What Went Wrong With Fighting Games In 2024?

[@KennyCombo]

Why mike out here looking like kuzan aokiji😂😂

[@Kai-jn7pn]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@ashbha4138]

Oh fuck, I just noticed😂

[@Animavestraisjuggernaut]

I think he look kinda fire

[@RealMikeHollow]

IIIIIICE AGE ❄️

[@angel2x813]

Brody why are you with black beard ?

[@ggmasterguiltygear6315]

Games used to be close to 50% offense 50% defense, now a days they're 85% offense and 15% defense, cuz casuals dont like to block and it looks "Boring". it has to look exciting even when your just button mashing, you can do combos without having to lab for hrs, and the comeback mechanics will be the perfect crutch for yer lack of skill. Oh and dont worry if the game seems unfinished, we'll get around to it...Trust me bro.

[@JosephDGuedes]

Unless this makes FG flop, this is the future of FG

[@GFClocked]

Don't forget my personal pet peeve that fighting games in 2025 still use 60fps EVEN THOUGH THERES NOTHING REQUIRING IT AND THEY COULD EASILY DO AWAY WITH THIS REQUIREMENT. The only reason they keep doing 60fps is because 'its how it's been done', a very infamous japanese way of doing things. And before people try to call me out, I've heard all the silly comments and unless you're an engine/networking programmer please don't.

[@alexey635able]

Except if you are a Granblu Rising

[@welsh_steel2285]

If casuals had some form of decent hand holding in Tekken 7 I'm sure they would of enjoyed the hell out of the esports defensive playstyle hype of T7 but sadly its viewer demographic never quite broke into mainstream but it felt like that kind of Tekken was almost on the right path. Now Tekken is just another arcade game that's never gonna hit any pinnacles.

[@davidparry5310]

@@welsh_steel2285 You say that as though there weren't already significant dumbing down and moves to cater to casuals in T7 (e.g. the watering down of the execution aspect of combos of certain characters, such as Dragunov and King, the nerfing of movement with the express aim of 'lowering the skill gap').

[@mansmo9513]

The Electric Underground described this as the "tragedy of fighting games." casual players dictate the direction of new game, leading to changes that longtime players dislike. The community migrates to the latest supported game, causing the competitive scene of the older game to fade away. rinse, repeat. One solution he proposed is implementing a highly advanced AI to simulate the multiplayer experience to keep the older games alive.

[@tokyobassist]

Tekken, Virtua Fighter and a ton of other games have and still do that. That doesn't fix the problem at all.

[@SolidSnake240]

Electric Underground is a dope channel. Love Mark's insights

[@blumiu2426]

The casual audience has changed, though. Word gets around faster now, too. People will eventually drop a game once they've gotten a lot out of it and will be a smaller number naturally that stick around to master a character. Same with unlocking all the content in other games. Casuals now play a character they like and move on or a new release distracts them. Attention spans are shot, so it happens far more frequently. Add on a favorite streamer or KZbinr moving to another game for content and they will, too. I consider myself a casual, yet I'd play fighting games for long hours or keep coming back to them for months. I'd get high up in ranking if had the mode as I could until trashed thoroughly and couldn't go further. I'm talking sweaty armpits, sore thumbs and fits of rage. Casuals now are easy mode, not a game being easy to get into.

[@fdnfdnasd7714]

​@@tokyobassistAi in tekken 7-8 is very bad and broken, it's not really interesting to play with him. If conpare for example with DOA4, where ai use all basic mechanics and even can show you how to play in this game, he use dash, duck on throw, evade or hold straight move if you charge it without combo or stun. He basically can beat you. I only know several game where ai is not scripted, and it really know how to play his own game. Tobal 2 on PS1 - is a very great example, this game played well even now in 2024. And Garouden: Fist or Twist from PS2 (really cool game also, you can literally beat teeth from enemy mouth and see it in game). I'm talk about 3D fightings ofcourse. Breakers revenge also have not bad Ai. GGX reload if you play like "average" player is not bad as ai, for 2D games.

[@Marisquizo]

Extremely common Electric Underground W

[@JamesBilliam]

Honestly, my biggest issue with SF6 is the fact that in order to buy DLC character separately, you have to buy into their premium currency. So even if you just want, let's say: Akuma. You gotta spend $10USD for one character. When the character itself costs 350 tokens, which would be around $7-8 USD. I understand the frustration with the outfit and character release too, but honestly, compared to everyone else. It's in a good state.

