MAX REACTS: Polygon's How to Get Started in Fighting Games 

Worth every minute of it

Would love a collab between the two!

Cant wait to see these guys exchange tips for hair product.

"This guy gets it!" gave me a good laugh. Most wholesome video reaction

right, this was so wholesome.

This is like... genuinely touching, I love it

wish i got opponents like this. usually they leave after the first match :c when it's a game im learning

@@sonic-bb Part of the cringe in fighting games, they spam leave after they win

Some of the friendlier fgc players I've met have been on T7, the rematch feature in that game is perfect for it I have also met some of the nastiest people I've met have been on there too

i was doing player matches in tekken and my Mighty ruler asuka came face to face with a Tekken god Akuma... he destroyed me, send me a friend request on steam and asked me if i wanted to learn what to do against Akuma. we've been having casual matches every now and then and i learned a lot. i really like this aspect of the fighting game community

Yea Pat Gill and BDG carried Polygon for the past couple of years and now the channel itself has the best content by far out of all the game journalist channels

Yeah, Pat and the video team always crush it. Need more of their energy in the industry, I think

@@GuyWithAnAmazingHat Too bad Brian left :/

hey i recognize you from the rtvs tf2 server lol

@@viaxon6 Nah, it's a great thing for Brian. He didn't want to have his own brand be associated with gaming anymore and wanted to explore weirder ventures and his content has improved a ton because of it.

My best friend used to spend time in and out of rehab. He leaned on fighting games too. I used to be more or less a casual only playing Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter mostly. But whenever he would get out, we would play a bunch of fighting games. He would tell me about some I need to get into and got me heavily into the genre. He lost the fight earlier this year and playing fighting games aren’t quite the same. But I’ve made it a point to seek out and purchase the games he would mention over the years. Reading your comment made me think of him. Stay strong brotha

> hit gold with Chun Li this weekend, then the world is mine I guess you will have become... the World Warrior. Thank you, I have been here since the late '80s and I'll be here all week.

Nice

Funny, fighting games got me drinking more.

​@@CYB3R2K perfectly balanced, as all things should be

Their video dept is miles bettet than the news site

Pat is a God king

Love pat. He's super chill

That man is honestly the shining star of polygon content. I subbed to his own channel after seeing only one of his vids on polygon

The most casually, humbly iconic of all gaming news personalities

honestly it's mainly due to reactionary shit from the horror show of gamergate combined with "games journalists suck at games" memeification

@@Sablus Go back to Resetera and leave the FGC alone, please.

And regarding OP, I'm not all too familiar with Polygon's video work but I wouldn't be surprised if it's all superior to the garbage they fill their website with. It'd be the same as Vice whose "news" pieces are a laughing stock of the internet while their documentary work is legendary for its quality.

Nah , there's always good and bad but people decides to focus on the bad

@@hppvitor we aren't in 2016 anymore, gamergate is over chill tf out

Wow what a nice story.

That's so cool , thanks for sharing

haha reminds me of a trip to PR. Rocking people at a local arcade while playing Tekken 3 Tag. After what felt like forever I got DeStRoYeD by a chick and the arcade group went wild. Amazing feeling like yours :)

I always tell myself to love taking L's (Lessons on how to improve in fighting games). Helps to take the sting outta losing and to savior the small victories

you gotta get washed before you can be clean

MvC was my first traditional FG as well. A great entry point if there ever was one!

Letting gaming slant towards being a "guy thing" must be the greatest failure of the gaming industry...not just economically but for all the players that could have had a good time with it.

i got lucky that my mom liked videogames when i was growing up, so even if none of my girl friends played them, it still didnt feel like a guys thing to me she used to take me to the local arcades with her best friend when i was a baby, then she worked at a videogame store and took me with her when no one could take care of me, and from that job she got herself a ps2 with mvc2, and she really wanted me to learn that game her "teaching" was just her beating me up relentlessly (in-game thankfully) while telling me what to do, and maaaybe letting me win if i was getting sad, but now i treasure those times with her so much! (btw the characters that made me not quit my mom's training were hayato and morrigan, i thought they were the coolest :>)

@@AlynRapi Hayato is still one of the coolest Capcom characters, and it's a tragedy that he wasn't brought back in MvC3 or MvCI. If we eventually get an MvC4(?) or a CvS3, Hayato HAS to come back. (Also, if anyone reading this hasn't seen Star Gladiator 2/Plasma Sword, do it RIGHT NOW. It's awesome!)

