As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
[Girl Fight] Coming to a Dreamcast near you?
Page-
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Since the 90s fighting games have had a sub-genre dedicated to all-girl casts of characters, usually based around common fetishes and stereotypes. Which is why they're also sometimes called loli fighters, and why many people who admit that even though some of them look decent, they wouldn't be caught dead playing them.
These games all came in the post-Capcom and SNK era, meaning that most of them were like every other fighting game at the time: cheap 2D fighting game clones, usually modelled on Street Fighter 2 or an SNK game, though they occasionally stretched their legs into more interesting territory. Touki Denshou: Angel Eyes, while an extremely ugly game--due to the rushed release that saw some characters added as normal 2D sprites and other as early-era sprite-based 3D models--was full of concepts like air dashes, chain combos, and super jumps, to the point where some people refer to it as the prototype for Arcana Heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB3A3VLIvtUAs you might suspect, most of these games were released only in Japan, and more than a few of them were eroge (pornographic) in nature and content, though even a few of those tried to do things with their gameplay. Another notable example is the long-running Variable Geo series--also notable for being primarily PC games, which would become a trend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJpGMIJKvYUFor the most part, these games lived and died alongside their more mainstream cousins. By the mid-2000s most every notable all-girl fighting game was a doujin (indie) game released for PCs, sometimes still with hentai content. Melty Blood, now a well established fighting game series with both arcade and console releases, began as a spin-off title for Type-Moon's Tsukihime eroge visual novel (which itself eventually became popular enough to spawn anime and manga adaptations that dropped the pornographic content).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4oS2A0kKPoWhile Melty Blood and Arcana Heart are the most well known loli fighters, there other little success stories, like Vanguard Princess, which is getting a localized console release. After they're done cleaning up excess panty shots. Though it won't be Vanguard Princess Prime because that will never be complete.
You may have noticed a trend here. Besides all being Japanese games, most every all-girl fighting game also falls under the sub-genre of so-called anime fighting games. That is, high flying, fast moving, long combos, and more sub-systems than you can shake a stick at. Because after Capcom stopped making 2D fighters all the smaller developers thought it was about time they stopped copying Street Fighter and started doing every insane thing they could think of. This makes them even less likely to catch on with a Western audience.
There have been some exceptions, like Konami's mediocre Rumble Roses games, in which all the fetish or swimsuit wearing wrestlers competed for humiliation holds rather than submissions. But for the most part a loli fighter is simply an anime fighting game with less amnesiacs and more schoolgirls.
The obvious elephant in the room would be Skullgirls, an indie fighting game with an all-female roster that was developed by people outside of Japan. And while it's neat and all, it's still pretty much a hybrid of popular Capcom gameplay and some anime fighting game stuff, and it's still 2D.
Why this wall of text before I say a single thing about the game I'm actually here to talk about? Because I want it to be clear that Girl Fight may be more than what it seems to be on the surface. I want everyone to give it a chance.
When was the last time we got a new 3D fighting game IP? Bloody Roar? Bushido Blade? Tobal? Fighting Vipers? Dead or Alive? All 90s. And even though Girl Fight might be even less 3D than Tekken, it's still 3D.
(Yes, yes, Deadliest Warrior. Whatever.)
Girl Fight is being made by Kung Fu Factory, formerly Just Games Interactive. Their entire resume is pretty much Mortal Kombat ports and MMA games, none of which I've played or heard anything that great about. And while that resume ain't a whole lot, it's still something. They say they're fans of fighting games, that this is a personal project. And I am a dirty, degenerate optimist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB9UEsdVjQYThis is going to be a moderately priced, digitally distributed game. I don't think they have ambitions of Girl Fight even getting a side tourney at any fighting game major. But if they try hard and pay attention it's still possible. People will play anything if it's half decent.
While little of substance is known about the game, not even the release date (Q2 2012), at GDC they finally showed some gameplay and we can at least begin speculating, which is something I enjoy.
What we know is that Girl Fight will have 8 characters on release, is priced under $20 US, and the game is based around an economy of unlocks and extras instead of an actual story mode. The stages themselves are fully 3D, feature at least some form of walls, but probably no ring-outs. Players will be able to equip special abilities to augment their character's movesets, like the different Arcanas in Arcana Heart. We've only seen the effects of a few: going invisible to regenerate health, bursting into flames to do extra damage, a damaging ground pound, and some sort of radial psychic explosion, and we've heard of some others, like Steel Skin, which allows a player to break out of combos or grabs. The characters themselves will have numerous options for, at least, cosmetic customization.