[@JusaWanderer]

Yep, outside of a "lack of content," which all FGs go through after launch, SF6 is in a pretty good place. Other complaints are something ever SF goes through.

[@Animavestraisjuggernaut]

1. Ignores community feelings 2. No constructive criticism 3. Balancing issues 4. Monetization practices 5. Bad dlc 6. Forced mixups and neutral skips

[@RealMikeHollow]

Valid ☝🏾

[@fredericksacramento677]

​@@RealMikeHollow 7. Wifi issue 8. Regional servers 9. Plugging 10. Players doing FTW 1

[@Gachagarry]

11. Pushing agenda

[@Iwisoks]

Under night has none of those problems, why dont people play the game😭

[@Animavestraisjuggernaut]

@ what’s under night

[@terrysalt]

My issue with the SF6 monetisation is the need to buy Capcom Bux that are packaged in such a way that you have to overspend in order to buy anything.

[@Mokujinko]

You deserve every bit of success come your way mate, belting channel you've worked hard on. Happy New Year

[@RealMikeHollow]

Thank you, brother. I'll do my best 🫡 Happy new year 🎊

[@erichthegraham]

I feel like the street fighter situation is totally overblown, people just like being dramatic. It is perfectly normal and rational to want to play a game less after 2 years of study. At that point, it just becomes part of your rotation of fighting games, and it's perfectly normal to think about a previous game you liked that is similar and want to play it. If SF6 and SF4 had the same netplay experience (equivalent netcode and player counts/queue times), then I would play both roughly equally. I kind of hate the mentality of only wanting to play the new thing, fighting games are a much more timeless genre than any other, as long as you have decent opponents you can get good matches. So the only struggle is that some people look down on older games like they are less worthy for some reason, but fighting games innovate laterally more than vertically. Lots of things that are considered bad design now are what make games like HNK, for example, super unique. Hokuto No Ken is a classic BECAUSE it's so poorly designed that it's amazing the things you can do, and circles back to being good. Some people like that crazy Sailor Moon game for the same reason, even a broken mess is fun if you can get good matches, it's all about mentality. Anyway, I'm just saying, it's perfectly normal for people that like SFV to want to play it more. I don't like SFV, but I'll never completely get tired of SF4 and would love to rotate it in with 6, so I feel what SFV fans are going through, especially since I felt the same way about 4 being better than 5. They can even claim that it's a better game if they want, it didn't hurt SFV when I claimed that 4 was a better game, same is true here. Some people will enjoy it and come back, others will discover SF6 is not for them, and that's fine. As FGC fans we don't have to limit ourselves to only playing the new thing, shoot JWong has been playing almost nothing but MVC2 since the collection dropped and it's still great content. I do wish they would focus more on content for the people that actually play the game though, more costumes would be welcome.

[@aarong8099]

Thank you for being someone with some common sense.

[@erichthegraham]

@@aarong8099 It's a tough job, but somebody gotta do it

[@irishpizza2823]

Personally, I bounced off SF6 the hardest out of the new big 3. Music is lame and feels very low energy, roster is extremely underwhelming and played way too safe, and the drive system just suffocates a lot of the aspects that make Street Fighter interesting.

[@Blast_S_rank_1]

Games are made for casual audience not pros. People just need learn that simple truth.

[@theretrogamingnerd3316]

And they should be made for casuals and not pros. Casuals are the main people buying them.

[@JosephDGuedes]

And there will never be a middle ground. Pros like the execution and difficult, casuals can’t do it and they drop after story mode or campaign, and don’t buy the DLC characters. So for a dev and enterprise perspective, this is the future

[@davidparry5310]

​@@theretrogamingnerd3316The problem with this is that, in alienating the hardcore player base in the (futile) hope of trying to make the casuals more likely to buy the game and stick with it, you're shrinking the pool of talent from whence the competitive players of tomorrow are drawn. A stale competitive scene, due to a dearth of fresh blood, makes it more difficult to create an atmosphere of hype around your game, and thus to market it.

[@davidparry5310]

​@@JosephDGuedesDumbing the game down isn't going to make the blindest bit of difference either to the casuals' willingness to buy the game nor to their inclination to stick around.

[@Gachagarry]

Pros are a very small percentage (there is no such thing as GG Strive pros. It's leftists being bullies in a scene).

[@ZolPsyko]

I think people's standards are higher now when it comes to games. Fighting game players have been getting the bare minimum from these companies for years and are starting to realize what they're missing when they look at other genres. Tekkens monetization is insane, MK1 is a mess, SF6 has a very lackluster roster, and Fighterz is in a dumpster fire.