@@BknMoonStudios The fact Captain Commando ("The Capcom Universes most powerful superhero") was NOT put into MVC3 (a game about superheroes) and instead replaced by C Viper is so moronically stupid. Hayato's cool, Star Gladiator is a fun franchise. I also like how you can turn into Black Hayato even if it's just for one move.

This man spits facts right here. Multiplayer, ranked, lobbies, SF V dropped without Story mode at all, wtf ? They forget about old games with great single modes and stuff ? Damn

This is true, Like they can develop whole other games yet for fighters now it's worse than arcades. Since back then there were all sorts of limits, not there aren't any and now games feel emptier.

@@ExeErdna empty is a good word to describe it. It's like they developed the minimal viable product which is the games multiplayer and maybe single player then buh bye enjoy the game

Darkstalkers intensifies

Oh good God this is true. My favourite street fighter is Alpha 3, and I've put so many hours into the world mission mode or whatever it's called. I love playing Cammy and Rolento with maxed out attack and lowered defenses, and having to switch up your ism for different missions and figure out the best way to overcome different challenges you aren't getting on multiplayer is so much fun when you just wanna get drunk at 2am and play around in single player.

The difference is that Muay Thai has actually good matchmaking lmao

Weird as well since I was considering taking up Muay Thai very recently and this has just cemented my decision

Fellow FGC/combat sports enthusiast!!

Cool comment!

​@@dcard228And input delay is completely nonexistent!

It happens, man. Sometimes things hit you in a way that you never expect. Glad you're doing better.

The same reason people play chess or war games like shogi/Go is because they’re good for the mind body soul connection of the mind and it’s efforts

That bit about self worth really got to me, I do it with games sometimes, but in general we often tie our worth to things we don't have a lot of, or any, control over. It's good to spot when we're just beating ourselves up and distance ourselves from the cause.

I think this is the most important part by a long shot, that a lot of people in the discussion are missing. Fighting games need to start being about more than just fighting in terms of gameplay. People need breaks when playing these games, both to cool down and to hone their muscle memory. Back in the day you'd have gone to another arcade machine and came back later, but that's not how we play games nowadays, and fighting games havn't really adapted to that. If someone is gonna take a break from your game and go play something else, with how much games vie for your attention nowadays, this can be a critical drop point for many people. Giving people the ability to spend time doing something other than fighting within your game, even if just as a short pastime, can do wonders for retaining players.

@@DatBisa I feel like that’s the main reason why mk 11 was so successful because it’s not just about the fighting all the time, there’s the krypt which gives you a way to unwind after some games by unlocking new items and the fact that it also has a customization mode where you can unlock cosmetics for your characters which allows you to express yourself through the characters you play, hell even the variation system in mk 11 works great since you can make your own variations for characters, then the story is also there for if you don’t want to play online, overall I just think nrs has been doing great in terms of giving players options with all the content their games have regardless of how you feel about nrs games love em or hate em they’re doing something right.

Its part of what makes Smash work I think, especially from Melee, of having options that aren't bashing your head on another player, stuff like Adventure and Bonus Stage modes and Figures or the like where the game just lets you fuck about

Yeah smash bros brawl got way more play than melee for me back in the day cause there was more bullshit to find while playing

They just did so much stuff right with this game. So much so that it became the game i compare every other game to personnally

Ryu’s “no worries, I just need to get stronger” mentality is definitely a reflection of how capcom wanted you to play their competitive games imo

Polygon video is miles better than the site news

Polygon video is miles better than the site news

Polygon video is miles better than the site news

Polygon video is miles better than the site news

Pat's worked at Polygon for like 6 years now.

Just keep fighting. You know where the answer lies.

@@AlriikRidesAgain In the heart of battle.

@@AlriikRidesAgain noice!!

It feels GREAT to learn. Me and a Millia player went back and forth for 30 matches straight, with no voice chat, learning strats and picking up on what works. We were both getting better. It’s SO much better, than when some rando takes his one win and leaves

This is the best thing ever. I've been getting into T7 lately as a bit of a noob, was playing set after set losing every round - but then I started slowly catching onto his habits, until I somehow got a round! I still lost the game, but I felt accomplished either way.

@@starfire4302 long sets are fun for that. Once you get used to each other you can literally see their brain working trying to find new ways to penetrate your defense.. and so can they. The best sets ive ever had were long sets.

fax

Pat Gill is absolute gold! I suggest looking for more of his videos, they're all like this (The Monster Hunter one is very similar). Seeing him with Brian David Gilbert was always comedy gold

@@marcosm1223 the new CoD one is also very chill

@CriticalErr0r but are you having fun? They’re games, after all

@CriticalErr0r It's not your fault though. I hope you do know that. For some of us, it's just like that. I'm the same way with fighting games and i've been playing them for the same amount of years.

