2D vs. 3D Fighting Games

[digitalpress]

What makes 2D Fighting games so special? Just curious to hear the opinions and reasoning - I'm not partial to either 2D or 3D personally.

[buttasuperb]

i think the cartoonish anime look just looks better. i have nothing against 3D, in fact soul calibur is one of the best fighting games of all time, but i like the hand drawn animation of 2D games. street fighter 3 just looks amazing, i cant wait to see a new batch of 2D fighters. both capcom and playmore (snk) need to update some of their sprites though. how about a new morrigan sprite already.

[Revolt]

I love the artwork in 2d fighters. Especially Capcoms. As a matter a fact, thats the first thing i look at. But i dont get too excited about 2D fighters any more. I play Tekken a lot now. :lol:

[Kroogah]

2D generally offers a better 2-player experience. If you're at least somewhat experienced with, say, Street Fighter 2, then "button mashers" won't be much of a problem. (This rule doesn't apply to the Marvel Vs. games, of course ^_^)

Namco's 3D fighters (and Tecmo's as well)...well, button mashing is almost how you do "moves" in some cases!

3D still has the edge in 1-player, though. Especially with Virtua Fighter 4's Kumite mode.

And...2D looks better! ^_^

[Captain Wrong]

2D generally offers a better 2-player experience. If you're at least somewhat experienced with, say, Street Fighter 2, then "button mashers" won't be much of a problem. (This rule doesn't apply to the Marvel Vs. games, of course ^_^)

Namco's 3D fighters (and Tecmo's as well)...well, button mashing is almost how you do "moves" in some cases!

3D still has the edge in 1-player, though. Especially with Virtua Fighter 4's Kumite mode.

And...2D looks better! ^_^

This is everything I was going to say right here. Though I like some 3d fighers, it seems like all of the ones I've played, except for the Virtua Fighter series, are button mashers. It's just not as much fun that way.

Example, I had a friend who was all about Tekken 3. He even set his controller up so he could do specials with the shoulder buttons (which I thought was kind of unfair in a 2 player game.) Well, I could still beat him about half the time using Eddie Gordo and button mashing like mad. Which was fun for me to watch him get so bent out of shape, but it really shouldn't have happened.

Not to say button mashers don't have a place, but 2d games requier skill and dedication to learning the game that I have yet to see in a 3d game (aside from VF.)

[Tetsu]

3D is in its infancy still, I think. Programmers have just recently begun focusing on makin 3D games look pretty: before they concentrated on making them look less like VF1. It'll be several years before systems and programmers on 3d fighters can match the vision of artists and designers. It took a few years for the goofy sprites of the nineties' fighting games to evolve to SFIII. I don't just mean character models, I'm talking the 3d equivalent of some artsy, badass SNK backgrounds. Maybe a battle on a busy street (in Times Square or something), with tons of people walking around, or in a marsh with water splashing and light trails everywhere. I play 2d fighting games for the evolved, deep gameplay, but also for the incredibly detailed artwork. When 3d fighters can match or surpass the gameplay and art of 2d, i'll give them a shot beyond Soul Calibur and VF4.

[Daniel Thomas]

Personally, I think there's plenty of room for 2D and 3D fighting games. On the 2D side, I'd say Alpha 3 and Third Strike are my favorite Street Fighters. Looking back (via mame), it strikes me how slow the original Street Fighter 2 played, and how the genre has. slowly but surely, evolved forward.

I think the dirty little secret is that 2D and 3D have both been learning and stealing from each other for years. Yu Suzuki seemed to be reaching back to Karate Champ for Virtua Fighter. Street Fighter is basically the grandchild of Yie Ar Kung Fu. Tekken and Killer Instinct took Capcom's emphasis on easy combos to extreme levels. Later 2D brawlers incorporated ideas like parries and reversals and throw escapes from VF and Tekken. Marvel Vs. Capcom raised button-mashing to an art form. And the latest Mortal Kombat has reinvented itself in the shadow of Virtua Fighter. It just goes on and on, and that's a good thing. I'm eager to see fighting games continue to evolve, to seek that almost Zen balance of increasing complexity and strategy with classic arcade immediacy. This is, at its best, the most competitive and satisfying multiplayer games to be had. (whew)

[Daniel Thomas]

As an aside to Capt. Wrong (that's a great name to use on the ladies, btw), the paradox with fighting games is that the best games require a considerable investment of your time to learn the ropes and become skilled. Fighters are so much more than move lists and combos now. The problem is that gamers, for the most part, want a little more instant gratification. So they gravitate towards the button-mashing-frendly games (all bastard children of Killer Instinct). It's the gaming equivalent of people passing up Lawrence of Arabia in favor of Jackass (which has recently happened at my house).

And then there's the issue of controllers. It's almost impossible to really play fighters like VF4 or Alpha 3 or Third Strike with a joypad, and decent joysticks will cost you your first born kids. To this day, I still can't pull off fireballs and dragon punches on a pad with any consistency.

