What kind of game is "fighting game", which is an esports competition?

Fighting games are the flower of e-sports competitions.

Compared to RTS and FPS games, where it is difficult to understand whether a player has an advantage, disadvantage, or a rivalry unless you know the game to some extent, fighting games are easy for spectators to grasp the situation due to the presence of a strength gauge that allows them to check advantage and disadvantage at a glance and the small number of characters appearing on screen. This is one of the reasons why fighting games have become such a popular genre.

The three-letter word for the game genre is generally "FTG," which is an abbreviation for "Fighting Game.

What kind of game is a fighting game (FTG)?

Fighting games that feature characters fighting each other have existed since the days of the Famicom (NES), but the most famous game that increased the popularity of the genre and the number of players was "Street Fighter II," which was released as an arcade game and ported to a variety of home video game consoles.

Since then, various fighting games have been created, including "Tekken" and "Virtua Fighter," which were able to reproduce the visual beauty and smooth movements of arcade games at home, and which became popular not only in Japan but also overseas, leading to the creation of many fighting games, including the Street Fighter series. The "Tekken" and "Virtua Fighter" series became popular not only in Japan but also overseas.

However, the game is a hurdle for beginners, as they need to learn complex commands to perform moves and input the correct inputs to perform them, and there have been some low-morality practices such as beginner hunters in game arcades. As a result, the number of players tends to be smaller than in the past.

Nevertheless, as it is easy for spectators to understand the game situation, it is a popular genre among e-sports for both players and spectators, as it is easy to get excited at tournaments.

Typical Fighting Game (FTG)

The following is a list of fighting games that are particularly popular in e-sports.

Street Fighter

Street Fighter II", released by CAPCOM as an arcade game in 1991, is one of the most popular fighting games and is also known by the nickname "Street Two".

As the name "II" (2) implies, there was a previous Street Fighter game, but because of its unique controls and slightly different genre from today's fighting games, it is often not counted as part of the series.

The game was a hit again, attracting both former players and new players, and has now been released up to V(5). It is a game that is often used in fighting game tournaments in Japan and abroad as well as in e-sports competitions.

Daigo Umehara, a Japanese fighter, has been called a one-in-ten genius and is known as a professional gamer who is strong in the Street Fighter series both in Japan and overseas, winning international tournaments and being interviewed on TV.

His Street Fighter V Arcade Edition tournament held at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2018 was the talk of the town, with prize money totaling 10 million yen and professional licenses issued to the top eight players.

Super Smash Bros.

Originally released on Nintendo's NINTENDO 64 console, this fighting game is still popular today and is also known as "Smash Bros.
At a time when fighting games were declining in popularity due to the high hurdles for beginners, the game's "easy controls," "one-shot turnarounds even for those who are not good at fighting," and "characters from various popular games" made it a popular title that has continued to be a hit since then. The game has since grown rapidly into a popular title that continues to be a hit.

The original game featured only characters from Nintendo titles, but now it has become a major production that includes characters from other companies, such as Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, Mega Man, and Ryu from the Street Fighter series, as collaborators.

However, since this game was originally created as the antithesis of fighting games, which were becoming too difficult and losing players, the difficulty level is set low, and players can obtain items and use them to make one-shot reversals, or multiple players can crush each other and win the game. The game is quite different from other fighting games.

Nintendo has labeled the genre of Smash Bros. as a "fighting action game," and some gamers who know the history of the genre do not see Smash Bros. as a fighting game.

The game is also very popular overseas, and the Smash'N'Splash tournament was very large, with over 2,000 participants in all divisions.

Tekken

Tekken is a fighting game produced by BANDAI NAMCO (formerly NAMCO).

Virtua Fighter, created by SEGA, actively used 3D characters with polygons, and although the appearance of the characters was choppy, their smooth movements amazed many fighting gamers.

Inspired by this, the "Tekken" series, with its polygonal yet beautifully rendered characters and smooth 3D movements, was ported to home consoles like Virtua Fighter, and became a popular series that competed with each other.

In recent years, the series has also collaborated with Pokémon to create the "Pokken POKKEN TOURNAMENT," a fighting game in which Tekken characters are replaced by Pokémon, which has gained popularity in arcades and on the Nintendo DS.

At the Community Effort Orlando (CEO), the second largest tournament after the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) in the United States, both Tekken 7, produced by BANDAI NAMCO, and &. Unfortunately, no Japanese players made it to the finals of Tekken, but half of the top eight players in Dragon Ball FighterZ were Japanese, and the finals were also between Japanese players.

MARVEL VS. CAPCOM

Fighting games can be influenced by the popularity of attractive characters such as Ryu, Chun-Li, Heihachi Mishima, or famous characters such as Mario and Link in Smash Bros.

The "MARVEL VS. CAPCOM" series, in which superheroes and other characters from MARVEL games face off against characters from CAPCOM games, was born out of the demand to see these characters fight against each other.

MARVEL VS. CAPCOM" was initially a basic, hardcore 2D fighting game similar to Street Fighter II. In recent years, however, the game has become one of CAPCOM's most beginner-friendly fighting games, with features such as the ability to perform combos with a series of button presses.

The game is also popular among foreign players, including those in the U.S. who are familiar with American comic books. The tag team system allows players to switch between different characters, and the game features a play style that is not tied to a specific character, as is customary in fighting games where players tend to use a fixed character to learn the game.

At EVO 2017, the world's largest eSports tournament held in Las M. Bisons, USA, "ULTIMATE MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3" was used, and RyanLV from the United States won the tournament with his Chun-Li, Morrigan, and Phoenix. RyanLV from the U.S. won the tournament with his Chun-Li, Morrigan, and Phoenix.