If you’ve been finding yourself drifting into the world of fighting games - or even more excitingly, competitive fighting games - you may come across a few unique phrases that just don’t make sense. Whether completely unique or fun terms that have had their meaning shifted completely, there are plenty of terms and phrases you’ll only hear in fighting games.
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Even more impressive, while some terms are shared across the genre, there are a few games that have plenty of their own unique terms that no other games use for one reason or another. You’ll hear all these terms often if you watch fighting game gameplay, so it’ll be great to know exactly what they mean.
10Frame Advantage
Fighting game players love their in-depth terms, and frame advantage is something that those who dive deep into mechanics will know. Frame advantage refers to a period of time in which you as a player can continue to combo or pressure an opponent with little worry of retaliation.
The easiest way to see frame advantage in action is when someone continues attacking a foe. Characters typically have damage or stun animations that keep them from responding, leaving whoever’s doing the attacking with the frame advantage.
9Plinking
This term is actually a short form for priority linking, but you’ll definitely hear plinking more often. It’s a simple technique but one that is used in a wide variety of fighting games for the same purpose.
Plinking is when you push two buttons consecutively as fast as possible to link the moves together. This lets you pull off useful techniques, tricky moves,and even combo more efficientlydepending on the game you’re sinking all your practice hours into. It may sound strange, but plinking is more important than you might realize.
8Touch Of Death
While they are relatively rare, there have been some pretty major examples of a touch of death in fighting games. This term essentially means that as soon as you touch your opponent, you’re able to wipe out a fully filled health bar without ever disengaging from your combo.
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This has been somewhat notorious in theDragonball FighterZcommunity as every character has been capable of a touch-of-death combo at some point. This means that in an incredibly fast-paced game, a player can lose a whole character before they even get to do anythingwith their favorite team.
7Wavedash
A wavedash is a specific movement technique that has appeared in a number of famous fighting games, but you most likely already know it for its prominence inSuper Smash Bros. Melee. In all instances, characters use a dash or dodge with other movement or combo techniques to glide across a stage.
Being able to wavedash is key in pretty much every game it appears in because the speed and ability to throw off opponents is an absolute must. It’s not always an easy trick to pull off effectively, but anyone can learn it with enough practice.
6Teching
Teching is another term that you’re likely to hear across a few different fighting games. The term loosely refers to the act of countering someone’s attempt at a throw with a throw input of your own. That action will usually result in a kind of stalemate that leaves both players on an even playing field.
This has been a major mechanic in both recentMortal Kombatgames andTekkengames, meaning you’re likely to hear the term tossed out by announcers when a player is capable of making an incredible read.
5Counterpick
This is a term that you’re likely to hear announcers in video game tournaments mention again and again. As players make their way through the sets of their chosen games, they will have the opportunity to counterpick characters.
The purpose of a counterpick is to give yourself some kind of relevant edge over the player that you likely just lost to. For example, if you lost as Donkey Kong againstCaptain Falcon in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, you may want to counterpick Mr. Game And Watch to gain the statistical advantage.
4Edge Guard
You are probably only going to come across this term in relation to Super Smash Bros, but there might be other series in which you can do the same thing. An edge guard or edge guarding is the act of keeping your opponent from grabbing a ledge from offstage in order to recover.
You can do this through tons of expert techniques, but you can also do so with something as simple as a poke attack. Every Super Smash Bros match has phases in which players will edge guard one another until a stock is ultimately lost.
3Input Read
This term is something you’ll come across more when you’re learning PvE gameplay for fighting games. A lot of these games have systems that allow the computer characters to read your inputs, hence the term.
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Pretty much everyone hates input reads because it creates artificial difficulty. The early Mortal Kombat series was huge on input reads, and it seems to be a fairly common practicein all those fighting game bossesto make them all the more imposing. Next time you hear the term, you’ll know someone’s unhappy about something.
2Korean Backdash
It would be odd if anyone’s heard this term anywhere else considering this is a highly specific term used amongst Tekken players. The term Korean backdash actually refers to a movement technique in which you dash quickly by executing and canceling dashes.
The technique, created by a Korean player, is a defensive tool that is a key aspect of becoming potentially competitive in Tekken. If you may’t pull the move off, you probably won’t get far, especially in a series of games as technical and intense as the Tekken series.
1Happy Birthday
To be fair, you probably do hear this term quite often, but you probably don’t ever hear the term in relation to video games. The term ismajor in tag-fightersbecause it refers to landing a massive combo or super attack on multiple enemies.
It’s a way to reference the fun surprise that you get when you can deal some heavy damage to a character who may not have even been tagged into the match yet. It can get even better if you manage to down the character without them tagging in a single time.
