I have this problem with most 3D fighters, particularly Virtua Fighter and Tekken. The stories interest me, and I like reading about the characters and their weird little backstories and habits (like that one guy whose got a grudge against a shark), but then... the actual games turn me off.

Main thing I hate is how precise everything is. You can't just do a command and get a move, its "do the command during one particular split-second frame of animation or else you get a completely different move" and that's just way too precise for a fast-paced fighter. Even then, when I see what a fight between decent or good players looks like, it's just... not as exciting as the over-the-top stuff you see in Samurai Shodown or Street Fighter.