A mainstay of the fighting game genre, the motion input is a term used to describe how various unique attacks are performed by inputting specific character movements plus an attack button. For instance, Ryu's iconic Hadoken, Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, and Shoryuken are all examples of attacks that require motion inputs. These types of attacks, typically called special attacks, often have dramatic and unique properties such as firing projectiles, being invincible to enemy attacks, or bypassing enemy defensive options. Not only are these special attacks foundational to traditional fighting games, but have shaped video games as a whole, especially in other character-driven competitive titles such as League of Legends and Overwatch.
Motion inputs have often been decried as an archaic game mechanic that only causes accessibility issues, with many unsure why they still persist. After all, the previously mentioned Overwatch and League of Legends don't require motion inputs, so why do fighting games? By examining the nature of motion inputs and what they provide, one can find answers to why they still remain beyond simply legacy reasons.
Motion Inputs Enhance Control
This is one of the primary reasons why many fighting game players enjoy motion inputs. By asking the player to perform specific inputs for a wide variety of attacks, it increases how much a player involves themselves into the game. Rather than loosely directing their character to attack, the player themselves attacks and maneuvers around their opponent to secure victory. A similar feeling in other games is pulling off satisfying movement maneuvers in titles such as Titanfall or Mirror's Edge as opposed to simply watching canned parkour animations in Assassin's Creed or Batman: Arkham City.
One issue that can arise is that motion inputs can actually diminish the feeling of control with players inexperienced with them. Even experienced fighting game players can feel this way when changing characters or games. For example, moving from quarter circle inputs to charge inputs is a common barrier among intermediate fighting game players who are looking to branch out. A way to mitigate this is to include a variety of different control styles in a fighting game roster between traditional inputs (quarter circles, dragon punches, etc.), charge inputs, negative edge inputs, and even no motion inputs at all. That way, players can choose characters that fit their control style the best.
The one move that I believe most strongly emphasizes the sensation of control is Geese Howard's Deadly Rave from Fatal Fury. Deadly Rave is a super move that takes the form of a unique combo sequence that asks the player to immerse themselves into the combo with strictly timed button sequences. This move has also inspired a variety of similar super moves in other games, including Holy Order Sol's Dragon Install Sekkai in Guilty Gear XX and Yu Narukami's Thunder God Dance in Persona 4 Arena.
Motion Inputs as a Barrier to Overcome
The flipside of motion inputs granting control, another reason why motion inputs are enjoyed is because they ask the player to put in just a little bit more work. By adding a small barrier to execution, the end result becomes that much sweeter. Players can not only marvel at their own skill, but at the skills of others. A similar satisfaction can be found in many games, especially those built around player performance like Devil May Cry or Ultrakill. The satisfaction isn't just in getting perfect scores in every encounter, but in working hard to achieve that perfection.
The downside of this is clear when you have players who simply cannot access special moves on command and get frustrated when they cannot play the game as intended. In some cases, this is an issue with how the game interprets motion inputs. In overly strict titles such as the original Street Fighter, even experienced players will get frustrated when the game doesn't register that the player wanted to use a certain special move. In other titles, this can be an issue with the types of motion inputs the game asks for. SNK titles such as King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown are infamous for this, with inputs such as pretzel motions and double half-circles providing both an intimidation factor as well as a hefty execution barrier for new players. It's possible to implement the enjoyment of execution through methods other than motion inputs such as tight combo timing, spacing requirements, or other barriers, but a good input interpreter can go an incredibly long way to make motion inputs have the satisfaction of overcoming a barrier without frustrating new players.
One particular move from the Tekken series embodies this above all else: the Electric Wind God Fist. One of the signature moves of the Mishima family, this move is incredibly powerful and satisfying, but requires the player to perfectly time the last direction and button press of the input on the same frame in order to pull off the move. If not timed correctly, the player gets the far weaker Wind God Fist. The difficulty compared with the visual and sound effects make the EWGF one of the most satisfying attacks in any game.
Motion Inputs as Diagetic Controls
I'm certain there exists a better and more accurate term for this concept, but I am currently unaware of it. Diagetic Controls, in this instance, refers to when actions performed on an input device match the physical movements of the player character. For instance, Zangief's Screw Piledriver (commonly referred to as an SPD) is performed by rotating the control stick in a circle, matching how Zangief picks up and spins his opponent in the air when the move connects. Other examples of Diagetic Controls in games are how various skateboard tricks are performed in the Skate series, how the player pilots their mech in the Steel Battalion series, and how the player swings a tennis racket in Wii Sports. These games greatly enhance the gameplay experience by using their controls as part of their immersive gameplay.