@CriticalErr0r For sure, man. You're definitely not alone in that sentiment. Fighting games are fun, they're just hard to master for some of us.

I wouldn’t say “mental capacity” though that may indeed be what it is. It just has a “hey stupid” connotation that goes with it. Personally I might say reflexes or reactions or hand eye coordination and there are definitely differences in what you are born with and can muster. As an example I’m pretty decent at fighting games but now I’m in my mid 40’s and the reflexes just aren’t what they used to be. I’m VERY good at certain aspects of fighting games but very bad at others. Button muscle memory is one of the things that I’m very bad at. I’ll know what the buttons of a game do, perfectly… but because the game/character is different from the one I grew accustomed to, I’ll have muscle memory from that character or game leak into my gameplay and disrupt my ability to quickly learn combos, even tho the combo may technically be very easy for me. Then I know players that can master and learn the combos of multiple characters in less than a week, even on new games. Those people just have very good button muscle memory so they can easily learn completely new things. I’d put it like this: Learning a new song once you’ve mastered an instrument will take time, but some people will simply be able to do it much quicker than others, even if they play all the same songs at a the same current level.

@@dimex3362 I hope people don't believe that it means that they're stupid, because that's not it. The whole mental capacity statement can be put into the same concept something like eyesight. Some people are just born with naturally better eyesight than others. No one is really at fault because of it, that's just the way it is.

he also made all of the breath of the wild cooking video where he cooked all the meals in breath of the wild..... in 3 hours.

@@metametang7628 different person dude

@@metametang7628 yeah that was Brian David Gilbert, this is Patrick Gill, although i wouldn't be surprised if Pat filmed it he does that sometimes

@@slamindorf5478 lame

@@metametang7628 not lame, if you have no experienced Brian David Gilbert and his stuff for polygon, please absolutely go look it all up, it's the best stuff they've ever put out

Totally agree felt great finally hitting a combo in practice thought I could then bring that into a real match but still working on that 😂

not even just games, but a good guide to any sort of 'hobby' or area of art for one reason or another, we've brought up an entire generation (or two) believing that "communities" are impenetrable and need to be easily accessible, the gates and rites of passage set aside despite being the most important part(s) your own effort and approach will always dictate your experience in any area of art and entertainment (arguably in any area of life)

I'm in your same position, and since i dont have a powerfull pc right now, i can't play many fps games,. Due to this i'm trying to hype myself and get into a fighting game. I truly liked this video and felt identified bt your comment, so i will let you know of my progress as a fellow cs enthusiast.

mbac was my first fighting game that really stuck with me and made sense.

@@wearecoterminous why was it for you? To me i think the anime fighting game genre sold it, due to how easily readable the moves were and the movement options compared to Tekken and SF- maybe that was personal but boy did it work.

Have you checked out granblue yet? It’s got the move display you were talking about and a nice spread on the roster

That SF move list format is nauseating to say the least. I don't know what inspired them.

MK11 command list tag feature really helped my friends wife actually be able to play with us (a little). Obviously it didn't turn her into a pro immediately and she still literally always forgot to block but it was a stepping stone. No idea what to do but if I press the buttons in this order my character does some cool shit and that was good enough for her to play with us

If you're having shitty games, just call it a day and move on, tomorrow's another day and another chance to get blasted.

When I'm playing fighting games in general I have a general rule Ive placed on myself "If I lose 5 games I'll take a break and watch some replays." and ngl it helped me a lot in improving. Also spending 12 hours in training mode on new games :P

When I got into Tekken I got destroyed online but what helped me get through it was a rule I made where I'd keep pressing Rematch until i won at least one match. That turned these overwhelmingly difficult opponents into boss fights and when I did manage to win once, I'd take a break.

THIS. Fuck this AI Bots FGC Ranked Learning Not Fun Curve, just play game and have a blast. True shit right here.

@@edmaldonado8207 I’ve never thought of it this way, I’ll keep this in mind. Like The other really high lvl player is just an insane bot

And this is why I like Brawlhalla and Multiversus. Because they do that.

