Controllers have been the subject of some debate among Fighting game fans. However, the vast majority of competitive Fighting game players prefer Arcade setups or to use custom-built Arcade Sticks for console gaming. A nice thread regarding arcade sticks can be found on the SRK forums here.
Pads have often been rather taboo when associated with Fighting games because the majority of people who play on pads tend to use their thumbs for attack inputs instead of their finger tips. This is not really ideal because of the differences between using thumbs and finger tips. When one uses finger tips in lieu of your right thumb on a pad it is sometimes referred to as Claw-Style.
Here's some reasons why Claw-Styling is superior to Thumbing, which are also reasons why Sticks are often thought of as superior to Pads:
#1 - Rapid Tapping. Fingers are able to rapidly tap buttons much faster than thumbs. You can test this on your computer by rapidly tapping a letter for a given amount of time and then comparing your input per-minute speed with your index finger.
#2 - Simultaneous Inputs. Finger tips allow you to input any kind of two or three button combination much better than with thumbs. While thumbs can push two buttons that are vertically aligned with one another, it's difficult to input diagonally aligned or horizontally aligned buttons, as seen below: The first examples of □ and X being pressed and the second example of Δ and O being pressed are examples of easy simultaneous inputs for thumbs. However, all the other examples are difficult for thumbs because it is necessary to contort and move the hand in order to press them. The last example of □ and O being simultaneously pressed is practically impossible with a thumb. But all of these inputs are rather trivial with finger tips. When there are even more buttons involved the task becomes even more difficult, as in pressing three buttons simultaneously. While button mapping is allowed in tournaments it's widely looked down upon (note that macros and autofire are not allowed).
#3 - Sliding/Pianoing. Thumb Movement is slow. Moving your thumb to each of the attacks on the face of the pad is significantly slower than having your finger tips already on the buttons. For example, first pressing X then pressing O with your thumb is a lot slower than if you had your index finger on X and middle finger on O. While sliding (kara/RC) inputs and piano inputs are possible with a thumb, it's not nearly so easy as with finger tips. This is especially important for reversals and such.
#4 - Hovering. It can also make a big difference for things like simply having your finger on the attack button you need when you need it. Like with the example of CvS2 footsies: if your thumb is hovering over light kick and you need a medium punch to anti-air a short jump. But it takes time to move your thumb from light kick to medium punch, time you don't have. And you can't say you could just hover over medium punch because if the opponent dashes or rolls in at you instead then you're likely to need light kick pretty fast. Here's a nice little quote from Bob Sagat that really illustrates this point.
#5 - Mashing. Most games allow you to mash out of dizzies by rapidly tapping buttons and wiggling your directionals. Some games, like MvC2, allow you to cause more hits from a super by mashing buttons. And other games, like SFA3, allow you to reduce damage on hits by mashing buttons while getting hit. In any case, mashing with fingertips is significantly superior than mashing with a thumb for the sole reason that you can hit more buttons much faster when you're using more fingers, obviously.
#6 - Holding. This may not apply to every character in every game, but holding buttons while fighting can be difficult with thumbs. For example Balrog (Street Fighter, boxer) and Shizumaru (Samurai Shodown) and Aoko (Melty Blood) gain moves from holding multiple buttons, or rather they can release these attacks with a button release. And they are still able to fight while charging these moves. Something that would prove rather difficult with thumbs.
Using a Keyboard is in a bit of a gray area. In theory, since you'll be using finger tips for both attack inputs and directional inputs, it would be acceptable. However, keyboards are rather bulky and blocky, so it can be difficult to input motion/directional inputs such a 214 (QCB) or 623 (DP). The good news is that you'll most certainly not have difficulty inputting commands from either the left or right side, which is something that many Fighting game players have an issue with on both Sticks and Pads.
Often the subject of tiers comes up. And on a broader spectrum; the philosophy behind game balance.
I recently had a bit of a self realization regarding this. To use a quick analogy: It's like picking a really badass katana that was made just for you over a gun that looks like shit. Pick the gun if you don't like dying all the time OK?
tl;dr ahead:
That said, I'd like to point out that Yoshinori Ono (and Capcom designers in general) want a little imbalance among the tiers. I said it before -- I'll say it again -- Ono (and probably others) have gone on record as saying that that's what they want: Imbalance.
Reason? A lot of players like the wacky underdog. Who doesn't root for Chikyuu when he plays Anakaris/Twelve/R4-Raiden/etc? Everyone loves to see the bottom tier just beast the hell out of that asshole top tier, they just do!
Meanwhile, a lot of players get stuck on a character in a game because they just "like that character". And then suddenly they have complaints. Either because the top tier is too common or too strong or they see too many weaknesses in their own character. But to the rest of the world: If you have a PROBLEM with your character then pick another character, even if that problem happens to be that yours is inadequate compared to another. If the only reason you're picking that character is because you just happen to really like them then shut the fuck up because you bring it on yourself. Choose preference or power, but don't complain, you chose it willingly. If tiers matter to you then pick top tier. Do not expect the rest of the world to play mid/low just for you, the world does not revolve around you. To use another quick analogy: Between soda pop and V8, you might enjoy drinking soda and everyone thinks it's cool, but you're really not as healthy or strong as the lame V8 drinkers and that's that.
