History LetsPlay / TheOnlineWarrior

** Max lampshaded his tendency to predict fighting game reveals in his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBbEvdAKK5U reaction]] to [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Baiken]]'s GuestFighter appearance in ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'', going back to stream from a whole ''two years prior'' to his reaction video, where he randomly muses about a popular samurai possibly becoming a guest fighter and saying he'd be happy if it was Baiken.

** As he points out in his ''Rate The Supers'' video on ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXIII'', "he's biased, but he's not an idiot," and gives Athena Asamia her dues as having one of the best Supers in the game in his opinion.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[MundaneMadeAwesome "Let's play... Some video games!"]]'']]
->''"What's up guys, Max here."''

** As Max explains in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYBHh6BdHEM "Max is Killing the FGC"]], he tries his hardest to downplay the ArrogantKungFuGuy mentality of TheNineties arcade-era fighting game players (of which he grew up with) by helping people who want to graduate from being a casual rather than gatekeeping them.

However, on the fourth episode of his VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 series, he started doing something different- a character guide for individual characters, called WebVideo/AssistMe, beginning with Doctor Doom. This series is a [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent departure]] from his normal fare, with actors playing the parts of the various characters, and something resembling a storyline. It was even picked up by Capcom to promote the release of [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3]], with 6 episodes covering 12 characters, and [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom Marvel vs. Capcom Origins]]. Max has continued the show, which will soon be entering its third season.

* ApologeticAttacker: During matches, being the nice guy he is, Max will occasionally apologize for not holding back if he's playing against opponents who aren't as skilled as him.

* AscendedMeme: Often imported into the Assist Me segments.

** Even though his channel and his hobbies are dedicated to fighting games, Max has stated multiple times that ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', a role-playing game, is his favorite video game of all time. He did a whole playthrough of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' on his channel, and showed massive levels of hype for the game during its pre-release as he saw trailers and news footage about it. [[ApprovalOfGod He was even told by the creators of]] ''FFVII Remake'' that they liked his reaction upon seeing the game's first teaser. Max was also quite happy to see both Cloud and Sephiroth added to ''Super Smash Bros.'' as DLC characters, the former in ''Smash 4'' and the later in ''Ultimate''.[[invoked]]

* ClothingDamage: Max goes on about the application of this in [[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur V]].
* ClusterFBomb: Max is prone to this whenever things don't go his way or his opponent pushes one of his [[BerserkButton Berserk Buttons]].

** For the same reason he barely could play ''VideoGame/FarCry3BloodDragon'' as he state the game gave him terrible motion sickness.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Max frequently lampshades the ones that occur when he plays VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}.

* HiddenDepths:
* HypocriticalHumor: Max tries to cover a new weapon for ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'' only for Doom to cut in and tell Max to stop camping. Eventually Max hands Doom the controller and tells him to show him what's not camping. Guess what's the first thing Doom does?

* IShallTauntYou: Played with. Max is not fond of taunting midmatch or post-match believing it is [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen unsportsmanlike conduct]]. However, for [[BreakingTheFourthWall Deadpool's taunt]] or [[PracticalTaunt Practical Taunts]] in ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterIII 3rd Strike]]'' he says it's alright.

* RageQuit: Averted. And Max has a whole video explaining why no one should rage quit.

* SitcomArchNemesis: From ''3rd Strike: The Online Warrior'' there is [=UFCgym=], a player perpetually afk who is there solely to steal matches from people actually trying to play the game.

** During the Game Awards 2020, Simmons sings "Backstreets back, alright!" During the Smash Ultimate DLC character trailer to which Max jokes, "NSYNC in Smash!" This is just seconds before Sephiroth made his appearance...who has been voiced by Lance Bass of NSYNC.

