Howdy, folks.
So, with more of my friends getting into fighting games (that's to say, more of my friends playing Marvel and nothing else), I thought I'd write up a brief primer on different fighting games to check out and what sets them apart from the others. Mind you, as I only play 2D fighting games, I'm not gonna talk about anything out of the realm of reason (i.e., won't talk smack about Tekken).
So, airdashers. What does the colloquialism mean? An airdasher is a fighting game that prides itself on fast-paced fighting. I want to say that the first was probably Guilty Gear, which played like a pissed-off cocaine'd-out version of Street Fighter Turbo, with a much greater emphasis on anime themes. It went through several iterations (GG, GGX, GGX+, GGXX, GGXX#R, GGXX^C, etc.), and is easily one of the most renowned fighters of all time.
Its spiritual successor, Blazblue: Calamity Trigger, came out in 2008, and, like its predecessor, has had plenty of iterations (almost yearly). Its most recent will debut within the next couple of months, and some say that it's an improvement on Guilty Gear, while others say that it's a watered-down version of it.
A bit before that saw the release of Arcana Heart, which was probably the most unique to date, but we'll touch on that later on. Originally released in Japan's arcades, it came to states two years later, and hit PSN with Arcana Heart 3 in 2011, I believe. It featured a separate movelist for each character, and each Arcana you chose, but I've never played it at any competitive pace.
Then there was Skullgirls, which was supposed to be the most mechanic-emphasized airdasher, but I played it a small amount (enough to where I can make general statements without getting into the fine details). It wasn't too popular, but it was more popular than, say, Aquapazza and Melty Blood, neither of which I've played to any extent whatsoever, and the former I've hardly even heard of before two months ago. THIS GUY.
To finish off this list is Persona 4: Arena (or Ultimate), which came out last year, is a spin-off of the RPG from PS2, and is probably the most-played airdasher at the current moment.
You'll notice that Marvel isn't on the list. Marvel is a chore. Marvel is not a video game. Stop calling it that. Also, I'm sure that there are other games that aren't included, so to cover my ass, FEEL FREE TO INCLUDE YOUR FAVORITE IN THE COMMENTS YEAH.
So, all these games, what makes them different?
We'll start with a comparison. With Guilty Gear's newest iteration released on XBL, it's seeing more people playing, but it's also seeing a lot of people coming back to other games. Because of its high learning curve, it's hard to get into. It has a number of core mechanics that you have to get the hang of, such as Dust combos, Tension, Bursts, specific character damage scaling and defense, Instant Blocks, Faultless Defense, Dead-Angle Attacks, Slash Backs, different Hit Effects, and Instant Kills. A lot of these are extremely hard to get the hang of (DAAs and SBs, for instance, were the bane of my existence when Accent Core came out), where some of them almost seem easy because of other fighting games out now (Faultless Defense, for instance, is extremely similar to Advancing Guard in Marvel). Another aspect I've noticed is how oddly small the screen is when I go back; as it does hail from before HD consoles, the screen is square, which makes the arena and available space extremely narrow. Wall-bounce combos, because of this, can be utilized easier, and I remember it being impossible for me to zone anyone because of it (but I was also like 14 when I played it).
Compared to Persona 4: Arena, it's much harder, for several reasons. P4A has given rise to the "auto-combo," where you can tap one button for a default combo that will build your gauge fairly quickly and will actually get you through the first, say, 50 of your placement matches before you even have to worry about the other mechanics. It also has a number of other mechanics, like Evasive Action, Furious Action, Burst, and All-Out Attacks that can be used to create space between you and your opponent. All of these have armor-frames (where you're generally pretty invulnerable (a few exceptions, mind you)), and even your regular moves tend to have a much greater amount of invulnerability than other games. It lacks chicken-blocking, though (which is a way to block low and high simultaneously by jump-blocking). Because of the lack of explicitly strict timing, many, myself included, think that the mechanics are much easier to pick up. It does, however, include some of the other mechanics, such as IBs, DAAs and IKs, with twists on each.
Still, some others believe that the difficulty curve of Guilty Gear and the easier mechanics of Persona find a nice mix in Blazblue, who has many of the staple mechanics but also boasts an impressive roster (but most tournaments typically boil down to, like, 4 characters). It is far from the most balanced, but what I thoroughly enjoy about it is how there are obvious hard-counters to other characters, who then hard-counter other characters; it should be noted, though, that many tournaments discourage people from playing several characters.
As a complete departure from the others is Arcana Heart, whose latest iteration had something like 20 characters and I think just as many arcanas, who each had a separate moveset, so you could mix and match them together. It was pretty nifty, but what I loved about it was the aerial combos because of the Homing Dash mechanic (where, you guessed it, you home in on them). I never got very proficient at it because shortly after I bought it on XBL, my sister stole the 360 and went to college with it. Hurrah. Hit-stun combos were shorter than usual, which I enjoyed.
Lastly, the one I have least experience with, is Skullgirls. Played either in 1v1 or 2v2, it's sort of like a tag-team airdasher, which allows for some pretty cool mixups. It set out, as I said earlier, to be one of the most stringent on mechanics, but I didn't get to play that much. I do know that it has some cool combos, and a system similar to the Homing Dash, and has a very interesting art-style (which is almost enough alone to buy the game). It's different, I never see it played, but if you really wanna round out your experience in airdashers, this is definitely a must. I've heard the comment several times that if you get good at Skullgirls, it'll directly transition into most other fighting games because it lacks crutches to fall back on (e.g., Persona's Furious Actions or Guilty's Level 6 attacks). The armor-frames in the game are supposed to be lower, but I don't really know about all that, now.
I'll get deeper into this and analyze each game that I can, but I'M TIRED SO HAVE FUN BAI
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