Venue Change Impressions

With the continued growth of Wednesday Night Fights, there had been some talk of expanding the time slot to accommodate the increasing number of participants. When I first started hosting Fight Nights, space and time were not an issue, mainly because we rarely had more than 6-8 players at one time. However, as we've started attracting more and more players, we started to see averages of 12-16 players weekly. Unfortunately, due to the relatively small size of the venue, we could not comfortably have more than 4-5 setups going, and people were not getting to play as much as they'd like. Two hours is plenty when you have less than 10 people, but once the number hit over a dozen, it's not quite enough time.

       I attempted to negotiate more play time with the venue, and made some suggestions. Unfortunately, we were unable to come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement, and I started looking for an alternate venue. I had noticed that Hastings, a retailer in my area, had an open space in its store that used to be a cafe. It had more room, tables and seating, and enough power outlets for use. I set up a meeting with the store manager, and was pleased to find out that he was excited about having Hastings as a venue for the Fight Nights.

 Well, this past Wednesday we had our first Fight Night at the new venue, and I am pleased to report that we had a great turnout. 22 players in total, with 7 setups going at once. Feedback after the session was consistently positive, with most players appreciating the extra space and additional time. Plus hey, there was a couch to chill in! Hopefully, we can maintain the growth of the event, and we plan to start holding tourneys and ranbats in the coming months. 

So here we are, starting fresh in a new place, with some new faces, and many familiar ones. I hope that things stay positive in the new place, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the scene grows after this change. In the meantime, we'll keep playing and leveling up. Many thanks to Lycan, Sev, Squabbler, eraser, Duckie, Cylus, pJan, FlyMike, Bishop, Krit, Wootsick, Bryce, Semosh, Sunstone, Gouken dude, Matt and everyone else who was there. If I don't know or misspelled your name, I apologize. And if you happened to be a participant in any of the Fight Nights, thank you. We couldn't have done it without you.

Rufus, a Study in Character Design

"FuriousJodo wrote: 

I'll never main her, but I am totally obsessed with her (Chun Li) as a character for some reason.

Hiryu02 wrote: 

I'm like this about Rufus, for some reason."

 With the release of Super, I notice that I've been playing Rufus more and more. I wasn't a big fan of his in vanilla, mainly because he was considered to be OP, given the amount of damage he was able to put out, especially in conjunction with his easy-to-combo Ultra. Now due to the across-the-board damage nerf the entire cast received in Super, Rufus went from doing ridiculously high damage to only doing somewhat-high damage. Personally, I'm thrilled. I feel that it makes playing him require more effort, and you actually have to land stuff more than twice in a round to win it. But that's a discussion for another time, I digress. 

Anyway, I'm really beginning to appreciate the design that went into his character. I will be honest, and tell you that I'm not a big fan of his default costume, but I really love his first alternate. I think it's mainly because I can't figure out what the hell he's supposed to be wearing in his default outfit. Some kind of riding suit or something? His alternate outfit has more cool touches, I think, even with the pigtails. For example, take the "Wu" kanji on the back. Wu is the Chinese symbol that stands for "martial", as in martial arts or a martial way. I feel that it strongly fits his personality, and his backstory, which describes that he taught himself Kung-Fu by watching martial arts movies and reading kung-fu books! He also supposedly traveled through China to see the different Kung-Fu styles, and reinforce what he had learned.

I also notice more and more little details, like the way he shakes his head, Bruce Lee-style, after landing a palm thrust. The way he holds his hands when he does a cr mk, or the little light-footed shuffle he does when Spectacle Romance is blocked. Or even just the way he lands from a back throw. Little things, I know, but they add so much. Rufus isn't a character that looks good in still images, one has to see him in motion to really grasp the fluidity of his movement.

I especially like the Snake Strike animation. He leaps, stabbing furiously with each limb, and yet manages to land like a ballerina from a triple axel. Again, now that I pay attention, I see the multiple styles blended in his own, as befits his self-taught martial way. Bajiquan, Tai Chi, Snake style, Baguazhang, and more.

Of course, his effusive, motor-mouthed personality is great too. Win quotes that are so long you can't read them before they go away. Or the hilarious gestures and movements in his Rival cutscenes. I used to hate the fat man, but now I have a strange new appreciation of his design. 