While this element is not at the forefront of motion inputs, this benefit can be lost when combined with non-standard control schemes. The previously mentioned SPD, for example, does not have the player perform a circular motion with their hand on a Hitbox, as the "up" input on a Hitbox is actually off to the side from the other directional buttons. In addition, this element can actually get in the way of intentionality when the inputs become awkward or difficult to use, such as with mash inputs like E. Honda's Hundred Hand Slap.
A move that I'd say exemplifies diagetic controls is Elsa la Conti's Requiem Critical Heart from Arcana Heart 3. Elsa la Conti is a nun character who wields a firearm, and for this super move, you have to toss a bullet into the air (with a Down-to-Up input), then perform the sign of the cross (Up-Down-Left-Right) before the bullet falls back down. Do it correctly, and Elsa will perform the sign herself before loading the bullet into her gun and firing it at the opponent. Arcana Heart as a series has many moves similar to this, such as Yorika the witch's pentagram inputs, which all lend themselves to the game's unique feel.
Motion Inputs Establish Character Identity
Different motion inputs can help otherwise similar characters feel incredibly different. Compare Ryu and Guile. The two characters have similar movesets, with an emphasis on powerful midrange buttons and space control with fireballs and strong anti-airs. However, Ryu uses quarter circle and dragon punch motion inputs while Guile relies on charge inputs, naturally making each character feel differently. Guile is encouraged to turtle and play more defensively in order to maintain charge for both Somersault Kick and Sonic Boom while Ryu gets to play more freely and reactively since his moves are available on command. These differences also allow designers to give the more restrictive charge moves more powerful properties to compensate for their limitations. In other games, this can be compared to characters who use different player skills for similar roles, like how Ana and Mercy are both healers in Overwatch, but the former emphasizes precision aim while the latter emphasizes intelligent movement.
The Overwatch example is telling, however, as differing character identity for similar roles can be accomplished without giving characters entirely different input methods. Ana and Mercy do not have different controls for aiming, firing, or accessing their different moves, they just have outright different moves. Motion inputs are useful for differing character identities, but are not the only way to handle differentiation.
Two character that exemplifies this to a significant degree are Ed and Falke from Street Fighter V. The only two playable members of Neo-Shadaloo, these characters set themselves apart from the rest of the roster by not using motion inputs at all, instead focusing on different button combinations and negative edge specials in order to perform their special moves. While Ed's lack of motion inputs cause many to consider him easy, Falke's reliance on held buttons can actually make her more difficult to play than the average character.
Motion Inputs Impose Use Case Limits
A trait not immediately obvious for motion inputs is that they organically limit when players are allowed to perform special moves. For example, Ken's Shoryuken is an excellent anti-air with both invincibility and high reward, but it takes time to input it. This limits its ability to catch the opponent's jump on reaction compared to swatting them out of the air with a normal attack. Thus, when an opponent surprises the Ken player with a jump, they can opt for a reliable, quickly inputted anti-air normal or instead go for the riskier, but far more effective Shoryuken. In addition, the Shoryuken becomes less risky if the Ken player is already walking forward, as they are already performing the first part of the motion input. This creates a complex use case for the special move that is difficult to replicate with other limiters such as cooldowns or ammo pools.
One potential issue with this is that how limiting a given move's input is can vary from player to player. Skilled players with fast and clean inputs have different use cases for their moves than players with messy or slow inputs, which can frustrate players. This can instead be seen as a form of player differentiation, with the game being intended to reward the executionally skilled. As such, other players may see the differing use case limits as a benefit rather than a frustration.
The type of move that represents use case limits the most, in my eyes, is the 720 Command Grab super. A common tool in the arsenal of grappler characters like Hugo, Iron Tager, and T. Hawk, this type of super move is performed by rotating the control stick twice in a 720 degree arc. As such, it's practically impossible to perform this move on command, and thus it usually has to be "masked" behind another input such as an attack, jump, dash, or block. With an incredible degree of practice, however, it is possible to perform "walking 720s" in some games, performing these supers without any "masking."
Motion Inputs Create Emergent Strategies
When you understand how motion inputs create use cases, you are able to create strategies around your opponent's use cases. Since you know that it takes time for your opponent to physically input their invincible Shoryuken, you can punish them for trying to escape your pressure by utilizing fast frame traps and tick throws. In addition, you can even target specific inputs with various attacks, such as preventing an opponent from executing a quarter circle forward input by changing sides with them mid-input, causing them to get a quarter circle backwards input.
While many strategies can arise from targeting motion inputs, it can be frustrating to players if those strategies come from exploiting player ability to execute those motions rather than the motions themselves. If a player struggles with executing a certain move and the opponent strategizes around exploiting that difficulty, the struggling player can feel discouraged or unfairly punished.
