Tactics Mode will also take you through all the characters to give you an idea of their playstyles, special moves and bread-and-butter combos. Then there are missions -- pre-programmed scenarios -- that let you practice mechanics in a match-like setting. The problem with these is they already assume "Reject Guards" are part of your everyday lexicon and you're already familiar with a character's invulnerable anti-air moves. Google and YouTube are your friends here, of course, but this is where I find most fighting games fall down. They don't soften the learning curve for new players. These are the mechanics, here are a couple of combos; now go work the rest out against a dummy in training mode.

Perhaps with a better focus on tutorial features, new players wouldn't run into a wall so quickly. I have a basic knowledge of fighting games that translates between franchises. I'm talking positioning, special move inputs, that sort of thing. So after spending as much time as I could bear in the tutorials, I have dabbled online. And this is where the magic of fighting games presents itself. I've been demolished many times, but have also experienced a few close games where I've come out on top. There's nothing in competitive gaming that's quite as satisfying as taking a match in a split second with a clutch air dash and well-timed super. That's what fighting games offer: A euphoric moment of intense gratification.

I actually won a game?!

But there's only so long you can spend spamming the same combos and basic techniques before you get bored of your own limited understanding. And that's the point at where many players simply give up, because getting better at fighting games is most people's definition of hell, not fun. There are plenty of genres of competitive games where progression is fun. Take shooters as an example. You can quite happily jump into a match and pop some heads, and there's a cross-section of players that will revisit that experience without needing anything more from the game. But with the hours you invest, your aim gets a little better, you begin to learn the layout of the maps and devise strategies to improve your odds of winning.

Fighting games are different in that respect. Simply playing isn't really enough to improve. If anything, getting beaten over and over can become demoralizing and put you off altogether. This is particularly true of the lightning-fast pace of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, where the screen is constantly filled with projectiles and seizure-inducing animations -- it's a confusing assault on the senses. Back to training mode it is then, but that's where the real grind starts.

Finally...

Between practice sessions, you need to head to online forums to read up on strategies, advanced combos and dreaded frame data (how long specific move animations last, which serve as a guide to the risk/reward profile of each attack and tell you when you can punish, say, a blocked combo). Winning might be extremely rewarding, but absorbing the information you need to win at a high level is not. Only when you know practically everything do you actually start playing the game. Fighting games are similar to poker in that sense. Once you've mastered it, the cards on the table or the characters on screen are just the scenery -- at that point, you're playing the person sitting across from you. It becomes a war of minds and resolve, not pushing buttons.

Fighting games just aren't made for casual players, and simplifying things doesn't help anyone. Many top players have complained about the simplicity of Street Fighter V, and how lowering the skill cap for the benefit of new players has impacted the pro scene for the worse. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Street Fighter IV have parry and "Focus Attack" mechanics, respectively, that skilled players use to turn defense into offense. Street Fighter V has no direct equivalent.

Cross Tag Battle is supposed to be a simpler BlazBlue, too, as technically there are only two attack buttons, with three others reserved for special attacks and partner plays. In my opinion, though, the game is anything but simple. New players may have fewer buttons to mash to perform basic combos, but there are still many mechanics I barely understand that a skilled players can pull out to turn a bout in their favor.

The fact fighting games aren't suited to casual players, as well as more serious gamers that don't want to spend their evenings practicing the same combo over and over, is manifesting in poor sales. As of March 31st this year, Street Fighter V has sold just 2.1 million units in total, while Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite sits around the 1 million mark. A severe lack of interest in the latter has led to the decision not to incorporate the game into the Capcom Pro Tour event circuit.