What you don't want: Single god tier character (like #R Eddie)
What you do want: As close to 3 definitive tiers as you can get (high/mid/low)
I wonder if there's a demand for this kind of video or not. I'm guessing not, but who knows?
Frames are very esoteric in fighting games. Or at least, in my experience, very very few competitive fighting game players actually understand a game on a frame-level, let alone being able to apply that knowledge (Buk's one of a kind).
Anyway the point of the video is to show a little quirk with SF3 3S Chun-Li's EX Spinning Bird Kick. A lot of players thought it had no invulnerability frames and that it just had a tricky hitbox. They would go on and on about what moves could beat it and what moves couldn't, etc. However, it's clear when you watch the video that there is actually 8 frames of startup invulnerability. But the startup for the attack is 12 frames, so it's invulnerable for the first 8 but then becomes vulnerable on frames 9-12, the 12th frame being vulnerable but also attacking which means it could trade on that frame.
Anyway, that means it could blow through meaty attacks with less than 9 active frames.
But upon experimenting with the EX SBK I also discovered that the damn thing is vulnerable to Ken's SA3 (shippu) even during it's would-be invulnerable frames.
Like, near the end of the video I start hitting the SBK on frames 1-4 when it should be technically invulnerable, but Shippu hits it anyway. Why? I have no idea. It's clearly not a hitbox thing but a special property, as in it's invulnerable to any attack less than a certain strength.
It doesn't have anything to do with the superflash "draining" the invulnerability duration out of the move either, because I activated the EX SBK after the screen freeze, and just to prove a point also before the screen freeze and during the screen freeze.
Anyway I also discovered that Ken's Shippu is invulnerable until it's active hitframes, so it will pretty much blow through and hit anything that isn't invulnerable or above the first kick's hitbox (like a UOH will go over the first kick so a UOH can stuff it).
Though oddly it's still vulnerable to throws, heh.
I know this subject has been done to death, but whatever. Here's my problem with 3S style parries. If you can find an answer to all of these problems then I'm OK with parry. Good luck.
Option selects. Tapping a direction invalidates some mixups like crossup j.MK.
Risk/Reward. In a lot of situations the most you risk is getting thrown while the most you gain is a hitconfirm combo into super.
Reaction/Anticipation. Parries can not be punished on reaction since there's nothing to react to, they can only be beaten on anticipation (meaning the aggressor has to guess right).
Startup. There is no startup for a parry so that lets you invalidate a lot of would-be setups.
Guarantees. If I throw or sweep you successfully I can't guarantee any kind of additional reward because there are no guarantees in a game with parries.
Throwing. Because throws beat high/low parries it puts a much greater value on throws. Even in top level play; some times a player will eat a meaty throw five times in a row simply because they are fishing for parries and scared of c.MK xx super.
Hitconfirm. The biggest problem is sometimes you can't hitconfirm a super off a light or mid attack because stun duration is too short to visually confirm the hit, but with parries it's easy, now you're confirming off the parry (visual/audible/long duration) rather than only the c.LK.
Jumping. Some characters have no business mindlessly jumping at the opponent without momentum/advantage. With parries, it's okay, because air parries can compensate for stupidly retarded mindless aggression. If you option-parry correctly the worst that happens is you land in their face. It promotes totally scrub-like behavior.
Position. Footsies are diluted to whiffing attacks and hoping your opponent walks right into them, there is no forcing your opponent into a bad position in a game with parries.
Guessing. (explained below)
Guessing: A lot of players seem to say that the one parrying is the one guessing, and this isn't entirely correct. What parries actually do is force the one attacking to guess, not the one parrying. In fact, at least there's something to react to for the one parrying, whereas there is nothing to react to for the one attacking.
Take for example a game without parries, without invulnerable DPs, but with invulnerable backdashes. The aggressor in such a game doesn't have to guess every time he wants to attack in fear of getting parried or DP'ed, and if the opponent backdashes to get out of these options then no harm comes to the aggressor or backdasher. But with parries and invulnerable DPs he can't land a meaty attack without guessing what the opponent will do, he can't tick with staggered jabs without guessing if the opponent will parry or not, and worst of all he can't bait out a parry and punish it on reaction like you can with a DP. Assuming you know the opponent will take an aggressive option like reversal DP you can bait that out, see it come out, and punish it during it's recovery. But with parries if the aggressor blocks expecting an offensive action to occur there is nothing to punish. You have to beat it by countering. In other words in order to inflict damage to the parryer, you have to attack either high or low or throw and if you guess wrong you get parried. THAT is the guessing game parries cause. Every time you attack YOU have to guess, not the one parrying.
I've said it before but I can't stress it enough, parrying is not a defensive option, it's an offensive option.
