Does anyone ever remember playing arcade mode in a Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, or other sorts of fighting game growing up? You know, that mode where you defeat three or four challengers and then promptly get destroyed by your next opponent? Well, that's assuming that you're pretty bad at fighting games, as I have been in the past and still am.
Luckily, most fighting games still have an arcade mode, so you can still do that, as you wish. One of the biggest revolutions of the fighting game genre, at least to me, is known as Player vs. CPU. It's like arcade mode, but it doesn't increase in difficulty unless you change the difficulty mode yourself, it allows you to choose your opponent, and it allows you to play one match at a time, therefore allowing you to change various settings as you please between matches.
Also, it doesn't involve having to fight another actual human being. It's beautiful. However, in recent years, some fighting games have decided to omit this mode. I picked up Tekken 7 a few weeks ago, and was disappointed to learn that it did not have a simple Player vs CPU mode. That is part of my inspiration for this article. I really want to elaborate, on a personal level, why I believe fighting games, especially very popular ones, should have a Player vs. CPU mode.
1. Sometimes you may just want to play a few quick matches.
Player vs. CPU gives you the option to play a few quick matches and quit whenever you'd like, essentially, with no strings attached, which is different from arcade mode, survival mode, treasure battle, etc. That kind of leads into my next point, actually.
2. Player vs. CPU gives the player a lot of autonomy.
As I said earlier, playing Player vs. CPU mode in a fighting game often gives you a great deal of autonomy. You can often select what character you wish to play, your opponent, your attire, which stage you want to fight at, and the difficulty mode, along with other things. You can change these things from match to match with little difficulty. It's just like playing with friends, but, ya know, with even more freedom. It's fantastic, especially if you're more of a filthy casual, as I am when it comes to fighting games.
3. Not everyone has a great internet connection or has friends over at their house 24/7.
As someone who lives in a rural area, I can testify to sometimes, well, actually, almost always, having a spotty internet connection when trying to play games online. Lag eventually makes playing the game tedious rather than fun. Additionally, one may want to play one v. one matches without having to have friends over or be online. Sometimes you just want to fight without the pressure of facing off against another human being.
4. Sometimes you want the game to be just fun, without any real challenges.
Button mash and mess around to your heart's content, while still enjoying the sweet taste of victory.
5. Player vs. CPU matches can help someone practice.
Player vs. CPU can essentially be a practice mode with more of an authentic feeling to it. Practice mode, in its never-ending-ness, can become rather boring.
There are many reasons why a person might like to be able to play a Player vs. CPU mode in a fighting game. As we move to the increasingly online multiplayer-centric era of gaming, we shall have to wait and see how single player modes in video games hold up, with single player modes in games that involve lots of violence possibly being the most at risk. One thing to remember is that, yes, while multiplayer, including online multiplayer, can be ridiculously fun, some people prefer single player modes, at times. Not everyone always wants to face off against or team up with a real person every time they play a video game. But, anyway, enough of that.
Adios, homiemigos.
