[ThatPlayer]

"Cool characters with sick abilities beating each other up" is vague enough to describe any genre. It doesn't even describe gameplay. Could be anything from singleplayer (or co-op) beat 'em ups. Or a hack n slash like Dynasty Warriors . A turn based JRPG like Final Fantasy with flashy abilities like summons fits that description.

Anyways, to me the things that make fighting games difficult and fun are what differentiate them from beat 'em ups, which get pretty boring quickly.

I don't disagree that combos are not fun to learn, but I don't know what you could replace it with. Removing it would turns games into punch, punch back, kick, kick back without any risk or counterplay. Adding blocking/countering would have to be more complicated than just "hold block" to keep it interesting and would require memorization all your opponent's moves too. I'd say Tekken 8 already has this problem especially with King's chain grabs. So lots of games are going for auto-combos to make comboing easier instead.

I actually did play Skullgirls and Street Fighter 6 in a way without learning combos for a character. It's pretty easy with a zoner, and plenty of players hate playing against that too.

[happymellon]

> I don't disagree that combos are not fun to learn

But wasn't that one of the last points?

Rhythm games are fun.

[ThatPlayer]

Yeah, that's why I like that games are doing auto-combos instead.

I also enjoy rhythm games, but they're different combos. Especially for the learning process: you're really not punished for dropping combos in rhythm games, and you can keep playing as if you didn't drop it (unless you're going for the full combo of course). That's really not the case for fighting games, requiring you to restart to the beginning of the combo each time. And in a multiplayer game, it gives your opponent an opportunity each time.