Now before people say that I don't know what I'm talking about, what I'm saying isn't even unique, most of the best 3S players have said the exact same things about 3S parries many times. Pretty much all of the best 3S players were eager to drop 3S as soon as SF4 was released, yet they still play older Capcom games like MvC2 and CvS2, they simply needed an excuse to ditch 3S. Also keep in mind that this doesn't come from inexperience either, I actually played 3S against some of the best players in the US, and I also play MeltyBlood, Akatsuki Blitzkampf, and VanguardPrincess (which have parry-whiffs fortunately), so it's not like I'm theory fighting over here.
So now that Capcom has officially announcedSuper Street Fighter 4, I think it's safe to say that regular SF4 is now dead in the water. People will probably continue to play it up until SSF4 is finally released some time in 2010, but it's more than likely that once they get their hands on it then SF4 will die.
But here's the real kicker, it's being said that there won't be an arcade release for SSF4. No arcade release means no SBO spot, and no SBO spot means Japan isn't going to care (plus they pay very little attention to console-only games anyway). So this will be the true test to see how much the Western world has it's head up Japan's ass. I for one am very interested in seeing if America/EVO will go with SF4 or SSF4, or both, and what Japan will do (if anything).
Anyawy, I've been keeping quiet about SF4 for a long time now, and there's a reason, I knew something like this would happen. Why? Take a look at Capcom's history. They never get a game right on the first try.
1991 Street Fighter 2 (Super Turbo) 1994 Dark Stalkers/Vampire (Vampire Savior) 1994 X-Men/Marvel series (MvC2) 1995 Street Fighter Alpha (A2 and A3) 1996 Street Fighter EX (EX3) 1997 Street Fighter 3 (3S) 1998 Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (HftF) 2000 Capcom vs SNK (CvS2)
They may get it "right" eventually, but no one really plays the first version of any of those series titles any more. So I wasn't personally expecting the first version of SF4 to be the one that sticks anyway (I was waiting for part 2). Now we're in 2009 with SF4 and SSF4 is slated to be released 2010. With 8 new characters being promised (10 total is rumored) there's good incentive to want to play it. Presumably the game will at least be as good as the prequel -- if not better. But not having an arcade release may be significant enough reason to downgrade back to SF4, and if that's the case then the series itself is as good as dead, since obviously the community will split and eventually dwindle.
I hate to be a cynic and bring anti-hype to something still alive, but people have been asking me if I've been playing SF4 and if I'll ever do any combo videos for it. The answer to both is no and no. I recently installed it for the PC, and will probably soon uninstall it. So mainly I've been keeping quiet because I never had any intention of playing SF4, and frankly I look at SSF4 as the nail in the coffin for SF4.
I think I've posted this information before, but I'm going to try and make a more concise post.
- You can not do reversals in Jojo's, period. - That makes meaty unblockables inescapable/unavoidable. - Example: Hol Horse sweeps you, his time-slow bullet is unblockable and unavoidable on wakeup due to no reversals (guaranteed super off sweep). - You can be thrown during jump startup and backdashes. - There's 3F throw inv on wakeup or off blockstun, but 0F coming out of hitstun - The two factors listed above make certain throw traps inescapable. - Example: Old Joseph does his tandem (custom combo like Genei Jin) and ends with slide into 360, the grab ender is unavoidable/inescapable because there's no throw inv off slide hitstun and no reversals. - There is ground crouch-cancelling. Example: normally Mariah can't link 5A to 5B, but if you do 5A [2] 5B it combos easily. - But it's not a universal rule, some characters have no useful crouch cancels while others have many. - Pushblocking is done by inputting three attacks during blockstun, while holding any direction, and can be done any time during blockstun. - There's no limit to pushblocking. In games like MvC2 you can only push once per blockstun, the stun will have to end before you can push again. This is not the case in Jojo's, you can push every hit during blockstun at any time. - Characters that can tandem (custom combo) have a jump-install, where activating the stand in the air will flip a switch (glitch) in the way the stand behaves during tandem. - Example: Jotaro's Stand's 5C won't combo into itself during tandem, but if he activates his stand in the air the 5C will chain into itself during tandem allowing him to do [5C]xN. - Petshop has a 9:1 matchup against the entire cast, he is normally banned in tournaments. - Young Joseph's block animation will cancel his normal moves if an opponent's attack is active. - With Young Joseph you can literally hold down-back and mash and the first frame of each attack attempt will be canceled into block (as evident when you c.A3 and hear his attack sound) while there's an attack like Mariah's Stand on the screen near him. - There's 5F throw invulnerability when landing from a jump. - So empty-jump into throw is pretty valid since the opponent can't throw you. - And a number of other things I can't think of right now.
When the Smash community complained about the Ice Climbers having ridiculous rewards off a throw, the SRK community responded with "Don't get grabbed". This upset the Smash community who argued that the technique should simply be banned altogether. The response from SRK was a concise one-liner that doesn't actually explain anything, but the message isn't really false either. You could say it's sort of like a Confucius-style anecdote intending to convey a message. A message that was meant to guide people who were willing to open their minds and question things.
