Are you an '09er...or a '23er? - The Years That Defined Fighting Games 

I never get tired of Max and his infinite wisdom about fighting games to a new generation. I was definitely a 90s kid when fighting games were at the golden age at their Peak, Street Fighter 2, Fatal Fury, Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, etc. Good Times for fighting Games.

I’ve been watching max for like 6 years yet I never really played a fighting game. I’m finally gonna dip my toes in for sf6.

I've been playing fighting games since Street fighter II first hit the arcade back in the early 90s. Does my passion for fighting games not count anymore? I might not have so much love for the new generation of games, but I do appreciate that fighting games have continued to grow and prosper.

I was a kid when sf IV came out. My brother, dad, and I would take turns fighting each other. I get the most nostalgia from that and MvC 3. While not great at those games I still loved playing with them. Now, we collectively loved injustice and injustice 2 and as an adult I compete and usually win against them. I'm a big NRS guy competitively, but capcom games have my heart

I didn't really have a chance to get this out in your twitch chat Max but SF6 will be my first time really diving deep into a fighting game since the 90s of mashing down electric shock as a kid on blanka with my brothers. I've dabbled in Strive but I missed the entry wave of new players to really let me learn as a new player to fighting games so I've never really grasped it. I just wanted to say thanks for making your content so accessible for new FGC members, you're my go-to guy for fighting game content as you're the only content creator who seems like they actively care about new players and takes the time to teach them and answer questions you've likely answered hundreds of times. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on 6 and I hope to be decent at it one day, maybe we'll run into each other if I get good enough. idk if you read your youtube comments as you get a ton of them and are a busy guy but know you're appreciated for what you do.

MK9 definitely got me back into fighting games.

Im a 91'er, but sf4 was the best era imo.

I'm old-school. Been here since 91. Played as many fighting games as we could get our hands on.

11'er, MK9 definitely was my first fighting game I consistently played and got me into other fighters after it

I was playing Street Fighter II and MK in arcades and tournaments in the 90s. This video makes me feel super old lol

I'd say the noteworthy fighters are: Street Fighter 2 (1991) - Arcade scene Soul Calibur and Smash Bros (1999) - The first games where consoles really start to shine Smash Brawl and Street Fighter IV (2008-2009) - I think this is where you see the modern trends take over Street Fighter 6 seems to be in the same space as Soul Calibur 6 at first glance but it'll be bigger so maybe thats a game changer. The conditions are there for SF6 to be really popular. Everyone likes Capcom right now. It'll be on a variety of systems. Its well advertised.

I've always messed around with Fighting Games but I'd definitely identify as an 09'er since Street Fighter 4 was what really got me in the FGC sauce.

I always was more casualish despite knowing all the details of the games at a higher level like frame data and stuff. There were just so many other games; single player and otherwise I wanted to play that took up my time but I always liked playing them. I started all the way back with MK Trilogy on the N64 and other MK's on the Gamecube, but the thing that got my brother and I to really love the genre was SF4. We played all its revisions and also MvC3. You in particular were always an inspiration for me and I always enjoyed watching your videos (and still do).

Tekken 2, Tekken 3, MvC 1, 3rd Strike, KOF 98, StreetFighter Alpha and EX series, SoulCalibur, SS Brawl, DOA, PowerStone, Samurai Showdown etc man there were so many childhood fighters I remember playing that me and my friends played I wonder what that be called? I feel like 98-01 was my favorite time. I feel like it had a certain aspect/aesthetic to it with the presentation and the rush of it and one of the first times gaming was starting to look really good like Tekken 3/SoulCalibur graphics blew me away when I was young and the sound quality was so good to me

I’m a 2000 or a 2001 . I was very young when I got into fighting games. Some of my first games I ever owned were Dead or Alive 3 , Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance , tekken 4 and Bloody roar primal fury.

My first fighting game where I first figured out how to decipher a 236 + Button = cool move was MVC 2 for the PS3 port

Been playing street fighter since Sf2 era, but never really got super into the FGC or even entered tournaments until sf4 and mvc3. Finally having half way decent netcode was a big plus for growing the fighting game genre

Always been an MK player, MK9 pulled me back into the genre. But after playing SF6 for a few weeks now, I'm actually a lot more excited to keep playing SF6 than I am for MK1. SF6 is an awesome game.