[@youngmerc7717]

Yeah this is it right here, I also feel like most players want longevity on their games nowadays rather than a new game every other year *cough* *cough* *NetherRealm*, but it’s really hard to justify it when character updates drop every 3-4 months, I get it takes time but games do benefit from character releases especially when the roster sucks a ss like sf6

[@MasterSprintersan1]

It sure feels good being a KOF fan these days to me ❤

[@D-95x]

Just wait until Cristiano Ronaldo gets added to the new Fatal Fury, you'll see...

[@MasterSprintersan1]

@ Lol. Gosh damn 😂

[@SubliminaIMessages]

Devs are dumbing down their games to pull in a new audience, but it’s at the expense of their old audience. It honestly feels like fighting games are struggling to adapt to the current gaming climate.

[@NicholasRivers-e8t]

Brother Mike dripped tf out. Happy new years King!

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year bro 🥳

[@Kai-jn7pn]

Happy new year Mike. Best youtuber in 2024 for me :)

[@RealMikeHollow]

Haha thank you. That's very kind. Happy new year ☝🏾

[@Kevensue]

Its always fun listening to your perspective and can't wait to see more in 2025, Happy New years!

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year 🎉🎉

[@omarmoreno3758]

Glad to hear that your channel is going well. Happy New Year and , hope for a better one for all man.

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year bro and thank you 🙏🏾

[@maxwellase8027]

Happy New Year Mike. Wishing all the best the new year has to offer 🙏🏾

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year bro. Thank you 🙏🏾🎉

[@Onoitsbroko]

I honestly believe that the majority of what happened this year is simply due to the overall greed of the gaming industry this is year. There was disaster after disaster across the entire industry. I'm happy that people are voting with their wallets and teaching these publishers a lesson. It's time for these companies to listen to us and what we actually want.

[@GotekSC]

I'll believe that when people finally stop preordering or buying early access games, as that is an entirely irrational choice which potentially rewards malicious publisher/developer behavior for no gain to the customer. You would think it is in the best interest of a customer to make an informed buying decision trying to get the best deal possible. Hell, I waited for weeks after launch with T8 and still got fucked by their decision to put in the battle pass and store *after the fact*.

[@nicholas8363]

Happy new year Mike defo the best channel I have discovered this year big up 🙏

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year, brother ☝🏾and thank you. That is very kind.

[@bandyjb1]

Really loved the outro. See in you 2025 bud stay strong 💪🏾

[@RealMikeHollow]

Thank you, bro. Happy new year 🎊

[@ahmadhamza1871]

Crazy ass indie fg came out called coreupt where devs spent like 15 years on and it has graphics lobbies and other features big fg have but the fgc doesn’t acknowledge indie fg much. The fgc has so many expectations of a fg while fg are one of the hardest games to develop making it not worth indie time. Add rollback as a standard and now indie devs have a whole new hell to deal with. Developing fgs is still probably the worst avenue for minor success in all of game dev. If consoles posted player counts then it would help the idea of “is this even worth making” believe steam gamers won’t attempt a fg unless its player count is shown which requires like 400 people on it at once for it to start showing. It’s just rough spot.

[@GotekSC]

Rollback netcode is not hard. It's the standard. In the rest of multiplayer gaming industry its just called "netcode". FPS have done this for 25 years, sometimes called "lag compensation" there. It operates on the basic assumption that if a player is pressing X button during frame 1, that they will still be pressing X button in frame 2, and only correct if that basic prediction was not right. It's laughable that it took decades for the major fighting games to adopt that, but at the same time not surprising, as japanese devs are shit in general when it comes to netcode and online in gaming since the culture is so isolationist and they basically assume everyone is playing with 5ms ping living in Tokyo. Delay based, or Lockstep Netcode has its place in RTS games, where you have tons of different units fighting at the same time, with tons of damage calculations going on at the same time, where the math has to be deterministic.

[@ahmadhamza1871]

@ This is an oversimplification of two types of netcode. Both types of games require completely different networking requirements which make implementation of them extremely different. This comes off as you can just throw lag compensation onto a fg. Rollback assumes the most recent input continues until a new one is received and rollbacks the games state when there’s a discrepancy. FPS games for example don’t require any where near this accuracy so they opt for lag compensation. Rewinding the Server’s game state to when a shot was fired. The reason rollback took so long to implement isn’t just the technical knowledge but the implementation and making sure there isn’t any bugs like teleporting characters or moves startup looking different to what comes out. FPS can pretty much hide these latency issues using lag compensation.

