcalibur and Tekken have their own fan drawn anime out there. So would the Soulcalibur and Tekken series now be called an anime game or a fighting game? Soulcalibur was broken when someone pulled off a Yoshimitsu death combo that programmers didn't fix for arcades and now can't be used in competitions (or so I'm told).

Now I'm not sure if Dead or Alive was a fighting game or an anime game. If it was considered a fighting game, I use that as a counterpoint to this article. DoA was nothing but a joke to me when it was released for the Xbox360. The first time I played it, I fought players (not AI) who had already beaten the game several times through. A few good timed hits and chain combos and victory was in my hands, 7 times in a row. To top it off, DoA is one of the only fighting games I know that spawned, not one, but two volleyball games where the only difference was the number represented the number of engines used to program the breast physics.

Give me a break.

However, looking on the anime side doesn't really support my argument. The high flying and flashy franchise has many people buying the games from anime, even if they are horribly designed. I have yet to even see a good Inuyasha game and the Dragonball series has reached another level with Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3. That's not even mentioning the side games: DBZ Sagas and DBZ games made for the Gameboy Advanced. Bleach and Naruto can be redeemed to a point, but you need knowledge in the Japanese language and a JPN Playstation (or mod chip) to play them. Plus the gameplay isn't style the classic 2D style that the "old" gamers like. It is innovative and allows for 4 players on the screen with a 3D environment.

To put things to rest, if you want a real fighter game while not losing touch with your anime roots, just get MUGEN. It has <insert your favorite character here>. And I'm not kidding with that tag. You will be able to play with that character in this game. The only bad thing is you have to have a lot of patience in getting characters and backgrounds imported into MUGEN. Have a huge roster of fighting characters go up against a huge roster of anime characters. Problem solved.