I was born in '96 and I played a lot of smash bros brawl and project M with my friends in high school, as well as some Tatsunoko vs Capcom and UMVC3, but only in 2018 I got invested in the FGC with Ultimate and DBFZ. Now I play pretty much whatever fighting game I can get my hands on but mostly GGST.

91'er. Tho 94' for me technically. But I was there in 09' as well. I feel like SFIV doesnt get talked about that much lately. I miss the hype when Street Fighter returned from the dead out of nowhere. It was such an exciting time.

I'm a 93er, but I started with MK and SF2 on the gameboy as my first fighting game experiences. Then played ports at my friends. Then graduated to random arcades scattered across the city. Great time.

Sf2 on gameboy was my fighting game introduction. Tekken 2 was my first real console fighter and Tekken 3 was my first arcade time investment.

This is a great discussion!

Smash Ultimate was just a hype generating beast of a game. Every Direct and every game showcase, every time people speculated which game would be shown, they always speculated if there would be a Smash reveal and who it would be. Everyone was waiting in huge anticipation to see that iconic envelope. While Smash Ultimate and its succes is not something you can repeat, there are definitely lessons to be learned when it comes to marketing and how to sell a fighting game to the people.

As a 36 year old, I've been here since the rise of Street Fighter. I saw 2D come, go and return, saw digitized get beat out by polygons and the battle be taken online as well... so this whole video was a weird trip down memory lane for me, considering all that has happened. Now all that remains is to see where Street Fighter, Tekken and Mortal Kombag can take thibgs this year...

Im a 93,94er SF2 Turbo... Still playing it everyweek!

I'm a fighter game boomer, started playing fighting games around '92-'93 and been playing them since. It's been a hell of a ride throughout the years; that first golden age during the mid-90s was magical, you just had to be there to really experience it. But I'm just as excited about this new modern golden age as I was back in the 90s. There no more arcades, but the overall vibe is still there for a lot of these newer games, especially with SF6 and it's Battle Hub. Only going up from here babeh 😎

I remember in the early 90s I think I was reading a gamefan magazine and seeing the king of fighters being shown and being amazed and so badly wanting to play it. I knew nothing about snk fighters at the time and the mystery made it even better.

I played the OG Street Fighter back in '87, but the era I identify most with was the "Rainbow" era of modded SF2. The Alphas and Versuses were also big for me. And I played a ton of Samurai Showdown, because my local pool hall had a cabinet. When arcades started dying is when I mostly stopped playing. I never got used to controllers for fighters. I'm a joystick boy.

I was a '93 or maybe a '92er (it really was about every year back then, ha) and I remember how cool '09 was after the fighting game innovation drought in the 00's. Suddenly a new SF comes out, looks great and bringing back the SF2 cast...the years after bringing a new 'greatest hits' Mortal Kombat and then...MVC3. I pooled resources with a friend to buy an Xbox 360 just to play that game. Great memories overall.

2:56 Max, I think you may have done the UMK3/Trilogy scene dirty with that question. I wouldn't know, though; I was too young to be involved in that.

I never considered myself a good player in fighting games, but always loved to play them. Super Smash 64, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Soul Edge, Soul Calibur, Tekken 3 and Bloody Roar 2! What a good game bloody roar was. I remember being so impressed with the beast evolutions of the characters. Still hopping for a remake.

I miss the art style of the 2D sprites (09er). I would pause the game and draw the characters as a kid. New gen games function better, but the 3d artstyle feels lifeless to me. But I can play old school samsho2-6, kof95-99 or sf2-3, and feel inspired to this day. It's the art style that eventually led to me learning how to play.

I was playing fighting games casually since Tekken 2 but i wasn't aware or involved with any community stuff until 09 with SF4 and Tekken 6, Cross Counter was such a huge thing and brought so many people into playing online. I don't remember MK having that much influence, when 9 and X came out they were huge and absolutely everyone played them, but i feel like it was mostly for the spectacle, something to have fun with in between playing MVC3 and SF4.

