Time's up
So I'm following Street Fighter x Tekken and lots of people are complaining that time outs happen rather often. For the sake of getting to the point, I'm not going to go into why this happening at the early stages of the game's competitive life, but rather, it gave me an idea. What if there was a fighter where time will ALWAYS run out no matter what? Sounds weird, I know, but I'll do my best to explain.
First off, here's Fighter's Destiny on the N64. It uses a different system for victory conditions instead of kill the other person X amount of times that's almost other fighter in existence. Fighter's Destiny uses a point system that is awarded for certain actions like ringing the opponent out wins one point or a "Special KO" would be five points. After every successful score, fighter's return to starting position and this continues until the first player scores the winning amount of points. Again, I only want to focus on the victory conditions, not the game's mechanics or quality. (which I would like to cover another time perhaps)
Okay, we got that. Now, back to the thought of what if time in a fighting game always ran out. That would be the point: To score more points before time is up. Much like in amateur wrestling but without the pinfalls that end a match immediately. Of course, we don't want match length to drag on and kill the excitement and intensity of a good fight, so how long is paramount. Rounds could be optional, but again, keeping interest is the key factor just in any game. And before anyone says anything, yes, I noticed the clock is disabled in the match video above, but at the same time, the point system can function just fine with a deciding amount.
Chances are, most would think that, more "realistic" types of settings like Fighter's Destiny are more suited for a fighting game would be perhaps be better suited for this kind of system as more sport than fight to the death. Most 3D fighters tend to lend more to the realism thing most of the time or combat sports games based of MMA, boxing and the like. But could such a system work for fighters where you throw fire from your hands, dive headfirst into someone's ribcage or teleport about the arena? Most would probably say no without even half a second of thought for too many reasons to list right now, but just as with any new or different ideas/mechanics/whatever there's always going to be hesitation and of course the bottom line: Will it sell?
There's plenty other directions where this can go such as the escapist fantasy vs. immersing realism debate in gaming and what not, but I'll stop here for now.
First off, here's Fighter's Destiny on the N64. It uses a different system for victory conditions instead of kill the other person X amount of times that's almost other fighter in existence. Fighter's Destiny uses a point system that is awarded for certain actions like ringing the opponent out wins one point or a "Special KO" would be five points. After every successful score, fighter's return to starting position and this continues until the first player scores the winning amount of points. Again, I only want to focus on the victory conditions, not the game's mechanics or quality. (which I would like to cover another time perhaps)
Okay, we got that. Now, back to the thought of what if time in a fighting game always ran out. That would be the point: To score more points before time is up. Much like in amateur wrestling but without the pinfalls that end a match immediately. Of course, we don't want match length to drag on and kill the excitement and intensity of a good fight, so how long is paramount. Rounds could be optional, but again, keeping interest is the key factor just in any game. And before anyone says anything, yes, I noticed the clock is disabled in the match video above, but at the same time, the point system can function just fine with a deciding amount.
Chances are, most would think that, more "realistic" types of settings like Fighter's Destiny are more suited for a fighting game would be perhaps be better suited for this kind of system as more sport than fight to the death. Most 3D fighters tend to lend more to the realism thing most of the time or combat sports games based of MMA, boxing and the like. But could such a system work for fighters where you throw fire from your hands, dive headfirst into someone's ribcage or teleport about the arena? Most would probably say no without even half a second of thought for too many reasons to list right now, but just as with any new or different ideas/mechanics/whatever there's always going to be hesitation and of course the bottom line: Will it sell?
There's plenty other directions where this can go such as the escapist fantasy vs. immersing realism debate in gaming and what not, but I'll stop here for now.
Labels: Fighting games, time out, video game design
posted by Unknown at 8:38 PM
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