I think blocking in fighting games leads to a lot of boring play, so I’m interested in systems that push for better maneuverability to avoid attacks or ways to encourage more aggression.
So our fighting game today is a mostly standard Street Fighter style 2D one-on-one fighting game. You have a normal jump but really quick forward/backward rolls for good mobility.
We have a three or four-tiered super meter. Each character has two super moves: one that costs 1 tier and a stronger one that costs 3 tiers.
Darkstalkers/Killer Instinct rules on the health bars where you get two life bars but no distinct rounds. After knocking down a life bar, the characters back off and the loser gains one super meter bar.
One special rule is that each character has a unique ability that costs a tier of meter that you can activate with just one button press. Street Fighter 5 does something like this, but SF5 wasn’t out when I originally wrote this, so I’m eyeing you Capcom...
What makes the game unique is that you can’t block at all. Instead, you have Leech. If you tap and hold Leech (either a button press or Back like normal blocking), your character enters a Leech state. While in Leech, you take reduced damage from moves (maybe like 1/3 less damage) but you gain significantly more super meter than if you just got hit normally. So there’s a really strong risk-reward for how in your face you want to be with opponents, goading them into doing basic attacks that you can Leech for meter, but still knowing that taking a super move to the face is going to mess you up and not be worth the trade-off of damage vs super meter. You can also try to goad your opponent into coming in close, purposefully using normals to get them to Leech, and then you bust out a super, with the trade-off being that you now gave them some meter in the process. I wanted the game to be aggressive and fast, so it’s all about ways to build meter and fire off super moves and pushing for mind games over memorizing combos or button presses for supers.
I was thinking that either as a rule setting or on specific characters, you could have a button mashing friendly Leech attack, where if you’re mashing the Leech button when you get hit, you enter a parry state where it automatically burns one or two tiers of meter to parry your opponent back with a strong hit. It’s not as effective a trade off of damage done vs meter spent, but it’s helpful if you’re stuck in a corner or in a combo you can’t get out of.
Not really sure why, but the cast I made for the game were combinations of the occult and a casino. Which is a really good combination. I’m a fan of Darkstalkers as one of the few fighting games I like, so more monsters and fewer martial arts guys I say.
Characters:
Death- Represented as a casino dealer, fights with card-based attacks (suits, royalty, etc)
Ability- swipes your opponent’s soul and creates an AI clone of the enemy that fights on your side with limited health
Demon- angry at death for quitting being a reaper to create a casino, cutting off the Afterlife from its supply of souls
Ability- hover/fly for a limited time
Anubis- a human girl trapped in a suit of armor resembling Anubis
Ability- when activated, your super meter fills on its own but you can't leech and do reduced damage
Bunny Girl- a reaper in training that joined Death’s casino as a showgirl
Ability- dice roll with the number rolled resulting in damage to enemy, healing the enemy, damage to self, or healing yourself
Police officer- died in duty, reincarnated in casino as security
Ability- Rocket jump- lose a tiny bit of health but blasted off screen allowing you to choose where you come down and possibly stomp your opponent for damage
Legion- morphing goo and pigs
Ability- copies enemy abilities and for the next # uses of the ability, it’s stronger than the natural version
Dryad- Earth's souls are backing up so she's mad at Death and wants them gone
Ability- guarded by spirits that circle around her and shove the enemy back on contact but do no damage