I cut my fighting gaming thing a bit short because I just did. To continue.

Blocking Part 2

Notice that most games do not have the same block principles. Usually it would be the most natural thing in the game, holding back (or DB for crouching block) but as you can see there are some games that require a touch of a button to block, which brings us to two entirely different games Mortal Kombat (MK) and Soul Calibur(SC).

The thing is MK is a regular fighter with a block button. The funny thing is that this game at the time defied all other conventions of fighting videogames. That meant almost every character had the same basic moves (aside from special/command moves), block was done by holding a button, fireballs didn't cancel each other out (instead the first one to hit an opponent won out while the other one would just disappear as oppsed the usual fireballs nullifiying each other when they hit each other.) and regular attacks caused block damage. The thing is, this was a bad way to do the entire button blocking thing since the entire notion of blocking was based on our inherent instinct of defense, go back. Defending yourself meant going back getting away from attacks and pulling "back" on the joystick should have been easy enough. The awkwardness of pressing an actual "button" as a means of defense seemed just fucked up.

Of course when SC game came out, it was a game that's basis was in a 3D realm fighting games which had a "Guard" button which makes you "Block" with your weapon. This seemed more natural since it was the idea of a 3D game, and more realistic, the idea of having to push a button to block seemed more logical. It could have been the weapons based combat or it could have been the idea that there were other means of defense (running away in a 3D arena, side stepping in and out)