Why You Should Play Fighting Games - And How 

"You just watched an insanely long video telling you how to play a vide ogame so I think you have at least a little bit of free time." How dare you.

"combos makes you feel like a main character" explains why im side character

I think something that deters a lot of people about fighting games is that all the progress is based on intrinsic reward, you actually get better at the game your character never gets anymore powerful or learns new moves

Few years ago I watched this, now I have over 500 hours in smash, learned street fighter, and am currently learning guilty gear. Thanks man

Too bad for you I already like fighting games

Fighting Games are therapy for those that suffer from being pissed off from team competitive gaming.

Two years ago, I watched this video on the heels of a decent FighterZ fascination that, due to the circumstances of my work life, I flexed a bit at the very casual level and didn't play for very long because I didn't have the time. Now I've come back to watch it again. I've been out of work for a while, after that very same job landed me in the hospital (more than once) and left me with almost a year of nerve damage, during which time I slowly descended into and slowly crawled back out of being bedridden. For a time, I couldn't turn on a light switch. I couldn't pick up a drink, lift a remote, couldn't even grab the edge of a blanket and drag it up over my legs with my right hand, not for many months. It's been a long road to recovery, and I'm still not at 100%, but heading into this Christmas season I've bought Tekken 7 on sale and started my first fighting game in quite some time. I haven't even played a match yet, not even against the AI, I've just spent many hours of a few days in training trying to relearn how controllers work. But goddamn, I won't lie; getting to where I could reliably and continuously land the Hunting Hawk combo almost made me cry. I just wanted to say, I appreciate this now more than ever, and once more this video has helped remind me of why I've come to love fighting games over my life, and keep coming back to them. I'm anxiously awaiting my first online match where I hop in against a California professional Yoshimitsu with 8k hours and a foundation of 300 ms lag easy, it's gonna be fun.

"Combos make you feel like a main character." Man, I love being Arthritis from Blazblue

When he says learn all your characters moves, he means to the point where you don't really have to think in order to do them. This part can take a while, don't be discouraged.

"If you're playing Ken and you can't shoryuken, you're only using half the character." I feel personally attacked.

31 year old mom here. Never been much into video games before but my family got me a switch for xmas and this video has convinced me to try some fighting games!

Soulcalibur deserves more love, honestly I played it with many people who always had issues with combos etc. and all said that soulcalibur feels very intuitive

"learn all their moves" *side eyes tekken and their 100+ move list

"However, I did like Cammie" dammit Capcom you managed to get all of us with one goddamn woman

It's crazy how the way you described Core-A Gaming is exactly the way I also feel about this video, every now and then I just naturally rewatch it because of how damn good it is. There is something more to creating a video than making it understandable, concise and clear. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it's just so fulfilling to watch and rewatch. Maybe it's just the outright passion this video is made with.

This really has got me into fighting games, I have had a passing interest for a while but this video helped me get into them and understand them more. So thank you for making this video.

my fav. fg story is, when i took my ps to my gf moms home - shes going through a though divorce and out of a joke we decided to ask her to play a round of tekken with us... her mom never even held a controller and told us later she only tried it, so she could say she can't do it/ doesn't like it and we stop teasing her - she had so much fun just mashing some matches with us, she even asked to play next day. My gf told me she hasn't heard her laugh like that in months.

Every once in a while I come back to this video, and realize it’s quite possibly my favorite video on this platform

Just wanted to come back and say thank you for making this video, I started playing fighting games because of this, and now its one of my favourite things. Got in top 16 for the UK CPT, made a bunch of friends with really strong players, if anyone else sees this video and is considering it, just do it, you wont regret it

Watching Lil Majin play King when you’re just getting into Tekken is a sight to behold. Seeing him do multithrows and being like omg wow so easy this character is busted, then going and looking at the inputs for those throws, gives me so much respect for someone who can do that under all that pressure.

Fighting games feel lonely without a local scene. Real lonely.

Marcus: "Fighting games are anime. The Fast series is anime. Tall Girl is anime. I. Am. Anime."

12:40 "The top of the tier list is full of characters that are very easy.. too easy..." Did you foresee Leroy coming my friend??

Dude, I really appreciate you making this video! I’ve been playing fighting games, like Mortal Kombat since I was a little kid but, I never really wanted to keep on trying them because I always thought I sucked. This video really helped get my confidence back into playing ANY type of fighting game for the fun of it.

"If SF is classical music, then Smash is jazz" Thank you for this analogy. I'll be using this often.

