There's Nothing As Satisfying As Winning At Fighting Games

thegamer.com:

I wouldn’t say I’m great at all that many video games. As is tradition for video game journalists, I often suck at them. I try to play quite broadly, and my general preference is single-player games, which you can be good at (playing on extreme difficulties, speedrunning challenges), but it has the considerable downside that none of your friends can watch you. Online games are the types of games I’m usually worst at, which isn’t great when you try to play against your mates. I might be the best at feeling the emotional resonance that echoes out from Telltale’s The Walking Dead, but that doesn’t stop me getting my ass handed to me in Valorant.

But fighting games have a unique magic to them. I do win at online games occasionally, of course. I’m moderately good at sports titles, and I’m competent enough to get a lucky break every so often in FPS games, but nothing has the thrill of fighting games. While far from my favourite genre, it is my favourite genre to annihilate my friends in, and maybe that’s enough.

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There’s always a sense of joy that comes with winning online games, but I think the joy of fighting games has a unique texture to it. Sports games, racing games, shooter games, puzzle games… it’s always satisfying to win. But fighting games have such an intimate dance between victory and defeat that the glory is so much sweeter.

Every other Thursday, we host a game night of TheGamer staff and I have always been a bridesmaid. Ahead of our Tekken tournament, I wrote about my anticipation for the contest and my time spent customising my characters, and how I was likely doomed to be a runner up again, but at least I might look good doing it. In the