Now I'm aware that the Rufus we see today is very far from the original idea for his character. He was originally supposed to be a slender black guy with a shaved head, wearing the "pimp gi" outfit that is now Ken's first alternate costume. He was going to be called "King Cobra" and was going to use a blend of breakdancing and kung-fu as a fighting style. However, at some point during the development process, one of the art directors suggested making him fat, an idea that the main designer (Daigo Ikeno) liked. Eventually, the design changed so much it bore almost no similarity to the original work. I'll be honest, at first I was totally turned off by the character and the grotesqueness of his physique. But over time, I've come to appreciate the originality of the design. 

It took me the entire life-span of the first game to realize this, but Rufus is a damn good character. Belatedly, my hat's off to you, Capcom.

Six months later.

In opening, I'd like to apologize for not having updated for the past few months. Many things have happened, Super came out, tourneys went down, salt was dropped. It's been quite eventful.

Another reason I hadn't been updating was because I felt other websites like eventhubs and iplaywinner, did a much better job of posting up news bits. I didn't want to just repost content from other sites, so I stopped doing that. Not to mention, it's not like a million people browse this site, so if I didn't have something, I'm not depriving anyone of info.

In the meantime, I'm glad to report that Wednesday Night Fights has grown beyond my expectations. From a small group of 5-6 regulars, we have been pulling an average of 12-15 players at every gathering. We've had great turnouts at the tournament's we've run, and many local players who had not enjoyed vanilla SF4 are now playing a LOT of Super SF4. All in all, the scene is looking nice and healthy now.

Of course, the scene is nothing without the players. I'd like to thank the regulars that first formed the core of the Fight Nights, without whom I'm sure I'd still be spamming EX TT and other online-only shenanigans. Lycan, Sev, Squabbler, Eraser, Duckie and Cylus, thank you.

Of course I can't leave out FlyMike, whose mid-game commentary has both spectators and opponents rolling. Bishop, Shinblade, Big Majin and Lil Majin, it's always good to see you guys at gatherings and tourneys, especially now that it seems you guys are having fun with Super.

I've seen some awesome things in these six months. I saw Lil Majin and Cylus battle it out tooth and nail for the grand final at the first Fight Night tourney. The disbelief at Lil Majin getting taken out at the next tourney. The same one in which wootsick comes out from nowhere to take the top spot, beating out Cylus in a brutal throwdown. Desperation Ultras actually connecting. Mental guards being shattered. Players dominating, and in turn getting dominated. New game, new characters, new players, new matchups.

In closing, I'm happy to report that the local scene seems to have been revitalized, and it feels like it's steadily growing. Also, through the generosity of Sev, I'm actually going to EVO this year with several of the regulars. That ought be be fun to write about. Anyway, I'll try and keep this blog more relevant, and try to actually post stuff of interest. Don't be surprised if I do a retro arcade game review or something. But for now, I'm concentrating on SF4. I picked up a new main after all. There is much to learn, and a long road ahead.

SFIV Powerplay Beatdown Tourney RESULTS!

Okay, I have the results from Saturday's Memphis tourney!

1st-Lil Majin - Gief
2nd-Cylus - Balrog
3rd-Severin-X - Abel
4th-Joe - Sakura
5th-pJan - Blanka/Honda
5th-Lycan - Ryu/Akuma
7th-eraser224 - Bison
7th-FlyMike - Honda
9th-Shin
9th-Hiryu02 - Abel/Gen
9th-Tza
9th-Ma
13th-Crazybrownman
13th-Squabbler - Akuma/Ryu
13th-Gene
17th-Hampton - Bison
17th-Apollo
17th-Duckie - Sagat
17th-Red Dragon
17th-Tkal
25th-Pwner

My apologies if your sig is misspelled, this is how it was logged in Tio.

Anyway, congrats to the winners, and thanks to everyone who attended. We had a great turnout, much better than expected for a small local tourney like this. I was hoping to get maybe a dozen, and we had over 20 people show up. Hopefully we can all do this again sometime, I think there will be some vids posted later. I hope everyone had a great time. Thanks again, and I hope we all fight again sometime.

For more post-tourney comments, check this thread here.

SFIV Tournament is TOMORROW.

Just a reminder, tomorrow at 5:00 PM we will begin the first ever Powerplay SF4 Tournament. Here's a quick rundown of the info:

- Registration fee is $10, which includes the $5 venue fee

- Official platform is Xbox 360, but we will try to have a PS3 setup also available for those who prefer.

