Story Premise / Gameplay Styles for Fighting Games

Okay bloggers, this is my second post and I've decided to post about how most fighting games these days are pretty much about the same thing - tournament. Mortal Kombat-tournament; Tekken-tournament; Dead or Alive-tournament; Soul Caliber-tournament; even Street Fighter became tournament-based. It seems that fighting game creators cannot think of anything to base their games off of other than a tournament showcasing fighters abilities or to save the world. Of course with some of them, such as Tekken and Dead or Alive, there is a tournament held by a huge corporation to ''enlist'' new recruits to join the franchise. Others like Mortal Kombat host tournaments to save the world - been there, done that. Now by no means am I knocking these games - Mortal Kombat is my favorite out of these -- GO SCORPION -- it's just that I feel there are unexplored premises to base a fighting game's storyline off of.

Of course many, if not all, of these games go further and deeper in regards to story with their individual characters, Mortal Kombat seeming to be the most prevalent and intriguing in terms of creativity and conjunction between characters. And although this does add spaces for favoritism, the primary basis for the game itself is no different than any other. Not trying to sound like an expert on story art, but even a child can say ''hey, lets have all the fighters fight each other in a tournament.'' Of course there isn't much room for creativity in terms of making a fighting game different story basis-wise, but there are some options that have yet to be recognized [and I'm speaking only for myself]. Something that could be done about this is to spend a little more time thinking of stories that would make for a uniquely new challenge in terms of differentiating stories between fighting games - for instance, take out the whole tournament idealistic process and in turn create a story based on a single character that has the opportunity to be branched out from and expanded upon. One such game that I feel ''tested the waters'' on this style is Marvel Nemesis-Rise of the Imperfects. Of course, reviews were not all that positive for this game, but I feel that it was a pioneer in trying something new, and for me, that made for an open door.

To give a brief image for those who have not played the game, the basic idea is that you play as one character at a time, being allowed to switch back and forth between four at a time, and once an individual character's story is finished a new character becomes available, and continues on as such until the end of the game. Now this style of gameplay will create a linear story arch, but all fighting game fans will not be surprised as that is how most all already are. But a solution to this is that the Mortal Kombat idea of taking and heeding fans' suggestions will allow for greater playability and a bigger fanbase in the coming sequel[s]. Imagine it - playing as any character you want at a given moment, playing his / her story through and finishing it, seeing each character's interaction with other characters, and possibly even being able to make certain choices within the game come to instead of the standard side-scroll fighting game [although I personally do enjoy side-scroll fighters] -- that could even be an option - 2D or 3D gameplay. It's all just a matter of fans joining together and having their voices be heard. As always, this is just my opinion without knocking any games mentioned or not mentioned. Please leave a comment and let me know what your thoughts are on this, and any suggestions / critiques you may have, but please keep all critiques professional. Vaya con Dios.