[@ahmadhamza1871]

Very different than rolling back. If rollback was even close to other game requirements we would have already had it. Rollback is also more expensive on the cpu and memory. Rollback 4 frames and computation load multiples maybe 5x. It’s extremely niche and I’m not even talking about good rollback just rollback in general. lag compensation etc is built into many game engines except unreal and rollback you need to make big changes to the game engine from scratch to have it. And if I bring this back to making an indie fighting games then rollback as well as standards for graphics and on top of that the difficulty of making a fighting game system. Indie for fg devs is very tough even with GGPO being accessible. Even for big companies FighterZ and sf5 had extremely bad rollback for a while. Can’t speak on rts games.

[@THSigma420]

Happy New Years 🎉 Cheers to another year of great content to come.

[@saviormonroe-lh7oh]

Will this be followed by what went RIGHT with fighting games in 2024? Let's go into the new year on a positive note instead of dwelling on what went wrong ONLY. Otherwise, good content.

[@MrFamous1996]

I honestly think the worst thing that can happen, is no communication with developers and fans, if the devs don’t update their fans, then that’s how the fans will stop caring later on. Its the effect that MK1 is having atm. I only touched Ghostface once and haven’t played since then lol.

[@Boltscar327]

Enjoyed your content all year, Mike. Happy New Year!!🎆

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year bro 🎉 and thank you 🙏🏾

[@YondaimeBrito94]

Happy new year Mike!

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year 🎊

[@N00BSYBORG]

SF6's problems mostly stem from the game feeling stagnant. The beta was cracked like 6 months before it was released. So we went into it already knowing a lot and the game has hardly evolved since then. The balance patches were nice but did little to move the needle from a meta perspective. The same top-tiers are still getting away with murder, DLC characters are few and far between, cosmetics that people would actually like are also very sparse while also being ridiculously overpriced, throw loops are still present, game is still neutral skip city, and you're punished with obscene damage if you make one mistake. The biggest change to the meta was Akuma and Bison dropping as strong as they are. Still a way better game than SFV ever was though lmao. And with all that out of the way, Happy New Year bro.

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year, brother ☝🏾

[@erik_kun85]

Thanks for all your hard work Mike and have a safe and Happy New Year.

[@RealMikeHollow]

Thank you, bro. Happy new year 🎊

[@XcutAngel]

I think WB pulled the plug on MK because theyre ignorant to what gamers want. It's a fighting game, not a netflix special. Why on earth are you extending the story? To introduce the new characters? Trust me: just provide the new characters and let the community sell them. They waste all their production costs on giving a ridiculous african accent to a cyber ninja, when all people wanna do is play cyrax and hear robot sounds and use/fight new characters generally. Maybe dress their character differently. But what does MK do? Makes idiotic grindy single player nonsense, useless story additions the team will no doubt retcon anyway because duh, and provide stringent customization options that disappear for the sake of fomo. It's just mismanaged and nobody wanted to stick around to deal with it.

[@erichthegraham]

Re: Sparking Zero tournament. The only thing I would change is that those players shouldn't have been banned. By banning the players, especially since they patched it right after, all they did was set the precedent that the official tournaments are not worth participating in. Now, I and many others will never be able to take any tournament seriously, at least not until Sparking Zero Point 2.

[@IRod641]

Happy New Year! Your input into the community has been very informative. Let's hope that Tekken doesn't put any more characters with installs. 🎉

[@RealMikeHollow]

Thank you, bro. Happy new year 🎊

[@Awesmic1]

TL;DW: Greed, lack of (productive) community interaction between devs and players, and the hyperbolically negative nature of FGC social media.

[@jaydagoat946]

Happy new years mike hope u have a blessed 2025

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new years bro

[@NumbersLetters_]

Happy New Year brother. Looking forward to 2025

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year, bro 🙏🏾

[@tylercafe1260]

In my personal opinion? It's because Fighting Games have never changed. We look at very minor quality of life improvements as "huge" when there's so much more being neglected about Fighting Games. I find discussions around Mortal Kombats Story Mode to highlight a particularly niche part that's neglected in almost every other fighter. But besides that the particularly unexplored side of "Storytelling in Fighting Games" most of it is basically the same. Top Tiers define the meta in a way that's not fun. Low Tiers are characters who functionally do not work. This has never changed.