- Bring your own controller or stick. This is VERY important. We will try and have classic pads and fightpads available, but if you prefer a stick, bring your own.

- Start time is 5:00 PM, but I suggest showing up by 4:00 PM for early registration and to get warmups in.

- We will be playing on in-house monitors, which will be tested beforehand to ensure we are using the ones with less lag.

Full info is at the link below, I hope to see you there!

http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=225602

Makoto, Ibuki and Dudley CONFIRMED!

I know that if you care at all about SF4, you've already seen the new introduction trailer for the new additions to Super SF4. Well and good.

However, you may not have seen the Japanese version yet, which in my opinion contains vastly superior voice acting, especially in Dudley's and Makoto's case. The new Ultras are sick, especially Dudley's Rolling Thunder, which thanks to 3D camera angles is now revealed as an homage to the Dempsey Roll from Hajime no Ippo!

To view the trailer, just click here and select the SUPER Promotion Trailer #4. Oh, and bonus tease at the end...heh.

SFIV Tournament is a go!

Hey guys, I apologize for the lack of posts of late, but I've got a great announcement to make up for it.

I am pleased to announce what will hopefully become the first of many tournaments,
the Street Fighter 4 PowerPlay Beatdown!

When: February 27th, 2010. Tourney proper starts at 5:00 PM

Where: The location for the event will be PowerPlay Videogames in Cordova.
Address is 841 N. Germantown Pkwy, Cordova TN 38018. It's directly beside the Outdoors INC. However, it can be a bit tricky to locate, so here's a Google Maps link
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...38018&view=map

Registration: $10 (includes $5 venue fee)

Format will be double elimination, best 2 out of 3 per set. Semis will also be 2 out of 3, but we may bump it up to 3 of 5 if time allows. Finals is 3 out of 5. Loser may switch characters, winner must keep same character. We will be on 360, but we will do our best to also have a PS3 setup for those who prefer it. We will have casuals before the official start at 5:00 for warmups.

BYOC. Bringing your own controller or stick is highly recommended. I will try to have Fightpads and classic controllers available for public use, but in the end if you want to be sure that you'll be on a controller you prefer, bring your own.

The tourney will be held on the in-house monitors, which will be tested beforehand to ensure we are using the ones with the least lag. May the best player win.

Prize money will be determined by number of entrants.

If you're going up to Final Round in March, this is a good opportunity to get some practice in. This is the first one I'm helping organize, so hopefully we can do this on the regular.

Super SF4 Release date announced! More info!

So last night Capcom unleashed a bunch of new info regarding Super SF4. We now have a release date: April 27th, 2010. Also, there will be a collectors edition, that includes a new anime DVD, a soundtrack disc, and an artbook. The official release is quoted below: 

quote:

Super Street Fighter® IV will be coming to the Xbox 360®video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® and PS3 system on April 27, 2010 in North America and April 30, 2010 in Europe. The follow-up to the critically acclaimed Street Fighter IV will further redefine the 2-D fighting genre with a host of new features including new characters, new ultra combos, new online modes, the return of the famed bonus stages and retuned online and offline gameplay. Super Street Fighter IV’s new characters include Street Fighter’s first Tae Kwon Do-styled fighter - the deadly female fighter Juri - classic Street Fighters such as Cody, Guy, T. Hawk, Dee Jay, Adon and more to complement the full roster of returning fighters from Street Fighter IV. Featuring all new user-selectable Ultra Combos and advancements to the online gameplay and matchmaking, Super Street Fighter IV is the ultimate vision of Street Fighter.

Also, new videos were released, you can view the english versions below:

You can also view the original japanese versions at the JP Capcom site, here.

And lastly, don't forget that we'll be having our weekly SF4 session at PowerPlay Videogames in Cordova tomorrow night, from 7:00-9:00 PM.

Fight Night is Tonight!

Hey guys, don't forget, SF4 Fight Night is tonight at PowerPlay Videogames at 7:00 PM.

PowerPlay is located at 841 N. Germantown Pkwy in Cordova, next to Outdoors, Inc. If you need directions, you can call them at 901-552-4271. Or check their site at 

http://www.powerplayvideogames.com/contact_us.html

You can also email me if you have any questions at sf4memphis@gmail.com. Or leave a comment on this site, and I'll do my best to reply. In any case, I hope we'll have a decent turnout tonight, and have some good matches. See you guys later.