The way you broke it down is great

you will never know the feeling or arcade matches, 98,99,00,01. Marvel vs capcom, mortal kombat, street fighter alpha and 3, tekken 3, tekken tag and soul calibur. even 95,96,97 including killer instinct were better than right now.

I played tekken as a kid but my first serious go at fighting games was MKX and damn was it glorious

I think T7 got a huge rise in popularity when SFV had a bad launch. Also the storylines were really good in terms of players.

I subbed to you because of MVC3. You know my era.

I’m 17 and I’ve been playing fgs since 2018 and I’ve been having a blast since.

I think something Max forgot to mention thats a testament to Tekken 7's slow burn was the story of Pakistani Tekken entering the scene. Tekken for so long had been this game where everyone talked about how the best Tekken players are these people who go to Japan and Korean arcades, sit down, smoke at the cabinets, and just kick ass all day. Then comes along Arslan Ash, winning EVO, putting Pakistan on the map and saying "I'm not even the strongest player in my community." Absolutely turned the scene on its head and expanded the world of the FGC with another nation being put on the map.

Since I was born in 2001 and played FG from the 90's growing up I might say I'm a 23'er cause I only now actually started being interested in FGs

I've been playing fighting games since the release of Street Fighter 2 in the arcades in the early nineties. If you're a long time player, just be sure to welcome the new people, because there was a lot of toxicity to people who joined the community back in 2009 (to the point that people were referred to negatively as 09ers), which was unfortunate to see. Let's all rejoice that we're about to enter a new era of Street Fighter.

I played Street Fighter 4 and MvC3 but the first time I really got invested in a fighting game was Persona 4 Arena, and while not a huge number cause this was pre-Persona 5, I feel like that game got a handful of JRPG people into fighting games, or maybe just ArcSys games

I was a Mega Drive kid initially with Mortal Kombat and maybe a little Street Fighter, I think that PS One era of Tekken 3, Marvel, even Street Fighter EX is where I fell in love with fighting games and it was consistent from there. I think SFIV Vanilla is where I went from button mashing to actually trying, fighting alllll those Kens online with my Balrog or M. Bison

The last few years of that decade defined a whole hell of a lot more than just fighting games. 2007 to 2009 will go down as the best three years in the history of gaming, at least for that narrow Venn Diagram Demographic Slice of "Has Free Time," and "Has Disposable Income." Everything coming out recently is just trying to recapture a fraction of the magic of that handful of years: Back 4 Blood, Dead Space Remake, Saints Row Reboot, Modern Warfare 2 Again, Arkham Game, Bioshock Clone, Team Fortress Clone, Remastering Metroid, Prestige narrative games, Souls Clones...

I might be an 09er, as I dabbled with Street Fighter, but the game that made me an actual Fighting game player was Blazblue Calamity Trigger. So as an european player I had my true awakening (the chaos) in 2010.

I'm the 90s here when it all began. Never stop since

Whenever the smash bros documentary came out is when I started checking out fighting games

I feel like I started showing interest in fighting games back around the year 2000 or so with N64 Killer Instinct/MvC2, but I didn't really fully understand the true ins n outs of fighting games until MvC3. I learned about 50/50 mixups, pressure strings, cross ups, proper punishing moves, etc. It was so satisfying actually being able to watch matches and actually know what was going on. It was kinda like ultra instinct triggered with my mind/eyes. I started to see the game slow down for me and could actually follow what was going on in real time. Thus understanding why people would get so hype at executing multiple 50/50 mixups back to back or pressure strings that would go on forever. I really owe Max a lot for getting me into fighting games because if it wasn't for his easy going personality I think I would've been to intimidated to even try to lab combos/pressure strings for hrs without feeling like giving up. Let alone gather enough confidence to even enter a tournament here or there so for that Max I thank you Dood 💪.

I gotta say, I never was very hardcore in fighting games. My biggest dedications were with super sf 2, sf alpha 3, sf 4 along with ssf2hdr. But my biggest commitment was with db fighterz. I want to do the same or more with sf6. I started competing in martial arts 10 years ago, so I really dont have that much time for games, but I'll tell you right here, there are a lot of concepts that I use in real fighting (and also the other way around). Maybe when my body can't keep up anymore, I'll change back to video games ahah

I started with the OG Street Fighter way back then. When SF2 came out we were all hyped.