However, this message can't be conveyed with just words alone. No, some things can only be learned through experience. Perhaps most would only understand such a concept by example and experience. Like explaining how to paint a portrait, or to play a musical instrument, or to score points in a sport: You can't simply learn it on paper or with words, you have to practice and learn through self-discovery.
The real trick to a lot of these -- let's call them overwhelming situations -- is mindgames and footsies. In other words, not allowing yourself or your opponent to create the situation where you are put in this bad situation in the first place. In laymen's terms; "Don't get grabbed.", means: "Don't let yourself be put in a position where you're going to get grabbed.".
To put it another way, the best way to avoid getting grabbed is to avoid being in grab-range in the first place. If you're never in a spot where you can be grabbed, you'll never get grabbed.
So, how to accomplish this is like I said before: footsies and mind games. If your opponent jumped in at you then you failed at basic anti-airs, and if your opponent dashed in and grabbed you then you failed at footsies, and if your opponent made you block a projectile and then grabbed you for the win then you definitely failed at mind games.
The best answer is to be in a position where you can't get grabbed. That means you have to not only control yourself into a position where you won't get grabbed, but also prevent your opponent from getting himself into a situation where he can grab you. That latter is about one half of the hard part: stopping your opponent from doing what he wants to do (which is to grab you). You must understand that once you are in that situation where you can be grabbed you are essentially fucked anyway.
And thus is the actual definition of a mindgame (versus a mixup). A mind game is being put in a position where you are forced to choose between a tree of all failure -- so after blocking an attack you are forced to choose between options, all of which lead to you getting hit -- learning that means to avoid that position that put you there to begin with by using superior footsies (spacing, baiting, etc). When the opponent throws a fireball and you block it, then the opponent can press toward and punch which will result in either an attack that will anti-air you if you jump, or throw you if you don't jump, this is called an option select. The mind game here was the whole situation of the defender blocking the fireball and that being the trigger that lead to this inevitable damage of melee/throw.
A mixup is where the attacker puts the defender in a situation where the attacker can succeed or fail depending on different options that can not be reacted to. Such as, getting hit on either the left or the right, or getting hit either high or low, or getting hit by a punch versus getting grabbed. The defender does not know which option will be chosen and can't react to it, and the attacker also does not know which option the defender will choose to try and prevent damage.
Things like high/low, left/right, blockable-melee/unblockable-throw, and parry/no-parry are all mixups that neither player can actually react to, they can only anticipate, which means they can only guess.
But to define a mind game, it is the act of avoiding the mixups.
For example one, a grappler character can not simply throw you at any time or any where, the character must be within throw range. The trick of footsies is to prevent the character from getting within throw range.
For example two, if a grappler can do more damage with a throw than they can with any of their melee attacks, you should choose a defensive option that will result in you getting hit by the grappler's melee rather than you being grabbed.
The mindgame therein is understanding and applying both example one and example two. Without these elements there is no mindgame, there is only blind guessing. To use an analogy, when there is no mindgame and only guessing it is like Rock-Paper-Scissors game (not something you can react to, just options you can guess from), but with a mindgame it is like chess where you can react to your opponents skill and experience (and can defeat them with better decisions).
I've been thinking about the different tiers of skill among players in competitive gaming for a while. A recent IRC conversation spawned some interesting nice observations.
- level 0 is watching yourself (autopilot). - level 1 is being random (mashing). - level 2 is paying attention to your opponent (countering). - level 3 is reading your opponent (beating). - level 4 is controlling your opponent (ume shoryu). - level 5 is being champion.
In regards to level 0, this actually applies to fighting games, RTS, and FPS alike. If you are entirely focused on what you are doing and what you feel like doing then you'll almost always get crushed by better players. In fighters this is like jumping at the opponent just because you want that sweet jump-in combo only to be consistently anti-aired. Or throwing fireballs because you think they look cool, only to have your opponent jump over them and kick you in your chest.
However, autopilot has many dimensions to it. With fighters you can actually pay attention to your opponent to some degree, long enough to get a knockdown for example, then autopilot the rest of the match based on rushdown/mixup patterns that are really strong. In RTS if you're not scouting your opponent you will most likely get countered/destroyed, but if luck is on your side then you can just pick the strongest build and roll with it without having to adjust your game based on your opponent. And it definitely applies to FPS, it's possible to run the map and control respawn and item-spawn points once you get the first frag, but if all you do is autopilot then you're being predictable and leaving yourself open to be countered.
With level 1 the player isn't necessarily autopiloting. Sometimes players just do the weirdest shit for no rhyme or reason. In fighters we get that "Why would you do that?" moment, because there's really nothing that happened over the course of the match that would prompt a player to do (x) move at (y) time).
Interestingly, level 1 has a chance of actually beating the higher levels of play by virtue of luck. Also because the higher levels depend so heavily on paying attention to the opponent, yet if the opponent is acting in a way that is entirely non sequitur then these skills are hindered to some degree. In RTS and FPS this applies in the sense that you're left completely in the dark if you're unable to physically see your opponent at any given time, so randomness can actually be really strong since there's a chance these unpredictable actions are set up without you even being aware of them until it's too late.
