Ultra Street Fighter IV

[Nate Dogg III]

I thought I'd found a good Persona combo the other day only to later realise it can be done automatically by just mashing a single button.

Anyway, a quick tribute to an excellent set against Jason's Dudders last night. Got 12-0ed again but good god I played out of my skin.

I did so much right. I landed the full ERoo combo a few times. I followed a blocked fullscreen fireball with another which I FADCed and caught Jason's Ducking Upper (is that what it's called? The thing that goes through fireballs) with raw Ultra II. I caught Jason with a wakeup EX DP that was a genuine read as he'd tick thrown me twice in a row so I knew a meaty button press was coming. My footsies got a little better, though the matchup feels overwhelmingly in Dudley's favour in that department.

So in most matches I took a round; almost every match went to a nailbiting final round finish. I came so, so close to victory on several occasions and was let down by execution errors. So many landed FADC DPs followed by teleports instead of Ultra. I'd have won the very last match had I successfully punished a whiffed EX DP with Ultra II, but I was too late and it was blocked. On several occasions I had my head in my hands, distraught.

But never salty: that was the most fun I've had on this game in months. As I think I said the other day I have to be so on top of my game just to give Jason a decent match, and I feel like I did that last night. Came away with a mental checklist of things I need to work on - teleports on my wakeup instead of all the backdashes (Jason caught me twice, maybe three times, with a raw Ultra on my wakeup because he knew I'd be backdashing), much, much less jumping, simple execution stuff like FADC Ultra - but a sense of satisfaction that, despite taking another hammering, I'd improved from the previous session, and had at least made Jason work for his dozen wins.

I'll take a match off him one day, I think. In the meantime I'm happy to get hammered as long as I keep playing like that, getting a little better every time, knowing that when it actually happens and it's Evil Ryu's face on the victory screen I'll have earned it, and can turn the fucking thing off and immediately strip naked and run around the house, tears streaming down my flubbery naked form, and do it in the knowledge that it's an appropriate thing to do as opposed to just another drunken Wednesday.

/

Oh crap I'd better get on with some work.

[imp]

cr.MK into option selected tatsus seem to work great for shotos vs Dudders.

Also JOJOBA has auto combos too. In stand mode, just mash out weak attack a few times and you'll get a three to four hit combo. (it'll be pretty much three jabs followed by an ender.) Also ABC combos chain in stand mode, and you can do things like AB into a special, but not ABC into special. It's a game full of really weird systems.

p.s. I love the fact it's called HD Ver.

Christ.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Oh, did you play the jellyman also nate? He sent me a wee message for games, but when it came I was just rushing off to go for a swim before the pool closed. In the end I managed to wild up my shoulder due to awful technique from not swimming for 2 years. I should never have gone outside

I might play drunkenly tonight until about 3am if anyone fancies that. I've naff all to do this weekend so I might as well waste it on videogames just to spite myself.

Oh, and were those ultras he got you with option selects? He's infuriating with those. At least I'm not the only one who fluffs DP FADC Ultra. I used to be about 10% with those form the P1 side, but I'm closer to about 50% now. I'm almost mediocre!

[joffocakes]

I'm kinda gutted that Joseph doesn't feel too suited to my playstyle. His snare is kinda Super Skrully, but I'm not terribly good with Skrull anyway. I keep getting jumping jabs when I want a 360 (poor execution more than anything) and one of his supers has the range of Balrog's Focus attack. Maybe even less.

[Nate Dogg III]

Imp, I'm taking a break from emailing you to replying to you on here. I worry that's crossing the streams in some way but never mind.

Problem with cr.MK against Dudley is that Jason is psychic and jumps over them and it means eating a succession of jumping roundhouse -> tings x business. None of my standard anti-Dudley stuff (which is cr.MK, sMP and many backdashes) work on him either.

Actually, now I think of it, fuck that guy.

[Nate Dogg III]

Here's a thing: Yatagarasu, an indie fighting game that's been in development for four years by three KOF veterans.

It's for 3DS eShop and is apparently confirmed for the west, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAZ2sldMyJs

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Joffo will you fix your internet so I can play you.

It's unacceptable and I feel it's putting a real strain on what could really be a true lifelong companionship.

[joffocakes]

I'm seriously considering moving house for that very reason. Into your house.

[imp]

Here's a thing: Yatagarasu, an indie fighting game that's been in development for four years by three KOF veterans.

It's for 3DS eShop and is apparently confirmed for the west, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAZ2sldMyJs

That looks really nice. Shame I won't play it unless it gets released on other platforms!