[@leonleon3267]

And the funny thing is people would have to believe that fighting games are the best they've ever been, i think there's way too much toxic positivity and too much trolling, how often do you see people in the middle where they can offer praise and yet call something out when it's not right? it's a constant battle of shills VS trolls it's made the fighting games a really nasty place to be around

[@thecoomchalice5441]

Their pursuit of tryna make the genre more accessible has resulted in this gen of fighting games being hilariously dumbed down and alienating the primary demographic of established genre veterans AND the new blood who would actually prefer to get into the genre and learn it properly is my personal take.

[@tokyobassist]

I'm glad to have stumbled across your channel this year dude! Hopefully I can catch ya on your Discord sometime.

[@RealMikeHollow]

Thank you, sir. You'll definitely find me lurking in there from time to time 🎉

[@Widowmain806]

happy new year mike!!!!

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year 🎉

[@RomeoTheBeast11]

Man this video just reminded me of how much I miss MKX

[@zacharyfayant5717]

For the point about sf6 guest characters I can agree that it should focus on the classic sf characters first but maybe every other pass or every 3 they add 1 or 2 guests as long as they fit, I got the game because I wanted to play Terry and I'm sure lots of others wanted to play the game for him too and both him and mai fit sf6. The difference with guests for sf6 I'd say is they should stick to only fighting games if capcom wants to add more guests but I agree they should wait at least one character pass before they add anymore if they do again

[@Luqas808]

Yellow is my favorite color 😅. Congrats on the success. I'm so glad to return to the FGC haven't really dedicated hours to it since arcades and PS2, now I'm back with MK1 which I honestly feel has incredible gameplay, sucks that's it's so divisive. Also looking to get back into KOF and SF franchises.

[@RealMikeHollow]

Thank you 🙏🏾 Happy new year 🎊

[@valicstekken-sl6jh]

this a title you give me in the first video I see from you in 2025? Happy new Year

[@obrians-brown1307]

Good year. Only gonna get better

[@fryrob2019]

Happy New year Everyone🎉🎉.Cool top Mike

[@KN-592]

3:00 this is all true. The issue sf6 gave me personally is that I had tons of fun playing sf5 compared to it, I would've liked a universe where sf5 had functional netcode

[@snowfang467]

2D fighters are trying to slowly translate into Arena fighters and their nearly there, the moment is getting closer, they all include 3d arena modes to get players comfortbale with that; neutral skips, their now having stamina bars and stamina breaks under whatever goofy terms they wanna use be it drive rush and burn, default super armor attacks to counter play multi target spams, etc etc.

[@SilentiumCivis]

It’s simple, 2 things; > They made fighting games easier for casuals to win without dedication to learning the fundamentals >They removed footsies

[@buttersleopaldstoch5793]

For taking it they just need to make a mode without the heat and maybe do some rebalancing with characters and I think they got it

[@NoGunPowder.]

Happy new year Boss!!

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year bro 🎉

[@dreayven6705]

You have done great with your channel and grown an awesome community. I look forward to see what comes this year, its going to epic!!!

[@RealMikeHollow]

Thank you bro 🙏🏾

[@SilentiumCivis]

Simple, 2 things (Specifically T8) >They made it easier for casuals to win without learning fundamentals >They removed footsies

[@kenjaminmasters]

We take the good with the bad, and we still throwing hands! Happy new years

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year, bro ☝🏾

[@ZzigZaG00NIN]

Street Fighter 6 with 4 characters at a time it's going to be a tough wait for a lot of people who are wanting for their mains I think the Terry and Mai were really cool choices but that's something that makes 4 a season rough

[@zacharyfayant5717]

I think it was a good choice to add them both but I don't understand why they can't do 5 characters in a pass or 6, it will probably be 5 months between Terry and Mai's release presuming that her trailer tomorrow puts the release in February and even if it's a January release that is still 4 months of no new characters when 4 are released annually and I could see an extra character within that time if the development process is efficient enough

[@MaoriGamerDood]

Happy new year mike. It's good that you covered the more concerning aspects. But one thing I believe that hasn't shaken my feelings towards these games, is that I believe there has been more good than bad.

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year bro ☝🏾

[@canerkose7769]

Happy New year Mike to you and your family 🎉! Also nice you have added your sister to some of your videos. Sibling rivalry- well sort of 😂!