I love just spending so many hours with my friends playing fighting games. Whenever we all collectively find a game we love we’ll play it for months on end almost every day

This video helped get me into FGs roughly 2 years ago! I've been placing in +R and I just got my first custom hitbox and a stick! Thanks Marcus!!

Why I watch fighting games: The reason is Smug. When he gets wiggity washed, his reactions are priceless.

Shoutout to Core-A Gaming. That channel is so high quality it’s almost unbelievable.

"In league of legends, you can play to the best of your ability but will still lose if your teammates are brain dead." Too true.

I know this video was made a WHIIILE ago, but as someone who’s always been interested in fighting games but could never figure out how to get better, you just helped me man. This opened up a new perspective for me when it comes to everything fighting games. So, as a late viewer 2 years later, I say thank you 🙏 😆

This is a masterpiece video all around, but I especially love how perfect your song choices were for the montages. Fighting game music is such an unbelievable blessing

Core A Gaming is one of the most underrated channels out there

Marcus: "not their other team mates, not luck, it's all on them" Me: *turns on smash, picks hero*

Best way to enjoy fighting games is to play with another person who is patient and will happily explain to you how to deal with certain situations. You'll be getting better in no time and also bond making great memories.

2 years later and this is still my favorite video you've ever done. This video got me into fighting games. Now I'm playing Tekken 7 as a Kunitmitsu main and I've been having a blast playing against my friends and getting better over time. :)

I picked Lil Mac cause I thought he was cool. It's my first smash game. I regret nothing.

"If street fighter is classical music then smash is jazz" Wow. Just wow

This Video… This is the video that got me to pick up Street Fighter. I remember back in 2020 (I think) I searched up a guide on how to play Chun-Li in SFV. I looked at the combos and thought to myself: “I can’t do that.” Back in the day I was trying to play Smash competitively. Fast-forward to early December 2021 and I happened to stumble upon this video. It was a bit of an eye-opener for me in terms of fighting games other than Smash. On Christmas Day I played SFV for the first time and I haven’t been able to put it down for more than 2 weeks. There were days where I’d wake up or go to bed excited for the next time I’d get to play it. Funnily enough SF6 was announced yesterday so I picked a good time to get into the series. I’m also looking to get into Tekken as well (if the definitive edition wasn’t so damn expensive) and considering dropping Smash competitively. This video is awesome. Hopefully more people will watch this.

Melee as a "fighting game" changed my life. Not only is there the intensity of insane tech skill and 1v1s, but the community as a whole is so satisfying to be around and makes you feel a part of it. Fighting games really are so great, whether you're a Street Fighter guy, a Tekken guy, they're all great.

Oh damn, I'm in this video...never noticed that before. That was a fun combo video to work on :D

I was already a huge fighting gamer fan, but now I feel more inspired and motivated to actually get good at the games I play... My friends and I REALLY like retro fighting games and we're hoping to start up a tournament scene around the city specifically for these older fighters

Loved this video. I’m just getting into fighting games, and you really helped me to figure a lot of stuff about this genre. Keep it up, man.

(first 30 seconds) nice Toonami ad.

Good luck learning all the moves of a character in Tekken

The reason I like fighting games is that how rewarding the experience is. The sense of accomplishment after learning a new combo or wining a match alone make fighting games worth it.

Don’t know if you are still checking comments at this point, but I’d like to say this video got me into fighting games specifically sfv. I’m currently a gold dhalsim player which took me almost a year to get to from a complete rookie level. I’ve really delved into it and this video was the spark. Thanks.

"You start to recognize that one player that plays the character you thought only you played", that hit hard as a R.O.B. main seeing wadi play for the first time

Friendly reminder to play more guilty gear and Skullgirls

This might be amongst my favourite videos on RU-vid, I rewatch this everytime I come back to wanting to play tekken 7, now with tekken 8 coming out, I’m excited again

This, Maximilian Dood and Core A gaming videos got me into fighting games again after almost a decade. Thanks Marcus!

I've been big into fighting games my whole life, and for as long as I can remember I've been trying to get my friends into the genre all throughout that same amount of time. After years upon years of them not understanding the appeal of a game where I just beat the crap out of them, they dropped the controller, said fighting games weren't for them and they had been reluctant to play them ever since. I've tried for years to get them to understand the appeal of these games and had never really understood how. Until January 2019, where I discovered this video. Where you explained exactly what I've wanted to share for years in one convenient package. And through sharing this video and Core-A Gaming's videos, my friends have grown to love the genre as much as I do. For that, I am thankful that you took the time out of your life to make this video that let me have fun playing my favorite games with my friends. Thank you.

