Last week my girlfriend and I browsed the isles of target, slowly making our way to the electronics section. As I started to walk over to the Video Games section I noticed that towards the back there was a clearance section. A clearance section that had Soul Calibur IV for $20, I quickly snatched a copy and made my way for the register.

During the PS2 era I owned a copy of Soul Calibur II and played the hell out of it. I enjoyed the quick-3D-weapon fighting but never understood the combos and I became more of a button masher. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself thoroughly and up until about a week ago hadn't played a Soul Calibur game much less owned a fighting game.

However, I have a friend who is a big fan of 2D fighters so recently I've played a lot of Marvel VS Capcom 2 and Street Fighter IV Super Awesome Remix HD (*Insert other adjectives meaning great*) at his house. While I can hold my own in MvC2 with its simple combos and crazy air moves I get my butt handed to me SFIV. Street Fighter is a hardcore fighting game and there's no mistake about that. I've seen recordings of my friend play online and it's an intense, frantic dance that has fireballs thrown into it.

So now we've run into a problem: I want to be good at Street Fighter but I'm not. Now with any other genre there would be a mode where it would show me how to link combos and counters to get massive damage and hold my own...but fighters don't do that. To an extent that is the appeal to a fighter; knowing that you won't be good enough. With that knowledge you get into a rut of trying to learn new combos only to forget the old ones.

I don't want to be a world-class fighter but I want to be able to enjoy myself and I find fighter games like Street Fighter and Soul Calibur just don't care. They have enough of a fan base that they can keep pushing out games so they aren't looking for new members. People like my friend grew up with fighters and have carried combos over from one game to another and I commend him for that; but I don't have a time machine or enough time to make one. So where do I make up the time to work on my fighting moves? Well I can't and I've given up.

I still plan on enjoying myself with Soul Calibur but playing with friends or strangers is out of the question. My hunger for the strategy of judging your opponent and taking advantage of their weaknesses will have to come from my years of playing chess.

(I'm just one of the guys I swear!)

That's not to say I'm a world class chess player but I know what I'm doing when my I sacrifice my rook for your pawn. It's not because I read a book about it, it's because I played with my grandmother and brother ever sense I was a small child. My skills of shifting plastic pieces on a board have come from many years of experience and memorization of patterns.

In a nutshell that's what a fighter game is: memorizing patterns. And much like chess it would take me years to become competitive in Soul Calibur. Well, I don't have time to devote to memorization and it's not going to come easy anyways so what am I to do? Well, I'm going to hope developers of fighting games will take a look at their way of doing things. In the game Skate the entire career mode is teaching you new moves and combos. There are large portions of the game that you can't even pass without pulling off intense and difficult tricks. That's what I want from developers like Project Soul and Capcom. I want a way to learn difficult moves and combos without printing out a sheet of paper and constantly having to pause and figure things out.

(That's what a good combo gets you)

I'm okay with something like a combo guide being difficult because it should be/would have to be. However, I need a beginner guide to things. It's like teaching someone to ride a bicycle- you can't just put them on the largest hill and cut the kids brakes; you have teach him to peddle with training wheels, and then in a safe environment take the breaks off and give him a fair chance.

I really enjoy the art style of most fighting games. I also enjoy watching half-dressed men and women beat each other with fists, feet, staffs, and swords. What I want to enjoy it beating one of my friends while playing it. I'm not a hardcore fighter fan and I won't ever be one. But I'd like to be able to hold my own once in a blue moon.

How do you feel about fighters? Let me know in the comment section! Also, follow me on Twitter @gogamenerdkid and follow the community @GIOcommunity. You can find me on Playstation Network at Oldrunner where I will play co-op games like Mass Effect3 with you. Thanks for reading and keep on blogging!