For a pokemon fighting game, Pokken has really surpassed my expectations. Probably even as a fighting game in general.

Pokken tournament is a game that manages to keep itself different from any other fighting game you'd find, while not getting too much off track or being to confusing to understand.

Some of the things that stood out for me are:
The colorful and shiny effects and visuals, that work oddly well for the pocket monsters brawling it in varied stages.
The customizable options offered through the cheering skills and support sets, which is probably both more entertaining and more fluidly done that the majority of fighting games i've seen/played.
The surprisingly well-planned tutorial, that introduces both the different tools that every character has, AND some of the hit confirms and potential combos that can be done with each of them - which is almost ground breaking.
The unique, and varied roster and abilities of each character, making matchups and gameplay intriguing and constantly experimental.

My only "complaint" is how the Phase mechanic is done; the field phase is very reminiscent of the problematic arena fighting style, which is attempted to be used in order to spice up the neutral game. this is a good idea, but it can definitely be improve upon and optimized for a more traditional playstyle.

Tl;dr An extremely creative and very fun fighting game, which is extremely underplayed, and deserves to maintain a more major role in the fgc, or at least, serve as an inspiration for other fighting games in some places.

This game, you probably heard of from 3 sources: Seeing it as a sudden main game at the online evo lineup, at recommendation lists in fighting game communities - or at twitter due to the discussion regarding the Lab Zero breakup.

Either way, this game has gotten REALLY popular in such a short window of time. So, naturally as a fighting game (newb-ish) fan, I decided to pick up the game and give it a try on my switch.

The game has indeed a lot of things going for it: a very interesting and varied cast, both in play style and personality, a more elaborate (yet not excellent by any means) and accessible tutorial and great-looking visuals and smooth gameplay.

However, my biggest struggle with this game that, as passionate as this project is, it does not have anything original or charming that makes it really stand out of other games from its genre: single player mode? very basic and straightforward, like always (lol). tutorial? still can feel messy at times, and undervalues the application of the mechanics it teaches. The visuals? while smooth, do not introduce any groundbreaking use or any level of style not seen in other games like Guilty Gear and MvC.
Even the team based-gameplay is heavily based on the Capcom vs. games, although expands it slightly with giving multiple options for team sizes, each with their pros and cons.

Tl;dr : fun game, does some things well, but lacks the charm and creativity you'd expect to see in an indie fighting game, ultimately not offering anything new to the genre.

So lately, i've been getting more into fighting games recently, and naturally wanted to pick the newest, most relevant games in the series: so i had tried mortal kombat 11, Tekken 7 and , most importantly, Street Fighter V's Champion's Edition.

So I'll divide this journal to 3 parts: things the game has done well, things the game didn't do well, and what you should expect for this game/ look for if you didn't like it.

So the game has its many advantages over other games in the series : most notably, the game has a massive, extremely varied roster, which is amazingly balanced. MAtchups are fair, interesting, and even the worse characters in the game can do well against the rest of the cast. A tool that contributed to the balance was the creative V-Gauge mechanic, which not only allows for play style customization, similar to SF4T's costum super combos, but also gives many characters many tools that expand on their playstyles and may even help them deal with a certain weakness. Another thing I liked is how effective the game's visual and sound design is; breaking moves have a longer hitstun, EX moves have an Aura that surrounds the character, There are not many Pop ups, and even when there are, their appearance is minor and does not distract during gameplay. 2 more personal details that I appreciate, are how good the character themes are in conveying most of the different personalities, and how good (or funny) all of the costumes are, allowing you to slightly spice up some battles or enjoy their clever designs.


Now, unfortunately, we have to move to some of the more negative parts of the game. The first, and probably most critical part of the game, is it's adaptation of 3 major features that makes the game easier: a high input delay, and access to an invincible reversal move, and invincibility frame during certain falling states. While I do believe that not addressing your games to become accessible to newer or less inexperienced player is important, I believe that what capcom did went too far: they did not make the game accessible to newer players - it directed it towards newer players. Usually, in all types of games, you won't have more than 1 or 2 support mechanics for newer player. Which seems reasonable, but the key to avoid having these mechanics disturb more experienced players is to limit them.

Let's take mario kart 8 deluxe as an example; In Mario kart 8 deluxe, there are 2 types of support mechanics for newer players: the auto steer, which prevents players from getting of the road completely, and the mechanic that increases your chances of getting better items the lower your place it is, as well as some general powers like the invincibility star and the blue shell. The reasons why these mechanics don't disturb more advanced players is due to certain limitations they have - auto steer may prevent you from falling of the road, but it can still make you stop in place if you face directly towards a dead area, slowing you down, AND prevents you from reaching the 3rd level of your drift boost as long as the option is active. and regarding the reversal power up - The increase in change is not dramatical, which does not guarantee in you getting a super 8 or an invincibility star every 3 item if you are on the last place, which means that you can't completely depend on rng to save you when in a bad situation.


In short , the comback mechanics in mariokart 8 deluxe have setbacks or are limited by being too passive to depend on, which encourage worse players to become good at their core. Street fighter V, on the other hand, has the latter mentioned mechanics (high input delay, an invincible reversal move, and safe falling states) applying to EVERY battle, EVERY time, without any setbacks or abilities to turn them off. BAsically, these are CORE MECHANICS aimed to tune the OVERALL gameplay to be easier, in order to convince newer players to continue playing. Making a game's core easier and lowering the skill gap can, and did, create a massive conflict between the bigger, older fan base and capcom. Let me explain the core of the conflict: In games, there are 2 types of motives that keep making players of a game try and improve. Internal motives derive from the inner desire of the player to improve and become a better player under their own interest. External motives are rewards that either make you stronger (such as EXP) and give you more tools in order to ready yourself for a bigger task you feel "obligated" to face as part of the game. Street fighter, like almost every fighting game in history, derives on a fan base with an internal motive to master the game. Because of that, making the game easier and giving bad players more tools to ease their way to victory can make the gameplay feel cheep or cheesy for old players, and only fakes a sense of progress for newer, since if a person who claims to master street fighter 5 will play older games in the series, he will likely claim the older games are harder and less forgiving, while in truth they are set up to hold a higher skill bar for players to try and pass as a bigger and more challenging, but exciting gameplay.

In conclusion, Street fighter 3 is a solid game - great variety and balance, multiple options and mechanics to explore, decent individual attention given for most characters and a great ost. However, if you are looking for a grind-worth fighting game or a challenge that will require you to outplay the other player head to head, perhaps consider buying older games in the series, namely Street fighter 4 turbo. This game is really easy and sometimes hypocritically unfair by giving worse player more chances to escape disadvantageous situations.