Why Fighting Games Can't Win Game of the Year

GamerNode's Mike Murphy writes: "You're palms are sweating, nerves flaring. You grit your teeth as your brain sends the frantic commands to your fingers to move and press the appropriate buttons. The health bars are dwindling, and special move meters rising. You get off that perfect combo, land your finisher, and get the big K.O. It's an adrenaline-fueled competition that leaves you with a great rush whether in defeat or victory. You absolutely love the feeling and think this fighting game is absolutely great. But for some reason it doesn't strike you as Game of the Year quality, and you can't pinpoint why..."

[MariaHelFutura]

Sports, Fighting and Racing games don`t win GOTY.

Why I have NO f**king clue.

[gypsygib]

GOTY awards always go to a game with a decent story...not saying that a game wins because of the story just that a story seems necessary.

[MariaHelFutura]

Hmmmm. GT5 tells the best story about cars and how they handle. Does that count?

LOL.

[NnT3291]

I don't think it's because of the story. Sport, fighting, racing game don't win Goty because they dont have much room left for innovation. I mean they can upgrade new graphics, physics..etc, but the gameplay is pretty much the same.

[Mahr]

"GOTY awards always go to a game with a decent story"

I don't know, didn't Mario Galaxy win a whole bunch of those a few years back?

That game didn't even have a story.

[Honky Kong]

story shouldnt matter.

one fighting game worth game of the year would be a new smash, for 3ds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NoobSessions]

It can win my personal GOTY, and thats all that matters to me.

[tunaks1]

do GOTY awards really matter?
Just look at the scores [insert site here] gives [insert game here] and compare it to the rest.

[MariaHelFutura]

It matters to people who can`t think for themselves. Honestly, I don`t know if they matter at all though. Which puts a weird spin on if it matters.

:)

[MidnytRain]

Yes, but fighting games there are of high quality should be put in the limelight, though. Some actually do deserve it.

[SMOK3xFFx]

It's a time to shine the spotlight on a deserving developer(s) and honor their hard work on the best game that year with an award.

[MARKUS_MAX1MUS]

Its pretty obvious why, they are outdated and linear compared to action/adventure games but still great fun!

[lightningsax]

Your argument works when you're talking about a single-player experience. It lines up with the author's notion of narrative influencing GOTY awards, and in a way, he's right - review outlets are heavy on that stuff.

The whole thing just doesn't hold up when you get more than one fighting game fan in one room. We can linear-this and linear-that about a shoddily constructed Story Mode forever, but that's never what fighting games were about. The act of plopping two characters on the screen with some amazing control mechanics and leaving the imagination to the competing gamers is pretty darn non-linear in itself.

Well, it's non-linear until some *@#$!^ plays the Ken Flowchart. Then you're either following a plan or dying.

One thing the author didn't figure out was the whole soundtrack thing. Has he heard the soundtrack for SFII (Yoko Shimomura, btw) or 3rd Strike? If soundtrack really influenced GOTY, we'd still have 3rd Strike dominating the awards. That's how great those tracks were!

[kewlkat007]

I think back in the mid-90's when fighters were the cream of the crop..YEAH. These days....since Arcades have slowly died so have Fighters though they have made a great comeback with SF.

[jc48573]

let me do it

[Baka-akaB]

"But for some reason it doesn't strike you as Game of the Year quality, and you can't pinpoint why"

Actually they can and do for some of us . We just dont care about a pointless title like that , wich wouldnt happen anyway

[MidnytRain]

GotY awards aren't pointless. They obviously have some kind of purpose, otherwise they wouldn't exist. As stated above, good developers deserve a bit of recognition, such as actors deserve Emmys and Oscars.

[Baka-akaB]

it is pointless when the dice is meddled with . And it is .

Some categories of games are excluded from the get go for no real reasons despite having as many qualities as the titles from other genres .

Are you going to tell me that there hasnt been a racing game , as an example , that didnt embodies the best possible graphics , gameplay along with great multiplayer ? There have even been a few of those each year .

So how do they even lose against stuff like cod ? Arbitrary unwritten rules , and mainstream popularity above anything else

[Mayle]

I bet Street Fighter 2 won some game of the year awards but probably not all of them because it had some stiff competition...Good Year

[Kakashi Hatake]

@kewlkat007
actually Tekken, Soul Caliber, and Virtua Fighter have been doing well for themselves, with Tekken on par with SF in terms of popularity. Street Fighter just made a comeback for 2D fighting games.

[CharlesDCI]

The problem with fighting games is that studios don't think outside the box when it comes to how they are developed. If a fighting game actually had a intriguing story and a innovative control scheme it could very well be a contender.

[Neckbear]

"If a fighting game actually had a intriguing story"

BlazBlue.

"innovative control scheme"

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Too bad Continuum Shift got rid of it to appeal more to the "hardcore" crowd, but ah well.

[Baka-akaB]

like said above , it already happened multiple times .

And most fighting games got a story on par with dumb stuff like mw2 .

It's not a contender because it's deemed not popular and mainstream enough that's all

[Delriach]

This article was clearly written by someone that isn't invested into fighting games at all. There is just way too much discussion on story elements. Why would someone care about moral philosophies during fighting games or branching story elements or anything like that?

People that love fighting games aren't playing it for years because of its single player mode. I don't care if Chun-Li is trying to get vengeance for her fathers death. I'm playing it because of the gameplay and competition with others.

Look at what Street Fighter IV did for a genre that was nearly dead to the masses. A game that can do that is definitely something special. The fighting game scene is bigger than ever thanks to it and now there's a revitalization from tons of developers.

Is Marvel vs Capcom 2 the game that it is now because of its story? No. And yet, it's quite legendary. Look at Street Fighter II and all its iterations. These are games that are still played today and it's not because it has anything that this article mentions either. It's clearly a game that defined a generation and there is no reason as to why they can't be added to some arbitrary "Game of the Year" listing. After all, it's all about what the game means to you. And in terms of the Street Fighter IV series, it did something quite amazing that nobody could have ever expected. Whether you like it or not, you have to respect that.

Also, some of gamings more memorable music comes from fighting games. There's no reason why the soundtrack should at all be mentioned as a negative factor. Good music can exist in all games and the genre its in doesn't automatically exclude its awesomeness.

My GOTY for 2010 was SSFIV and I explained why. It goes beyond just pushing buttons. It has nothing to do with storylines or anything this article mentioned. It's about what the game did for me as a player. The genre doesn't matter.

http://www.ps3attitude.com/...

If you want a game that has moral dilemmas, deep storylines with amazingly written narratives, there are other genres out there to play. They don't all need to have such clear cut definitions as to what would make it a "Game of the Year" just because you think so. Some of gamings finest are classics like Street Fighter II, Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, etc. These are timeless games that couldn't be a "GOTY" according to this article.

[CrescentFang]

Hell yeah! I'm not a pro at fighting games, but I play with my cousin who loves them and he got me into them as well (he grew up with SF in the 90s', unlike me)
I gotta say I am glad you posted this :)

[iMaim]

What is GotY material, really?
Is it the production values of the game or is it something else like how much fun you get out of it?
Really, this topic is bit too subjective and it could raise a lot of unfavourable opinions upon the author.

[Samus HD]

Only Super smash bros Brawl could Win
but it didn't
so the next smash bros game is going to win for sure

[violent80sarcade82]

You want a fighting game with a good story then follow the street fighter series theres so many characters with diff stories from all over the world and capcom even made a cool 90's sf animated series and movies that they did a pretty good job with..sf tekken6 soulcal5 all have good storylines.