One huge reason why I mostly play fighting games now is the lack of time. When you grow up and have to devote a lot of time to life , it's really hard to play open-world games that usually require a lot of time. I can't really play an RPG or an open-world game for like 20 minutes in a day and really make any progress there, but I can do a good amount of matches in the same amount of time in a fighting game.

Dude I just wanna say thank you for this video, after watching it for the first time, I bought Mortal Kombat X and started watching more tournaments. I ended up becoming pretty good at Scorpion and I finally became confident in my ability at fighting games. Thanks man

Thanks you actually did inspire I’m still not good but I’m a couple weeks into street fighter 5 and I have you to thank for all the rage and satisfaction I will feel thank you.

I love how MK11 has an incredibly complex and informative tutorial. I’m pretty experienced, and even I learned some new things. It’s also great for newcomers.

I may suck at every fighting game i've ever touched, but that doesn't keep me from playing them. I will continue to play fighting games for a long time, no matter how good or bad I am.

Hey Marcus. Thank you for making this video so damn much. It came along to me a few years ago alongside some Core-A videos and really sparked a love for these games in me, particularly Guilty Gear Xrd, and more recently -Strive-. This is one of my go-to videos to share with friends who ask me why I love and play these games. I loved your content before I saw this and even more after and over the years. Keep up the good work.

I think you're dead wrong when you said begginers should pick a character because they're easy even when they know thats not the character they're gonna main in the future. Even with characters that work only based on fundamentals of that game, a new player is still very likely to form habits that may not work with they're future main. Its best to learn the game from the perspective of your character. A good example of this is ryu, even tho hes a great "fundamental" character, you won't get used to charge inputs or grappling mixups by learning the game with him

21:22 "If Street Fighter is classical music, Smash is jazz." Couldn't have said better.

Sometimes I have to come back to this video to remind me that I'm still learning and that Marcus and others went through the same thing I'm going through.

Thx for including the music in the description

Marcus, you have a channel that I really like. I have subscribed to you and seen a lot of your videos, and loved a lot of them. And this is still my favorite of your videos. I have seen it many times, and each time I love it. Thank you for making such great content!

"I played Melee competitively until it hurt my fingers" loool

You know, I bought a copy of Street Fighter 5 with my PS4 a few months back, touched it once, immediately got intimidated and haven't touched it since. Now I'm currently playing online. And losing, but still playing. Thanks Cosmonaut.

Recently got into fighting games: Vampire Saviour: Lord of Vampire. My character of choice is Hsien-Ko, who would be the Rock Lee of the game; and I always do a one credit run as the incentive to get good. I play the version that can help you go pro: though I have no desire to go pro it is best to use the competitive standard for its own sake.

I first saw this video in high school, a few months after it was posted, and it awakened me. I haven’t stopped playing fighting games or watching tournaments since. Thank you Marcus.

You mentioned the guy who plays SF with just his mouth. There is a guy who played at Evo 2013 who was blind and get pretty far up. It was super amazing to watch.

Under Night In Birth is an really good fighting game and really hope more people will get into it, coming from someone who didn't like fighting games.

Always coming back to this masterpiece of a video !

I think the one piece of advice that I think got looked over, but more a for people that are already into a game but are trying to improve, is to identify your big weaknesses and figure out a way to eliminate them. Being humble enough to recognize where you're not doing the best is important to growing in any given game!

To anyone here who is still scared to get bodied in a fighting game, just know that EVERYONE has a loss in a fighting game and I mean EVERYONE i bet even some of the pros have more losses than wins. And one day you’re gonna keep losing until suddenly, it clicks and something awakens and all your practice will just pay off and you’ll start getting more and more wins. In my opinion someones is never “good” at a fighting game you can only get better and better

By the way, the “smash” genre is typically called platform fighters, since they revolve around movement with vertically placed platforms, knocking opponents off a central main platform. Great analysis though!

Just found this video and even tho I’m just starting to get into Fighting Games, it definitely helped define what I should be doing in terms of getting started. Great video

i come back to watch this every month. thank u for your video, the main reason why i will never give up and keep on my training

Fighting Game music is always the best music.

Fun fact Gametrailers is now Easy Allies and they still do Retrospectives!

That goichi Leffen set is still probably my favorite fighting game set I've ever seen

“In street fighter, at the most, characters are gonna be doing 3 hit combos” *shows 10 hit combo*

Adding on to this video, if you're ever confused by a fighting-game term, don't be afraid to look it up. Even if you don't fully understand what you're looking at, I gurantee there will be a moment later on where you'll actually be able to apply those concepts.