** Max's greatest weakness are platformers. Watching him playing any platform game may cause sodium poisoning.

** Also bad Ping aka choppy internet connections.
** Taunting. Max considers this very offensive and extremely unsportsmanship. He makes an exception for games with {{Practical Taunt}}s like ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII''. The few times he's taunted another player, it was either an accident (for which he apologizes profusely), or in response to their taunting, teabagging, or otherwise behaving like a jerk.
*** Something even worse as ''teabag'' quickly turns him into a salty revenge driven player. Since ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' makes you tap Down repeatedly to grant Mercy, Max tends to perform the input while jumping so it doesn't look like he's teabagging.
** Not "berserk" per se, but Max dislikes it when people choose the training stage in online matches since he thinks it defeats the purpose of the game having stages in the first place.
** Max isn't particularly fond of people in the chat [[BackseatDriver trying to tell him what to do or how to play]]. If he doesn't put the chat into sub only mode, he'll likely do the opposite of what he's told just to spite them.
** Crappy netcode is something that gets on his nerves a lot, especially as someone who plays online a lot instead of tourney-hopping. Max has been championing the cause for better netcode to Japanese devs at almost every convention he's gone to in the past few years, to no avail. It got to the point where he once dedicated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW61xJNJ9m8 a 20-minute pseudo-"Real Talk" episode]] solely on the topic, specifically on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here "Not invented here" syndrome]], citing the myriad proprietary Japanese [[UsefulNotes/GameEngine game engines]] and proprietary, not-GGPO netcode, eventually boiling down the reason to "we can't be assed to spend money learning foreign technology" in a ''very'' annoyed tone. His "Hype Check" video on ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterz'' elaborates on how this issue affected his enjoyment of the game; after a few months of loving it, he became disillusioned by the netcode problems online not being addressed, and abandoned the game early in 2019. Even when he returned in February of 2020 to play it again, he expressed that he would very likely ''not'' play online because he was sure it had not been fixed. Max finally had his grievances on this topic addressed, albeit indirectly, in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpC-JB--c7Q "Fighting Game Developer Roundtable" conference]] held late July 2020, when Katsuhiro Harada (''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}''[='=]s executive producer) talked about the technical difficulties of adjusting 3D animations for rollback netcode and how their development team plans to overcome those difficulties. Multiple times throughout the video, Max tells his audience just how plain ''happy'' he is to see ''literally any'' Japanese developer, much less Harada himself.
** Although he doesn't talk about it much, Max actively hates the idea that fighting games need to be for only hardcore players. While Max likes to play with skilled players and enjoys high end play, he above all wants to have fun, and gets really annoyed at how many fighting game communities invoke [[invoked]]StopHavingFunGuys since it kills the communities chances of growing and just comes across as elitist. This is part of why he doesn't participate in a lot of big name tournaments.

** Defied as much as possible. Max does have his biases (he's not really a fan of modern anime aesthetics, most [=JRPGs=], and similar genres), but he does his best to keep an open mind and give everything he plays a fair shot. He's openly said that he tries not to call anything "bad" outright (unless it's something universally recognized as broken or low-quality, like ''VideoGame/KasumiNinja''); most of the time when he drops a game the worst thing he'll say is "It's just not for me", and he'll still try to point out the aspects that he liked. That said, there are quite a few times where he had a lot of fun with games or characters that fall outside his normal range of interests, such as ''VideoGame/ThemsFightinHerds'', ''VideoGame/PowerRangersBattleForTheGrid'', or his maining [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} Ruby Rose]] in ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCrossTagBattle''[[note]]he was actually eager to try Yang because she hit a lot of checkboxes on his "cool character list", but was turned off by gameplay shortcomings[[/note]].

** As Max explains in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYBHh6BdHEM "Max is killing the FGC"]], he tries his damned hardest to downplay the ArrogantKungFuGuy mentality of TheNineties arcade-era fighting game players (of which he grew up with) by helping people who want to graduate from being a casual rather than gatekeeping them.

