LVUER wrote:In the end, it's up to player's skill, right? I still remembered when I play Need For Speed 2 (not a fighting game, I know). I raced against my brother. I used a slow car with the best handling and he used the best car in the game (all stats highest except for handling which is a little bit lower than my car). We raced in circular racing track that usually used in Indy race (similar to race track in Pixar's "Car"). It seemed obvious that my bro will won, but not only I beat him, I also broke the track and lap record. He never wanted to race against me ever since that time.
In a properly balanced game this is true, but in some games (The Street fighter 3: 3rd Strike and entire Marvel vs. Capcom series for example) some characters are unviable at any level beyond button mashing.
To elaborate, I have a friend who play May in Guilty Gear (one of the top characters) and beat him every time with Johnny (lowest teir) because the game is properly balanced, but in Marvel vs. Capcom I can't be a low teir hero because it's just not possible, you lack too many options.
Usually talking about tiers becomes...bad so I should explain what tier means, it's a combonation of a rating of a characters strengths and weaknesses, and the number match ups that character has in their favor. Some times low-teir characters have match ups in their favor against top teirs (like bottom tier Briget vs. high tier Potemkin in Guilty gear). There are tiers in every game, but in a properly balanced game, the worst match up in the game should be 6-4, with maybe one or two 7-3 match ups, and the more skilled player will generally win.
Actually, while I'm dispensing knowledge, if anyone wants help learning fighting games, I can lend you some knowledge, or you could just go to dustloop or shoryuken.com to get someone better to help.
