I love games, but fighters have a special place in my heart. Here’s why;

Fighters are simple enough for anyone to pick up and play, yet a well made fighter can be so deep that even years after playing the game you can find a new technique to use in battle. You can keep coming back to a fighting game again and again, mastering a new fighting technique, unlocking extra characters, nudging the difficulty level higher and higher just to see how far you can push yourself. Playing a fighting game can be a deeply rewarding experience.

However, no matter how technical or user-friendly a fighter may be, no matter how convoluted or bare the story is, there is always a simple grand concept to a fighting game that drags us all into the ring. That is the concept of the fight itself, battle at its most raw and simple form; one on one combat… and that required a worthy opponent.

A.I. can only go so far, but when you have a real opponent to beat down, one who can make human mistakes and anticipate yours as well… that’s when victories become worth fighting for.

Many of you won’t know this but I am in fact a twin, my brother Daniel (danMazkin) and I have grown up with video games running through our veins. We would always play games together, we still do, and when a fighting game is fired up in the console, shit would get serious (and it still does). Many a time we would just throw down the gauntlet to one another and we would fight on. Rounds would come and go as we regarded each battle with an honorable attitude, being gracious in both victory and defeat, but sometimes we would exercise our gloating rights after an exceptionally impressive victory, cheering and carrying on like madmen.


I actually can use Eddy pretty well, and none of this button-mashing crap either

Playing against one another was so much more satisfying than battling a computer opponent as we could learn each-others strategies and adapt our fighting styles to try get that final blow in and claim glorious victory. We would even train together in certain games; I remember starting Tekken 3, firing up training mode, and setting the training opponent to the 2P controller so we could just spar for what seemed like hours.


This is how I see it in my mind anyways

Looking at it I could almost see us as like a young Ryu and Ken, constantly training and bettering ourselves until we duel again. We could battle other opponents, we could play other games, yet we can always come back to a good fighting game and experience a real challenge. For us it isn’t just fighting, it’s bonding.

Cheers