What happened to me is that I gained an emotional attachment to a certain character, not because I liked the character but because of a certain memory associated with it. For example: this one time, I was at a sleepover at a friends house (I was in like 4th or 5th grade) and I was having a really bad week. They’re were 4 of us and we decided to play a little Brawl. I’d never played Brawl before because I was kind of the poor kid at my school who didn’t have enough money for a Wii so I was the biggest noob. I got my ass kicked like 20 times, always with a different character. At one point my friend’s mom came in to tell us that this was the last game because we had to go to sleep. I wasn’t in the mood to actually think out a character so I just pressed “random”, and got Pokemon Trainer. I was never really that into Pokemon and since I just picked the characters that looked cool to me I never picked him. When the game started I just started pressing random buttons, like not even playing much attention to the screen and before I knew it, I won. Nobody could believe it (least of all me) and I got bragging rights for the rest of the night. I still remember the screen showing Red petting Ivysaur with the word “WINNER” all in bright colors in the bottom. I never actually got good with Pokemon Trainer because I never played Brawl again but that guy will always have a special place in my heart.

Watching this video got me back into injustice. Couldn't agree more, feeling my fingers get faster and my brain get smarter while I make up combos

Just got the video recommended to me and I remembered how this is what made me start playing fighting games back when I watched it shortly after you posted it. Picked up Brawlhalla and am having an absolute blast since then. Thank you :)

So in Conclusion: The Female Characters are hot.

Mortal Kombat 11 and Smash ultimate are my games. Fighting games really make you feel like you're in the tournament Arc lol

It happened to me after watching your video, I am SUPER STOKED to play fighting games! Thanks man, this video is so helpful and very interesting.

I'm going to watch this again soon. This video when I watched it a year and a half ago or so, reconnected me with my childhood love of fighting games, and I have since learned Street Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear, Killer Instinct, and Soulcalibur, and has strengthed my love of the genre, and I'm really thankful this video came into my life when it did

"Fighting games have shitty plots" *Shows Guilty Gear* We got a problem here?

After watching this video, I bought tekken 7 and fight stick. Wish me luck.

One of your best videos man, I want more people to get into fighting games they’re so god damn fun

Thank you for this video. I myself is starting to get into fighting games. Just started playing injustice 1 on my old ps3.

You’re possibly one of the best examples of a good content creator out there: you make videos with passion behind them, and you’re not afraid to state your opinion. I DETEST some of the opinions you hold on certain topics. But I still respect you, because you do your best to be fair and clear-headed. You have my Seal of approval, for whatever it’s worth

The only people that don't get good at fighting games are the ones that stop playing.

Anybody here think Dead Or Alive 5 is underrated? Currently my favorite fighting game. I tried Tekken 7 and Soulcalibur 6 but DOA 5 just works for me. Plus, those throws, counter throws, and critical bursts are so satisfying to pull off. Love it!

This video is so amazing to watch and enjoy and great editing man :]

MORTAL KOMBAT!!! *Techno music ensues*

*I'm in Amateur Boxing* Its hard to do air combos in this game. Any tips?

Idk, fighting games just have a certain appeal to them that most other games don’t. In shooter games it rarely ever feels like you outsmarted ur opponent or “read” them. It just always really comes down to either better movement or better aim. Fighting games force u to think. Which I love. Also combos are really really satisfying. And not to mention most characters will have super satisfying and flashy moves to hit people with for example Terry (Fatal Fury/ Smash Ultimate) Buster Wolf Ryu (Street Fighter/ Smash) Shoryuken Etc etc.

Fighting games are a godsend. When is Framedata gonna be a class at school?

One of the main reasons I love fighting games is that to me it is the highest expression of "skill" one can exercise in any video game genre period. In a fighting game it's you against another player and the better player wins. Period. There is no such thing as RNG, there is no such thing as camping, there is no such thing as abusing a glitch, a spot or getting a lucky stray kill, there is no such thing as relying on team mates or any single thing outside your own ability to play. It's a clash of pure mechanics and strategy with no bullshit in between. No matter who you play or what you do, the better player wins. And if someone is better than you, you will know it. Nothing comes free in fighting games. You practice, you learn and you adapt. And if you can keep doing that, the wins will come. Fighting games are one of the very few genres that give you the player absolute agency and absolute skill expression. It's pure 1:1 competition and it's beautiful.