That's pretty much the only reason being random is placed higher than autopilot. Moreso, the reason auto-pilot is given level 0 rather than level 1 is because it can take many forms and be incorporated into the other levels to varying degrees.
Speaking of luck, it also occurred to me that luck plays a really huge part of RTS and FPS, and other competitive games like Poker. With most fighting games, players create their own luck by forcing mixups and guessing. But in RTS/FPS/Poker, the game creates the luck for them and you need to compensate for your luck with talent.
Level 2 is all about reaction. It seems like the strongest leap forward when a novice player grasps the concept. Indeed, it's a rather large and essential step forward in fighters, but even bigger in RTS and FPS. As mentioned before, if you're not paying attention to your opponent you're subject to being countered. On the flipside, if you are paying attention, you can counter them.
If some one flips a coin and tells you to call which side the coin lands, but you have five seconds to call it once the coin lands, why would you guess? Why would anyone not use those five seconds to inspect the coin before saying which side it landed on. So, when a player is obviously blocking low you can go for an overhead, or if the player is clearly blocking high you can try for a sweep, and things like that. One of the greatest joys of a counter is probably anti-airing the opponent, not because it's difficult, but because once you learn to watch your opponent you begin to realize how fun it is to punish the opponent for doing something they clearly should not be doing.
In a way, it's kind of like saying that you're letting your opponent come to you, and you're not really beating them so much as you're allowing them to beat themselves. Basically, you're killing them based on the mistakes they make.
But this is why raw countering is pretty low on the skill-tiers in the grand scheme of things. It has it's own set of weaknesses. First of all, how can you punish mistakes if the opponent doesn't make any? Further more, you are subject to tunnel vision and loss of control. If all you do is sit there and try to react to your opponent, your opponent is then free to take initiative entirely. They will make it increasingly difficult for you to predict/react to what they do, intentionally using tools that are difficult to counter.
It's a pretty disheartening and cold feeling to realize that you were so focused on that anti-air that you let the opponent walk across the screen and smack you in the face. Though that's an extreme example, it's not unrealistic. Some players that are so intent on countering they will watch much too closely for the wrong thing -- they are so sure the opponent will jump that they are baffled and surprised when the opponent simply does not.
Level 3 is all about anticipation. If some one hides a coin in their hands and lets you guess which hand the coin is in, you're using anticipation. You don't really know which hand the coin is in, but you're making an informed choice based on an educated guess. This compensates for vision in a lot of ways. In fighters things can happen in an instant. After you knock an opponent down, you don't know if they will do a reversal or not when they get up, and it's much much too fast to react to. But if you don't do an attack when they are getting up then you're giving them the opportunity to recover, regain initiative/momentum, and you lose your mixup potential. This is where anticipation comes into play. You have to just assume you know what the opponent will do, whether they will try to defend against you or try to counter you with a reversal.
The strength of level 3 is that you're freeing up your tunnel vision and just playing based on both reaction and anticipation. You're not so focused on any one thing, but rather you're allowing yourself to be fluid.
Level 4 is a bit esoteric, it's not something that many players comprehend, let alone achieve. It takes a lot of time and practice and observation for some people to realize just how strong it is to simply walk forward in a fighting game. What level 4 does is exploit the weaknesses of level 2 and 3 and 0. The trick is getting your opponent to do what you want them to do. That way you can throw out your reaction and anticipation all together. Why risk guessing if they will jump, and why bother trying to react to it, when you can just force them to jump?
The idea is using fear and uncertainty and feints. If you walk right up to your opponent, but just outside any of their pokes, you're putting the pressure on. Their personal space is invaded, and now you're throwing fireballs in their face and they are taking chip damage. They are worried, they see you qcf and start a fireball, they jump. Only to be anti-aired because it wasn't a qcf-fireball at all, it was a qcf-LK feint. A simple trick, but an effective one. The LK recovers much faster than a whiffed fireball, so they person feinting is free to anti-air the fool that jumped.
This all sort of revolves around the idea of the Umehara Shoryuken (psychic dragon punch). It's not so much that he's psychic at all, more like he puts you in a situation where he can't possibly guess wrong and he doesn't need to react. He just forces you to make a mistake or bad decision, rather than waiting around for it to happen.
I had a self-realization about a double standard that the fighting game community seems to have about pronunciation of terminology and names in fighting games.
Honestly, you don't go around mispronouncing the French word champagne, nor do you go around mispronouncing the Spanish words tortilla or fajita. You'd be getting a lot of dirty looks and scolding fingers if you did, making yourself look like an uneducated douche.
So it personally kind of annoys me when I hear people calling other gamers weeaboo otaku Japanophiles for trying to pronounce Japanese correctly.
I'm sorry but, no. Collecting stupid amounts of anime and manga, cosplaying as characters from these collections, and worshiping the culture for no reason is being a weeaboo. But incorrectly pronouncing Japanese character names and move names or refusing to use the actual Japanese move names or terminology is just being a douche, just like being a douche for failing at pronouncing Spanish or French words.