Cody interview!

A new developer interview discussing Cody is now up at Eventhubs. It's a nice little read, with some juicy tidbits about how he can also use a wrench and a pipe for attacks, in addition to the knife. A cool shoutout  to the original Final Fight, for sure. Also he now has my vote for Coolest Move Name Ever; "Zonk Knuckle".

You should head over there and check it out.

http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2009/dec/07/super-street-fighter-4-devs-discuss-cody/

It's official. Wednesday Night Fights!

Hey guys, just finalized the details for the Street  Fighter Open Play nights at PowerPlay today. We're looking at Wednesday nights, from around 7-9 PM. The platform will be on XBOX 360, format to be announced later. 

Bringing your own controller or stick is highly recommended, but if you are without, I'll have a 360 controller and a Fightpad available for use. You can email me at hiryu02 (at) gmail(dot) com if you have any questions or comments. I'll be posting a bit more here at GnM as we nail things down. But currently, if you like to play SF4 and aren't doing anything Wednesday night, come down to PowerPlay and get some matches in. We hope to see you there!

Stay Tuned, Fight Nights are Coming.

And now for a bit of local flavor. And by local I mean Memphis, TN.

So I'm driving to work around the Thanksgiving holiday and I notice this new videogame store called PowerPlay had just opened up right next to Outdoor's Inc on Germantown Pkwy. I go, "Cool", and make a mental note to check them out, just to see if they have anything that makes them tick. I call up, inquire about a game, and the lady I spoke to was very nice, super helpful. She also mentioned that they had an "arcade" in the back, which really piques my interest. I make it a point to stop by the next day and see the place. An idea had begun to form in my mind. 

I stop by the next day and speak to Ms. Jennifer, who was the person I had spoken to earlier. Again, she was super nice and told me all about the place; it's a mom and pop operation, they have consoles hooked up to flatscreens in the back, a separate area called their "arcade", they plan to have Halo/Madden tourneys, they host parties, and all sorts of cool sounding stuff. So I'm like, wow, this is a cool place, let's see what they think of my idea.

So I pitch it: One night a week, structured open freeplay sessions with Street Fighter 4. She likes the idea, but she tells me it's best to speak to Chris, who is in charge of the tournaments. I thank her, and tell her I'll be back later. That night, I stop by again and speak to Chris. I lay out the idea again. I explain that I basically want to do this in order to grow a scene around SF4. I've run Halo leagues and tournaments before, and I clarify that initially, these "Fight Nights" are just casual matches, not a tournament, with an eye towards just getting more people playing and interested in the game and its sequel, Super Street Fighter 4. Chris and I go back and forth over several salient points, but in summary: He likes the idea, and gives me the go-ahead to get it started. Needless to say, I'm very excited, I've wanted to do something like this for a long time.

Now, I just need to muster up some support for this, and start getting the word out. I'm hoping that we can get a good group of regulars coming to these matches, and hey, I think we're looking at a possible tournament for SSF4 after its release! I'm getting pretty hyped, but I'm trying to keep my expectations modest. I'll have more info as details finalize. Stay tuned.

It's Coming. GET HYPE!!!

Go here. Now.

http://www.capcom.co.jp/newwarrior/index.html

Gentlemen, let us prepare.

WCW Recap: GET HYPE!

The first ever West Coast Warzone Tournament was held this past weekend in Irvine, California. I was lucky enough to catch most of it live on the live stream. All I can say is wow! Tons of quality play, by players I've never heard of and players that I'm very familiar with. On the famous front, we had Marn, John Choi, Alex Valle, Floe and Ed Ma, plus a few others. The relative unknowns were Filipino Champ, Bryant the Tyrant, Masarap, and Yeb, plus more. I'll touch on Yeb later in this post.

For commentating, the floor was held by Gootecks and John Rog. There were a few repetitive instances, but good commentary over all. The speakers got genuinely hyped and the feelings were infectious.

In early pools, some standout play by the heavy hitters like Alex Valle and Marn. Valle actually played Gouken in his early matches, and did pretty well with him, to the delight of the crowd.

