I'm happy a lot of new fighters are coming out.  SC4, Tekken 6, SF4, TvC, BlazBlue.  It be pretty crazy.  I haven't played any CvS2, Third Strike, or MvC2 lately mainly because no one really plays around here anymore.

I've recently gotten into Brawl.  I used to be really into Yi Ar Kung Fu (maxed out the score and level one day when I was bored) and Soul Calibur 2 and 3.  I've also messed around on KoF '98 (I saw it at a bowling alley while waiting for something and played for a while) and World Heroes Perfect.  I'm not a big fighter like the Matt's and Daniel and Mark, but I'm not completely detached from fighters either.

WHOA, I completely forgot.

I'm decently skilled at Melee, but haven't played Brawl enough to do good.

I just started playing Brawl one night at a party and I was pretty decent by 4am.

I'll probably pick up a Wii and Brawl this summer if my income's decent.

i recently found out SC3 is only 3 points at gameworks. played for quite a while, there was actually a crowd. it was good. i think it was only the 2nd time i've played SC3. i should have played it more.

I just play Fighters History Dynamite, World Heroes Perfect,  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Hyper Fighting, and a tiny smidge of Garou and 98 / KOF 96. If you ever wanna hit me up for any of those games just lemme know and I can p2p Kailleria with you.
I liked Smash like 10 years ago, played the first one a bit It got old because the mechanics are so broken. Melee was even more broken than the first game with wave dashing. I played against some people at a local game crazy who played it pretty seriously and they didn't even think it was that great of a game. I think it's really important to realize Smash is first and foremost a party game, not a fighting game. Gameplay "element" of tripping has to be a dead giveaway that this is not a serious game. I could just imagine it, you and your opponent are playing out a spacing game, you see an opening... and you FUCKING TRIP. Your trip is exploited and then you lose. Tell me how any serious fighting game would implement this. It wouldn't. Brawl is a broken piece of shit.
EDIT: and before a Smash fanboy comes her to argue, tell me why up smash beats Meteor Smash 100% of the time? that's fucked up, nuking the priority of an entire element to a mixup. Talk about dumbing down the game? And what the FUCK is with air tripping? Smash games rely on air mobility, and guess what? If you get hit, you can't jump. That makes corner strategies even more broken than before. In the end, if you have a good air to air and good up+b, you're set and will NEVER have to worry about jump ins.
Also: Dashes are pretty much useless now, Auto sweetspotting is bullshit, l-canceling removed, slower gameplay, and laggy moves... the list goes on. I am not anti-smash; I didn't have so much to complain about the first 2 games. This game just sucks a whole lot more.
In the end, if you are experienced, you'll probably love Brawl until some 12 year old beats you (not personal experience, just to clear that up). Why would he beat you? Because the game explicitly stresses simplicity over solid game mechanics. No matter how advanced your metagame thinking is, it won't get you anywhere in Brawl. It's simply not a fighting game and I can't believe it's mentioned in this thread as so.

A lot of people throw Smash games in as "fighters" because, well, it's things fighting each other.

Badly.

I thought Melee was a step in the right direction in a number of ways. It showed that a game could be accessible to casual players while still having deeper layers underneath, and that a fighting game could work without the standard lifebar depletion setup. However, it still had a fucking ton of flaws, and one of the most retarded communities of any game in the history of mankind. 12-year-old Counterstrike tards weren't as bad as a lot of self-proclamed "hardcore pro" Melee players.

Brawl could have been another step in the right direction. Fix up the raging balance issues of Melee, a couple control tweaks here and there, and it could have been great for both casual and hardcore players. Instead, they went the other way and gave the finger to anyone who tries to take it seriously at all. Instead of the sane definition of "fair" where the better player is most likely the winner, they tried (and failed) to go with the stupid version where "fair" means "50% of winning or losing."

Smash sucks.

Honestly, "Balance" doesn't really matter that much in fighting games. Either way a good game will always be good, even with balance issues. I think FHD embodies this. I see smash more as a shitty platformer more than anything. I gave it a very fair chance, and still didn't like it.

I like how you also bring up the community issue. Send this topic to smashboards or any other nintendo board and we'd have 30 new users in 1 hour telling us how close minded we are.

Grats, Zeppy.  When I first saw this topic, I thought to myself that I should make comments on Smash being best left as a party game, not a fight game and FHD. Then I figured, nah.. Zeppy'll show up and make those exact comments at some point

The Guitar Hero community would like to talk to you to get on that list of "most retarded communities"

I've been playing a lot of tekken: DR on my psp recently.

Before people start getting the notion that I'm some retarded Smash fanboy, I want to clarify that I'm not, just that I enjoy it as an easy-to-play fighter-esque game.  It has a lot of fun aspects, and I apologise if it doesn't fit in at all with the true fighters.  It is a very noob-friendly game, but it's also very relaxed to play.  I like to go back and play something with a low learning curve like DMX or SSB after playing some mentally taxing game like Monster Hunter or IIDX.

Anyway, back on subject, what are some common/preferable button layouts for fighter ASC's and AC's?  Having played a few on a few different arcade machines and ASC's, I understand that some layouts aren't as comfortable as others, and would like some input from people who are more into fighters than I am.

ill murder anyone on cap vs snk 2 or 3rd strike

god damn the last post was a while ago lol. i really forgot how to look at boards. i need to get that feel again

i play as dudley on 3rd Strike, and i'm not too good. i play with a ps2 controller, that's it.

also i guess i should label smash as a competitive game rather than a 'fighting game'.

hey carson remember me its travis i went to your house last year lol

anyways i use dudley as well, ken, akuma, yun, and gill when i play. i play with controller only as well. not good with arcade sticks

Of course you're Travis. My memory isn't that bad.

oh ok i wasnt sure if youd recognize me or not since i change my username a little while back   

It's all about dat Marvel (vs. Capcom 2).

Best (and brokest) fighting game out there.  I have been playing a lot of Tekken 5 lately, though I might swing my rotation back into Third Strike to play around with Genei Jin juggles.

ugggghhhhhhh

What?  It's not like it does way too much damage because it scales wrong or breaks normal juggling rules.  >_>

The fact that it changes his moves properties is amazingly dumb too.
3S is so cheesy...