This is a post about fighting games and the underlying mechanical systems that make combos possible. This post covers

• the systems required to allow for combos
• several different conceptual approaches to a combo system
• and the macro-level “resource utilization” concepts that are needed for combos to exist.

So what is a combo? Rather simply put, a combo is any sequence of skills or abilities (we’ll improve on this definition at the end of the article, but it’s a good starting point). An important point to make, though, is that this is the videogame definition of a combo; this definition has no bearing on fast food menu combos or the like. In video games, combos are traditionally used to produce a greater effect than the individual moves that go into the combo, whether it’s just increased damage, or the consistency required to pull off a difficult move. As a result of the rather broad definition of a combo, there are a few misconceptions associated with it. One of the more important things to distinguish is the difference between combos and strings. Read More…