Speaking of hype, the biggest swell of excitement surrounded Yeb, a Gen player from San Diego. Yeb was a relative unknown coming into the tourney, but he's well-known on the srk Gen forums alongside JiBbo. Both players are proponents of Gen's standing medium kick into hundred hands combo. For the uninitiated, the mk hands combo requires 5 punch inputs during the very short window when mk can combo. This is used profusely in matches to grab additional damage on Gen's best poke, as well as to string together combos upwards of 18+ hits. It's pretty damn impressive, to say the least. As well as being hard as hell to execute. 

Yeb wowed the audience early on in matches against Andre, and later, in a knockout match against Hugo, a Dictator player, he brought the crowd to it's feet with a last ditch final round Ultra that he landed against Dictator's EX head stomp. The significance of this is that he used the invincibility frames of the Ultra to make the head stomp miss, and plant Dictator on the ground in time for the Ultra to land. Needless to say, this was CLUTCH. The room exploded. In later matches, he took down the famous John Choi, and got a double perfect on Magus1234. At the beginning of top 8, the whole room chanted his name after he defeated Floe's Sagat. In the words of John Rog, if you don't know Yeb, You Just Don't Know. After his 4th place finish, losing to Ed Ma's Akuma, he received a standing ovation. Quite possibly a first for the fighting game scene, and this was after his loss. Yeb was definitely MVP of WCW.

Other surprises included Masarap, a relative unknown getting comparisons to Daigo due to his uncanny consistency with fadc ultras. As well as Boxer player Bryant the Tyrant with some stunning upsets, and a Blanka called Moval beasting. In the end, Marn took the finals after facing off against Alex Valle. The consensus was that it was a great tourney with a great turnout, including about a hundred players who signed up the day of the event, throwing brackets into chaos and causing some delays. Still, a great time was had by all, and some classic moments were had.

Top 8 is here, this does not include the first game of top 8, floe vs Yeb, linked to earlier.

Playing Abel: Another Approach.

I've started playing Abel seriously as an alternate to Ryu, I say alternate, but I've been playing him fairly exclusively this past week. He's a good change of pace from Ryu, and the approach is completely different. Where shotos excel at zoning you out and spacing for anti-airs, Abel's game involves up-close mixups, combined with command throws and a roll that bypasses most attacks. His anti-air game is pretty weak, though. He has a throw that catches jumping opponents, but the timing and angle that it comes out at causes it to miss most of the time. 

Abel is pretty challenging to use, as he has no basic "safe" strategy, unlike say Ryu who can throw fireballs, and shoryuken his opponent out of the air when he tries to jump. Ryu can win matches using almost nothing but cr.mk into fireball, and shoryuken. Abel doesn't really work that way. Instead his game is based on reacting to the opponents actions and punishing their mistakes. And at intermediate to higher levels you really need to get into your opponents head and condition him into playing in a way that Abel can punish him at will. Many players call this using mindgames. 

Here's an example. Say Abel knocks down his opponent. As the opponent gets up he can:

1. Stay back a bit and sweep the opponent, as his sweep has deceptively long range

2. Use a Wheel Kick, which must be blocked high, alternate with sweep to mix it up

3. Dash in and use either regular Tornado Throw, which beats counter-throws, or EX TT, which beats most attacks

4. Roll behind the enemy, and attack from the back

5. Jump over the enemy and go for a crossup

6. Do nothing, block.

The thing is, this isn't even all his options in that scenario. He can use his step kick to dash in and start another mixup for example. The step kick itself leads to another half dozen options. Of course, not all those options are safe, and if the opponent guesses correctly he can knock Abel out of the mixup. Still, he's a real versatile character. And I think that's the key to his appeal for me. I really have to out-think and psyche out the opponent to win with Abel, so when I do win, it's very satisfying. The flipside is that when I can't get his offense rolling, it's very frustrating. "I should have done this, I should have done that" kind of frustrating. Still when you totally Yomi your oppenent's game, and make him feel that everything he's doing is getting countered or punished, there's no feeling that compares.

NOTE: "Yomi" is a japanese term that loosely translates as "knowing the mind of your opponent". And since Abel's gameplan is reliant on mixups and baiting, yomi is a big part of his game. For more about yomi, see here. 

Have Stick, Will Fight!

