What makes a fighting game?

[Gors]

any fighting game has this in mind:

1- Space control;
2- Reflexes;
3- Adaptation.

Explaining them in order,

1- In order for you to be successful in a fighting game, you need to be able to control your character's movement AND your opponent's movement. Fighting is manipulating the rival in a way that traps him, thus increasing win rate. For example, if you throw a fireball move, you'll either force the opponent to jump over it, or block it. You can use these scenarios to your advantage: if he jumps over the fireball, you can hit it with an uppercut move while he's in mid-air, or if he blocks it, you may leg sweep him.

2- Reflexes are much more important in this game, as you are dealing with inputting commands to pull out moves, as well as attacking and defending at the same time. This means, the more reflexes you use, the more competitive it will be (as it'll demand more of the player). It is ideal to seek for a balance between casual fun and competitive as SSB already is. Also, commands are better if they make sense: for example fireballs usually has a quarter cicle motion; an aerial uppercut attack is forward-down-diagonal, and so on.

3- Adaptation is a skill that is born with these two, because those who is able to adapt himself with the round's pace will be more likely to win. So for example, if one attack doesn't cut it, another might work. Of course, since this is a classic arcade-styled fighting game, you don't have as much freedom than say, SSB (which includes many platforms, moving bits etc).