The character type that showcases this the most is the charge character. When facing Guile in Street Fighter, for instance, you know that he only has access to his Somersault Kick when he's holding down. This means any time he walks forward to approach you, presses a standing attack, or blocks an overhead attack disables his ability to Somersault Kick for nearly an entire second, allowing you to more freely attack him without fear of a reversal. For his Sonic Boom, you also know that he cannot fire them in rapid succession, allowing you to easily win in a fireball war at range if you play a character such as Ryu, Ken, or Sagat.
Motion Inputs Inform Function
While less useful for new players, motion inputs are an excellent way to communicate to experienced players what a given move is used for and how a character is intended to function. For instance, back-forward charge moves are often either projectiles like Sonic Boom or fling the character forward like Sumo Headbutt, while dragon punch inputs like Cannon Spike or Shoryuken are typically invincible reversals or powerful anti-airs. Heuristics like these allow players to quickly transition from game to game and maintain a general understanding of how new games work.
There are certainly exceptions to these heuristics, such as Sol's Wild Throw in Guilty Gear being performed with a dragon punch input despite being a command grab. In addition, these rules don't necessarily transfer between different fighting game "families." While the previously described heuristics are common in Capcom and ArcSystemWorks titles, SNK titles will have some different trends in their inputs.
The type of move that most exemplifies motion inputs as a heuristic has to be the 360-input. 360 input special moves are almost always powerful and far-reaching command grabs given to large, slow grapplers. Compared to other characters with command grabs, these characters tend to have larger health pools, lower speed, but far scarier offense once they're in. The 360 input doesn't just inform the special move's function, but the entire character's function.
Motion Inputs Allow Larger Movesets
A rather practical yet often forgotten purpose of motion inputs is to allow a greater variety of moves on each character with out increasing the amount of buttons. For instance, Street Fighter II has six attack buttons, three punches and three kicks which can be used for a variety of attacks. Between standing, crouching, and jumping versions of each attack, there's already at least 18 attacks per character before considering directional attacks, proximity normals, and button combinations. On top of that, each special move has three variations depending on which button was pressed to input it, so for a character with three special moves like Ryu, that's an additional 9 attacks. Without motion inputs, the game would likely require more buttons which both has practical limits on controllers as well as potentially making the game more confusing.
While it is certainly possible to tie special moves solely to directional inputs or button press direction instead of specific motions, it is far easier to accidentally perform a directional attack or hold a button for slightly too long than it is to accidentally perform a motion input. As a result, you can end up taking away intentionality from players at all skill levels.
The character that best demonstrates this property in my mind is Kazuya Mishima in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Since he utilizes motion inputs on top of the typical directional attacks in Smash Bros., he has additional special moves including his iconic Electric Wind God Fist and Hellsweep. Interestingly, he also demonstrates some of the issues with relying too much on directionals, as he has unique attacks for every diagonal. As such, it's quite easy to accidentally input the wrong normal attack, especially when combined with how Smash handles directional input speed.
Motion Inputs Differentiate Move Categories
Compared to simply having different buttons, motion inputs allow games to organically differentiate between categories of moves to make mechanics such as cancels more clear. In the original Street Fighter II, you have normals and special moves. Normals are performed with a button press and special moves are performed with basic motion inputs. Normals cannot cancel into other normals, but they can be cancelled into specials which cannot be cancelled whatsoever. This allows players to intuitively understand various combo and pressure rules based off of what inputs they need to perform.
Motion inputs are not the only way to differentiate move types, as one can just use differently named buttons. In addition, if a game is designed with a certain controller in mind, they may apply special moves to different categories of buttons, such as placing normal attacks on face buttons and special attacks on bumpers and triggers with a typical gamepad.
The game that best showcases this in my opinion is King of Fighters. In this series, characters have normals, command normals, special moves, and super moves. While you typically cannot cancel moves of the same type into each other, barring super moves, you can always cancel "up the chain" so to speak, so a typical cancel sequence will involve a normal cancelled into a command normal cancelled into a special move and then finally cancelled into a super(s). The progressively more complex inputs create an organic combo sequence for players.
The Importance of Legacy
While I've gone into detail about the gameplay ramifications and reasons behind motion inputs, it's still important to cover why so few titles have moved away from them. Fighting games are not a popular genre, and while some believe that by moving away from motion inputs that they can become more popular, doing so may alienate the existing playerbase. If legacy players are alienated and abandoned in favor of a new audience that might not stick around, franchises may see short-term popularity at the cost of future longevity. Fighting games have to maintain a balance between keeping the existing audience will encouraging new blood to join in.