[Kroogah]

I think the dirty little secret is that 2D and 3D have both been learning and stealing from each other for years. Yu Suzuki seemed to be reaching back to Karate Champ for Virtua Fighter. Street Fighter is basically the grandchild of Yie Ar Kung Fu. Tekken and Killer Instinct took Capcom's emphasis on easy combos to extreme levels. Later 2D brawlers incorporated ideas like parries and reversals and throw escapes from VF and Tekken. Marvel Vs. Capcom raised button-mashing to an art form. And the latest Mortal Kombat has reinvented itself in the shadow of Virtua Fighter. It just goes on and on, and that's a good thing. I'm eager to see fighting games continue to evolve, to seek that almost Zen balance of increasing complexity and strategy with classic arcade immediacy. This is, at its best, the most competitive and satisfying multiplayer games to be had. (whew)

Wow. Daniel Thomas has solved the mystery of the fighting game universe. ^_^


It's the gaming equivalent of people passing up Lawrence of Arabia in favor of Jackass (which has recently happened at my house).

Then you have the people like me, who are satisfied with both SF3 3rd Strike and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. I also want to see Lawrence of Arabia and Jackass.....

[ubersaurus]

2D generally offers a better 2-player experience. If you're at least somewhat experienced with, say, Street Fighter 2, then "button mashers" won't be much of a problem. (This rule doesn't apply to the Marvel Vs. games, of course)

I can't see a button masher ever taking down an MVC2 player like Justin Wong or Duc Do, or John Choi(who's a really cool guy). Everything those guys do is like premeditated 3 seconds in advance and modified with how the match goes, I swear.

As for me, most 3d figthers just seem slower paced, and the faster paced ones aren't usually very good. Not all 3d games suck though...Virtua Fighter series is god.

[Kroogah]

Of course button mashers can't take down the best players in the world; I'm sure it's the same way with Tekken and SoulCalibur. However, it seems to me that Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 rewards aggressiveness a bit more than other Capcom games. I read about an MvC2 tournament where someone reached 4th or 5th place using RANDOM CHARACTERS!

[Atariguy]

And then there's the issue of controllers. It's almost impossible to really play fighters like VF4 or Alpha 3 or Third Strike with a joypad, and decent joysticks will cost you your first born kids. To this day, I still can't pull off fireballs and dragon punches on a pad with any consistency.
I started playing fighting games on a d-pad, so I actually prefer them to sticks. I don't see why people have problems doing the motions.

[Daniel Thomas]

And then there's the issue of controllers. It's almost impossible to really play fighters like VF4 or Alpha 3 or Third Strike with a joypad, and decent joysticks will cost you your first born kids. To this day, I still can't pull off fireballs and dragon punches on a pad with any consistency.
I started playing fighting games on a d-pad, so I actually prefer them to sticks. I don't see why people have problems doing the motions.

As it so happens, I've been playing a lot of Alpha 3 on my computer (these emulators should come pre-packaged with every computer), and playing with a Microsoft Sidewinder (or whatever the hell it's called) is torture. I have never been able to perform rotations consistantly on a joypad. And when it comes to Virtua Fighter, having a good joystick is downright essential. But that's just me, and I tend to get competitive with these type of games; I want to win.

[ROBOTRON]

I prefer 2-D period.

But Tekken Tag was good, so are Soul Calibur and Star Gladiator.

[Raedon]

My biggiest arcade moments were on 2D fighters so I'm all about them.. Only great arcade moment in 3D was Virtua Fighter 1

[batmanlivesatmyhouse]

I'm a console 2d fighter player, if that can be said. I grew up playing fighters on the joypad, and I can pull off all the moves smoothly. I'm not used to arcade sticks. Actually, one of the main reasons I bought a Dreamcast was because, besides the 2d fighting library, was that I could put in a controller adapter and plug in the BEAUTIFUL tiny, six buttoned Saturn controllers (the Saturn didn't have the later 2d fighter I wanted, like Capcom Vs. SNK 2). Alright, I'm done defending my joypad.

I don't know. 2d fighter just seem more fun to me. They have a bit of a learning curve, but they level off towards the upper tiers. To me, 3d fighers, you're either button mashing with Eddie Gordo or you spent years of practice and can pull off every single one of Lee's styles into a perfect fighting technique. 2d's just look better. I'm still not much a fan of the 3d games. 3d platformers, like Tomb Raider, not knowing really where you're going or jumping, have left a bad taste in my mouth. To me 2d fighters just have better, smoother game play and are fast and furious, with balances on offense and defense (with the exceptions, I think, of Soul Calibur and with the new Virtua Fighter). I play the 3d games, and I'm pretty good in DOA (which I absolutely love) and Tekken, but to me, the art of making 3d games hasn't been mastered yet.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

I love 2D games, maybe because i´m an old 2D player, but i think that they are more funny, they have more style...i don´t know...KOF is a cool saga and also Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, but, when SF EX and MK 4 appeared i don´t like it, they are different...i don´t know, they aren´t cool as their "2D little brothers". LONG LIFE TO 2D FIGHTING GAMES!!!!

[Neonsolid]

Gone.

[GameNinja]

I believe Smash Bros. would fall under 2d. I prefer 2d fighters because they are less realistic and I can perform insane super combos that look really flashy. I also find that the 2d fighters demand more perfection, and offer more of a challenge because of thier decieving simplicity. Just my humble opinion.

[Neonsolid]

Gone.