Fighting games are quite strange beasts these days. The genre will always have its hardcore and professional fans - there's no doubt about that - but very few fighters manage to appeal directly to a more casual audience. The bottom line is that times have changed; we remember the days when Tekken, for example, was a massive deal on the original PlayStation, to the point where just about everyone we knew was willing to pick up a controller and give it a go. Now, it almost feels like fighting games exist within their own bubble. They don't get a huge amount of mainstream coverage, and even when they do, the fresh news may not be all that enticing to those who don't frequently dabble in the genre.
Titles like Street Fighter V - as great a game as it is - certainly don't help. A fantastic time at its core, Capcom's latest is a brilliant one-on-one brawler, but its sales have recently fallen off a cliff. Why? Well, it's partly because it just doesn't appeal to that wider audience. More casual players don't want to sit and grind through online battles in order to unlock newly added characters - many of them just want some good old fashioned single player content.
With that in mind, we think it's somewhat safe to say that a lot is riding on Tekken 7. The game's due out in early 2017 on PlayStation 4 after spending years in Japanese arcades, and given the overall popularity of the series, there's some pressure on the upcoming release to resonate - and not just with the hardcore crowd.
Fortunately, it sounds like Bandai Namco knows what it's doing. In an interview with GameSpot, producer Katsuhiro Harada talks about what modes players can expect from Tekken 7 when it launches on consoles. "Obviously we don't want to change the formula people expect," says Michael Murray, who's a designer on the game and Harada's translator. "That said, with all the Tekken games, we always add extra content [to the console release]," he continues. "One of the big features is the story mode, in addition to the arcade mode. Other modes, for example, consist of some type of gallery that allows you to catch up on story elements of the past instalments."
So, we can at least expect a full cinematic story mode, a traditional arcade mode, and some other new features when the sequel hits PS4. On top of that, we imagine that the likes of a standard versus mode and Tekken's trademark ghost mode will also make a return. In other words, this probably won't result in another Street Fighter V situation.
How important is a fighter's single player content to you? Do you enjoy playing against computer controlled opponents, or would you rather just get stuck into the online portion of the release? Throw out some complex combos in the comments section below.
[source gamespot.com]
Comments 15
I generally enjoy single player content of fighting games - so good news. Of course this kind of games' longevity is dictated by online mode and community though.
My prediction for Tekken 7 is that it is gonna be a big commercial success on consoles but the FGC won't embrace it as strongly as SFV for some weird reason. I can't feel too much hype around the title like shoryuken.com or event hubs.
Can't come out soon enough btw
Smart of them to learn from other's mistakes. Bring it on.
Good timing, my 11 year old son and I were discussing what fighting game he should get for Christmas alongside DBXV2 which we agreed isn't really a fighting game. It was pretty much between SF4 and Tekken. He didn't want SF5 b/c he heard bad things about it. Mortal Combat ain't getting past his mom. He's never mentioned DOA ever. Maybe I'll just get him Tekken on Wii U for $5 used.
As for me, I only play story modes, fighting for fighting sake bores me. Injustice had a great story, it was worth $5 just for that. My entire family laments the lack of story mode in Super Smash Bros U, Subspace Emmisary in Brawl probably got 200 hours of playtime between the 3 of us. Also while I'll never play any multilayer in any Uncharted game. I do like fighting within a story driven game, R&C or DmC arenas, but they're an occasional side distraction.
Mortal Kombat X sold really well.
Single player is pretty important, obviously. I was a casual Tekken player for years before I caught the online bug with Tekken Tag 2. Tekken's always had the works: Story battle, Arcade, Time Attack, Survival, Team battles, and even those side games such as Tekken Bowl, Tekken Force, and T5's Devil Within. There's never really been a shortage of something to do.
I'm really looking forward to how they do the story mode. It sounds really interesting from what I've been seeing.
@Feena Unfortunately, Tekken's community has kinda slid off. Online you might not find too many players without running into the same guys, and on websites like Tekken Zaibatsu (which I'm a member of) you'll likely find many of the same people posting. It's not puny, but you'd expect more from TZ, since it's probably the best known Tekken fansite out there.
