How do you play Street Fighter?

[Soi]

I?m not asking what the controls/moves are, I?m asking how you actually play the game. I missed out of Street Fighter II when it first came out. I played it a bit, just like everyone did, but never got anywhere near good at it. Recently I?ve got quite into 2D fighters and need some advice on how to play them. I have a decent arcade stick and can do all the moves without a problem. I still get pasted, and feel that I have little idea of which moves to use when.

So anyone got any tips on how to improve? I?m most interested in getting better at SSF2T and CvS2. I would tend to pick Ken in SSF2T, and any of Ken, Iori, Athena, Terry, Morrigan (I know some of these are SNK characters) in CvS2.

[nickgodfrey]

I to want to know this - I haven't a clue when to use light, medium or hard punches/kicks.

[jezzace]

Theres not really a magic formula to street fighter, you just pick it up after years of practise hehe...

After a while you'll start to pick things up eg. charging back whilst doing a psycho crusher with bison so you can do another straight after, or doing a dragon punch to stop an air move etc... sorry this wasn't much help, but I'll bet they have some pretty extensive faqs over at gamefaqs.

[Saurian]

[goldbricker]

I'd try the gamefaqs forums

[Mercian]

Saurian ill never think of that part in the berserk manga the same way again

[Soi]

After a while you'll start to pick things up eg. charging back whilst doing a psycho crusher with bison so you can do another straight after, or doing a dragon punch to stop an air move etc... sorry this wasn't much help, but I'll bet they have some pretty extensive faqs over at gamefaqs.

I've had a look for a FAQ or two, but I've not found a basic system/strategy FAQ that tells me what I'm after. I'm not completely clueless, just need a few tips ot help me one my way.

For example, I'll give one example (out of many) of a situation in which I don't know what to do. Last night I was playing Ken at SSF2T and my mate was Chun Li. If he jumped at me I would dragon punch, which takes off a small amount of life. If my mate jumped and I didn't dragon punch (say for example I threw a badly timed fireball) I would eat Chun Li's medium jumping kick into Chun Li's rapid medium kicks. This takes off about a third of my life. What does a poor Ken do against an always jumping Chun Li?

[Saurian]

2D beat em ups are easy to play, it's multi-layered rock/paper/scissors, you need to learn what beats what on the game you are playing.

Streetfighter - on a basic level:
Throw beats standing and crouch guard.
Overhead strike beats crouch and crouch gaurd
Light attack beats medium and hard
Medium beats hard

You are open to attack whether you are attacking or defending so you need to minimise your openings while keeping control of the match. It's not so much knowing what to use and when it's knowing how to make your opponent do what you want them to do. While on the ground you are trying to get the upper hand by using low-risk moves with small recovery time so that the opponent's options are limited and you arent prone to counters. This is also a safety zone - if you have a chain or setup that isnt prone to counters you can throw it to make a gap to think. In the air you have to judge when to attack, jumping should'nt be a guess - you should know when your opponent is going to jump or not so you can catch him on the way up, cross him up with a medium as he's recovering from something or similar. Against that Chun-Li you should KNOW when he's gonna jump, catch the ho on the way up with a Hard kick straight after jumping, the other option is to chase her and cross her up with a VERY deep/low connection jumping medium kick into whatever high damage combo you like to use. Just use small taps to make her jump at you and punish with a Dragon or uppercut then chase to keep the presure on using medium sweep fireball or crouching 412 button chain into fireball keep outs. If someone is blocking a lot mix your keep-out taps in with overhead attacks (forward + medium kick with Ken for example) this will hit a crouching opponent who isnt on his toes or do it loads to make him expect it and then sweep or throw (mindgames)

You cant learn that stuff without challenges against good players - it's too hard to explain and there's too much of it! You like up London dont you Soi? Come round to one of my sessions again and you'll improve in no time.

