1. Familirize yourself with the game

Number one is pretty self explanatory. You want to learn the “ins and outs” of any game that you are going to play. You don’t want to jump into a match against someone who knows the game and constantly get beat over and over again do you??? No! That’s no fun. So take the time to learn the basics, and get a feel for how the game plays.

2. Start with the “basic” characters

To me, “basic” characters would be someone like Ryu from Street Fighter or Terry Bogard from the King of Fighter games. Usually these characters are the easiest to play with because their moves are simple and they usually have good strength/defence stats. Once you get a good handle on the “basic” characters, move on to the “harder to use characters”. They will be a little easier to use because now you know the basic commands and already have a feel for how the game works. 

3. Learn combos and special tatics

Fighting games use a variety of movements to change the game play. There are a lot of different movements such as side stepping, tech rolling, and dodging. Get used to how the movements are best executed and then get a feel for the correct timing of them. Once you have mastered timing start incorporating attacks with movements. This will help out immensly against highly skilled competitors. Combos are also very inportant for two major reasons. One: Combos are a way to hit your opponent and inflict a fair amount of damage without taking any yourself. Two: Combos are a good way to build your special meter and a great way to link special moves. 

4. Watch good players

This is something that helped me out a lot. I would watch tournamet play as well as videos of really good players. I would pay close attention to how they used combos and specials to see how moves linked together. I would also watch to see how the players timed moves. After watching a video I would always try to incorporate some of those techniques into my game play and see how they worked with my style of play. If something didn’t work out right for me, I would try to “tweek” it a bit until it was something that fit my style of play.

With that being said, I hope you enjoyed this and found it helpful. Thanks for reading and I hope this article will help you become a better fighter!