Sure, there's some story stuff in there. And, yeah, the entire design is basically Sucker Punch x The Matrix, with characters like Viper and Wrench using their imaginary, idealized digital avatars to fight both each other and their shadowy overlords. But it has built-in incentive to troll online ranked matches.
It still might be not awful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o__mBC9UXmwYes, the game is obviously banking on T&A to for initial appeal, but that doesn't have to be where it ends. At least I hope it isn't. I'm prepared to eat an entire flock of crows over this.
Competitive Gaming and Writing Blog Updated in October: "Song (and Story) of the Day"
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Page- on
0
Posts
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
With this, well, god speed. Though the previews look decent.
I might be willing to try it out someday, if the mechanics are enjoyable.
When did Arcana Heart get a male character? I never got to play 2 or 3.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
I think there's like... 5? Male characters in melty blood. Probably closer to 75-80% :P
Also was talking about melty blood with the male characters.
:?
Indeed.
Short version: There is a long history of t&a fighting games and some of them are really good. There is a long history of indie fighting games and some of them are really good. There is a much shorter history of non-Japanese fighting games, indie fighting games, and especially 3D fighting games, but it's still possible that they can be good.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
I guess it's just interesting to me that cartoon titties can sell a game to people.
If they're only depending on t&a to sell the game then I really hope they didn't put very much effort into it, because t&a has a bad track record for selling fighting games (and most other types of games as well).
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
The problem with all-women cast fighters is not the gameplay.
Eh, the gameplay was always my problem with DOA
I'd give this a shot though
That thread is the abysmal portrayal of women. It's entirely catering to men.
Just because there are men present doesn't mean that Mai, Cammy, Taki and Morrigan aren't completely catering to men
I don't see why all-female fighting games would be singled out
Your point?
I have never heard anyone describe DOA volleyball's gameplay as "solid"
The gals tend to be pretty diverse as well (at least in the games I've played. I will admit I've never touched an all girl, Japanese fighter, but it's really got less to do with anything gender related rather than me just not really caring for the extreme end of the anime spectrum). It doesn't change the fact that both genders get portrayed as a certain set of stereotypes. So both genders are used as wish fulfillment for guys, and? It doesn't make it any better. Hell, Street Fighter is absurdly racist, why is there almost no talk about that?
Funny how it's only when women are supposedly degraded that topics about fighting game character design like this crop up.
As for women diversity we had....oh right there was only one woman at the time. Then they introduced characters like, you know, Cammy. Which doesn't help whatever case you are trying to make.
I don't think the men have it nearly as bad in these games (or gaming as a whole) than women.
Yes, racism is also an issue, but that's not the topic at hand. Why are you so eager to constantly change the subject?
Note that men design gets criticized a lot, but for being bad design as opposed to anything more socially dubious. I dunno how many times I've heard people make fun of the meatnecks from Gears of War.
SNK's Gals Fighters
It's a Neo Geo Pocket exclusive SNK cross over fighting game. It's basically King of Fighters, only with only girl characters from all of SNK's fighting games. It also introduced Yuki, who prior to this game had only appeared in endings, who is Kyo's girlfriend (and essentially visually a clone of Sakura from Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha series, but gameplay-wise a clone of Kyo). There is also Mrs. X in the game, who is obviously Iori in drag, who doesn't fool any of the other characters.
Unlike all the other games you listed, it's not Loli, nor is it "post-SNK" by virtue of it's release. If you ever get the chance to try this game out, you should. It's pretty fun.
It should be noted that I'm not really arguing against you, but just pointing out that internet people always seem quick to jump on things when women are involved but things like stereotype based racism in games tends to just get ignored.
Side note: I really don't care about either topic because I'm an asshole, I just like poking at the argument itself to get people to justify themselves and their reasonings. Too often topics like this come up and people bandwagon ultra hard even though normally they don't actually give a shit. I like to head that off at the pass. Side side note: I'm not saying you're bandwagoning, because..well..there's no god damn wagon to get on right now and it's just us talking.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
If they made a fighting game with strong, realistic women who wore proper armour, it would appeal to women and men. I totally understand the concept of fanservice but I'm pretty sure Rule 34 is proof that people can sexualize anybody no matter what outfit they wear.
The gameplay might be fun, but it's the same thing as putting mud wrestling in the Olympics. It may be a difficult competitive sport but it's still offensive.
Man, YOU don't count
I dunno, have you ever been to LA?
More girls like her in games.
Also just wondering, how do people feel about women who enjoy cosplaying in pretty skimpy costumes? Just curious on everybody's opinions.
In the vast, vast minority of women, and to issue a tentative blanket statement probably with psychological issues. Or they're booth babes and they're getting paid.