Fighting games have always had an interesting relationship with Esports. Every recurring major tournament for fighting games was started with grass roots funding and organization so there’s hardly ever been a great relationship between fighting games and big prize money. In a more modern landscape, fighting games have actually held back a lot of communities from growing and that needs to be changed.
On top of that, fighting game developers have had trouble judging what the fans want from games in terms of multiplayer features, single player modes, and other bells and whistles that come with games. In 2021, there’re certain features that should be expected and standard for a good fighting game to be successful.
10 Good Online Netcode
The biggest source of competition for fighting games before 2020 was offline tournaments where players would gather at a venue to play matches together to see who was the strongest player. After 2020, this wasn’t possible anymore so any professional tours and offline events had to be moved online. This put a lot of players at a major disadvantage because so many current fighting games have subpar netcodes.
Tekken 7, Street Fighter 5 Champion Edition, and Dragon Ball Fighterz are all examples of triple A titles that had bad online play. The professionals and competitors weren’t happy with the state of their games and it really highlighted an issue in the community.
9 Online Training Mode
The best way to learn a fighting game is to get into a training room and practice. This is hard for new players or people learning a game because it gets tiring and can be very boring. Doing the same combo or punish in a training room by oneself is repetitive without the motivation.
That’s where online training mode comes in. It sounds like a far-fetched idea but it was actually implemented in fighting games from the previous generation like Street Fighter IV. This feature would help players get their friends into fighting games more easily, especially in an online environment.
8 Data Tools
For players really trying to learn a fighting game and all its intricacies, data is extremely important. In the arcade days and early days of console competitions, things like frame data had to be figured out by the fans since developers rarely included it. Nowadays, fans don’t let developers get away with not including frame data because it’s such an essential tool to learning a game and competing in it.
Games like Street Fighter V and Tekken 7 included data tools after their release while others like Granblue Fantasy Versus had a rudimentary version on release. Being able to see what moves are safe and unsafe can go a long way for players who want to improve.
7 Diverse Characters
The biggest driving factor for people to play fighting games is the characters in the roster. It’s easy to be swayed by a huge roster with 40+ characters but that’s not what fighting games should be about on release in 2021. Street Fighter II had 8 characters in its first version, and they’re all some of the most iconic characters in fighting game history, that are still present in games today.
This is because the characters are unique and distinguishable from one another in game play and design. A fighting game doesn’t need to have a robust roster on day 1, but should focus more on representing play styles that fans want to play. Afterwards, they can include more as DLC, which is the current business model anyways.
6 Single Player Content
While the heart of fighting games lie in the heat of battle against other players, single player content is huge for more casual players. The Mortal Kombat series nails this with their Towers mode, creative story mode, and other fun modes.
Most players don’t want to spend all day in training mode so it’s important to keep them engaged. A game releasing without story, arcade, or a proper survival mode like Street Fighter V did is unacceptable and fans shouldn’t accept anything like that.
5 Tools For New Players
Fighting games throw a lot at new players in terms of system mechanics, combos, and character matchups. This information is all overwhelming and takes months of practice and learning to feel comfortable in a fighting game. That being said, developers can do a few things to help players ease into their game smoother.
Granblue Fantasy Versus has a great trials mode where players can practice situational combos and system mechanics while the game rewards them for successfully completing the trials. Tekken 7 has something similar where players learn to punish common unsafe moves from their opponent but it’s still rudimentary and needs more work.
4 Solid Lobby System
Since all play is done online in this modern environment, games need to make that experience comfortable for players and spectators. Guilty Gear Strive, the newest installment in the series ran a beta test and had a lot of the features players wanted but the one area it failed was in the lobby system.
Having to leave a lobby and manually engage in a rematch or reorder the lobby was all extremely annoying and turned a lot of players off to the online experience. It’s something to keep in mind moving forward for developers, and lots of games have implemented it in the past, so they have resources to learn from.
3 Cross Platform Play
Being able to play games on console with friends on PC was a dream not too long ago, especially for fighting games. With Street Fighter V, it became clear that even triple A titles could support cross platform play. Outside of fighting games, titles like Fortnite and other really successful games have cross platform play.
Since players are stuck fighting online, this feature should become standard moving forward. Not being able to play a friend because of what console they own is one of the most annoying things to deal with so here’s hoping it gets easier in the future.
2 Customization Features
A big factor that keep players invested in a game is the ability to customize the game and make it feel like their own. This comes in many forms through modern fighting games but all of them are greatly appreciated. Tekken allows players to create their own costumes and Granblue Fantasy Versus lets players equip their favorite weapons on their characters.
Mortal Kombat 11 lets players do basically everything they want from changing their costumes to even selecting custom move sets for their characters. Customization keeps players coming back and lets them invest time into their own experience which is important for a game’s longevity.
1 An Ear To The Community
The most important thing fighting game developers can do is listen to their fans. The Guilty Gear Strive Beta is a fantastic example of a company working with their community to create the best product possible. The beta released with some of the best online connections fighting games have ever seen, which was made as a result of fans asking for better online. They also vowed to make some changes where fans were disappointed like the lobby system.
Fighting games rely heavily on their fans to sell copies and guarantee DLC sales down the line since they’re such a niche genre. Listening to the community will save them money, as well as help fans enjoy the games they love even more.
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