I've been thinking a lot about the accessibility of fighting games lately. Particularly because much of the target audience of UFC 2009 Undisputed (which I’m an intern on) hasn’t been playing them regularly for the last 15 years. The popularity of the fighting genre exploded in the early 90s (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat), peaked in the mid-late 90s (Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Soul Calibur), and has been on the decline ever since. A major factor for the decline has been that fighting games became increasingly complex over the years in order to appeal to their hardcore players. Not surprisingly, this made them inaccessible to most casual and new players. Many video game genres have been guilty of this (first-person shooters, real-time strategies, and sports, to name a few). But unlike these other genres, fighting games lost their primary platform in America after arcades became all but extinct. With its audience dwindling, it has become essential for fighting games to be both marketable and accessible to new players. UFC 2009’s license to the world’s premier MMA (mixed martial arts) promotion makes it marketable to a new audience of MMA fans. The question is, how do you make the fighting mechanics accessible to someone that has no idea how to perform Ryu's Hadouken in Street Fighter (down, down-toward, toward + punch)?
Due to the complexity of move inputs and each character having different inputs for their many unique moves, fighting games usually require a significant amount of knowledge and skill to execute the more advanced moves. The Hadouken is a good example of this, although some can get much more difficult, (King's chain throws from Tekken, anyone?). An expert player must memorize the correct inputs of up to 100+ moves per character and practice for hours to be able to execute each of them reliably. I suppose it could be argued that this sort of training is analogous to actually learning a martial art. Unfortunately, the average player just doesn't have the discipline for a fighting game that requires so much commitment.
I believe the answer lies in simplifying the interface while maintaining as much depth in the fighting mechanics as possible. My philosophy is that performing moves in a fighting game should not require any skill. Ideally, move inputs should be simple and intuitive enough that a beginner could potentially figure out and reliably execute every move in the game. But doesn’t that just reward button-mashers? Yes and no. A beginner may be able to do all the moves, but an expert would know how and when to use those moves in any given situation. Let's look at a few examples.
As an early fighting game, Street Fighter had to be much simpler than modern fighting games in order to attract new players. The basic moves are executed by pressing one of the 6 attack buttons (light punch, medium punch, heavy punch, light kick, medium kick or heavy kick) while standing, ducking or jumping. Each character only has a few special moves with unique inputs, so the majority of the moves are simple enough for beginners to use. Despite being a modern fighting game, Soul Calibur is relatively easy to learn even though it has lots of moves. The basic moves are executed by pressing one of 3 attack buttons (horizontal attack, vertical attack or kick) while standing, ducking, jumping, running, side-stepping or pressing a single direction (away, down-away, down, down-toward or toward) during the attack. Each character has plenty of advanced moves with unique inputs too, but there are enough simple moves for beginners to get started. Although it isn't considered a traditional fighting game, Super Smash Bros. is perhaps the best example of this philosophy because it caters to a broader market of casual players. Basic moves are executed by pressing the attack button while idle or pressing a single direction (up, down or left/right) on the ground or in the air. "Smash Attacks", or powerful moves, are executed by pressing the attack button while tapping a single direction. Special moves are executed by pressing the special move button (could it get any simpler?) while idle or pressing a single direction. There are really no advanced moves with unique inputs, so literally every move in the game is simple enough for beginners to use.
If you ask me, the popularity of these games is largely due to the accessibility of their interface design. Each of them has plenty of simple moves that can be performed with a single button either by itself or with a single direction. And although every character may have unique moves, the inputs for at least the basic moves are consistent across all characters; using the same input on a different character will always produce a similar move. The implementation of this philosophy is a fighting game that is easy for beginners to learn how to play. Of course, it takes a lot more than accessibility to make a good fighting game (such as deep fighting mechanics and balanced characters), but I believe it is the key to reviving a once-formidable genre. Thoughts?