Jason Fanelli Loves Fighting Games, And You Should Too | Winter Spectacular 2024
Street Fighter II made me a gamer.
Back in 1991, when a five-year-old little goober from suburban Philadelphia first saw the Super Nintendo under the Christmas tree, he'd originally been focused on Super Mario and his green dino steed Yoshi. He'd played the original Super Mario Bros. on his parents' NES, multiple times even, but this new adventure was all his.
While I had a ton of fun with Mario's 16-bit adventure, it was another game – one also featuring a big green creature on the cover, ironically – that would truly consume me. Hours upon hours were spent playing arcade mode, slowly progressing further and further before finally taking down that dirty rat M. Bison. More hours still saw me enter versus mode manning both controllers, while imagining back-and-forth dialogue for whatever matchup I'd chosen in that moment.
Fighting games have been a constant part of my gaming "career" ever since. There have been boom periods – long live the late 1990s and early 2000s – and bust periods, but I've always been down to throw down in whatever fighting game I could. I don't always win, in fact, I'd say my win/loss record all-time can best be described as "meh," but I still have fun.
I bring all of this up because fighting games are entering a new golden age, one where the past and the present will all come together in one glorious throwdown and 2024 will, for me at least, be remembered as its genesis.
Fight!
Some will argue that 2023 is the actual beginning of the fighting renaissance, and I can see their point. Street Fighter 6 launched to rave reviews, with Mortal Kombat 1 and Granblue Fantasy Versus finishing the year off strong. 2024 saw Tekken 8 also launch strong, while Fatal Fury: City Of The Wolves provided teases for the future. However, at the time, things were moving as we expected; successful fighting franchises were seeing successful sequels, with one being over 20 years in the making.
That's not to say there weren't surprises, the biggest of which was Street Fighter finally opening up to guest characters by adding Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui via DLC. For the most part, though, the path was familiar and predictable…
…and then the calendar changed to June 18, when Nintendo released a new Nintendo Direct.
Historically, Nintendo Directs aren't rife with information on fighting games that don't have "Super Smash Bros." in the title. The Switch has some fighters, sure, but typically the hardcore fighting game community isn't tuning into a new Nintendo Direct expecting anything substantial. Or, should I say, "wasn't," because BOY did that June Direct take us for a ride.
With one announcement, Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, the "familiar and predictable" path burst into 14,000,605 different variants. A return thought impossible by the majority of the community – even more so after Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite's massive disappointment – was instantaneously dropped into our laps, and fans rejoiced in a cacophony of "IT'S MAHVEL BAYBEE!" not only at the return of a classic fighting series, but also at the new gilded era they found themselves in.
Further confirmation arrived with the very next Nintendo Direct, as it heralded the return of Capcom Vs. SNK, the Rival Schools franchise, and friggin' POWER STONE via Capcom Fighting Collection 2. Fatal Fury has also thrown a haymaker of its own, teasing some sort of partnership in City Of The Wolves with Cristiano Ronaldo of all people, though they still haven't elaborated on what entails.
The Marvel Vs. Capcom Collection has since launched, and it's dynamite. Bringing those classics to a new generation is exactly what that franchise needs to move forward – and the fact that I can write "Marvel Vs. Capcom has a future" – is giving me chills. It truly feels like nothing is off the table:
Marvel Vs. Capcom 4? Sure.
Capcom Vs. SNK 3? Why not?
More crazy guest characters? Heck yeah, Tifa Lockhart in Tekken 8, s'il vous plaît.
The excitement is hard to contain, but it's not a Flawless Victory…there's one thing that needs to be addressed.
Mortally Wounded
What the heck is going on with Mortal Kombat 1?
Rumors abound that the game is done after Conan and T-1000 finish out Kombat Pack 2 following the disappointing performance of the Khaos Reigns expansion. While I'm not surprised by the disappointing sales – I myself was also not enthused by the expansion – I am saddened that MK1's future is being cut off early.
The game's ambition cannot be understated. Completely revamping a story, along with dozens of characters with decades of history, is no small feat. The multiversal ideas presented at the end of the main story, batshite crazy as it was, are intriguing and full of potential. The Kameo system, though a bit clumsy, is a neat idea and a cool way to mix up MK's core gameplay.
That said, since Mortal Kombat 11, there's been a feeling of restraint lying dormant under the surface. That's an odd thing to say about a franchise that will let you morph into a unicorn and scorch your opponent with rainbow fire, but for every creatively killer Fatality, there are other elements that don't feel as complete as the dev team would like them to be – the Kameos being a great example. To me, it speaks of a development team at odds with their corporate masters, and a difference of philosophies that's culminating in two games that haven't quite lived up to their potential.
A prime example of what I'm talking about is MK1's guest characters. As much as I love the idea of guests in fighting games, and I will always welcome a fighting game's creative take on a character established elsewhere, MK1's guest roster might be turning into an albatross around the dev team's neck.
MK1's guests are incredibly faithful to their source material, from how they look and speak to the moves they use, with each one hiding references and Easter eggs intended for their most devoted fans. How much time did that take? How much energy, that could have been used to tweak battle mechanics or something else, went into that authenticity?
I imagine it's a lot. I also wonder if the contracts adding these names were signed before the team at NetherRealm even knew they were on the table. It's a battle of philosophies, and as is so unfortunately common these days, the ones controlling the money control the workload too.
Perhaps I'm off-base, or perhaps my opinion of one David Zaslav is so low I'm assume he's meddling because that's what he does. I don't know what I don't know, and the team could have been involved in those guests since day one. What I do know, however, is that Mortal Kombat is treading water while the rest of the fighting game developers are either building their ships or sailing the high seas. I hate seeing it, and I hope it gets fixed soon; that franchise deserves to be up among the best.
You Win! Perfect!
If you read this far, you win! What do you win? My respect, admiration, adoration, and appreciation. Do with that what you will.
It's a great time to be a fighting game fan. There are a LOT of games to play, and there's certainly one out there for players of any style. Newer fighters – Tekken 8, Guilty Gear Strive, Street Fighter 6, and more – also offer robust tutorial systems that can teach you the ways of the game. Then, when you're ready, hop online and see how you stack up to the competition.
Fair warning though: you're going to lose. A lot. There are people online who have been playing these games their entire lives, and they're going to whoop you. Use those butt-whippings as learning tools; watch the replays, see where you could improve, and go from there.
Fighting games are fun, y'all, and there's a new golden age on the horizon. Time to jump in!