[Madbury]

OK Saur I can understand 90% of your post. Being in a similar situation to Soi where I'm craptacular at these games you might have to help me out with the lingo

Cross her up ? - Am I just being dense what does this mean

taps? what are these? is this the same as tick damage?

[Goemon]

The only way to really get good is by playing lots of different people.

Everyone has their own techniques and styles which you learn from. This will ultimately make you a better player.

Quite a lot of my misspent youth was round the local arcade...

Oh, and lots of practice!!

[Saurian]

Cross her up ? - Am I just being dense what does this mean

Cross ups is where you jump past an opponent and connect a REALLY deep jumping striking attack in the back of the opponent. Try this with Ken to learn it: Jump in and connect a medium flying kick so deep that the characters have actually gone past eachother, and combinate it into something powerful (cross up, medium sweep, fireball for example) - the flying kick should connect chest height at the back of the opponent with the back of your leg then the characters switch sides for the sweep and fireball. Zero/Alpha Ken is really sick cos he can roll through things - so cross up to swap sides then light punch roll back through to the other side again and attack, this really pisses people off XD
Cross ups are good when people are getting up off the ground, so the cross up connects exactly as the opponent's getting up animation finishes. It's not worth using it blatantly - you'll get punished for it, but as a surprise to an opponent getting up it's very good.

taps? what are these? is this the same as tick damage?

Nah man - I mean light to medium taps and chains, a sequence of moves which dont leave you open but make the opponent react. Like when I play I throw moves which are gonna get blocked on purpose but make sure that they are a set that dont leave me open - even tag a special on the end to make it look like I'm attacking when all I'm doing is waiting for an opening. The opponent will react after blocking the hits, or can be forced to react a certain way and fall into a trap - like the way you condition someone to expect a sweep and just throw them XD

[Madbury]

Ahh, its all becoming clear. Thanks Saur.

Now all I need to do is convince the peeps I normally game with that we need to invest some heavy time in SF or KoF. My bro is getting into Samurai Spirits at the moment and CvS, so he'll be up for some challenges.

[Yoshimoto]

I personally don't think that how to play Streetfighter can be taught. Its all down to experience and obviously the more skillful players that you can play against, the more often you'll come into contact with advanced techniques.

Playing the game well isn't even something that you think about whilst doing it either. For me at least its completely subliminal. You don't actually see somone jump at you and then work out in your head what the best move to counter your opponent with is. It just happens.

Just do whatever feels right at the time. If its wrong then you'll get a kicking, but eventually you'll subconciously learn from your mistakes.

[Soi]

That was a good explanation Saur, and very helpful. Like TB, I didn't quite get all the lingo on your first post, but I do now.

I do live in London, but I don't think I'm up to hardcore challenges just yet.

@ Yoshimoto: I agree that how to be an expert at Street Fighter cannot be taught, especially not in writing. All good fighting games essentially become mind games, and those cannot be learnt without high quality challenges. But it is possible to pass on basic tips and strategies to help a beginner. Before you can progress to the mind games side you need to understand the tools you have at your disposal. While I know all Ken?s SSF2T moves, I have little understanding of when to use them. I think that this sort of thing can be learnt from reading other people?s thoughts and strategies. Though playing against better people will always be the best way to learn how to play any game.

[venom743]

Like people have said, the best way to get good at SF is with challenges. Playing the game on the hardest setting, level 8 will improve your game also. Some standard combos to start you off, for ken.

Jumping hard punch or kick, medium sweep, fireball.

This is the most useful standard ken, ryu, akuma combo

Jumping hard punch or kick, uppercut, fireball.

Like the above, only more powerful and can cause a daze.
With these combos, feel free to substitute the jumping attacks with cross ups.

Two in one dragon punch- standing hard punch or uppercut into a weak dragon punch.

Corner trap:

Slow fireball, as it makes contact, do a fast fireball. Your opponent has no choice but to block it. Feint and then dragon punch if they jump. If not, repeat the process.