[@RealMikeHollow]

Haha yeah, she will be appearing in more videos going forward 😂 Happy new year to you and your family too 🎉

[@IRiiV4L]

I understand drive rush is very obnoxious on certain characters but for that to be peoples main gripe over throw loops that are universal for almost the entire cast minus just chun li i believe is absolutely fucking absurd

[@jahdorose8659]

Good afternoon happy New Year

[@KAIZENTECHNOLOGIES]

We're in an innovation age of modern fighting games. To innovate, you must break things. I think this is why fighting games feel bad.

[@Shade84]

I've been gaming casually since the 90s, with fighting games being my favorite genre next to rpgs. Fighting games don't feel bad -- in fact they're better and more balanced than ever. Y'all really don't know how good you have it.

[@АртёмТор-к2ю]

​@@Shade84 that's what I say. But the comment just above this one says sf6 got no neutral

[@davidparry5310]

​@@Shade84As someone who a) prefers 3D fighters and b) dislikes the present gameplay direction of Tekken, I put it to you that people like me don't exactly have it good at the moment.

[@Shade84]

@@davidparry5310 You don't even know what that direction is. They haven't entirely revealed their intentions for season 2 yet.

[@davidparry5310]

@@Shade84 It's hardly going to be a radical departure from season 1.

[@rbelljr29]

I think modern accessibility is what hurt 2 of them. Sf6 has modern controls, closing the skill gap at a casual competitive level, and giving more advanced players enough advantage to bury those trying to learn traditionally. T8 let's you toggle "modern" off and on during a match, not to mention dealing with heat EVERY SINGLE ROUND. I know Tekken is more nuanced fighting game, but once you get launched, someone getting access to 1 button air combos, one 1 button heat only moves, just isn't fun to deal with.

[@superpowerman4354]

Happy New Year

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year 🎊

[@Timquan.]

The problem with Sparking Zero was that it was made by the same bunch that made Jump Force plus the clueless bots who never played the ps2 Tenkaichi games claiming it was "always unbalanced". The multiple highlevel tournament gameplay of BT3 and BT2 floating around YT prove otherwise. Explosive waves actually reset neutral, their was not an overabundance of defensive abilities that it completely makes comboing virtually impossible. It did not feature a combo break free of resource cost, etc.

[@THR33_Dizzle]

I was just thinkin, what if they made heat burst BEAT heat smash? Still have rage art beat both, but maybe that would give you another option after eating a heat engager, so they can't just mindlessly heat smash after a successful engager? Seems like somethin simple like that could even it out a lil bit, idk.

[@walnesblanc]

Hello mike and will you be posting lots of videos on the midnight rubbish channel this year and be more consistent in the future on that youtube channel

[@LIFEFORCE-XX]

Drip Hollow Happy New Years everyone!

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year 🎉

[@BetaCallTyrone]

Happy new year bruh

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year, bro ☝🏾

[@WutTheDeuceGaming]

Tekken 8 and SF6 both have the most blatant neutral skips of all time. I watched T7 and SF5 religiously, these games were so much better to watch and play because there was neutral. Now, the new games you have tools to just take neutral rather than fight for it.

[@lbnycity89]

I traded SF6 a month or 2 ago. I’ll get it when Super or arcade edition version comes out

[@dawarmonger]

Broh looked me dead in the eyes and said “Stance Battle?” With that getup

[@RealMikeHollow]

😂😂

[@rodolfaso6750]

For me SF6 is a solid game and I'm still excited to see other characters join the roster.

[@gblanco2002]

Mike wearing mustard?! that’s crazy

[@RealMikeHollow]

MUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD

[@giftmajova9365]

Games in general abandoned passion for profit and when fighting games started following this formula of selling characters, costumes and stages as DLC everything just went downhill for me. I get it that games are expensive to make, so it was necessary unfortunately...I liked grinding and unlocking characters in fighting games, when fighting games rewarded both defence & offence not one sided.

[@blahblahgdp]

New Player: Man I wonder how I can win at tekken. Oh I know I'll just wait till they add more systems to help me!

[@SgtShortFuze]

Happy New Year people 🍻🤝

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year 🎉

[@reignsbackup4877]

And what went wrong in real life? mostly everything.

[@RealMikeHollow]

Let's just hope those alien conspiracies aren't real 😐

[@reignsbackup4877]

@RealMikeHollow most people better hope hell is not real. I really do hope that everyone will have a happy New year. Keep up your good work Mike.

[@RealMikeHollow]

​@@reignsbackup4877 thank you, bro. Happy new year 🎊

[@austinely8697]

For NRS I’m hoping they just simply do a shaolin monks sequel or a MK Fire&Ice. Let people enjoy something like that for a couple of years then come back with a much more polished fighting game

[@RealMikeHollow]

I'm in agreement. Let the fighting game breathe and do something else for a while.