A horrible double standard to accept proper Spanish and French into the English language but reject Japanese (or any language for that matter). IMO the otaku-bashing has become far too popular of a trend, and frankly I think you're a prick if you call other people weeaboos for just trying to pronounce words correctly.
Okay so it's not really a fighting game. But it is a versus game by Capcom so screw it, I'm talking about it. Actually a few people have asked me (yea, more than one, who knew I was popular?!) what I've been playing lately. Well, short answer is: nothing.
Long answer is as follows: I've been a fan of Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo for a long time. I've always loved the arcade version, personally, even though it's less balanced and glitchy. I sort of prefer the glitchy unbalanced version anyway. Lately I've been playing it online via nFBA emulator and P2P netplay client with some people, and I really enjoy it in general.
First of all, to you Puyo scrubs out there, Puyo Puyo is actually a much "easier game" to play. Puyo doesn't have a lot of strategy and the game is designed for very easy chain-combos, and doesn't emphasize the need to pay attention to your opponent as much. You can basically play it optimally as if you were playing against yourself, ignoring your opponent entirely, which makes it feel more like a single-player game. However, in Puzzle Fighter there's quite a few different strategies, and watching what your opponent does is significantly stronger than only paying attention to your own board, which makes it feel very interactive. Plus, while chains can be strong in SPF2T they aren't always the best option and you have to work to build chains properly. They don't just fall from the sky automatically like they do in games like Puyo Puyo.
Anyway, Some things to note: - Gems. The squares you build. - Breakers. The circles that break the squares. - Damage. The counter-blocks you drop on your opponent. - Diamond. The shiney white bit that will break all pieces of the same color. - Chains. When you break some pieces, then break more pieces afterwards on the same "turn". - Life column. The 4th column and the column that will end the round if it is filled to the top.
In this game the characters have different drop patterns for their Damage. One of the very first tactics that most newbies learn in this game is to specifically counter their opponent's Damage pattern, since it's not random. In most cases the character's "weakness" is either red or blue on the left side. Usually column 2 or 3 are the ones that players start stacking the color that their opponent drops and they throw all their "junk" in column 1 or 6 (using 4 only if necessary).
Honestly, this isn't such a bad tactic since you don't get breakers whenever you want them. But if you're stacking breakers up in your "junk piles" then you may be able to access them when you want, instead of relying on luck to get the color you want when you want it.
What this usually results in is really tall power gems of a single color. It's fairly easy to do against most characters and it leaves a large power gem open to be broken at any time, since it's difficult to cover such a large gem with damage. If a gem was built horizontally it could be easily covered in a row or two of damage, forcing the player to "dig" the gem out with breakers. But with a vertical gem the player can fairly easily place a breaker on it at any time because it's difficult to cover it in damage. But because not all drop patterns are created equal, this leads to character strengths and weaknesses, in other words: tiers.
The first names you hear about in regards to Puzzle Fighter tiers are always Ken and Donovan. They have probably the best drop patterns out of any normal character. Honorable mentions go to Morrigan and Devilot.
The reason Morrigan is interesting is because her colors change in her third row of damage like Donovan. Even though she drops a lot of red in her center, if the opponent tries to counter her by building red, they are taking a huge risk by gambling with their 4th column (since building red means there's red in column 4), making them prone to sudden-kills. Otherwise they will have to either build blue in the left corner or yellow in column 2 and 3, which can be stifled if Morrigan drops 3 rows of damage in one turn, followed by another row of damage in her next turn.
Gouki (Akuma) and Devilot both have diagonal color drops. However, their damage is also nerfed. Even so, Devilot's damage isn't nerfed as bad as Gouki's. She actually does a fair amount of damage both with single large breaks and chaining, as apposed to Gouki who really has to rely on very large chains to do significant damage. Her only real weakness is to Red in the left corner or Blue for columns 2 and 3, but she can easily make it a chore to try and counter her by dropping two or three rows of damage which puts a variety of mixed colors all over the board.
Meanwhile it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the worst character is, master of self ownage, Dan. Though honorable mentions also go to Chun-Li and Felicia who also have some pretty pathetic drop patterns.
However, if your opponent is aware that you are going to try and do this, they can take counter-measures of their own by throwing lots of mixed damaged at you rather than singular rows for you to counter-build against. The best way to do this is with "double breakers" and chaining.
Whether by glitch or design, breaking two colors simultaneously counts mathematically as a singular break. Thus, when you get a piece that contains two breakers of different colors you have the potential to cause a lot more damage with a double-break than with a chain. In the scenario seen to the right, the double break actually does slightly more damage than if the breaker piece is flipped and causes a 2-hit chain.
However, this only really applies to small chains and short chains. A small chain meaning the hits involve very tiny amounts of gems (like one or two gems per chain hit). Or short chains like 3-hits. The multiplier for chaining is actually quite ridiculous, I don't exactly know what the multiplier is but it's pretty obvious that it increases per hit of the chain which gives 6-hit and 7-hit chains the potential to flat out kill your opponent. The playing field is 72 spaces (6 columns, 12 rows) so assuming your opponent's field is clear then that number would result in death on the next turn, and if they have a row of blocks already on the field then instant-death.