One way fighting game developers have addressed this issue is by creating new titles and series as test beds for alternative design concepts. This approach is particularly common with licensed titles based off of existing popular franchises. For example, Dragonball FighterZ, while not eliminating motion inputs, de-emphasized them by only using simpler motion inputs, recontextualized the neutral and combo elements with the Superdash, and eased the learning process of typical tag games by having a large portion of the cast play quite similarly. The draw of a popular external IP also brought in the new players that these design choices were intended to appeal to without alienating legacy players by dramatically changing existing series.
Games Without Motion Inputs and How They Do It
This is not to say that there haven't been successful traditional fighting games that don't use motion inputs. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, Tough Love Arena, Fantasy Strike, Rising Thunder, and the upcoming Project L all largely lack motion inputs, instead opting for dedicated special attack buttons. There's also games with both motion inputs and dedicated special attack buttons like Granblue Fantasy Versus and DNF Duel. The ways these games shift their design to compensate for this fundamental design change are all quite different, too.
Battle for the Grid, Tough Love Arena, and Fantasy Strike all take the same approach where specials are tied to specific buttons, directions, and character states (airborne vs grounded) with no other usage restrictions by default. Just like in games with motion inputs, special moves are available at any time, but to compensate for the lack of motion inputs, these games change the various properties of specials relative to how they work in other games. For example, Jaina's Dragonheart special in Fantasy Strike is a typical dragon punch reversal like Ryu's Shoryuken or Ragna's Inferno Divider, but it is both slower and costs health to use to compensate for it being easier to use both on reaction and in pressure. If it didn't have these properties, it would most certainly be too powerful due to how easily abusable it would be in various option selects.
Rising Thunder takes a different approach. Like the above games, special moves are performed with dedicated buttons and character states. Unlike the above games, however, special moves are given an additional limiter in the form of cooldowns similar to Overwatch. This allows for the special moves to be more powerful as well as introducing an additional cooldown management element into the game. Project L is also rumored to use this system, as it is both developed by the Rising Thunder team, based on League of Legends which similarly uses cooldowns, and is confirmed to not have motion inputs.
While Granblue Fantasy Versus and DNF Duel still have motion inputs, both also allow players to use special moves with the press of a button. Granblue, like Rising Thunder, uses cooldowns as a limiter, but special moves performed with motion inputs have quite short cooldowns. If the player uses the single-button input for these moves, the cooldown is increased. The increased cooldown is incredibly noticeable for enhanced special moves as well. As a result, quickly using a simple input EX reversal in response to a scary mixup situation locks the player out of using their reversal for quite a long time, keeping it from being too powerful of an option.
DNF Duel, on the other hand, uses a resource system, with each MP special move using a certain amount of MP. In the current version, MP usage does not change depending on which input is used for the special, but performing the motion input decreases the amount of time it takes for MP to start regenerating after using the special move. For less serious players, the difference may not seem that noticeable, but for advanced players, the change in regeneration time allows for incredibly powerful pressure and combo sequences.
Each of these games has had to make different design decisions in order to account for how they handle special attack buttons. For some players, this results in a less enjoyable experience, but others find the reduced barrier to be freeing. Personally, I have mixed feelings on some of these games, but not every fighting game needs to be for me, and these games are no different on other fighting games I don't particularly enjoy.
Concluding Thoughts
Motion inputs are incredibly important to the way that modern fighting games are designed, and one can't just remove them from existing games without severe ramifications. Similarly, one can't just add motion inputs to games not designed for them and expect the experience to not dramatically change. The answer to why Overwatch and League of Legends and other similar games don't have motion inputs and why Street Fighter does is simple: the designers wanted their games to be a certain way. Sometimes, that's all there is to it. You just need to think about why they wanted their game to be the way that it is. No game is objectively better for making one decision or the other, and it's great to have both types for different people. Just don't be rude or nasty to people who like it one way or the other, and don't try and force the games that they like to be like the ones you like.
There is one fear that I completely understand, and it is that one type of game will ultimately supercede others and people won't get new experiences that appeal to them. It's happened in other genres, with the decline of the mascot platformer in the mid-2000s or how many horror franchises transitioned to action games in the early 2010s. Right now, some fighting game players are concerned that the type of game they most enjoy is slowly being phased out and that they'll never find a new game that they connect with on as deep of a level as existing titles. I hope, however, that those games will see a resurgence, just like how tabletop games became popular again with the rise of D&D 5e and how movement shooters are coming back with brand new indie titles like Ultrakill.
Next time, I'll be covering diagetic controls and how unusual controllers and control schemes can enhance gamefeel.
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