Another thing I think contributes to this is that Tekken is more complex and difficult to get into compared to other fighters like Street Fighter if you want to learn the game. In addition to that (and this I'll readily admit), the game is honestly kinda dull to watch if you don't have an appreciation for it, and even then it can still make you yawn. Tekken can be exciting at times with it's juggle combos, but it's overall a more cerebral game than 2D fighters like Street Fighter and Killer Instinct, which are more fun and eye catching to watch.
I can't wait to see what the collector's edition is gonna look like
@DerMeister I agree about everything, the basics of something like Tekken (not to mention VF) take much more time to learn properly but I would say high level execution is a lot more difficult for Street Fighter than Tekken though.
@Feena It's been a while since I've touched Street Fighter, so I'll take your word for it. Tekken definitely has an execution barrier though, as I've learned playing Nina.
Mortal kombat x and injustice story mode is so good, it's the standard of single player fighting game. I hope tekken 7 has a story mode & single player arcade mode with characters ending like mortal kombat x.
@DerMeister @Feena Honestly I find 2D fighters to be far more technical in general - but that might be because I grew up playing Tekken. In that sense, I agree that the execution is way more difficult to grasp in a game like Street Fighter. But again, might just be me.
@DerMeister @ShogunRok that's the same way I feel, especially for high damaging combo strings etc. Btw I am a Nina player too ^_^
Street Fighter V definitely lacks the single player content, but if your willing to play others online then it's one of the best fighters out there. I switch back and forth with that and KOF14. And I play Killer Instinct and Dead or Alive 5 LR on the Xbox One. Can't wait to add Tekken 7 to the list of fighting games I play. It's gonna deliver the goods for single player and online. Just need to confirm Julia Chang.
@Feena You must know the struggle to get good with Nina. I started learning her after she was confirmed for 7, and wow, her combos are currently more painful for my hands instead of my opponents!
I'm traditionally a Lee and Hwoarang guy (not easy characters either), but I've picked up Leo and Lars thanks to Tag 2.
Street Fighter 5 is fun, worth £20, but as alluded to in the article the business strategy is / was a joke. As a pro player I can imagine its a great game, but for casual players its crap as an example; I played my son last week at SFV and we quickly picked characters....
Where's all the stages?
first match finished pretty lopsided obviously so I let him play around with the game.
Actually where are all the characters and why does Ken look like that? What the hell is this story mode? What's going on with Dhalsim?
He quickly forgot about single player and I beat him in the second match.
What's with all the new bars around the side? Why has the game changed so much? SF4 is well better.
I beat him in the third match
Shortly after we threw USF4 on the x360 and had a great time and my son was confused as to what he's just played in SF5. It may have garnered good scores, but its obtuse, small minded, incomprehensibly different and silly outside of the pro gamer circle. Why put in cut scenes of bananas falling on characters heads when another 5-10 real stages are what's needed? As mentioned previously I enjoyed the multiplayer night we put on a few weeks ago and some of the players that night, commenters on this site no less, are brilliant and talented and its a sight to behold watching you guys. But watching my son lament every major flaw without reading a single review and within 20 minutes proves SFV is a crock.
@DerMeister I stuck with her from the start so it's more finding out what's changed and if she has some new tools but yeah definitely needs some work to build that combo muscle memory (all do but some more than others) . The closest thing I have to a second character is Ling Xiaoyu! Love her quick style and all the mind tricks...a bit gimmicky maybe? I might also give Akuma a try, just to see how he translated to Tekken.
@themcnoisy you didn't like the story mode? I think its one of the best ever as far as fighting games go! Also SF4 is way more obtuse imho: 1 frame links combos? Focus cancel dash? Steep steep entry barrier. It's also not very fair to compare SFV to USF4, That is the FOURTH incarnation of the game and SFV has barely been out 9 months now...we have 22 (soon 23) character as opposed to the 19 in vanilla SF4.
We definitely need more stages (but I love the transitions/ goofy stage KOs) can't agre more with that... but more 1P content is surely on the way (arcade mode, Extra battle modo, Dan's dojo) so don't give up on the game and your very nice Ryu!
Tap here to load 15 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...