Sometimes, it's good fun to play fighting games. Not by yourself, but against friends. I've enjoyed it since my first computer, the Commodore 64.
My favourite fighting game then was the Way of the Exploding Fist, which was an excellent karate game. For a hit, you got half a point, for a perfect hit, you got a full point, and first person to reach 2 points won. And the sense of timing was excellent, none of that frantic combo button pressing that came later. You had to time your moves just right, as well as judge distance properly, or your opponent would get the upper hand.
Later on, when I had an Atari ST, one of my favourite fighting games was Barbarian. Mostly, it was because I was just crazy about fantasy games in general, but this game also had that same need for timing, though at a higher pace than Exploding Fist.
I still remember the first time I played Mortal Kombat. Played it for hours straight. It felt very new and fresh, as it was the first fighting game I played which had the up-up-left-right-punch-kick type of combos. It was really good fun, though it was a bit annoying when someone who hadn't played the game before could occasionally get lucky and beat you at it, just by randomly pressing every button on the controller...
And looking back, I have to admit that for me, Mortal Kombat (though I enjoyed it at the time), marked the end of proper fighting games. Pretty much every fighting game I've played since then, have had complex combos take the place of careful timing, and it's a shame, really. The oldschool fighting games was a game of skill and judgement, while most new ones are simply about controller dexterity...
If I ever get around to make a fighting game of my own, it will first of all be a 2D game, but more importantly, it will be about proper timing and judging of distance, and none of that combo-chasing nonsense :-)
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