Kacii Redd Presents: The Titans of Fighting... Games.
Hey Suspended fans! (Hopefully you aren’t actually suspended in the air right now) It’s your wrestling PA, 3-Count, here to fill you in on my current situation. While on a break from wrestling I’ve thrown myself into a new ring, the fighting game ring! Obviously, I have been playing the two titans of the FGC, Tekken and Street Fighter, where my focus has specifically been on Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V. In between resting from both games, I boot up the 30th anniversary of Street Fighter and get to work on some classics like Alpha 3 and Third Strike (even getting some online action).
Why am I telling you all this? Well, it’s because I attack these games JUST like all of my other training, and I know how some of you wonder how I maintain such an amazing physique. I will give you my impression of each game I have been diving into, starting with Street Fighter. If you want to get into fighting games, Street Fighter is the basic one to get your feet wet. While growing up with multiple fighting games, my recent training inside the DOJO of SFV, I have learned a huge deal!
The skills learned while playing SFV have led to a better understanding of games like Tekken and even King of Fighters. In SFV, I prefer to main 2 characters, Cody Travers and Guile. Their characters speak to me, and I made sure to learn their basic moves inside and out in order to survive. Hours spent in practice mode learning how to control the character was similar to my hours spent in the gym learning perfect form; because you can’t immediately jump to the heavy weights, just like you can’t immediately jump into a tournament and win without consistent and concentrated training (if you expect to succeed). The good thing about SFV is that these skills learned are actually, for lack of a better term or phrase, backwards compatible. I use the same charge technique for Guile in Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter IV.
Alex (a returning character) also has the same moves in Street Fighter III Third Strike. Learning the ins and outs of a character are the best way to succeed. Starting off, Ryu is the most basic and easiest person to learn and his moves serve as the basis for multiple games in the FGC (fighting game community).
So, my fellow gamers, go ahead and get to Dragon Punching if you have been itching to play a fighting game! I suggest SFV and playing as what they call Shotos (after Shotokan karate), which includes, Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Sakura, etc. Use their basic moves to move on to more challenging characters such as Zangief or charge characters like Guile and Alex!
Next up, Tekken 7! Now this game has an all-star cast, featuring ALL STAR guests! Jeezus, the characters that appear here give the SFV cast a run for its money! We have SNK characters like Geese Howard, and Square Enix characters such as Noctis (final Fantasy) and even frickin' Negan! NEGAN! FROM THE WALKING DEAD!!! I was SO excited for some skull bashing with Negan. Anyway, back to the reviews, I prefer to get some fighting done with Lei and you guessed it, King. Now, making this a 3D fighter, it is a whole different animal than Street Fighter. However, after applying the same training principles I learned with Street Fighter, I was able to become a more serious gamer with Tekken then back when I used to button mash on Tekken 3 or try to hit Jin’s spinning lightning fist which I thought was the coolest damn thing (then they gave it back to Kazuya). The actual switch between the two games increased my street fighter playing, because of my ability to play both fighting games.
