🍓 One of the most popular things people say about fighting games, especially people that don't like them, is that the "real game" is locked behind arbitrary execution requirements and that it's bad design. But I don't think that's true!
In Smash Bros. Melee, there's a way to cut the recovery time of an attack in half by pressing Shield 7 frames before hitting the ground (known as L-Canceling). This is a pretty famous execution barrier. It's true, if you could, you'd choose the L-Canceled attack over the normal one every time. Because the mechanic has timing that's possible to miss, it's easy for people to feel like they're being gatekept from victory unfairly just because they might be worse than their friend at L-canceling. There's this expectation that they have to do it "right", they have to nail the timing 100% of the time or they aren't "really playing" the game.
But...
You Are Not A Robot!! You won't be able to execute perfectly 100% of the time, and neither will anyone else. Yeah, some people might get close, and it would set them apart from other players and undeniably bring them an advantage in their play. That goes for every game, not just Melee.
That's bad, right? No! Wrong!!🚫
That kind of thinking arbitrarily bestows value on some skills and devalues others. There are tons of factors that contribute to someone's overall strength. What about people that can just think faster than others? Or people who learn faster, have more mental endurance to last long sets, aren't as affected by stage fright/tournament nerves, or are just plain better at playing mind games? It doesn't make sense to write off this one aspect that makes up a player's skill as bad design! We can create a game that devalues any of these skills and it wouldn't be any better or worse than creating games the devalue dexterity.
Creating a game without many ways to improve execution is a tradeoff. Because there are less angles you can approach to getting better at the game, other aspects of skill are magnified. Quick thinkers may feel even more untouchable when you have less tools to handle them with. The game becomes more focused, and the room you have to experiment and circumvent lack of affinity in one area of strength shrinks. That's nice if you have limited time or dexterity; now that's one less way someone get a leg up on you. But that's pretty annoying if you like to practice timings and difficult combos or setups to overcome other weaknesses.
In the end, I want to see all kinds of fighting games created and celebrated. Games with high execution requirements may not be your thing, but maybe you'll enjoy watching them! It's incredible watching two super amazing players go at it in a game like this, knowing just how hard it is to pull off what they're doing right in front of you! Besides, there will always be games out there for you if you don't like dealing with finger gymnastics. 🍓
(I realized right after I wrote this that Sajam probably has a good video on this and wouldn't you know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBKnlyMpp1s)