I purchased an XBOX 360 TE FightStick yesterday, after some time spent cursing the Fightpad and saving money. And it's every bit as good as the reviews  say it is. It's much more precise and sensitive. Maybe a bit too sensitive, as I found myself jumping backwards a few times when I wanted to perform a standing block. I also have to re-adjust my timing on several combos, as opposed to mashing out my 2-in-1's on the pad. Finally being able to execute an srk FADC into Ultra online makes it worth every dollar. My movement is much improved as well, I can dash in and out on command, and positioning myself is much easier. The stick also enables me to see if I'm executing moves with the correct timing. On the pad, I would miss some moves but chalk it up to the mushiness of the pad not recognizing my inputs properly. With the stick, I can now tell that it's in fact my execution that is off. 

I've finally fought my way into Championship G2-C, after an eternity spent in D and E. I'm feeling much improved from when I picked up the game some weeks ago, but certain matchups still give me a lot of trouble. Dhalsim in particular is a tough fight for me, as is Rose. I still can't beat really good players consistently,  but I sneak out a win here and there. I do feel that my arsenal has expanded thanks to the TE stick, as I can pull several combos I wasn't able to execute consistently before. I do feel that I have a lot to learn, and I'm not making proper use of all the options available to me as Ryu.

In the meantime, I'm trying to develop a secondary character, and I'm torn between Rufus and Abel. I feel that I grasp Abel better, but Rufus has some amazing damage potential. For example, Rufus can hit a jumper with his own jumping hk, and follow that up with EX Snake Strike and do at least 30% damage. His Ultra is also relatively easy to set-up and he's got a good mixup game. My main issue with him is he requires very precise execution on many of his combos. 

Abel on the other hand, has strong grabs for turtling opponents, as well as a good assortment of strikes. His rolls enable him to bypass projectiles and setup crossups. He also has a ton of health and takes longer to defeat. His Ultra is great for projectile spammers and can be linked to his cr.hp. His Tornado Throw is also very potent. 

And then there is the possibility that this is another symptom of my love for alts in MMO's. I'm really bad about this, to the point of having nearly a dozen different characters that I all play, yet not really getting very far with any of them. I guess no matter what game I play, my indecisiveness will always surface.

The Ties that Bind, the SF4 Anime Review

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to talk about the anime DVD that came with the SF4 game. So apparently Capcom decided to release a companion anime to go along with the launch of SF4. Great idea, but shoddily executed. My first issue with the movie is that I'm not sure when it is supposed to take place. It's not a prequel, and it seems to take place in the same timeline, but its link to the game is extremely tenous. There is no mention of any "tournament", many characters, including guys like Honda, Blanka and Zangief are no where to be found. Of the new guys, you get a glimpse of Abel, and no Fuerte or Rufus. Crimson Viper has a major part, as does Cammy. Then of course Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Guile and Sakura round it out, with small baddie parts from Claw(US Vega) and Boxer(US Balrog). Seth takes the evil boss role, with Dictator(US Bison) in a smaller part. Anyone else I didn't mention is pretty much out.

Cast issues aside, there just isn't enough action. There's a fair bit of exposition, with characters running around investigating and maybe only 3-4 'fight" scenes. The fight scenes are fairly bland and the big boss fight is anticlimactic. The animation itself is very clean, but not very detailed. It's pretty much the same stuff in the arcade mode intros and endings.

I would have been okay with all this, had the translation been on par. Unfortunately, Capcom for some reason instead of commissioning an alternate script translation for the subtitles decided to go cheap and dubtitle it. Dubtitling, if you don't know, is simply using the English dub script as the subtitles. Therefore, instead of getting a better, more accurate translation with subtitles, dubtitles just give you the English dub, like closed captioning. The thing about dubbed anime, is that usually certain liberties are taken with the dub in order to match the mouth movements of the characters. So normally the dub translation, while adequate, is not as accurate as it could be since it is dealing with the constraints of the medium. 

I guess I'm not entirely surprised that Capcom skimped on the translation, seeing that the anime itself is pretty subpar. It's strange that they'd be hesitant to spend money on something that's supposed to promote the RETURN OF STREET FIGHTER! In a way, perhaps this is an indication that they might have not been as certain that SF4 was going to succeed as we thought. It sounds like a no-brainer now, but keep in mind that before the game actually gets released, they only know it did well in arcades, which is not a guaranteed success on console/PC.

Good Times and Pad Woes.

Last night was my third night of SF4, and I finally started playing in championship mode, using Ryu. I did pretty well, I'd say i won about 60% of my matches, and advanced up a bit, I'm now in G-3 C, whatever that means, heh.