But one (dis)advantage to chaining is that Attacking is much stronger than Defending. When playing, if you do damage the damage doesn't actually fall until the opponent finished dropping a piece (ending their "turn"). Instead a number is put on the field and you have a chance to reduce that number with your own damage. But, the amount of damage you do to the counter is actually a lot less than if you had attacked.
In other words, if your opponent does 20 damage and the counter is set to 20, and you break the same number of gems you won't decrease the counter to 0. Actually I think it decreases only to 10. Which means defending is only about half as strong as attacking.
The reason this effects chaining is because you're unable to act while a chain is going on, but your opponent can.
This brings me to the next subject, which is something I like to call "parking". Basically, when your opponent drops a lot of damage the blocks are set to timers, each turn reduces the timer by one. When the timer hits zero it converts the damage into regular gems.
You can take advantage of this by placing breakers on top of damage. And over the next five turns if you placed breakers on all the colors by the time they convert then they will all break simultaneously. You know what that means, huge damage. So although defending is weaker than attacking, countering-damage or "parking" can actually be ever stronger. You send back the same amount of damage that was done to you, plus some.
Now, remember I said this game was glitchy? Well, one notorious glitch in the arcade version is known as "the diamond glitch". It basically involves flipping a piece that contains the diamond vertically. To do so you have to have a column that is blocked off on either side, leaving a 2x1 space. Then you press down to land the piece, and just before the piece locks you rotate the piece by pressing either button to flip the piece vertically. For some reason this only works vertically, not horizontally. And it only works if you actually flip the piece, not rotate it. I believe it also doesn't work if the piece you're landing on is a damage block, but I could be wrong. At any rate, the game calculates the damage you'd do approximately twice instead of once. I don't really know the specifics of the calculations, but I just know that there is a major, significantly noticeable difference between a normal diamond break and a glitched diamond break. I've seen a diamond glitch do about 20-30 more damage than it would have done without the glitch.
In closing, here's some casual online matches between myself and an "anonymous" player:
The first world champion for Street Fighter IV has taken his title.
Lead producer for SF4, Yoshinori Ono, was present at the Evolution grand finals to watch history be made. Along with the 23,000 (twenty three thousand!) viewers on the live stream and the estimated 4,000 (four thousand!) spectators at the Evolution hall.
Although there was not that many players in the hall the begin with, during the events that lead up to the finals and during the finals itself the hall was flooded with ever increasing cheers, energy, and viewers.
Just like the Marvel versus Capcom II finals; the Street Fighter IV finals went to the wire. Both players having been put into the losers and taking matches off each other, putting an extreme amount of pressure and hype on everyone involved.
It was great. Congratulations to everyone involved.
---
Spoilers:
With MvC2 Justin Wong met Sanford Kelly in the winners, resulting in Sanford sending Justin to losers. Justin then came out of losers to send Sanford into the losers. Grand finals between Justin and Sanford came down to the wire, both players taking matches off each other up until the final round, and Sanford with his back to the wall switched teams to include Cable and took the win, giving him the long-deserved championship title. Some ridiculously high level play and classic Wong-effects, where Wong somehow managed a comeback with a single character (an assist character, at that).
With SF4 we again had Justin Wong meet with Daigo Umehara. Once again Daigo sent Justin to losers. Then Justin came right out of losers again to send Daigo into the losers. Just like in Marvel it came right down to the wire, both players taking matches off each other. It became a huge East vs West, Japan vs America, epic battle with fans cheering like crazy both live and probably all over the world. Initially Wong had been using Rufus for much of the tournament, though he switched to Abel in his first match with Daigo only to be shut down and shut out. After losing with Abel he switched to Balrog(boxer) and convincingly took wins right from Daigo. However, Daigo who is known for his Ume-Shoryu (Umehara Shoryuken / Daigo's Psychic DP) managed to not only use his trade mark many times successfully but also showed us a new trade mark: the Ume-Hadou. An unbelievably tense final round of the tournament, right down to the wire, resulted in Daigo taking the win and being crowned the first world-champion for SF4. The room having exploded in cheers many times already erupted again as the crowd flooded in with overwhelming excitement. Truly amazing.
Personally, I'd like to point out that these finals were a good representation of what matchups and character strengths actually mean. In the case of Marvel you could say that when the players picked the same characters they were perfectly evenly matched in every way, but Sanford picking a Cable team in the final rounds gave him the edge to counter Justin and take the win solidly. Likewise in SF4 you could say it's pretty obvious that if Justin had stuck to Abel he would have been destroyed, but switching to Balrog(boxer) gave him the edge he needed in a lot of ways. This is when a character adds extra power to a player's potential. And, when a character has a lot of favorable matchups you have to say that character is top-tier. On the other hand, this was also the best representation of top tier not guaranteeing victory; Sagat was nowhere to be seen. Just like in SC4 where Hilde did not make it to the grand finals, no Sagat players made it to finals in SF4. What that means is the players are the ones that determine the win, but a character selection is definitely going to adjust handicaps. Justin was heavily handicapped while playing Abel, but was able to do a strikingly good job with Balrog(boxer). Though Daigo gunned it out with Ryu the entire time.
