Ultra Street Fighter IV

[Plopboy]

I too still have no xbox live or an xbox with a working HDMI port (it broke whilst playing Dark Souls), so do you guys still play on XBL. PS3 or PC these days?

[Qazimod]

PC until I can be bothered to get XBL again.

Steam Fighter.

[IgTerminals]

Have moved into house now. Hurrah!

No interwebs 'til 15th May though. Boo!

I miss playing this wonderful game.

[IgTerminals]

Also possible new version of Ultra being loctested in France. Possible changes to some characters, apparently Mak has lost projectile invincibility on U2, Dhalsim has lost his 2hit Fwd, but regained his Flame knockdown, and Guile has lost autocorrect on U1 and down to 950 health. Full story on SRK.

[Camel]

wtf

[Goemon]

So with the release of Ultra who's changing up mains, wants to try a new character, sticking with what they know etc?

I love Makoto to bits but with the release of ultra, I will likely stop playing her (ex fukiyage is too dumb IMO)

I've started playing with Dudley recently who I'm likely to continue with and would like to learn Hakan as I just love watching scary Hakan play.

[IgTerminals]

I'm sticking with Guile. However I do have my eye on Decapre as a second. Think she looks wonderful.

[Qazimod]

I may stick with Juri unless my random noodling with everyone suddenly reveals that another character suits me better now. Focus Kasatushis sound dangerous but I should be okay if I abuse them less, and I won't mind anyway if the increased U2 range makes up for it. We'll have to see what happens in the initial random lobby sessions. I'm looking forward to trying Hugo though; if SF4's generous input interpretation make him as fun as Gief and Hawk have been I may recruit him as my go-to grappler.

EDIT: historically I've changed mains with each "major" new instalment of SFIV - Abel in vanilla, Ibuki in Super, Juri in AE/2012 - so a new main isn't out of the question...

[Fitzcarraldo]

Hugo is going to be my main main. But I like playing with a lot of the cast - I'm especially looking forward to U-Hawk and Evil Ryu.

[Camel]

Umberto Hawk

[Curtis]

When did Xbox Live start listing the game as StreetFighter IV, when it used to be SUPER STREETFIGHTER IV?

[hegg]

Guys guys guys, there's a time traveling inventor in a 1955 episode of Science Fiction Theatre (an anthology show akin to The Outer Limits/Twilight Zone) who creates a robot floor cleaner called a Sonic Broom.

Ok bye.

[TommyG]

[Qazimod]

I'm off having adventures this weekend but would quite like to play a fighting game sometime on Monday if anyone's likely to be around? Let me know.

Similarly, if anyone's up for Steam Fighter later (unlikely I know, but I don't have a PS3 and my Live sub's dead), I may be available for bank holiday beatings.

[df0]

Mike pls, no C. Viper.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Hegg I will see you next Thursday

[ah]

I didn't get to play earlier today because I got kicked out of the living room, so instead I hid in the attic and played Gone Home on my laptop and wiped away my tears on the sleeves of my favourite plaid flannel shirt. It was good.

I eventually got to the Xbox about half an hour ago with just enough pop on for a couple of quick games before bed and maybe start to think about easing myself back into playing again (my message history says I've not played since 14/04 which, while not a long time by the standards of some people in this thread, is probably something of a record for me), hoping for a relaxing half hour of mindlessly tapping buttons. For my first fight Xbox Live saw fit to pair me up with MrKimokoan! I lost 2-4, with one of the losses being very close and in the end basically coming down to him waiting for me to crack (which I obligingly did despite having a solid life lead).

Then I fought a nice Guile player who didn't know the matchup anywhere near as well as Hegg, Andy and Ig have taught it to me, which helped bring my heartrate back down a little.

Is there a release date for Ultra yet? Because I just made plans for one of the June weekends so I guess I know when it's coming out.

[JLM]

Sooo much fighting lately. Almost all Dragonman sessions at various folks' houses. Been grinding Rose a lot, got to 11kBP very rapidly and still have an excellent win/loss record. Also been working on T. Hawk a lot. The aim is to get him to 10K before Ultra, when all the bandwagon jumpers will arrive. Or at least they should. Ultra Hawk is great.

Oh, and I have low jab xx hands with Honda now. Can get it ten times in a row in training. I do Jab - > strong - > fierce - > jab - > fierce. I asked the SFO Honda players how they'd do it if they had to use their non-dominant hand for piano-ing and that's what they suggested. Works a treat it does. Makes Honda (and Blanka and Gen as a bonus) tonnes more fun to play.

