Ultra Street Fighter IV - Page 275

On March 10 2013 18:04 Excalibur_Z wrote:


1. Yes. Viper, Ibuki, Makoto, Hakan, Gen, anyone with cancels or extra mechanics is pretty difficult to play right off the bat and requires execution above and beyond the rest of the cast. Good starter characters are Balrog, Ryu, Guile, and other characters with good normals. Try out some different characters and see who you're comfortable playing.

2. Arcade Mode isn't going to be of much use because it instills bad habits, much like playing against the computer in Brood War. Your best practice is going to come from playing against other humans. Training mode is helpful for learning combos and certain advanced setups but that's pretty much it.

3. Normals and fundamentals will carry you through any game. Lots of new players tend to focus on button mashing, trying out combos, or spamming special moves. They also jump a lot. Although almost every character has some special move that's used for antiair purposes, they have normals that serve the same purpose and it's easier to press one button than a series of inputs particularly if you have limited experience with fighting games. For example, if you're Balrog, a well-timed crouching heavy punch will beat just about every jumping attack. High-damage moves commonly have a longer range and take longer to come out, meaning they're more easily interrupted than low-damage quick moves such as light attacks.

4. Focus more on normals and stop jumping so much. Jumping is a great way to land really big damage but any half-decent player is going to know how to beat a jump-in. However, jumping does have its place, such as when you correctly predict the opponent will throw a fireball and leave himself open to an aerial attack. You probably already know that holding backward blocks attacks, but there are certain jumping attacks that actually hit as the opponent is jumping over you; this is called a crossup attack and has to be blocked the opposite direction. Usually crossups are quite ambiguous but over time you'll start figuring out how to block them successfully. There are some characters that can throw projectiles and then teleport or jump to your other side, so when this happens, always block in the opposite direction of the opposing character, not the projectile itself.

Personal recommendation: don't use the 360 gamepad if you can help it, you're better off investing in a stick if you plan to play seriously. The more serious, the higher quality the stick you should get. I never used a stick before SF4 and certain inputs were very difficult for me on a gamepad (such as three-punch inputs, quarter-circles, and full circles).



Oh yes, this is really good advice too. Every fighting game tends to emphasize big damage combos when it's trying to teach you something, when really the most important skill of all to have is knowing when and how to block.

Once you've spent about a day figuring out your character and how your character's normals work and how to block and defend yourself, learn how to punish your opponent for doing something really unsafe. If you're facing Ryu and you block a fierce Shoryuken, just do some basic normal canceled into a special move that will do more damage than if his Shoryuken had hit you.