Amen

Some people just don't have the hand-eye coordination to understand fg's, just like musical instruments

I mean playing an instrument ain't easy especially at a decent level

@@princemwamba5230 honestly, the concept of playing an instrument is super easy to understand once you have a general grasp on music structure, but it's a matter of taking that understanding and actually applying it to the instrument, just like combos in fg's

@@OddWolf666 true but that can go for fighting games to though the concept is easy to grasp it's putting it into play that changes things

Nintendo is good at making games feel worth your time

I absolutely think that pacing is vital to any video game. And playing fighting games online has no pacing beyond connection time -- when you're in game, it's all intensity all the time, and when you're out of game, either you're watching Netflix on the other monitor because you're fucking bored, or you're trying to make the best use of your training mode time, which is intense in its own way. I truly and honestly think that adding some way for people to engage with the game in a chill, relaxed way between matches, would VASTLY improve player retention among newcomers. Getting into fighting games can be mentally exhausting, especially for working adults who have spent their entire day stressing over work.

Yeah i hate that happens, and it happens a lot. Or when i am focusing on punishing a certain move and forget about everything else.

Check the announced character list for SF6 and practice on SFV :D It's on sale really cheap rn and you'll get a big headstart if you learn the basics now; They'll translate over to SF6

Did it work?

@@pickledblowfish6178 Kind of. Depends on how my irl friends are with keeping consistent fight nights. Loads of fun when we do.

@@EtherealMoon the homies can carry this hobby for a decade. God speed, sir. 🫡

Call me, when you print "hello world" with an arcade stick. 👀

Facts

They could give you XP for every anti air, whiff punish, parry etc that you did in a match.

Are you me? This is literally my situation. Keep on grindung my man. We'll make it.

X3 man I'm still learning to walk in these games lmao

Same man I’ve always loved fighting games but was pretty casual at them skill wise until I played mk 11

Ive played casually on and off since i was a 5 year old pushing buttons on mk2 on the SNES. Only in the last 2 or 3 years of really desiring to improve has lifted me out of "utter shit" to "slightly less shit" But god damn it has always been fun as fuck.

Try not to put too much pressure on yourself. Nobody became a skilled player overnight. It takes a lot of time and effort to play at the highest level. Even then, getting to that level probably isn't a healthy goal. I recommend focusing on trying to enjoy the learning process and accepting that losses are actually a good thing. Having the right mindset is what helps anybody become proficient in anything. Most importantly, don't forget to have fun!

Ping isn't really influenced by your ISP the way you think it is. If your ISP isn't stable then yeah, your ping will be shit. Ping is mostly affected by distance. Ping is mostly a mesure of the time packets take to get somewhere and back to you. They farther the game servers are the shittier your ping is.

@@alexandrebelair4360 there are shitty ISPs, especially on older tech like DSL or cable, that can introduce significant ping just from your connection. Another factor is jitter (basically variance of latency). And that's the major factor why wireless sucks. Its hard to get a good connection when your ping varies from 40-80ms with spikes of 200+ms, even if on average its 50ms. That said, I agree if you have a good fiber optic connection, the ping from your own connection should be below 1ms. And then its a matter of distance.

@@alexandrebelair4360 Once you are in the double digits of ms latency, ping can be *very* ISP influenced (but mostly who knows) by the kind of equipment they use. In reality, while ping is indeed affected by distance mostly, it isn't the only factor. What kind of routers do they use? Does the traffic stay in fiber optics most of the time or does it go through cables or antennas at some point? How do they handle high-traffic hours? Are their firewall systems configured correctly? Are they using Carrier-Grade NAT and if so, how powerful are their servers? Are they allowed to use third party nodes so they can save on network traversal hops? At which point are they connected to the internet backbone? It's not trivial; the internet is more complex than what people think it is, but I didn't want to overwhelm people with that much technical details. Honestly, the number of variables that affect ping in high performance networks is so great that the only reliable way to test it is to actually measure it on the field once a connection has been deployed. This is what ISPs technicians and engineers do all day for work: tweaking and testing, sometimes upgrading when times are exciting. That's why I rather recommend to run a speed test rather than just judge it by the advertised Mbps, and pay attention to that metric. Run the test against the closest CDN (usually in your city or a nearby one), against the US coasts, UK and South Korea to get an idea of how it might actually perform, at least from your side. For fighting games with rollback netcode double digits is good. If during a matchup in-game the other side gets an awful +100ms ping connection to your fastest nodes that's not on you.

@@rodylermglez You are just repeating what I'm saying with more information.

@@deice3 I literally said that.

Hows it going? Sf6 was my first street fighter too and I am in love. I am in deep now. I also ended up taking up third strike on fightcade as a result hahah

That’s awesome, I wish you the best