Rising Thunder

[Melbosa]

From a long time Capcom fighting game developer: http://ca.ign.com/videos/2015/08/30/rising-thunder-gameplay-demo-ign-live-pax-prime-2015.  Totally for PC only, and fights just as good with a Keyboard as a controller, this might be one to check out!

[Mr. Analog]

Ooch, button+direction to execute special moves really divides fighting game fans.

One one hand you have Smash Bros (which works this way) and then you have nearly everything else. To me having to master the manual dexterity of getting moves off is important because it creates that element of chaos, physical stamina and precision as well as builds a good variety of players with different skills (so you end up with a lot of player level tiers from beginner through advanced).

One of the problems that I see with games like Smash Bros Melee (which is still being played in tournaments) is that there are only two tiers; beginner and advanced, there's virtually no middle tier OR gradation. If you have a pretty good understanding of the game but don't understand its nuances / exploits you are going to be destroyed by an advanced player. In fact one of the things Masahiro Sakurai has been trying to address with sequels like Brawl and SM4SH is the tremendous skill gap between these tiers.

So the problem a new game is going to face with this is that while it appears to be accessible due to the control scheme it will hide a massive gap between players that really get into the game.

Another thing that may occur is with most fighting games there is a character / move tier list and you will only find people playing those characters at higher levels, with fewer physical challenges barring deep understanding of the metagame this tier list will appear much faster than in other games (where sometimes the lower ranked characters can play as higher ranked characters in the right hands).

I dunno, I'll keep an eye on it but the skeptic in me says there's going to be a fair amount of snobbery from "hardcore" fighting fans but then also an accessibility problem that will bar it from a wider audience.

At any rate, it looks good and I look forward to seeing more

[Darren Dirt]

Personally I mostly avoid fighting games that require the whole multi-button-push-in-sequence-followed-by-stick-semicircle-or-full-circle to do the non-basic moves.

I can imagine this game being fun to play @ a gathering of friends, button-mashers have a chance again

[Mr. Analog]

Next time you come over we can play some Smash Bros (or one-button mode Marvel vs Capcom)

Hmm games night