I’m a 17’r marvel vs Capcom infinite got me into fighting games.

I am a Mortal Kombat player since MK1 , my best friend is a Street Fighter player since SF2.. He picked up MK11 and eventually got decent enough to give me a challenge, he is heavily looking forward to revenge on SF6.. However I am investing time into SF6 this time around so he is in for a big surprise lol... Mechanics are so different though !.... Killer Instinct was badass on the arcade machine... Who remembers PRIMAL ? HAHA

Uhh... Well, while I did enjoy SF4, I actually first started with the original SF2 on the SNES. My dad even let me rethink this purchase where he was like "are you SURE you want a game where all you do is just punch and kick each other?" Because he was hoping I didn't regret it. And even thinking back on it now, I wonder how I even went through with that as a kid. Fast forward 27 years... and with SF6 set to release all I can say is LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOO

I've always been a casual fan of fighters. But one that got my interest to an all time high was Capcom vs snk, and eventually it's sequel even moreso. After dabbling in the genre during that time I realized I was by and large a kof fan so that's what I stuck with. The last one I got though was 13 and felt like that was the peak. Super psyched for sf6 though. The single player mode is a huge selling point for me and I hope more fighters can do something similar.

My very first fighting game was Mortal Kombat II. Then, I discover Street Fighter II Turbo. And Max, you forgot all SNK games. KOF-94 is a historic mark.

Like Max, I'm old enough to have been bamboozled by the "Street Fighter" NES game featuring Dr. Ken Masters lol

I've been playing fighting games since I was 7 years old in 1997, but Tekken Tag 1, Capcom vs SNK 2 and Smash Melee were the first fighting games I've played competitively

I was born in 1990 and my first fighting game was Virtua Fighter so I was 5 years old kicking @ss

I was there for MK9 day 1 skipped school and all that. That led me UMVC and it was over from there

Where my dragon ball fighterz kids at 🧡. When DBZ died with it's last patch I became a BOXX using captain falcon in Melee. Now I want to try skull girls, but am extremely excited for SF6 after playing the moc training mode in the demo, very intrigued.

I think Tekken 7 hit its stride at the end of the first TWT in late 2017 when Qudans won. Then you had Lil Majin’s Evo run in 2018.

I'm an OG?! I feel so special. Maybe slightly old, too. Thanks, max! 😂

I started playing fighting games in 2007, my first fighting game was marvel vs capcom.

I started straight from SF 2 World Warrior Arcade playing it at Quick Stop.

Im literally w8ing here for all of these games to drop to start learning fighting games. Cause i never had a great time in them, none of my frineds played them and i had noone to teach me. And trying to understand tekken 6 or 7 on your own without any outside knowledge isnt the most fun (its a torture).

SF4 was what made me like fighting games. MK9 made me love them

Tekken Tag 2 actually flopped relative to the rest of the franchise at 1.5 million copies across all platforms. Strive hit 1 million last August so we'll see how it does over the rest of it's lifespan. I'm still expecting ArcSys to make a One Piece fighting game because it's easy money for everyone involved.

While I agree with Max that maybe Skullgirls wasn't as big as the other releases around that time in terms of bringing new people, to its credit, Skullgirls was one of the first console fighting games with functioning ROLLBACK NETCODE (GGPO) along Third Strike Online Edition a few months earlier.

For me, it was definitely Mortal Kombat 9. I did kinda like fighting games before, but MK9 was just a smooth fun experience. Side story, a few of the guys met up for a gaming session back in 2012, I hadn't played MK yet or any proper fighting game properly for that matter at that point. I was beaten senseless by 7 of the guys that were there. I ended up staying over at my friend's place who owned the game, even while drunk, I made sure I stayed up the entire night training and practicing with Kratos. The next day we chilled off again... I will never forget the confusion on their faces when I destroyed every one of them 🤣felt like Goku after training at King Kai's place. But yeah I enjoyed the experience so much that I ended up buying the game for myself. Been a proper MK fan ever since.