I've also unlocked Gouken now, and I'm practicing with him and Abel. Strangely enough, Abel seems to be a good fit for my fighting style. His rolls are KOF-ish, and he has a easy to perform command throw, and a Fei-Long style punch/rekka combo. I'm still spotty with him, but when i get momentum going, it can be hard to stop me. Of course, smart players still drink my milkshake, but I feel that I have potential with Abel. Gouken is much the same, great when i can get momentum going, but some matches it's like I'm beating my head into the wall. I also have a bad habit of under utilizing certain moves of his, like EX palm thrusts, and overusing his demon flip and fireballs. I can get a pretty decent zoning game with him, but under pressure I tend to crack. I do like his mixups and how you can use his Ultra in multiple ways: after a back throw, as an anti-air, and in certain corner combos. I just need to get used to his unique quirks, and I think I can be a decent player. Especially once I stop whiffing Ultras.

Speaking of Ultras, I may be setting aside Ryu for a little while. Why? Well, because his main setup for his Ultra involved an FADC'd shoryuken. And on a pad, it's very difficult to do. Because of the way i have to hold the pad, quickly executing Focus Attacks can be a challenge by itself. And so FADC-ing anything for me on the pad is hard to do in the heat of the moment. The main thing is that the buttons are too close together for me to do it comfortably if I hold my button hand piano-style, and if I use the regular grip with my thumb, certain normal links get harder to do. So it's a no-win situation for me without constantly changing my grip. Also, it's getting to be murder on my left thumb So it looks like getting a stick just became a much higher priority.

I should be able to purchase a stick within the next few weeks, hopefully. The pad will have to tide me over til then. In the meantime, it looks like Abel and Gouken will be taking up most of my time, unless I somehow figure out a way to do Ryu's FADC shoryu into Ultra on the pad reliably.

My first online fights, defeats and victories.

Before I could even begin to play SF4, I have to acquire a controller, right? Logical. So I figured I'd go down to Best Buy, grab a PC game bundle and go home. Not that simple. No local Best Buy has Fightpads or sticks, much less the bundle. So I have to break my personal rule of never buying from Gamestop. I call around to six or seven locations, and only one has a Fightpad, and it's a used one at that. No matter, I go down there, purchase the pad, and then I go to work. A bit later I get around to examining the pad, which I didn't have time to do earlier as I was on my way to my job. Problem. The USB port is missing. 

So I call the Gamestop I purchased it at, and spoke to the guy who sold it to me. Initially he said I'd have to take it back, since they didn't have any others. I replied that I needed the pad, and I didn't care if he had to pull a port off another used pad and give it to me. He hemmed and hawed at this, so I added that maybe he should call around to other stores, see who has a spare port and instruct them to hold it for me. He hesitated at this as well, so I just said that I'd call him back later. A fews hours later, I call back and he says that he did find the port and that he would hold it for me. Great, that's one problem gone. After picking up the port, I head to Best Buy, and hey, they have the game with the pack-in anime DVD. I picked it up as well, glad to have the bonus DVD. My excitement about the DVD quickly soured however when I realized the travesty of its translation. But I'll go into that later.

 Anyway, after some tinkering I get the game installed and the controller drivers downloaded. Now I can play SF4 for the first time. I go into training mode, and pick Ryu. 

I suck. I'm amazed at how bad my execution is. The pad makes performing the moves slightly less difficult, but my execution is bollocks.

I sit in practice mode for a while, trying to get used to performing combos and links. Some of the stuff was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I had a hard time executing his cr.lk, cr,lp, cr.hp into tatsu. This is considered one of his basic bread and butter combos (BnB). I wasn't having much success with f+hp, d+hp into special, either. Daigo's execution is truly beastly to pull links like that off on command. After about 30 minutes of practice, I went online for the very first time. I played about an 45 minutes, and managed to lose most of my first several matches. I'd get a round win every so often, but I didn't really win much at all. I did get a session in with someone called obliterage, and we played about 7 matches, 4 of which I won. I was pretty stoked about it, and I sent him a gg mesage along with a friend request afterwards. I played arcade mode solo afterwards, working on unlocking characters. So I've got Sakura, Fei Long, Cammy, Gen, and Rose. I'm going to try and unlock Gouken tonight, as he's who I intend to play as a secondary character, after Ryu. Although that may change when I get an arcade stick, so that I can start learning to use Gen, who has incredibly technical execution demands that pretty much require a stick. The Fightpad is nice, definitely better than a vanilla controller, but it has a slight mushy feeling that makes some precision movements feel somewhat floaty. Still, it'll tide me over until I get a stick.

