Why fighting games are the best thing to play when you have no damn time for anything

Dragon Ball FighterZ is the stress relief I need in my life
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You've seen Stand and Deliver, right? Remember that part where Edward James Olmos is talking to those keeds about how they need to have the ganas? The dees-eye-errr? You know, to get off the streets and learn calculus? That's kind of how I feel about video games all the time. I love 'em a lot, but a lot of times playing them isn't just about having the time to play them, it's also about the ganas. The sheer willpower to not just choose a video game, but choose what to do in that video game, and sometimes, whom to do it with. To do the math and determine whether or not the amount of time you have available will add up to a worthwhile level of progress that leaves you feeling satisfied with your entertainment choice. All sorts of things you don't have to think about when you boot up Netflix, you know? This is why, for this last month has been a wonderful time to discover just how damn good fighting games have become.

A lot of it just comes down to a certain sense of purity when it comes to the design philosophy of fighting games. Like sports games, fighting games know that you got them primarily for one thing: To go a few rounds, as quickly and seamlessly as possible. Of course, they make efforts to flesh out their offerings, with an array of modes and features that encourage you to play for a very long time with as many variations on the central theme of beating the tar out of another character as possible, but they are under no illusions that you're buying these games for their story. You're getting them to fight.

But, as I mentioned earlier, it also helps that fighting games are in an extremely good place right now. Few games signal that as strongly as Dragon Ball FighterZ. (Which the developers insist is pronounced "dragon ball fighterz," not "dragon ball fighter zee," but it's cute that they think that's gonna stop me.) It's easily the most exciting game to hit the fighting game scene in a long time. It's the most feverishly covered fighting game in some time (maybe a little too much so), and for pretty good reason: It's fun as hell, well-tuned, and perhaps the best fighting game to take on Dragon Ball yet. Which is no small feat: There are about as many Dragon Ball fighting games as there are Quavo features, and they've never really found success outside of diehard Dragon Ball Z fans. But FighterZ is being embraced by people who love fighting games and people who love Dragon Ball--two groups that, when you put them together, pretty much shakes out to Most Men You Know.

I love FighterZ. It's extremely easy to learn, with combos that you pull off by hitting one button and the same exact button inputs to pull off special moves, regardless of what characters you play as. This means that the gap between "Infant" and "Fighting God" is extremely narrow compared to most fighting games, and it only takes a little bit of familiarity to learn and appreciate what it takes to be a player of impressive skill.