Bringing Justice To Fighters

I'm a pretty big fan of fighting games and I think the reason for this is rooted in my childhood. You see, I grew up with a lot of cousins who all happened to play video games; and because we were so many, instead of playing another type of game, we'd play fighting games and have the loser give up the controller allowing everyone to get involved. Of course I was the youngest and always sucked at them, so I didn't win too often and had to pass the controller all the time. I'm also a very competitive person see; there is no better feeling than to pound a worthy adversary into the ground.

Broadway Brawl

I recently picked up Injustice: Gods Among Us and I'm pleased that it has the same sort of production value as the most recently released Mortal Kombat game. I love what developer NetherRealm did with the story. Not necessarily what the story is about per se, but how it was presented—it's sort of like watching a movie.

In pretty much every single fighting game, the "story mode" is just a glorified arcade mode: you pick a character and then go through a number of seemingly random fights till the end, rinse and repeat. In the last few NetherRealm games, there is one story that encompasses most, if not all, the characters. Each chapter has you fighting with a different character, and control gets passed around like a relay race—have a few fights, get passed off to the next fighter in the narrative—and it works very well.

Personally I think every fighter should incorporate this type of story mode. You can articulate a coherent story this way and it is genuinely entertaining to not only watch but play. Keep arcade mode what it is, but add some value to the game with a great story mode.

Trials and Challenges

Too many fighters missing

The only trend I'm not sure what to think about is if I enjoy having all the characters unlocked at the get go or not. I guess it sort of boils down to how you start playing the game. If you invite a bunch of friends over for this sick new fighting game that has like 50 characters, then pop it in and there are only 12 unlocked...well you feel like ass and immediately start looking for cheats online to unlock everyone. On the flip side, if you just bought a fighting game on your own...*cough* Injustice...and want a menial task to do, that actually works towards and achieves something, then you get home and all the characters are unlocked already...well you also feel a little gypped; what am I suppose to do now? They add all this extra content outside of the story (challenge modes and whatnot), but give no real reason to play through these modes other than the fact that they exist. The only real incentive is if you want Trophies/Achievements...I personally would rather unlock characters.

By far my favourite fighting game is Guilty Gear. The series is just amazing: it's incredibly fast-paced, the music is awesome, and the characters are all original. In my opinion, developer Arc System Works also does unlocking characters right. When the player first starts a new game, they start off with 80-90% of the characters. In this way, it's the best of both worlds: you start off with a really good selection of fighters, and you have something to work towards by unlocking the last few.

The next installment in the series is Guilty Gear Xrd, it's actually already released in Japan in the Arcades (those still exist?), and will be released later this year on PS3 and PS4—I for one cannot wait. It's been a pretty long time since I've played a new Guilty Gear game, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the developers have come up with this time.

Final Thoughts

If someone could marry the experience of a NetherRealm's, story driven, fighting game with the sheer brilliance and originality in an Arc System Work's fighting game, I would be in heaven. Being able to unlock a few characters leaves me with something to look forward to after finishing an awesome cinematic experience that would be the story. One can dream.