Like most competitive activities, fighting games require commitment and dedication to get good. The hyper-focus on improvement, while admirable, isn’t the best mentality. Overexertion often leads to burnout instead of faster learning. Pick up an older fighting game casually as a side game to cool off while still enjoying the genre.

What is a side game?

A side game is something you play that isn’t your competitive focus. Usually, you don’t take these games as seriously and focus on fun over glory. Many typically look at much older games called “kusoge” as the perfect side games.

What is a kusoge fighting game?

Kusoge translates to “shitty game” in Japanese. It refers to broken fighting games that are still fun to play despite their bad design. What makes these games broken? They can be full of infinite combos, crazy setplay (performing a pre-planned, calculated setup after you've knocked your opponent down), janky hitboxes, and straight-up broken mechanics or glitches. Examples include the Marvel vs Capcom series, Karnov’s Revenge, Street Fighter Alpha 3, King of Fighters 2002, Breakers Revenge, Sailor Moon S SNES, and Street Fighter: The Movie Game.

Almost no one takes kusoge titles seriously because they are from an era before there was a standard for “polished” and “balanced” fighting games. This makes them premiere titles to play for fun while doing the most evil tactic possible to your friend and/or opponent in-game.

Learn from kusoge fighting games

The best part about finding a side game is that you can learn viable tactics for other competitive titles. Practice reactions, hone your defense, and work your brain muscles to come up with new ways to enact your will upon your opponent. Even if this isn’t your main game, that doesn’t mean your experience won’t help you grow. You may even end up making one of these kusoge titles a true side game to compete in along with your main modern fighter. Many prominent players like the famed VickiViperZabel excel at old kusoge titles.

How to get into older fighting games?

The best part about older fighting games is that there are tons of websites you can use to learn what you’re getting into, how to play, and what to do with your character. These websites are the perfect places to start when looking for what to play.

• Dreamcancel.com - A website with information from every King of Fighters game.
• Mizuumi wiki - A website focusing on niche fighting game information.
• Shoryuken wiki - Probably the most diverse fighting game wiki. Has a big focus on the most popular older fighting games.
• Newchallenger.net - A wiki that serves as an info hub for Super Nintendo fighting games.

It’s also easy to find footage of whatever interests you on YouTube to get the gist of how the game plays.

How to play older fighting games against other people?

Another easy problem to solve. Thanks to new technology in fighting game netplay we have multiple clients to easily get you matchmaking in older fighting games.

• Fightcade - The premiere netplay client for classic fighting games. There are tons of different games to choose from, whether your cup of tea is arcade fighters or SNES ones. It’s also very easy to set up and immediately hop into online lobbies.
• Discord/Parsec - While not the most optimal way to get into the netplay world, Parsec is a great way to play games not featured on netplay clients like the Dragon Ball Z Budokai series or Kinnikuman Muscle Grand Prix 2. You can find the various Discords for these fighting games to connect to players here.
• NullDC Bear - NullDC is for those that are more interested in fighting games that use Naomi software like Marvel vs Capcom 2, Dead or Alive, or Capcom vs SNK 2. This client is similar to Fightcade, but specializes in Dreamcast arcade fighter hardware. It’s just as easy, if not easier, to set up thanks to its updated client.

A lot of people forget that fighting games are supposed to be fun thanks to the nature of competition. Keep that in mind to avoid burnout. The next time you start to feel stressed out from the competitive grind, look to the past and play some old broken fighters.