Monday, March 02, 2009

Scratch Another Genre of Gaming from My Favorites

I came to a startling realization over the weekend, and I was in denial about it for a long time.

I just don't like fighting games anymore. It was like I was blocked about the whole thing, because I couldn't believe that somehow I didn't like something I loved as a kid.

So I kept buying titles from the Mortal Kombat, Tekken and Capcom universes to play and yet I was never satisfied. I just couldn't connect with them on some level, and while I may have been entertained for a few hours, I quickly gave up on each of those titles. Nostalgia wasn't enough. They ended up being a worst combination of frustration and boredom for me.



There is that phrase that is bandied about sometimes that insanity is repeating the same actions and expecting different results. Well, I think my behavior fell into the category.

I remember playing so many of these kinds of games when I was a child, and they never really failed to satisfy, but I think much like console role playing games, I outgrew them. There is some need that these one on one combat games just don't seem to fulfill anymore.

It is ironic that I came to this realization the weekend that the latest Street Fighter movie was released (and I may write something about that at a later date).

Yet strangely enough, if you take the same attention to fighting detail and take it from a one on one contest to a battle between one or a few against many, well, somehow those games still can captivate me.



So, the beat em up as a genre still works for me. I mean, I could play the above and games like it all day long. And I will be very afraid the day they no longer appeal to me.

2 comments:

Ravenblack said...

That's happened to me. I used to be really into RTS games (C&C, Warcraft, etc), but I don't like them anymore. It did take me a while to realise it and stop buying these games. There are some really good RTS but I just don't have interest to play them. It's hard to put in words why exactly. Maybe one is bored with the genre(s) that just never changes much after a while. It just plays all the same.

RB

MC said...

That's exactly my thought... fighters haven't really changed since 1991... and I've heard that RTS have the same kind of rut going.