Incidentally, we also got to see a lot of interesting character representations. We were able to see an impressive display from E.Honda, Akuma, and many others. I hope in future years we can witness even crazier events. But, only time will tell.
Congratulations to everyone involved with Evolution 2009. And especially thank you for the live stream that allowed people unable to attend to be a part of it. And thank you to all the viewers that supported the live stream.
Evolution Fighting Game Championships: Marvel versus Capcom 2.
It's Marvel, baby.
The finals are officially over now. Between 11,000-13,500 viewers on the live stream to watch the grand finals, and with good reason. They caught quite a show.
I don't want to spoil it for those who didn't watch it (who wasn't watching, really?) but I'll say this; the finalists met in winners. One was sent to losers by the other, and that player came out of losers to knock that same player into losers as well. That means they both lost to each other once. And in the grand finals they both took rounds off each other. It went down to the wire. Holy hell it was epic. They may not have been on the top of their games, but playing three sets and taking wins and losses off each other to the point where it went to the absolute final round was crazy intense.
Once again mad props to Skisonic for his incredible commentary. He was even doing a great job commentating Guilty Gear, despite not playing the game or knowing much about it.
Our friend Suou asked why Psychic DP's (Dragon Punches / Uppercuts) were so popular with the crowd in Evolution 2K9. Or rather, maybe he just noted it, and I took it upon myself to explain it a bit.
Seth Killian was the first to write about it, I think. That means he's obviously the guy to go to when you want to know what a Psychic DP is thoroughly. But what I'd like to do is explain it in another way, starting with an analogy.
So, if you can imagine yourself in a real-life fight situation, that's what I'd like to talk about.
Picture your opponent much bigger than you, and much faster. He punches your guard with a heavy force, so you know he means business. You try to punch him back, but he's much too strong and quick for you, you end up guarding just to keep from getting knocked out. As you back up, you eventually find yourself in the corner. Now you're pinned, nowhere to run, and all you're doing is guarding.
This is the pivotal moment. Your opponent moves his body to your side and that makes you feel vulnerable. You opponent moves closer, invading your space, and that makes you feel even more vulnerable. Your opponent pulls his body in front of his hands.
Now here you are, nowhere to run, and now you don't what your opponent will do. You're so scared, and you don't think you can successfully block this next attack, so your instincts tell you the best defense is a good offense. You throw out an attack to intercept and counter your opponent's obvious actions
Only to get uppercut in the face.
That's because you dropped your guard. You dropped your guard in order to attack. And you did that precisely at the time that your opponent designed. He set up the situation, he forced you, he pinned you. He knew all too well, like a cat toying with a mouse, that if he showed you what he wanted you to see that you'd have a reaction, and that reaction is something he knew he could blow right out of the water with his fist.
That's a psychic DP (Ume Shoryu).
How is this in fighting games? Simple; when some one in invading your personal space it tends to be a natural human reaction to attack in order to push you out. But someone skilled in the ume-shoryu will pressure you in specific ways and eventually "read" your actions by giving you little other choice, which is why it's often called "psychic".
Good news or bad news, depending how you look at it: There's no Sagat for Evo2k9 tomorrow in the winners or losers. That's right, the final brackets will consist of characters other than Ryu and Sagat. Surprisingly we did not see many Sagats today. It was pretty amazing today actually. I'd like to say that for today; I've been glad to see Akuma, Rufus, Dhalsim, and Viper being represented, among other characters. Not just represented but there was some really awesome choice moments (spoiler: like Balrog whiffs a short rush punch and Rufus does an ultra on reaction, but it was out of range due to the short rush punch).
Actually, I have to say there has been a very very impressive showing in general.
Next, I'd like to say that SkiSonic is awesome. One of the best English commentators we could hope for, in my opinion. Surely DogFace is awesome and we love other commentators like Arturo and Seth, but SkiSonic is something else. I'm not just being bias because I've met him a few times and spoken with him online a couple times, no. He says everything that is going on perfectly, and his understanding is just uncanny and highly appreciated. He says it right as it happens and exactly what happend and/or what should have happened. In other words, he sees all the angles and tells it to you immediately. Seriously, mad props to Skisonic.
Oh and also random note: I increased the embedded stream window size per J-Boogie's request: Evolution 2k9. So if you're having trouble directly connecting you might want to try the embedded stream in that post, it's larger window size now so it's the same thing, but you might get better connectivity.
Also another little golden gem spoiler: When Sirlin was up for the SF-HD remix (HDR) match early this morning the commentators had a thing or two to say about it. Obvious hijinkes ensued. But right as the match was scheduled to start Sirlin refused/objected to play. That's right, Sirlin who was on staff for the HDR project did not play in a scheduled match on the grounds that "he did not like the TV screen", or so we heard. I can't confirm though because all the live-stream-viewers actually saw/heard was the scheduled match players step up to the plate and plug in and set their controls, then Sirlin refusing to play after plugging in.