[imp]

I'm kinda gutted that Joseph doesn't feel too suited to my playstyle. His snare is kinda Super Skrully, but I'm not terribly good with Skrull anyway. I keep getting jumping jabs when I want a 360 (poor execution more than anything) and one of his supers has the range of Balrog's Focus attack. Maybe even less.

I've been playing a lot of Avdol (née Abdul) since he's apparently the most infuriatingly Ken-like character. Well, he's got fireballs and a silly big SRK which you can juggle multiple times in the corner. I've also dabbled a little bit in Chaca (Chaka Khan) because he's got rekkas that end with a big launcher, which you can continue with his SRK or his Super. And he has really silly corner juggles that do like 35-40% damage.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

I do need a flatmate, as you well know. Also last night I made burritos, imagine if we could of have shared them

[Camel]

we could of have shared them

I like this covering all bases approach to sentence writing.

[joffocakes]

Learning to block more, especially as they're getting up, will be useful; you can punish Ken pretty hard if you block his uppercut. With Akuma maybe try A standing hard punch and, while that's hitting, do a quarter circle back and light kick for his light kick hurricane kick; this will hit once and you can hit with your hard punch dragon punch after. Decent damage like that should act as an uppercut deterrent.

[Nate Dogg III]

Akuma's made of glass and it takes quite experienced hands to get the best of him - I'd play around with the cast a bit and see if you get on with anyone else.

Go into the Trial mode - it runs you through most of a character's special moves and combos. They get stupidly hard near the end but just look for patterns - normal moves that can be cancelled into specials, what normal moves combo into each other, etc. Just get two or three of those in your brain, and base your approach to a match around those few things.

The most useful things of Akuma's are crouching medium kick into fireball, his far standing heavy kick which hits twice, his crouching fierce punch as an anti-air, and [any light or medium normal] into light kick hurricane kick into fierce dragon punch.

Imp is probably typing something more useful this instant as he's our resident Akuma.

[Camel]

Use this as a guide when deciding on a new character:

[mayor_mike_haggar]

Yeah akuma's pretty tough to start out with. Low health characters put you at a disadvantage until you have some kind of idea what you're doing, since you need to be able to pretty big damage combos to make up for that. Ken is probably one of the more beginner-friendly characters due to his big-damage uppercut and average health. Maybe try switching to ryu instead of akuma? Other fairly beginner friendly characters are people like Balrog, Blanka, Rose and M.Bison.

If you want a TOTAL noobies video guide, then one of the best places is probably here:

http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/basic-video-tutorial-guide-for-total-beginners-for-ssf4.103038/

This guy does a complete idiot's guide from the ground up. It's very good and explains lots of the intricacies of the game system (things like links, cancels, FADCs) and how it works. Lots of things which are very important to the game aren't really explained very well by the in game tutorials!

If you want to add any of us we'll all be happy to play online, and if you've a mic we will drone on in your ear for hours and hours about how the game works, since we're all heinous dullards.

[Camel]

I will come back to the both of you in a bit on what you have said, noting a few of those combos. But firstly, two things.

What is anti-air? Is this a move that counters an opponents aerial attack?

Cancelling a normal move into a special. Is there a particular button combination to 'cancel' a move or does it quite simply mean entering into a move and whilst it is executing you can tap in a super/ultra?

Getting into Trial mode is extremely difficult. As soon as he hears I am on Streetfighter he will emerge from wherever he is, he quite simply won't let me practice.

We are both horrendously competitive also.

Anti-air is an attack which will defeat an opponent approaching from the air.

Cancelling a move just requires you to enter the second move while the first is hitting. As long as the first move is cancellable. Not all are. No real strict timing involved, so cancels are easily done.

[Camel]

Which Ultra are you using? I'm pretty sure someone will tell me I'm wrong, but I don't think you can combo into Akuma's Ultra 1.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

You can only combo into akuma's ultra 1 from a focus crumple or if they're dizzy, basically. It'll work great to punish dragon punches, mind.

Comboing into akuma's ultra 2 requires insanely good execution and is still pretty much beyond me.

[imp]

If Ken is on the ground and i am close by he will often come up immediately with a dragon punch. Do i need to do a standing block or crouching to avoid? What I have been doing recently is simply waiting for him to land and catching him with a throw as I have noticed there is a slight recovery time. Perhaps I can instead try this combo above as it looks quite simple to execute...

Forward + Hard Punch, into quarter circle back light kick (hurricane kick), into hard dragon punch.