** Max's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zii4Iw-mPc4 reaction]] to ''Minecraft''[='=]s Steve getting into ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' was, at best, polite disappointment. However, he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrnJ5nImf64 clarifies]] that, unlike the resulting outrage that occurred following Steve's announcement, he's ultimately happy he's in the game since his inclusion makes other people happy. He also stresses that he's not obligated to hate Steve just because he's the polar opposite of his gaming preferences.
** Max discusses this issue when playing ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation''. He's a huge fan of the Franchise/{{Alien}} franchise, but isn't really the biggest fan of horror games due to his jumpy and easily frightened nature (as he has admitted). When he played the game back in 2014, he hated it and stopped playing it, but came back around to it in 2020 and admitted that he liked the game, and attributed his initial dislike of it more to do with his feelings on the genre than the game itself.
* BossBattle: Invoked in Max's "Boss Rage" series, where he takes on the final bosses of certain fighting games at their hardest possible difficulty. He tallies his total attempts against the boss, which factors into his final rating. Defeated bosses include [[VideoGame/KillerInstinct Eyedol, Shadow Jago]], [[VideoGame/SoulSeries Inferno]], [[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha M.Bison]], [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 Galactus]], [[VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroesVsStreetFighter Apocalypse, Cyber Akuma]], [[VideoGame/StreetFighterIII Gill]], [[VideoGame/SNKVsCapcom Shin Akuma, God Rugal]], [[VideoGame/StreetFighterIV Oni]], [[VideoGame/MortalKombat2011 Shao Kahn]], [[VideoGame/MortalKombatX Corrupted Shinnok]] and [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Master Core]]. He also occasionally delves into non-fighting game Boss Rages with games like ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' (specifically the DLC battles with Evil Ryu and Oni) and ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'' (where he, Simmons, Steve and Kenny hunted all the monsters in the beta).

** ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath''' s a recent example, but he goes even further to say its one the best games he's ever played from UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideogames, even above the above example.

** It should be noted that while Max does have his preferred sense of style, gameplay is what counts most in his book; he'll give characters a fair chance if he considers them cool, but will only stick with them if they're fun to play. A big example came in the form of [[EnemyWithout Kage]] from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' Season 4: Max was super hyped for the character because he seemed to be a fusion of Evil Ryu and Oni, two of his favorite characters from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''. However, he dropped the character after only a couple of days because his GlassCannon nature combined with slow movement speed meant that fighting anyone except other {{Shotoclone}}s was a massive chore.
** Even though his channel is dedicated to fighting games, Max has long stated that ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is his favorite video game of all time. He did a whole playthrough of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' on his channel, and showed massive levels of hype for the game during its pre-release as he saw trailers and news footage about it.

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Max always has this problem when switching between the various ''Online Warrior'' series.

--->'''Egdelord!Max:''' Yes, I dyed everything. I dyed my eyes, I dyed my lips, I dyed my hair and I dyed my ''dick''.
* BrokeTheRatingScale: Max loved the Dramatic Finish for [[VideoGame/DragonBallFighterz Super Saiyan Blue Gogeta vs Super Broly]] so much he gave it an 11 out of 10.

--> '''Max:''' The "realities" of fighting games are kind of what I explained; that things aren't easy, things are very hard, and it's hard to get into this community. But, to be honest, guys... we're not gang members. We're not, you know, criminals. We are dudes playing video games, and I think ''that'' can be shared with almost anyone.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Possibly at the end of Max's review of ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', when SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker offers his services to Doom, who has just sworn {{revenge}} on Batman for dumping a yogurt and cutting the mane off of a [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Rarity]] doll during his interrogation.

** Crappy netcode is something that gets on his nerves a lot, especially as someone who plays online a lot instead of tourney-hopping. Max has been championing the cause for better netcode to Japanese devs at almost every convention he's gone to in the past few years, to no avail. It got to the point where he once dedicated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW61xJNJ9m8 a 20-minute pseudo-"Real Talk" episode]] solely on the topic, specifically on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here "Not invented here" syndrome]], citing the myriad proprietary Japanese [[UsefulNotes/GameEngine game engines]] and proprietary, not-GGPO netcode, eventually boiling down the reason to "we can't be assed to spend money learning foreign technology" in a ''very'' annoyed tone. His "Hype Check" video on ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterz'' elaborates on how this issue affected his enjoyment of the game; after a few months of loving it, he became disillusioned by the netcode problems online not being addressed, and abandoned the game early in 2019. Even when he returned in February of 2020 to play it again, he expressed that he would very likely ''not'' play online because he was sure it had not been fixed.

* RunningGag: Whenever someone in the chat asks Max to explain the plot of one video game or another, the synopsis he gives is always "[[Franchise/SuperMario A guy has to go to multiple castles to save his kidnapped girlfriend]]."

** He also holds ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' in high regard, naming the first game as his personal game of the year for 2013.

** He seriously lost his shit when Final Fantasy 7 was coming to [[UsefulNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideogames PS4]], ported from its PC release instead of being remade.