Because the genre itself is extremely hardcore, the fighting game community is almost impenetrable for amateur enthusiasts. But the Evolution Championship Series, the biggest annual fighting game tournament, is the big barrier-breaker. EVO can wrap up almost any viewer like most folks can bandwagon onto the Super Bowl.

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Rising Thunder: First Screenshots 8 IMAGES

“ Free to play is not wrong, but it just sucks. It's been trashed up by a bunch of s***ty games.

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The casual sort that wishes they could execute on the complexities of professional play, who get excited and involved because of the accessibility of EVO, deserve a fighting game that’s more accessible than the incredibly dense, challenging games they enjoy watching. Radiant Entertainment is exactly the right studio to bear this burden. Rising Thunder is the fighting game built by the fighting game community’s most enthusiastic leaders, and it’s been built specifically to address what’s wrong with the genre. EVO founders Tom and Tony Cannon have partnered with game designer Seth Killian, who worked on both community and combat for Street Fighter before leaving Sony Santa Monica , to make something that’s competitive without isolating anyone.This is where Rising Thunder — Radiant Entertainment’s first fighting game — comes in.It succeeds, of course. Street Fighter IV continues to see re-releases because it’s among Capcom’s most successful multi-million-seller series. But it comes with a catch that, when you think about it from the perspective of the creator, is pretty depressing.“It’s a big success, there’s a million people playing,” Killian says of Street Fighter. “Then week two, 150,000 people online. Week three…15,000. What’s happening there? Why are those guys dropping out?”Sales are sales, but retaining players is important for the long-term success of a fighting game — especially if, like Killian, you’re making a new one. Killian “went back to the drawing board” to see why, exactly, players dropped off so sharply, and to approach a new game with the intent to keep those players playing.“I didn’t want to just make another fighting game. If anything right now, we’re blessed by having a lot of cool, interesting fighting games. But what is it that’s keeping this genre back? We thought about it, and our answers are built into this game.”Killian spelled out what those answers were.In games such as Street Fighter, “people can’t do the moves. They drop out before they do the moves. Online sucks, and if you don’t have people who live close to you who are nuts about this game, it’s really hard to have a competitive experience. Also, we’re charging people $60 for the opportunity to grind for six months. At which point, you begin to play the game.”So Radiant Entertainment is committed to Rising Thunder’s concept with blind conviction. Rising Thunder is a free-to-play, PC-only, ranked multiplayer-focused online game. Its meant to be played competitively by anyone, at any time, with anyone else.“Free to play is not wrong, but it just sucks,” Killian admitted. “It’s been trashed up by a bunch of sh***y games. We’ve been inspired by League of Legends and Dota 2 as far as free goes. You’re not going to pay for gameplay on this game. Ever. You can play it as much as you want.”And it’s easy to play. It’s easy to feel good, because Rising Thunder requires “mostly one-button, some holds, some button-plus-direction” inputs, with minimal motion input to pull off spectacular, devastating special attacks. I’ve done things I’ve never been able to do in fighting games because of Rising Thunder’s easy inputs. I’ve canceled animations, bait-and-switched opponents, and pulled off preposterous aerial combos. Playing a fighting game on a PC keyboard was the most alien idea in the world until I spent a couple hours with Rising Thunder. Passersby said it looked like I was typing frantically, like a hacker in a ‘90s movie. I felt like what I imagine pro players feel like — processing information and responding in turn with lightning speed.When it comes to Rising Thunder as a game you can enjoy competitively any time, Killian said, “This game has been built to work online since day zero. Day negative one.” Its netcode is already excellent — I’ve played a half-dozen matches already with no issues. It’s smooth as butter in beta.Radiant is onto something with this. It’s the sort of fighting game, like Street Fighter, I’m instantly attracted to. Its stylish, pretty, and just fun to watch. But I feel more capable in Rising Thunder than I do playing Street Fighter — and for me, as someone who loves to watch EVO, but knows he could never play at that level, it’s something I’m already enjoying as much.

Mitch Dyer is an Editor at IGN. Talk to him about Dota 2, movies, books, and other stuff on Twitter at @MitchyD and subscribe to MitchyD on Twitch