Am I the only one who can still have fun while dialing it back a bit? Just “fumble” a few times, fall behind intentionally, and then use your skill to catch back up. If you can’t catch up, your friends win and have fun. If you do catch back up, your friends think it was a close game. Either way you get to flex and nobody thinks you’re a sweaty tryhard and we all get to have fun.
This is part of why super smash bros is so good. Playing against friends who are decent but not as good as you? Play one of your secondaries. Friends are bad but learning? Play a low tier/a character you don’t ever play. Friends are casual gamers/don’t know how to play smash? Spam b moves as a low tier. No matter how good you are you can sandbag pretty hard without your opponent feeling like you aren’t trying/not having fun.
Right you just have to find a sweet spot handicap to use. You can absolutely both be challenged at the same time, just find the right equivalent of tying one arm behind your back.
This is how we used to do it with SF2 on SNES.
One of us is constantly beating the crap out of everyone else with a particular character? Switch it up.
Or learn to counter whatever they’re doing to win.
Dhalsim’s endless string of “Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!TigerUppercut! You! Win!” was eventually conquerable with the right combination of moves and that wasn’t even player skill, it was a shortcoming in the game’s internal timing (that was bad enough that it overwrote the existing playing sound effect while you were doing it).
It’s Yoda fire! And Yoda flame!
Yeah, oops, I was thinking Sagat and somehow typed Dhalsim.
Dhalsim was YOGA fire, which is I think what happens when they schedule the chili cook off at work on the same day as beginner’s downward-facing-dog practice.
Dad mode activated
This is the way! Group games are about everyone having fun, not winning.
I’m not big on fighting games, don’t they usually have a handicap setting? How do they work? I’m guessing good ones do stuff like break guard easier and do more damage, right?
Generally it’ll do something like make one person do more damage and take less, but if the skill gap is too big it really won’t make a difference if they can never land a hit. Personally I’m a fan of “I can’t use X” or “I will only use Y.” It allows everyone to still have a challenging and fair feeling time, instead of pounding away at a punching bag that one hits you which just doesn’t feel great for anyone.
Back in the day me and my friends played SSB64 and I was by far the best out of them. They banned me from using pikachu because I was unstoppable with him. I just used the characters I was bad with when I played with them so it would be challenging for everyone.
One of my biggest disabilities is my inability to throw a game I’m playing. I just can’t do it
Nah they’d know.
I mean, if they get mad that you’re not using your full power then they deserve to get styled on. They asked for it, lol.
I used to school the locals at SF2 and MK back like 20 years ago. This was in the quarters on the ridge, winner sticks, GenX days. I still get recognized in the surrounding towns.
This was all fine and dandy in the rural town I grew up in, but then I did a trip to a major city, out to Vancouver, and I got demolished by the big city kids. It was a disaster. I was getting laid out left and right. Just dummied. Sickened. Was humbled.
Whatever. I still clean up locally on the rare occasion it comes up. One of those guys from the town over ended up working at the same place I did for a while and he was going on about his SF2 prowess, so one day I brought in a Switch with some decent controllers and we went at it. We went 9 games to 1 in my favour in a 10 game series.
The point of games should be that they are fun without being productive. If not, it is job
I really genuinely enjoyed learning to get better at super smash bros. But then I fell into the awkward zone described in a meme. It sucks.
That’s why I love co-op games. Couch co-op games are the absolute best and they are going extinct for shitty online co-op.
But you need friends for that.
Well if you don’t have friends, the OP doesn’t apply anyway…
But when the game’s mechanic is beating a singular person who’s sitting right beside you, skill matchups dictate the fun. But this is probably why I play Third Strike alone lmao
This was probably me with Smash Bros in college: Nobody in the dorms would play me after a certain point, but I’m sure I would’ve gotten my ass whooped by professionals.
My kid could beat everyone at smash bros in high school. My friend’s kid was number two in the state. My kid couldn’t touch him.
My friend’s kid could not touch the number one kid in the state and that kid wasn’t good enough to go pro.
I went to school with the number one melee player in my state. I played him a ton over the years and never beat him once. The skill disparity between “serious tournament competitor” and “best in the neighborhood” is boggling.
Right? I watch the videos and they’re pulling off moves in times I don’t understand.
But wiping the floor with my friends isn’t fun. I’ve settled on not using Roy/Ike, Captain Flacon/Ganondorf, Mewtwo/Locario, Donkey Kong and Samus. Actually I haven’t used them in so long I’ve probably handicapped myself with at least some of them
When you’re too good for your friends you have to handicap yourself. Play new characters or give up a finger or something.
Me on soul calibur
Lmao this is me 😅
Cut my life into pieces…
Could just play ranked
My time splitters 2 phase. Sad times.
This is me playing games with my teenage kids.
Playing random characters can help. Picking someone I’m not familiar with for casual play gives me exposure to other styles and helps me become more rounded, while tipping the less experienced player a balanced playing field.
Me with Speedrunners. Got hooked on it for a little while and got pretty good, but put it down for a few years and don’t stand a chance against anyone still playing it, especially with any custom map.
Haha I play random select in most fighting games but my friends usually can’t win but they have too much pride for the handicap setting
Me at Rocket League and most sports games. It’s a real struggle.
That why I like ranked mode in Rocket League. It (eventually) matches me with other people who are at the same “best in the neighborhood” skill level
This is me in racing games. This is why I like to play games like Forza. I can play a private lobby where I can take less powerful cars and race my heart out against friends in more powerful ones.
Spent most of my time making liveries and tuning my cars to make them ridiculous to drive.
Love me some Forza. Been playing 5 lately for the first time. Feels lonely not having friends to play with anymore but I gotta start messing with this Horizon Open shit.
You can always just find a game club with more skilled players, teach your friends how to stomp face or just watch them play if it’s that serious.
If your friends know you are skilled and bitch about you playing at your level instead of catering to them, they’re not good people to hang around anyway.
