Best 2d fighter, for casual or high-level play

[Dolemite]

Sesame Street?

[Adrian]

Most of the Capcom fighters hold up well. Sure, you can go on about the counter character crap in ST and tiers but that doesn't stop me enjoying the games. A few exceptions.

SFZ3 - Crouch cancel infinites. Without these i'd respect the game a lot more. It's complete horseshit that with one mistake you can get VCed then watch helplessly as Ryu jumps up and punches you a 100 times. If he fucks up it's no big deal as chances are his meter is full again. Way too many players in Tokyo can do this, if you can't use V-ism then you don't last long on the cab. All the home ports except the Saturn version really suck also. I still like it but it's very flawed.

MVC2 - AHahahhahahahahaha.

CVS2 - Way too defensive and tier-centric. Shitty game.

Last Blade 2 - Knife dude owns the game. I like some of the stuff you can pull off but it's not really worth my time.

[Videodrone]

Why is this thread still open?

[Will]

After wading through these posts I ask the same question, I thought this one was bigger because there was more discussion on what he would poll.

But pork fried rice with fried shrimp is great....

[Will]

It's a tough choice for me between GGXX and 3rd Strike. For high level play I'd definitely whip out 3rd Strike and GGXX. Omnigear and I always have some good fun matches in 3rd Strike and I want to kick his ass some more one day.

GGXX I haven't been playing as much as I used to but it's a damn fine deep game once you know all it has too offer. I liked the other games like MVC2, CVS2, Alpha 3 and all but I got my ass whupped so many times in the arcades on those I feel hopeless getting back to them aside from maybe Alpha 3.

[Anthony]

I only wish a mod would delete it.

[Rocca]

CvSNK2 followed by Alpha 3. CvSNK is much more played in the fighter games on the gamin nights, so i'll go with that. Barely anyone i play with know Darkstalkers, LB or Vampire Savior, real shame.

[Dolemite]

Barely anyone i play with know Darkstalkers, LB or Vampire Savior, real shame.

So true. You need to make some new friends.

[Psx]

Vampire Chronicles for Dreamcast is my favorite 2D fighter because it encompasses all the vampire games/features a la the recent SFII for PS2

[MarkRyan]

Okay, so who else besides me voted for Marvel vs. Capcom 2?

I love MvC2, and pretty much everything you guys complain about can be avoided. I'm not saying the game is perfect, but I think it's easily the most fun to play.

People complain about infinites, but in MvC2 all infinites will redizzy the opponent--i.e. send them flying up the screen, and ending the combo--after about 50 hits, which is like maybe 50% life on a character. 50% health is definitely the least of your worries, but infinites do more than just drain life. They build meter, and work psychologically against your opponent letting you set the pace of the match. There's more to them tha just being ultra powerful because, frankly, there are a lot better and easier ways to do 50% (or more) damage to a character.

I also read a lot of complaints about how few characters are usable. No doubt, it's disappointing, but the game is a team game. The variety in teams definitely outnumbers the variety in characters in any other fighting game, so I don't really complain that I can't use Roll or Hayato. Point characters that are considered worthwhile are: Storm, Sentinel, Cable, Magneto, Strider, Cyclops, Dhalsim, Blackheart, Spiral, Doom, Ironman. Certain counter characters have some uses, like Colossus, Guile, or Felicia, but no one really builds teams around them--just use them as assists, and when they need to be used for a counter they're available. For characters that are almost pure assist, there are Commando, Psylocke, Ken, Cammy, Tron Bonne, and probably some others I can't bring to mind. Even more characters become playable in casual play when you pair them with good assists, though taking them to tournament play is risky. Wolverine comes to mind as a good example of this.

I also read a complaint about guard breaks. Technically, I'm pretty sure they're in every Capcom 2D fighting game, though it's much easier to take advantage of it in MvC2. Guardbreaks basically work like this: one character dies, and his partner comes in after him; as the partner jumps in, he can only block once (in Capcom fighting engines, you can only perform one action during a normal jump) so the opponent makes the incoming partner block at the very peak of his jump; after the partner has blocked the initial hit, he falls and the block action wears off, after which he can't block anymore, and the opponent takes advantage. There are a few ways to avoid guard breaks. 1) You can take the first hit as your partner jumps in, and you'll be able to block whatever is coming afterwards (usually an infinite combo or a super). Of course, the opponent can anticipate that you'll take the hit and just do a regular combo off of that, which turns it into a guessing/mind game. 2) You can push-block the initial hit as your partner drops in, which will keep your partner suspended in the air for a moment longer. This usually ruins the timing of most guard breaks, and foils the attempt. 3) You can avoid the situation entirely. Instead of letting your character die you can do a safe DHC out to your next character, and your opponent can't guard break them.

I don't see what's wrong with triangle jumps. They're hard to block, but not impossible. And there are only two characters in the game that can do them that well, Magneto and Storm. Magneto's the only one that usually uses them, too, as Storm has better tactics. Triangle jumping leaves you very vulnerable to your opponent's anti-air assists, so it's not like they can be done for free. Plus, they're not the easiest thing to do. Not ridiculously hard, but combined with the danger of assists and their relative difficulty, most people can't do them well anyway.

On a side note, I agree, Cable is gay. But he's not the best character in the game, and he can be beaten. And damn is it fun to beat him.