[@MagmaMKII]

First off they need to fire all their writers and give SonicFox a big fat middle finger. Then keep MK on the backburner for a while and work on any old Midway IP. Like, say, Primal Rage.

[@giantdinoboy8264]

I think it is that it's a system mechanics thing. If you don't like the system mechanics anymore then you won't like the game. Many of the old and still loved games tend to allow the player to choose their system mechanics look and SNK vs Capcom or Melty Blood Actress Again.

[@duck1408]

With tekken I think they should have kept the classic fundamentals but made execution easier for less damage like modern controls but no they wanted to automate everything where you have like 10 panic buttons and less skill expression 😒

[@gamedragonja8962]

Hey mike what indie fighting games do you recommend that came out this year

[@RealMikeHollow]

This year I wouldn't recommend any but I would highly recommend Shaolin Vs Wutang!

[@TheBlackBossalini305]

Nothing, except for MK1. Fighting games are more popular and successful than they always been.

[@BorsPepsi]

This is the first video I've watched in 2025.

[@RealMikeHollow]

Haha thank you 🙏🏾

[@songoku9348]

Happy new year Mike. Trying to be optimistic but honestly, it’s all the same isn’t it?

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year bro. It's always good to be somewhat optimistic with new things. We can only hope for the best 🙏🏾

[@cbimz]

So much yellow it threw me off 😂. We need a new katt Williams interview asap so we can have another exposing year 😅

[@RealMikeHollow]

😂😂😂 down for that.

[@yundadoom]

I just hate fighting games as a live service. Not a fan of guests characters or coin systems. I might have finally gotten too old for this genre.

[@ibchillin4899]

Looking slick. Not many dudes can pull of yellow

[@RealMikeHollow]

Haha thank you bro.

[@coldblizzard5880]

Imo, when they try to appeal to new players they isolate the older ones. If you ask me, fighting games are like an acquired taste. Not everyone likes to play these games, so when you make it more accessible to new people it takes that “taste” that older more experienced players have. All the time we spent doesn’t matter because in this new game anyone who practices and knows the mechanics can rival you because of the new stuff they put in specifically made for new players to fight old players on an even level. Anybody could pick up a broken Kameo fighter, everybody has heat in T8 some better then others etc. So there’s alot of complaints from us more experienced players asking “what were y’all thinking” and complaints from new players that don’t know all the stuff we know. That’s my fake tho. And of course the biggest problem was financial decisions. Especially with MK1… EDIT: about the SF6 roster talk it’s so true I’ve been saying it for months. Where is Fei Long? Guy? Dudley? Hugo? Like damn bro…

[@mohamedjanahi4812]

Nappa when he opened this video: " Hey Vegeta, look ... A POKEMON ! 🟡"

[@LKM-DATABASS]

Micro transactions with companies wanting to withhold content for potential profit is quite literally what destroyed it. It will never go back to what we grew up on. Why would anyone sacrifice free content for profit? It sucks but this is where we’re at.

[@j.i.nthenobody54]

Fighting games were always designed to steal your quarters. They moved past it in the 2000s, but now instead of hard bosses and bullshit you get microtransations

[@yagamifire7861]

Go back to what we grew up with? Base sf6 has 100 times the content of SF2 or Alpha on home consoles...

[@LKM-DATABASS]

@ other than sf6 and I say grew up with cuz I’ve been playing fighting games since the umk3 but yeah I probably should have stated other than sf6.

[@yagamifire7861]

@MK_DATABASS Tekken 8 has more content Tekken 1 2 3 4 5.

[@LKM-DATABASS]

@@yagamifire7861 lmao god damn aight you win bro

[@ShinRyuuji]

"Old FG Game Gud, New FG Bad" this has been the mantra of the FGC since the dawn of time. When SF7 comes out or Tekken 9 or whatever FG is, they will say the same thing. Also I looked at Steam Charts. If older FGs are supposed to be so much better, the older FGs only got like 50-150 new players. Wow. Riveting. People have no idea what they are talking about

[@davidparry5310]

@@ShinRyuuji Argumentum ad populum.

