Do wrestling games count as fighters?

[waluigi]

You heard the question, now let's take it to the streets!

[Free Hat]

I've always considered them to be their own genre, since the gameplay mechanics tend to be vastly different from traditional fighters. The only exceptions would be games like Saturday Night Slam Masters and Wrestlemania Arcade, which were basically just traditional fighters in a wrestling ring.

[Jay Peas 42]

Yeah, hybrid Genre. I mean, it's not really a sports game, since pro-wrestling is a worked fight and the games are set up as shoots. And fighting games, well, very different genre.

[Johnny Flamingo]

No, since the mechanics are totally different.

Playing SvR is nothing like playing Street Fighter

[bob]

[quantum]

Jun 18, 2010 13:58:52 GMT -5 Free Hat said:

I've always considered them to be their own genre, since the gameplay mechanics tend to be vastly different from traditional fighters. The only exceptions would be games like Saturday Night Slam Masters and Wrestlemania Arcade, which were basically just traditional fighters in a wrestling ring.

Pretty much the way I see it also

[Red Impact]

Jun 19, 2010 11:47:45 GMT -5 Johnny Flamingo said:

No, since the mechanics are totally different.

Playing SvR is nothing like playing Street Fighter

But, then again, playing Super Smash Bros. is nothing like playing Street Fighter.

Under the broadest sense of what a fighting game is, wrestling games would qualify.

['Foretold' Joker]

I'd say yes, if brawl or powerstone count as fighting games then various wrestling and UFC games do as well.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

They don't work the same way as fighters do. Like, at all, so no.

[Allie Kitsune]

Some do, but those are the ones that are usually arcade games designed with fighting game mechanics as a major part of their engine (Wrestlemania Arcade, Slam Masters, Ring of Destruction, 3 Count Bout, Giant Gram).

Aside from those ones (and their sequels/predecessors), I wouldn't consider wrestling games fighters.

[The Ichi]

Not all games of the same genre have to work exactly the same. There's fighting in wrestling games, yes?

[MrBRulzOK]

I'd have to say no. Wrestling games may involve fighting, but so do most hockey games and practically any game that involves melee combat. Does that make THEM fighting games as well? I would think not.

[Deleted]

I'd say yes, for the reasons stated about the broad definition of fighting games.

[Red Impact]

Jun 20, 2010 13:49:18 GMT -5 MrBRulzOK said:

I'd have to say no. Wrestling games may involve fighting, but so do most hockey games and practically any game that involves melee combat. Does that make THEM fighting games as well? I would think not.

But wrestling games aren't hockey games. In wrestling games, fighting against another opponent/team of opponents is the main game play element, which is the one thing fighting games have in common. If the main game play element is melee combat with a move list against other selectable characters, then we can't discount it as a fighting game.

If the definition of FPS is broad enough to include Portal somehow, even though it's not a shooter, then fighting games should be broad enough to include wrestling games.

[erisi236]

Any reason to post this...

[MrBRulzOK]

Jun 20, 2010 13:59:33 GMT -5 Red Impact said:

Jun 20, 2010 13:49:18 GMT -5 MrBRulzOK said:

I'd have to say no. Wrestling games may involve fighting, but so do most hockey games and practically any game that involves melee combat. Does that make THEM fighting games as well? I would think not.

But wrestling games aren't hockey games. In wrestling games, fighting against another opponent/team of opponents is the main game play element, which is the one thing fighting games have in common. If the main game play element is melee combat with a move list against other selectable characters, then we can't discount it as a fighting game.

If the definition of FPS is broad enough to include Portal somehow, even though it's not a shooter, then fighting games should be broad enough to include wrestling games.

Fighting games also usually require complicated button presses in order to use special moves which, unless it's one of those earlier WWF games which weren't thought fondly of by most, is not the case. Fighting games also tend to involve multiple round fights whereas wrestling games usually do not, unless the match in question is two out of three falls. Another point is you can't be disqualified in a fighting game; something that is very apparent in most wrestling games. Fighting games usually don't involve referees either, or at least referees that make any difference.

It's the same reason that you can't really classify boxing or MMA games as fighting games. You can't call it a pure fighting game just like you can't call it a pure sports game; there are too many differences between the key elements. I'd say if anything it's more of a hybrid between a fighting and sports game if anything.

Now if it was something like the WWF Arcade game or In Your House, which did entail special moves, THAT you could consider a fighting game.

[Red Impact]

The control scheme really has nothing to do with whether a game is a fighting game. The Smash Brothers series has you press a button and a direction to do a special move, much less complicated than a number of wrestling games. Some home ports of games even simplify things to one direction on a joystick. The control scheme doesn't make a fighting game such any more than it makes a FPS, puzzle game or rhythm game.

Multiple round fights aren't a necessity either. I don't know of a single fighting game out that requires you to fight multiple rounds, and the vs. series doesn't really have that as an element at all. Some fighting games never even had life bars, just look at the Bushido Blade games.

As for DQ's, no, it's not usually a common element, but there are games that have modes with different win requirements.

I do think that it's fair to classify it as a hybrid sports/fighting game, just like other combat sports games, but my point is that control scheme really has nothing to do it. I don't think you can say it's not a fighter solely because you're not doing 10-hit-combos or fatalities, because despite the genre's reputation, fighting games have had a wide variety of schemes and gimmicks. A fighting game is just a game where the main gameplay tends to consist of close quarters combat with multiple selectable characters. Control scheme, the existence of rounds, and all those other things may be common features, but removing them doesn't change if it is a fighting game or not.