In other news, completely secretly from the SFO headz as I am looking to surprise them, I have finally decided to get serious about doing proper Chun combos. I am still in the early stages and have no consistency yet, but I have found which of the half dozen methods works best for me. Turns out it's the oddest one and not necessarily the easiest. It's a combination of the plink, double tap and slide methods and it goes:

Fourth finger of right hand hits fierce - > middle finger plinks medium kick. Thumb of left hand presses light kick - > index finger of right hand hits light kick a second time - > Same finger then slides to medium kick and roundhouse kick. Then I tap MK a bunch of times to get the additional hits out. It is weird as hell but is a lot better for me than the full slide or any other suggestions I've seen. I am a long long way from landing any Desk stuff, but these may be my favourite training mode combos I've ever recorded, simply because this particular input has eluded me for the longest time and as a Chun player that's pretty embarrassing. Enjoy:

I'm at the stage now where I can't just knock out streaks of hitting it without fail, but if I start fucking it up I can set myself, make sure to do the next one properly and will get it more often than not. This is massive, massive progress for me. The plan is to grind it in training for a long long time and then dust off the old Chun at a SFO casual session and start busting out ridiculous shit. I am excited.

[strawdonkey]

I did some Street Fighting last night, on a new version of Street Fighter!

Sadly not Ultra. However this is pretty good all the same - a card game where you pick a character from the SSFII roster and then compete with your opponents to beat eight "stages". If you've played Ascension before, it's a lot like that; if you've not played Ascension, it revolves around you drawing five cards each turn and spending those cards on better cards, which go into your deck. When your deck runs out, you shuffle all the cards you own and then draw five cards and spend those cards on better cards, which go into your deck. When your deck runs out, you shuffle all the cards you own and then draw five cards and spend those cards on better cards, which go into your deck

The game ends when all eight stages have been purchased. You can also attack your opponents, which doesn't have a huge lasting effect on the game but can lead to you scuppering their next turn if you get it right.

It's fun! I liked it and the use of the license is not egregious. There are a lot of abilities tacked on to characters where they don't really belong, but a decent job has been done of making the mechanics fit without raising too many eyebrows. Hilariously the one character they did get spot-on is Ryu, as all the cards he features on are super boring, albeit effective

Street Fighter Deck Building Game should run you approximately six Bison Dollars (£30) from your local game store.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I like the look of the new tier lists that the japanese mans are all releasing. Rufus, seth, fuerte and blanka all bottom tier. Wild.

[joffocakes]

Interesting that there's still balancing going on. I wonder if the console version release will even be the final iteration?

Also, I always read "Cammy Reskin Edition" as "Teddy Ruxpin Edition". I thought you all should know.

Also also, when I went to the arcade in Texas I played SSFIV and ended up on a 27 win streak. It was the very thing I've dreamed of doing since I was a kid in in early 90s, sullied only by the fact I'm a 31 year old man and the players weren't very good. Plus I was picked up by "mom" honking the car horn at the end of the day.

[Lyrical Donut]

Hi. I have ordered a Wii U with MK8, because MK8. Have they fixed the time trial leaderboards?

[joffocakes]

Apparently you can download friends' ghosts! I look forward to becoming rivals again, sir!

Also I bought a PS4 and played it for five hours before it totally died and wouldn't switch back on. I should be getting a new one on Thursday as Tesco are replacing it. If that doesn't work I'm just gonna buy a replacement for my broken 360 instead and a lot of Fox's Classics.

[Qazimod]

I like the look of the new tier lists that the japanese mans are all releasing. Rufus, seth, fuerte and blanka all bottom tier. Wild.

Does this mean I can pick Blanka without feeling like a horrible person now? New main confirmed.

[Camel]

Even if they removed all of Blanka's moves except for his silly little crouching LK and a nun accidentally picked him in an arcade filled with reprobates, she would still be the most horrible person in the room.

[joeplus]

Unconfirmed, but I read today that Rose can now combo Spiral from HP Reflect without having to FADC. So as a meterless punish, cr.HP xx HP reflect, Spiral = 238 damage, rather than 210 for cr.HP xx Spiral. Also an easy confirm from meaty cr.HP on wakeup (my favourite rubbish and not really safe gimmick).

[Qazimod]

Even if they removed all of Blanka's moves except for his silly little crouching LK and a nun accidentally picked him in an arcade filled with reprobates, she would still be the most horrible person in the room.

Blanka's cr.LK is the best, get out

[mayor_mike_haggar]

That should give her fadc combos more oomph too. She can confirm into LP spark, fadc and then cr.hpx reflect into spiral.

Assuming they meant spiral and not throw. Also Joe I think spiral is being buffed to 110 do the combo should do 249 vs 210.