I’m a 99er. I started playing when my next door Store put KOF 99

Real OG 90s arcades representing

I cut my teeth on fighting games with "Yie Ar Kung Fu" and "Karate Champ" in '84 and '85. Both were extremely well done.

I think I started I'm 2018 or 2019 with Blazblue CPEX, Ultra Street Fighter IV and Skullgirls Here I am now, 25 years old as a Melty and Granblue player

I've played mvc2 back in the day but didnt start playing again until mkx and flourished when fighterz came out

I'm a '14er, myself - got into fighting games through Smash 4.

I'm a 08'r because SF2 HDR got me into fighting games!

Ya know, I've often wondered what constitutes an '09er. I, for instance, didn't play fighting games really competitively until SF4 came out but I had been playing fighting games religiously since 99-2000. Would that make me an '09er or part of some forgotten FGC generation 😅.

My man really skipped 2022 with DNF and KoF like it was nothing 💀

I guess I would be a 13er my first fighting game I got REALLY into was mk9 I love that game man. Loved fighting games ever since

09er here. It was a struggle getting competitive fighting games to natter in my little Caribbean island. It's still a struggle but not nearly as bad as back then. Only wish we could make competitive Pokemon more popular too

Now we have Tekken 8 and SF6 for 2024

I started with tekken 3 and now here i am with bb cross tag battle

I’m an 09er for sure. More specialty, got introduced to the FGC by DSP playing SFIV lol

Didn't know fighting games existed until 2017 or something.

I'm an oldhead who's been a filthy casual for the majority of fighting games. I think I started get serious around MVCI.

Dragon ball FighterZ got me into fighting games and now I am here to stay.

Guess I'm an 18er. DBFZ got me diving headfirst into fighting games.

I was extremely good at street fighter 2, turbo, Alfa 1,2&3, street fighter 3 and 4. I’ve never played 5 I just skipped completely. And now street fighter 6 has some new moves and combos that I’m lost. I’ve beat level 8 in the demo but I e struggle e lot cause of the combos take almos have a live bar. I need to learn combos. Back in the days the combos were like 3-4 attacks. Also the arcade cheats with grabs.

Im a '91er *yells at cloud*

Been playing fighting games since sf4 in like 2011 when I was 6 I would get my ass whooped by my uncle that's actually how I ended up finding yo channel u actually was pretty big inspiration for me and was even the reason I switched from pad stick which was the best choice of my life but yea I'm kinda from both😂💯

I'll tell you what happened in 2018 that made Tekken 7 so popular. Lil' fuckin Majin! I was playing since launch but damn if that didn't get everyone I know into the game.

Basically, if SF does well, all else follows. If SF does bad, all else follows in the bad example too. But, that also meant that some new challengers entered the ring, rose from the ashes, like ArcSys and Smash. The outliers came to the forfront since the spotlight was up for grabs. So now, we have multiple fronts for triple A fighting games and that's a great position to be in. And since SF6 is comming-in hot with some crazy innovation, this could fuel the other fronts, the other companies and IPs to enrich their games. Hopefully, realising now, after having seen the cons of copying SF outright even if it's shit as they did when copying SF5, that they will think before adding things to their games and actually innovating in a smart way; a way that fits their game and not a generic way. It's a good time to be a fighting game fan, we might be leaving the dark ages, but that also means expectations are high and we need the transition period to go smoothly without scandals such as MK11's microtransation model or things like SFxTekken's DLC etc.

2023 has been f'in WILD - FOrce Games Alive: King if Fighters Guilty Gear Strive Dragon Ball FighterZ Grand Blue Fantasy VS Trailers: Tekken 8 Project League Street Fighter 6 Mortal Kombat 12 Budokai Tenkaichi 4 Naruto Storm Connections Almost every fighter got rollback

I'm old so for me the launch point was the original SF2 we had in my local pizza place.

It all started for me in 09, now I have an Xbox series X and can finally play Street fighter on Xbox again, now I just need to find a good arcade stick

Still play to this day Killer Instinct 2013. I still love the classic 90s capcom fighters but man when I get the chance it has to be K.I. Though I started to like GG: Strive.

I feel like Street Fighter 6 will have an explosion of new players, young and old. Including me!

Cant believe DOA wasnt mentioned at all.