Fighting games guide

EVO
EVO is THE tournament, the place for every fighting game fan goes each year to try and prove him/herself to be the very best like no one ever was, dun dun dun. No, but seriously, this is what most people strive for. Some notable people are Daigo Umehara, Justin Wong, Mike Ross, and 8-year old prodigy Noah. So basically speaking, if you can get your combos and shit down right, you might just be as legendary as them.

GGPO
GGPO, or Good Game, Peace Out, is a very good way to play arcade games with bros over the intornets. Kind of like the Steam of fighting games  It's like the emulator of fighting games TBH. Basically, you just download your rom, find it on the list and go into battle ASAP. You need to make an account obviously for it first before using the program online.

"Fightan Games"
Fightan games are pretty fucking neato things. They often have great music, characters, artwork/animation, and most notably above all else: COMMUNITIES. Most people who play these games are considered bros and know their vidya. Though, true to the expected white-knuckle style, not everyone gets along, and some participants can flat out be trolls and dicks, so beware.

If you still find yourself curious about this phenomenon and want to get in on it, or maybe you just want to casually try it out but have no idea which ones to pick, then this is your page.

Various Q and A's
Q: Why can't I beat anyone online in these games?

A: People who often play online have been practicing for a while in these games, you might need to memorize more move sets and combos to be better.

Q: But I never win, why should I keep playing I should give up.

A: No, you shouldn't. Everyone sucks at these at one point or another, you just have to remember that nobody is perfect, and keep trying to get a win in there somewhere. Then you'll prosper in these games.

Q: I suck at guarding, I always offense the fuck out of the other person, but I end up getting bodied to hell.

A: Guarding IS essential, it's basically like 1/3 of your fighting game mojo. Don't just think you can fuck up the circuit by offense, because if you rush into everything, odds are, they will guard until you stop for a split second and you probably will get bodied to hell.

Q: How do I know which character is me?

A: Everyone has a style. If you're used to other fighting games, it's much easier to transfer your style over (there are 3 broad archetypes in 2D fighters, for example, which may narrow your selection considerably), but you may find your style carries over even from a completely different genre. Do you always Zerg rush in Starcraft? Maybe try a rushdown character. Do you use the sniper in every FPS? Try a heavy zoner.

Q: A character from Street Fighter III 3rd Strike.

A: I see what you did there.

Q: How should I know which characters are high tier?

A: Depends upon the game. Games that have been out a long time with an established community tend to have well-developed lists, whereas less popular and newer games have lots of conflicting lists. I'm not going to tell you how to pick your character, but I will suggest that you don't pick a top tier character unless you actually like their playstyle. Nothing kills your drive to learn more than playing a character you don't like; you'll probably be better playing a mid-tier that you find really fun than a high tier that you hate (unless the game is really poorly balanced, in which case you should play something else).

Q: ARE YOU OK?!

A: Yes I am, Terry. BUSTAH WARUFU!

The List
Okay, we covered a lot of things above here, but now we have the list for these games.

Cool Links
These are some links to some pretty cool fightan-based websites
 * The Fighters Generation - Fairly catch-all site that covers artwork, animations, fighter bios, info on games and updates, and even upcoming games. One neat aspect is the large animation archive, featuring lots of animated gifs of various (2D) fighting games. There's also a number of mostly fair and unbiased reviews for games done by the owner. It's probably one of your best places to go to first and maybe even revisit sometimes.
 * Street Fighter Wikia - Pretty self explanatory. Goes into detail about characters, games, stories, etc. Also has a comprehensive move list of every (?) character featured. Given how Street Fighter tends to be the go-to fightan game for beginners, it might serve you well to visit this place.
 * SNK Wikia - Naturally, Capcom's greatest rival deserves a link as well. Although this wikia is about SNK franchises in general, there's still a good deal about the fighting games and most of everything about said games and even spinoffs of them. It might be a good idea to bookmark this too, if only for curiosity's sake.
 * SmashWikia - A wiki that has to do with all things Super Smash Bros. Contains a lot of info about the games that spans from the first game to the third game. Includes all of the essential nitpicks and whatnot. Trophies, Character profiles, attacks, stages, ya know etc.
 * Mortal Kombat Wiki - Midway's good old fashioned gorey-as-fuck fighting franchise all explained in detail here. Features all the stuff you need to know on MK. Like Street Fighter, a very popular and successful series albeit it very different from other fightan vidya. One of the few American made fighting game series as well.
 * Tekken Wikia - Guide to Nyamco's Jugglefest fighter. Tekken literally translates to "Iron Fist". Tekken is more or less based upon other fighting games such as Virtua Fighter in which it's origins were based upon 3D Fighting games. Tekken also has some crazy fucking characters like roger the kangaroo and alex the dinosaur. Also a GODDAMMNED BEAR WITH A T-SHIRT AND SNEAKERS. So thats something to look into if your curious about Tekken.