[joeplus]

I accounted for the Spiral buff in my calculations, smartypants

However on reading more it looks like only EX Spiral connects midscreen, so maybe not so meterless after all. Still, a nice new thing to play with if it stays.

[JLM]

Yeah, very excited about that. Always felt like a juggle that should work but doesn't for no good reason. I'd love to be able to do EX spiral off a counter hit anti-air soul piede too. Rose is so much fun, though in ranked it is far too easy to get free damage. The sequence of Neutral throw - > Whiff low short - > meaty back throw - > cross up MK - > cr. fierce xx reflect - > FADC - > Soul throw has a frankly absurd success rate. I'm training myself to win matches without using it wherever possible as my regular offline opponents are getting wise to it. The Filipinoman orbs set ups are cheap as hell too. Nobody blocks the same side one in the corner.

Recently beat the number 17 and number 2 ranked Guy players with Rose too. Most of the highly ranked Guy players are up there with Blanka and Dee Jay players in terms of fraudulence. Once I establish that I will be sliding under all of the autopilot elbow drop pressure they run out of ideas. It's almost as guaranteed as crumpling Blanka's slide at the beginning of every match. 1,000BP or 23,000BP, they always... fucking... slide. Pfft. Recently did it to a 20kBP Blanka player at the start of both rounds in a ranked match. Start round, two steps back, one step forward, hold focus, get crumple. I almost got annoyed at him the second time. Said something like "look at the fucking STATE of you" as the second crumple hit him. It makes me sad because Blanka is such a great footsies character but none of the XBL Blankas are any good at all. If I do get a capture device sorted I will put together a video specifically telling people how to expose these players.

The basics of it though:

1) Don't use projectiles ever. Make it look like you might, then crumple inevitable slides. Also, slide is massively punishable on block unless they space it perfectly. Make sure to low block a lot. Don't get tagged with a random slide simply by walking when you could have been blocking.

2) If you won't give them a free slide knockdown to start their offense, they will try hopping next. Jab them out of it repeatedly until they stop.

3) Go nuts with meaty low pressure when they have no meter. Don't jump over them or go for cross ups, just keep them locked down.

4) Be patient, react to what they do. Most of the free damage a fraud Blanka gets is from you walking into stuff and chasing him when you don't need to. If the life is even or you're winning, you do not have to do anything.

5) Expect wake up ultras. If you make it clear that you know Blanka has no wake up without meter then they will almost certainly try this. Dee Jay players do it too once you make it clear that you will be low profiling their upkicks.

5) Many fast low attacks with a decent hitbox will stuff electricity clean. Again, make it clear that you know this. It is not free meter in the mid screen and it is not a legit reversal.

6) Don't press a button after you block electricity. The frame traps Blanka gets here are a huge source of free damage for fraud Blankas who rely on people not knowing. Block electricity, block the sweep they do next, then back dash/jab/focus back dash out of there and be ready to hit him out of the next hop.

7) Air to air. Blanka's jump roundhouse is really hard to deal with if you don't have a DP. React to his jump with a jump and use whatever your best button is.

8) If they do raw rainbow ball in the midscreen you can focus it and avoid having to block the correct side. If they do it reversal you can't do this obviously, but many characters can beat it with an anti-air normal. If you mess up and get hit, remember that it does very little damage and they've just wasted a bar and become that little bit more free on wake up.

9) Obviously the point that can't be given as real advice as it's not something you can just read and go "oh, OK then" , but don't get flustered. None of Blanka's gimmicks are airtight or inescapable. You only get hit because you panic or you want to get out immediately. Wait a turn, see what his favourite tricks are. If he's a hop monster, hit him out of it, if he's doing electricity pressure, block until you block a normal, then you can get out as he won't be at advantage. Be ready to tech throws, but don't panic and mash buttons throughout, as getting grabbed is preferable to eating a counter hit electricity combo.

10) Time is generally on your side. Sometimes a win over Blanka is a very long round, because patience is absolutely the key to beating him. If you're losing at 55 seconds you have no reason to panic. The last time I lost to a Blanka in a real match was because I chased him as soon as I lost the life lead. Don't do this, and for the love of god do not jump at him because you feel you need a hit. This is the worst thing you can possibly do against Blanka.

That's basically it. Blanka doesn't have great approach options at all, you just have to know what they are and how to respond to them. I think what has also helped me crack this match up is working on the assumption that every Blanka player I fight is going to be absolutely rubbish. It's not always true, but it makes me play more confidently and I feel more up to bullying them mercilessly when they have no meter and realising that, aside from wake up ultra, there is little to fear from the character at close range.