Got you.

When I am grounded and he is standing on top of me. What is the best thing for me to do? Come up with a light/quick dragon punch? I have noticed trying to come up with a hard dragon punch often means there is a slight delay and he is able to hit me first.

Forward+crouching medium kick, into fire ball (quarter circle forward+punch)

Forward+Heavy kick (from a slight distance)

Forward+down + hard punch < I should be using this when Ken does his forward launching kick, as he often links that into a sweep and I am finding it difficult to block.

For the bold above, is it best to use light/medium or hard punch like joffo mentions?

Sorry sorry sorry. Very basic responses here by me. Just logging down..

First thing, you don't want to be pressing forward all the time. You might have noticed that one off button presses, like hard punch are different depending on how far you are from your opponent. Some moves also come out differently when you press forward (or backwards for some characters) at the same time. For example, try standing still (stick neutral) with Akuma and pressing medium punch. Hold forwards and press this however, and you get a completely different attack.

Secondly, it's only making things more difficult for you to do things like crouching medium kick into Fireball. If you hold the lever straight down, or even down-back, it's easier to do the fireball motion after the Medium Kick, as you can do it in one smooth motion.

Thirdly, holding forwards means you aren't blocking. There are many occasions in this game where you might throw out a crouching medium kick, and it doesn't hit your opponent. If you're still holding down towards after this, you're not blocking, and you'll likely get hit by a counter-attack.

With regard to Ken being on top of you, try and put some space between him and you. You can simply walk back, you can backdash (tap backwards twice), or you can use Akuma's teleport - a dragon punch motion and all three punches (far teleport) or all three kicks (short teleport).

Got you. So this crouching+punch anti air should counter kens forward jumping kick.

I can nail the Ultras for Akuma often, but I feel I need a good combo to link me into it (as easy as possible) - Would any of the above be suitable? Perhaps hard punch, quick hurricane kick into Ultra?

Nice dude. Will go through that over the weekend.

Will definitely add you guys, timing may be a slight issue as I am 8 hours ahead of you but still, we can try to link some games up.

Crouching Hard Punch won't always beat Ken's jumping kicks outright. Sometimes you'll have to do a dragon punch, or just stand up and block the incoming attack. This is what's known as "spacing" - try and learn what ranges he jumps in from and how to counter accordingly. It's probably the most important concept in Street Fighter, as the space between you and your opponent dictates the effectiveness of all of your moves and movements. This is a big topic, so I won't go into it now, but make sure you pay attention when that tutorial video mentions it!

Unfortunately Akuma cannot combo into his Ultra combo 1, and the combo into his Ultra 2 is extremely high-level stuff.

Like others, I'd recommend you actually use Ryu as he is almost as versatile as Akuma, does solid damage, and has a reasonable amount of health. He's also a fantastic character to learn the game with as he will teach you better fundamentals than the rest of the cast.

[Qazimod]

One good thing about Akuma's Ultra 1 is that it can't be blocked, so if you time it right on your opponent's recovery (whilst they are getting up after being knocked down), they can't do anything. In most other cases it's hard to time it right without them jumping and leaving you wide open. Focus crumples offer a good opportunity to Ultra but they're quite risky.

Akuma is a great character but he takes damage astonishingly easily, so it might be better to use Ryu. When you're up against Ken and you know that he'll dragon punch after standing up, it might be best to back off a little, let the DP miss you and do something as he comes back down to Earth, be it your own dragon punch or a Super/Ultra Combo.

And of course you're welcome to join any of us online - everyone is welcome and we're all pretty encouraging to one another. Except for Haggar, who always makes fun of my high-level "empty jump backwards" strategy.

[joffocakes]

Sagat might be ok for a begginer to see you getting some wins, but the focus on keeping people away with tiger shots might slow down your progress in learning the up close aspects of the game, which are also very important. Suggestions that you use Ryu are pretty valid, as he's versatile and has a more practical ultra than Akuma too. It'll also help you get used to using dragon punches on reaction as anti air; destroying your mate's Ken gameplan.

[Lyrical Donut]

Double O, you're 8 hours ahead, so somewhere in East Asia? This means you could also pop to the arcade too if you have one near you. Even if it's just to watch people play and pick stuff up that way.

[Nate Dogg III]

Yeah he's in Singapore I think. Someone find that cross counter vid with Gootecks and Mike in that incredible arcade!

[joffocakes]

Let's train Double O up like our own wee Street Fightin' pokemon.

