I appreciate the respectful understanding that most people have given me in their responses. However, my opinion has not largely changed. Allow me to clarify my point. Despite the fact that you can "get used" to SF controls, and with enough practice, use them well enough without much chance of failure, it doesn't rationalize them to begin with in my eyes where more intuitive controls would be better. Video games have strived to take out the input delay and remove controller error potential, and I don't see this as any different. We're leading up to a future of playing video games directly with our minds someday, and few have complaints with such a cool idea. Having your moves easily at your fingertips is not just for amateurs or lesser players - it's just plain good design. To me, I see the SF style of controls to be a relic of an older time that no one is willing to speak ill of. It could undeniably be done more streamlined, but it's one of the few things that fans can cling to. It exists in such a modern game only because its the way its always been and people would freak out if it were changed at all, even for the better. For the less respectful people, I maintain that I am good at, but more importantly, have a lot of fun with the types of games I speak of. Beyond Smash Bros, there are several precedents of fighting games with simple controls that are nonetheless deep, so I am in no way "bad at" fighting games, or at least this sub-genre. But tooting my own horn is not the purpose. The fact that I've found these games immediately more enjoyable and less frustrating because of it, is. I don't really understand the modern usage of the terms "casual gamer" and "hardcore gamer" anymore. I'm always considered a hardcore gamer based on how much of my life games seem to consume, until I suck at something. Once I do poorly at even a single thing like this, I seem to be labeled as casual, regardless of how much of my life I throw at games or my previous title. Really, who cares though. Just don't think of me as any less of a human being just because I like "party games".
I am not trying to say that Smash Bros is better than Street fighter, no... But I do feel that the controls are an improvement, yes. I don't believe that simplified controls are meant for simpler gameplay, or as an "easy mode" for people that can't play. Smash Bros' simple controls doesn't just let it be accessible to me... it lets me pretty damned outstanding at it. It's all about knowing exactly what move you want to do, pressing a single input very quickly, and having your character perform that move guaranteed 100% of the time. In other control styles, but especially the joystick-spinning-heavy style of Street Fighter, it seems as if the skill is far more in figuring out how to make the moves work than knowing when to use them. To me, Smash Bros controls seemed like a great advance in game design on the genre, and I can't see why they're not more appreciated than they are.
Street Fighter has always been a series that I pick up every now-and-then determined to try my hardest, have a good time, and love it. I always go in with a great attitude, and yet time and time again, I leave disappointed. I just recently rented Street Fighter 4, thrilled by how awesome it looked and excited for some intense, lightning-fast matches. Several hours later, I was so depressed from losing for like the 50th time in a row that I never wanted to look at it again. To clarify, I am neither bad at games in general, nor am I a sore loser. I don't mind someone beating me in a game when I feel like its a fair fight. In every single Street Fighter game I've ever played, however, I've absolutely hated the control style. The whole system of making specific motions with the joystick seems finicky and easy to screw up, to the extent where the character doesn't do what you want them to do even if you know the input. It drives me crazy when I'm actually TRYING to spam hadoukens like a newb, and I can't even succeed at that, because one quarter-turn-forward-button worked and another did something completely different. I enjoy playing fighters on a higher level than mere button mashing, making it only more infuriating when you THINK you know what you're doing and the characters act randomly anyways. I can accept that I am "Bad at the game", but the issue is that I never feel like I'm learning from my mistakes or getting better, based on how random the game feels. I can't figure out what input does what moves, because they seem to almost keep changing, right in the middle of fights. All I can do is think, "Boy, it'd be really nice to use this move right now", knowing it won't happen. Sometimes I wonder if everyone in the entire world except me innately knows how to control Street Fighter characters. Personally, however, I don't see why the whole control scheme of wild joystick-twists and strange button combination ever got popular. Games like Smash Bros proved that having every single move in a game only require one single button and one single direction can work, and can still be deep and involved. I feel that Street Fighter could very well have similar controls, and would be funner for it. I could actually tell my character what I want him to do, and he'd do exactly that. But in all seriousness, my goal is not to hate. Quite the opposite, as I've mentioned that I really want to love Street Fighter games. They... just don't love me back.
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