All in all, I'm very excited to be getting back into fighting games, even if it's only on the PC. Still, it's been years since I've seriously played, and I'm looking forward to working my way up the ranks. If you see me online, send me an invite, I'm going by Hiryu ZeroTwo.

Let's Do This! Coming back to Street Fighter.

Once again I'm late to the party, but this weekend I hope to finally be playing Street Fighter 4 online...on the PC. Yes I know I'm nearly a month late to the PC release, but I had been focusing on the console versions since launch. I've been watching match videos on youtube, perusing multiple forums, and just absorbing information about the game in general. For someone who has yet to play the actual game, I've spent a remarkable amount of time just reading about it, and vicariously experiencing it through forum discussions and match videos. Unfortunately, my current financial situation prevents me from purchasing an Xbox 360, SF4 and a fighting stick. It was only recently that a light bulb lit up in my head when I realized that my gaming PC is beefy enough to run SF4. So I can snag the game and a decent fighting stick for less than $100. 

This is not my first exposure to Street Fighter. I grew up in Asia about the time Street Fighter 2 and Fatal Fury first hit arcades. I still fondly remember my dog-eared copy of EGM that had photos and descriptions of each fighter's special moves, as well as a short bio on each character. I recall acting out the special moves of every character for my oldest nephew, and describing each fighter to him. Sadly, in those days I was pretty young and was not good at understanding the finer details of fighting games. I wanted to be good at Ryu, but I didn't have the skill to do fireballs or shoryukens properly. I would often jump accidentally when trying special moves. I settled for learning Guile, because his charge moves came easier to me. And I got pretty decent against the computer, but was still a scrub against better players. I rarely won versus another player, unless he was inexperienced like me. I also played other stuff like Fatal Fury, but I would play every version of SF that came out.  Still, I was never more than a mediocre player.

I would return to Street Fighter when Capcom released New Challengers and Super Turbo. I quickly discovered that I sucked with Cammy, Fei Long and T Hawk.  After King of Fighters debuted in 1994, I gravitated to it. I played significantly more KOF for a while and started to learn proper move execution. About the time KOF 95' came out, I knew how to perform most special moves on demand. Still, my game relied on using mainly the strongest normals and special moves. I didn't use pokes, footsies, or jab strings. I was basically a player who used Hard Punch and Hard Kick for everything. I also played Street Fighter Alpha, and its sequels during their arcade release, but I was playing more KOF than SF at this point, and it wasn't until Street Fighter 3 that I finally "understood" the game. I got pretty good at SF3, nothing amazing, but I did pretty well in my local scene. Unfortunately, some time after SF3 3rd Strike was released, I fell out of the fighting game scene for many years. 

And so, more than eighteen years after Street Fighter 2 came out, I'm returning to Street Fighter, and to Ryu. Ryu has always been an iconic character, his ending in the original SF2 really affected me. I remember it to this day. He's the solid, well-balanced "basic" fighter archetype that has spawned countless imitations across the fighting game genre. Strangely, I haven't really tried to use him since the New Challengers. Even in the Versus series, like Capcom Vs SNK and Marvel Vs Capcom, I intentionally avoided using Ryu. I sort of had a mental block about using him, since all my attempts at "mastering" Ryu had met with failure. Also, he's always been a well-rounded popular character that gets picked by many players. And so in nearly every game I would use a character that was "different". I used Guy in the Alpha series, and Yun and Makoto in SF3. 

This time however, I'm gonna pick Ryu. I'm a better player now, with a better understanding of the game, the fighters and the engine. I think that now that I've gotten all this experience under my belt, I'm finally ready to use him. It's kind of a cool feeling, to come back to a character that I had originally wanted to play, but for one reason or another I passed over. I also have a different mindset now. I'm going to approach this as a learning experience, not as a way to show my "skills". I must credit David Sirlin for writing a series of articles collectively called "Playing to Win", that taught me many things. Not just about fighting games in general, but also about the mental barriers that a mediocre or "scrubby" player has to overcome in his head to succeed. Hopefully, the next time I play against someone with Ryu, I'll be playing to win, and to learn.