[Qazimod]

Yeah he's in Singapore I think. Someone find that cross counter vid with Gootecks and Mike in that incredible arcade!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijB67anwUVU

Bugis Junction seems like the place to be.

[Camel]

Haven't watched that vid yet, but Gootecks looks like he's having a whale of a time.

[mayor_mike_haggar]

It's akuma's super that you sometimes can't escape, quazi. That starts up instantly and is classed as a grab, so unless your opponent is holding up before the super flash they get thrown. His ultra has startup, so holding up during the ultra flash will jump you out of the way. If you do the ultra as someone is waking up then they can just hold up (I'm sure I know someone who's good at that) and they'll jump out the way safe as houses, since you can't be thrown on wakeup if you wakeup jump.

[Qazimod]

True - I was on about guarding rather than escaping. it might seem like an obvious point to make but many Ultras can just be blocked if you don't have time to do a nifty escape.

Hey, it took me like four weeks to find that out in vanilla.

[joffocakes]

Double O, sir! If you're getting hit with dragon punches from Ken as he wakes up you should mostly be blocking. It does seem really powerful, but Ken really is taking a huge risk using that move (unless he has two bars of super meter, in which case a Ken who knows the game will use a focus attack to cancel the move and dash to safety, but that's more advanced stuff you can worry about later). When Ken falls to the ground after you block you have a decent amount of time to punish with an attack of your own. I don't actually know Akuma well enough to know the best easy punish, but that close standing Hard Punch cancelled into light kick hurricane kick (aka tatsu) then followed with hard punch dragon punch (aka shoryuken/srk) will deal pretty decent damage. In wildly abbreviated Street Fightin' speak that's:

cl.st.hp x lk.tatsu > hp.srk

With the close standing hard punch should position yourself so you're next to him as he lands. As imp says, pressing forward might get you a different move, so just press hard punch and, as soon as you've pressed that button, do the quater circle back motion and press light kick for tatsu. If you're quick enough the recovery animation of the close standing hard punch will 'cancel', and your tatsu will hit and combo, not leaving any gap to block. A quirk of Akuma's light kick hurricane kick is that he can follow up with another attack, as it puts the opponent into a 'juggle' state, so you can do that shoryuken afterward.

You can, if you learn to do it consistently, catch him with your ultra as he lands. Ultra one is awkward, as you tap light punch twice, then press forward then light kick then hard punch. You can also just double tap light punch then press forward+light kick+hard punch together, which is easier. I'd practice that, as it's a little more parctical than Ultra 2 once you learn a few tricks.

For the Ultra 2, you can actually cancel into it from Akuma's teleport, which can be useful for going through fireballs then mashing up and three kicks for the Ultra to hit them as they recover from throwing it, or to allow for the ultra without accidentally jumping.

For all the jump in hark kick followed by sweep nonsense your mate does, you could knock him right out of the air with Akuma's shoryuken. I'm not sure which would be best, but most of those dragon punch type move have a period as the start up where they are invincible to attack. It's best, generally, to do it as late as possible, to take advantage of this invincibility and get decent damage.

My favourite way of dealing with jump ins is to press MP and MK together for a focus attack. This can absorb one hit before being broken, allowing you to strike back and counter. In this case, when he jumps, press and hold MP and MK together, wait til you hear the hard kick being absorbed and let go of the buttons; if you did this correctly you should take the hit (you'll take some recoverable 'grey' damage; this will recover over time until back to normal or until you take damage) and lunge forward with an attack which will 'crumple' the opponent, leaving them vulnarable.

It's important to learn the timing to dash forward out of that focus attack once it begins, as this will get you closer to the opponent sooner, allowing for more damaging combos. If you're not able to nail that at first, just go for a crouching hard kick sweep. Practice it though.

Some attacks will beat focus though, as they have 'armour breaking' properties. In Ken's case that's his Hurricane Kick. Moves which hit twice in quick succession will also beat them though; Ken players can deliberately mash dragon punch after that jumping hard kick to beat you if you abuse the move.

Another very important counter to learn is simply blocking. If it's all jumping hard kicks, just block it standing, and then hold diagonally downback on the stick to crouch block the sweep followup. I'm not sure, but Akuma's sweep or something might well hit after you block Ken's sweep. I'm sure imp will know.

Take advantage of Akuma's triple fireball (half circle back and punch) and air fireballs (EX double air fireball if you use two punches, at the cost of one bar of Super Meter) to keep your opponent away. You'll chip away at them and potentially frustrate them into making stupid mistakes you can capitalise on.

Also, keep asking us questions. I like a busy thread.