Spacing

January 6, 2023 - Published

There's an option that's in almost every fighting game, accessible to almost every character. It begins instantly, ends instantly, can be used for offense, defense, and has almost zero risk. It's one of the most important options in every fighting game, but almost everyone ignores it.

It's called walking.

Movement is underrated because it's not usually flashy or cool. People understandably play fighting games to beat people up. However, getting into higher level play, it's often defined by movement, even if it's the combat that pulls people in. Spacing is the general term for moving your character to stay advantageous. It can get rather complicated, but the concepts are very basic.

Spacing is based around the knowledge of your own range and your opponent's range. Let's say that you are a very long-ranged character, and the opponent is a very short-ranged character. This makes your general goal rather obvious: stay outside of the opponent's short range, and keep them out for as long as you can. If they ever get into your range, then you should either run away, or push them back out to your ideal range. While it'd obviously be more complicated in practice, this makes the purpose of movement rather straightforward. For you it'd be to run away, and for the opponent it would be to close the distance.

Now, what do you do if you and your opponent have range that's much more similar?

Imagine the round just started. You and your opponent are using the same character, and you both only have a single move: a punch. How do you hit the opponent without getting hit yourself?

Thinking of it purely in terms of movement, we have a few options. First is to walk into the opponent, so that you can get in range for the punch. This is the most straightforward solution, but in practice it may be difficult. All the opponent has to do is stand still and wait for you to come into his range -- most of the time, he'll be the one hitting you first, since you'll just be walking into his fist. So, does that mean you should just stand still? That's an option too, but if both players stand still then nothing will happen. The last option is to walk backwards, but then you'll never be in range for your attack, eventually backing yourself into the corner in the process. What's the solution?

As you may have guessed, it's a combination of all three. If you ever watch pro fighting game players (or even real fights like boxing matches), you'll notice that there's often a lack of fighting. Tekken matches may have big combos, but the players will almost dance around each other half the time. This isn't for show -- they're trying to manage their space, and bait the opponent into an attack.

If we go back to the hypothetical one-punch fight, the only way you can bait the opponent to attack is by being in their range. The only way to dodge their attack is to be outside their range. Therefore, the solution is to walk into their range, then outside their range right when they attack. This will create a Whiff, which is an attack that misses.

Whiffing an attack right next to the opponent is one of the most vulnerable states in a fighting game. If your opponent whiffs, it's on you to respond with a Whiff Punish, an attack that hits the opponent while they're vulnerable from a whiff. This can lead to an entire combo, and all just from proper movement!

Playing around your opponent's range and controlling space with quick attacks is generally referred to as Footsies; while the term isn't concretely defined, it's a common term that's necessary to mention in this article. Footsies will look very different in different games -- while the classic term refers to slow grounded movement and managing the range of kick-based moves, modern fighting games include a wide variety of attacks and movement options, like dashes, sword attacks, 3D sidesteps, airdashes, etc.

In terms of practical advice, there's one trick that's helped me the most in terms of spacing. Every time I'm fighting a character, I visualize the range of their longest-range option that's completely unreactable. We can informally call this a Burst Range. This may be due to the range of the move itself, or due to a burst of speed, like a dash attack in Smash Bros. Then, whenever I'm not ready to commit to an attack, I stay outside that range, and see if the opponent decides to commit to a whiff. If I don't know their burst range, then I'll take a guess, and adjust it as I see more of their moves throughout the match.

As a last note, I'll mention that movement is so integral to fighting games that it usually defines entire subgenres. 3D Fighters are referred to as so because it allows 3D movement, and Airdashers/"Anime Fighters" are defined by the ability to dash in the air.

Either way, I hope this helps you out! Be mindful of how you place your character on the screen, and you can become near untouchable.

• Vecderg