[@SubliminaIMessages]

no one says that Smash 4 is better than Ultimate, very few people say that SF5 is better than SF6, MK1 is legitimately the worst in the new MK era, KOF doesn't have this problem

[@YellowFellow86]

Happy New Year Mr. Hollow. Maybe being overly patient and kind to these companies should stop. Tekken 8 is in the state that it is in is shambolic. Scamco and Harada have not done anything appreciable in dealing with any of T8's issues. In my opinion T8 and Harada deserve all the heat and then some for the state of the game. At what point is Harada over spent his goodwill in the community. He is the literal director folks 😑. People potentially don't want give Scamco and Harada heat because Tekken is the only 3d fighter frankly sucks. I applaud what those guys did in sparking zero, and I think stuff like that should be done to Harada and Scamco. From what I have heard they seem to be addressing player concerns about Sparking Zero way better than anything in Tekken 🤷?

[@RealMikeHollow]

Happy new year, brother ☝🏾

[@BlaxkSun]

Catering to the FGC. Games in the past were just that, games. Now it’s about the meta, balance, buffs, nerfs. We’ve gotten to the point where we are making the games competitive and only competitive instead of games actually…fun. It’s like that with BO6.

[@Doc27901]

I actually think it's the opposite: catering to a general audience. These days fighting games are trying to spread as wide of a net as possible with flashy characters or game mechanics that make the game look cooler without encouraging more skill.

[@RealMikeHollow]

I gotta disagree. They seem to have gone in the opposite direction. Dumbing games down severely and adding in friendly controls isn't for the FGC. It's for the wider base.

[@heroboygamebase2286]

Tekken 8 was great. I got it on Christmas.

[@Blast_S_rank_1]

According to some twitter "pros" SF devs just need re release SF5 on new consols and ask 60 bucs for it. Im sure twitter whiners will be happy

[@someaccount5200]

Twitter whiners will never be happy

[@RealMikeHollow]

They'll go back to SF6 after a week 😂

[@via_negativa6183]

I don't think it's a fighting game problem specifically it's a AAA game development problem, they are desperate to milk every last penny out of thier franchises and have squandered all the good will they had built.

[@IceyMim]

Best KZbinr !! 🎉💛

[@RealMikeHollow]

Thank you, Mimi-Chan 🤗

[@peteroneill1859]

Nothing boring about sf6 its a fun game and does have variety and player expression due to the games mechanics. It's a million times better than sfv no dumb v trigger come backs it also has great net code . Sf6 will continue to get better as more characters are added 💯

[@neoconnor4395]

Nothing went wrong. We got a bunch of awesome fighting games and everyone whined about them because it was popular. It was weird. I was very pleased with all the fighting games.

[@j.i.nthenobody54]

People doom constantly, nothing new

[@acetrap]

THANK YOU, nothing went wrong FGC is where fighting games come to die. The community is toxic a bunch of whiny babies or people that cant think for themselves and jump on the bandwagon. The 90's and early 00's we had so many different fighting games and we played and loved them all. Now with social media and content creators they killed so many franchises decided only MK, sf and tekken were good enough to play. Now they're killing the so called "top 3" (coined by the west no where else says or believes this). Games take time and money so if the FGC dont stop it we won't have any more fighting games because devs won't see the point of making them. After how the FGC destroyed MK you won't be seeing another MK for a while

[@TheBlackBossalini305]

Ironic, when anything becomes more popular, there's a hate mob ready to tear it down.

[@alexandermontejo447]

Anyone can say nothing went wrong about fighting games or games in general ( also in vice-versa) . Thats an opinion not a fact.

[@neoconnor4395]

@acetrap Yeah, we're arguably entering a golden age of fighting games! Tekken, MK, and Street Fighter in one year? Virtual Fighter is coming back? These dorks were psyoped by Twitter threads into thinking all these games were bad. lol They're annoying. Including this channel. It's whatever dude "Mortal Kombat suuuuucks!" I thought MK1 was a LOT of fun. And people don't like it? They've been crapping on it for a year. If you like it, cool, if you don't, whatever - but your disappointment in a videogame isn't going to hold relevance for more than a year. It gets really boring.

[@MagnaLynx21]

It was so easy to be a doomer in the FGC in 2024, but don't forget that we got Marvel 2 back!

[@xxcffff8275]

If you trivialize execution and mechanics thinking it will bring on more casuals players.... on the long run this strategy will fail because as soon as everybody is forced to play on the same level the fun is gone. Fighting games have been reduced to a scrubfest nobody wants to be part of. Accessibility and people breaking the game as soon as it comes making tutorials anyone can copy paste with little to no understanding, everything is math and no fun kills and will continue to kill the fgc

[@louisfacade]

SF6 is still in the best position, though.