This is a feature that I have had in the back of my head for this blog for a LONG time now, so I'm glad that I finally get a chance to do this. I'm doing this feature for the little guys in the FGC who really struggle to get a grasp of basics and the bare bones of most fighters on the market today. I know that I SUCK at majority of these games and I don't have a problem admitting to the fact that I prolly would never be able to hang with the likes of Justin Wong, Daigo Umehara, or Combofiend in a match, but that won't stop me from enjoying these games in the spirit of competition.Over the last few months, I have taken a hiatus, due to my own frustrations with the genre and looking for a breath of fresh air, trying to complete my everlasting backlog of games in other genres across multiple consoles.
This feature is going to be a bit of give and take. I give you guys this footage of me playing sucktacular and in return, those of you who are savvy in these said games can offer some friendly feedback (how to approach match-ups differently, better punishes, etc.) and advice in the comments section.
Introduction:
If you have been following my blog for some time, then you should know my background in fighters. I'm not part of the old school arcade rats nor do I consider myself to be a pro in the slightest. Hell, it's a miracle that I have made by all of these years without even learning to nor knowing how to read frame data. I'm a dork who works 40+ hours a week - it's a miracle on it's own that I have time for gaming, watching TV/films, and attempting to have a social life period (laughs).To make a long story short, my experience on fighters was mostly in Namco's realm, namely Soul Calibur and Tekken (off and on) over the years. I didn't really take a serious approach to Capcom's fighters until the arrival of Street Fighter IV. I contributed to the flowchart Ken problem in vanilla SF4 before migrating to Chun by the end of Super's tenure on the market.
Back when I used to watch people play MvC2 in the very small arcade scene here (FYI I'm a SC native...) it was mostly zoning with projectiles and playing keep away. So when MvC3 dropped and it's all of of this wave-dashing, box-dashing, and triangle-dashing everywhere, I was instantly mindfucked and lost. The simplest of combos are clearly over my head and it frustrates me time and time again that the game doesn't click with me on not a single level, despite of my love for Capcom and especially Marvel's own heroes and villains.
Last but not least, I'm a pad player - using a PS2 to Xbox 360 adapter. It works great for most games, save for UMvC3 where it seems like the LT and RT inputs don't register at all or I have to hammer on them for them register inputs just for that particular game. I tried to switch over to stick on several occasions but time and time again, I'm hindered by two conditions within my wrists. 1) I have a rare birth defect where I cannot rotate my left wrist at every angle without discomfort. 2) I have carpal tunnel developing in both wrists as well.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (3/2/2013) Misc. Player Matches
vs. Miguel -- I don't know how to approach that match-up at all. None of my friends in Tekken 6 mained or played him in the slightest. I was trying to study his combo strings, but kept falling for that unorthodox low sweep. Any good ideas on proper punishes to his moves on block?
vs. Ogre/Anna -- I was starting to remember combos and proper spacing so I was attempting to work that into my play. Round 1 he clearly got me while I was trying to tag out. Totally forgot about that isn't safe at all to do in this game.
vs. JayCee/Law -- Seeing this team makes me sad that I haven't cooked up any cool/kick-ass costumes for my team. Well, my King/JayCee team does, but that one is FAR worse than my Dragunov/Alisa team here. For the record, I REALLY don't like fighting Law(s) but I just learned to deal with him - he's a popular character.
vs. Law/Jin -- A better Law player than the last one I faced. I wasn't worried about Jin as my old sparring buddy, Ad Infinitum, mained him and Xiaoyu so I have plenty of experience fighting those two fuckers. I was surprised (well, not really...) that I had to face this guy again. But we had a good rhythm going so I didn't mind running into him again. I gotta stop doing Alisa's flight to get back up - VERY bad habit I know... In my defense, if they keep falling for it, keep doing it right?
After this match, you see me practicing a bit in the lobby as I wait for another match to come up. One question I'm sure you guys are asking is this - Z, so why do you keep your combos so short and NOT optimizing max damage? Simple answer there, shorter is easier for me to remember and I tend to forget long as hell combo chains. Retarded easy combos leaves less margin for error for me.
vs. Zafina/Sebastian -- Most unique team I've seen during this entire session. I won't lie, these are two characters whose moves I really can't read well due to their movements/animations. Fortunately for me, this guy is still on the training wheels on learning them. Both Zafina and classic Lili intrigued me in Tekken 6 and I still regret not learning them in that game.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Arcade Mode Run 1 of 2 (3/2/2013)
Spencer/Dr. Doom/Vergil
I bet you're wondering why am I just recording Arcade Mode footage? Well, I consider myself to be lower than n00b tier. I'm straight gutter trash tier in this game, so I rather save myself the embarrassment and just play against the CPU.
I don't feel comfortable at all with assist calls (normals + assist inputs) then it seems like they come out at the wrong times or not at all when I input this. Or I try to do it while wavedashing and get a damn Snapback to come out instead.
Most players I ask advice on Spencer's combos say that this stuff should come easy but I can't even get his normal BnBs down without the opponent dropping out of them. At 8:18 marks the ONLY time I could time that OTG Grapple Wire properly and low and behold my opponent is nowhere to be found.
Dr. Doom's air combos I keep screwing up and getting an exchange or that pistol when I try to do flight or input foot dive. I was informed on how to input Doom's unique dashing for movement but it just looks like a clusterfuck when I do it, especially when I overshoot the opponent completely.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Arcade Mode Run 2 of 2
Vergil/Dr. Doom/Akuma
Vergil is one of the only characters in this game I feel somewhat comfortable with. Much like Tekken Tag 2, you'll see me doing retarded short and easy combos with him.
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition ver. 2012 - Misc. Ranked Matches (3/2/2013)
M. Bison (Dictator) vs. Yang -- I honestly have a ton of experience from fighting the twins and after their nerfs since the ver.2012 patch, I really don't consider them a threat. I still say Yang's the better of the two post-patch. You might catch the Leg Scissors FADC I did in this match. I did it as I wasn't sure it was going to connect properly so I quickly cancelled it. Looking at this match, I'm ashamed at all of those bad Psycho Crushers I was doing. Really unsafe shit from me.
Rose vs. Zangeif -- Boy, I don't know this match-up at all. When I saw this guy pick Geif I knew I was boned as my instincts told me to play Chun instead. Oh well. I knew I was boned when I got caught up into the Geif vortex. Incredible Bulk indeed, good sir.
Blanka vs. Guy -- I was honestly trolling after the last embarrassment to cheer myself up. That Guy sure loved that crouching Medium Kick huh?
Chun-Li vs. Ibuki -- I have to feel bad against how bad I beat this dude. One of my best buds I used to spar with offline on PS3 mains Ibuki so I wasn't in the mood for her starting her bullshit wagon here tonight. Those two rounds were strictly business. For those wondering, YES, Chun-Li is my main. I haven't hit the lab with her since September 2012 though. Over the next few matches it shows...
Chun-Li vs. Ken #1 -- I picked Ultra 1 on this match and you guys to get to see my bad habit in full effect here. I like to sit on down-back to have charge stocked for her specials. TBH it was pissing me off that this loser had Tatsu ready every time I even tapped the Focus Attack buttons. Ultra 1 came out as I thought this fool was going to sit back and toss Hadokens when I had him beat. When he did a shoryuken FULLSCREEN away instead, that's when I was as shocked as you guys watching.
Chun-Li vs. Dudley #1 -- Ah, the lovely Dudley match-up. This one can go both ways for either character. For one thing, I totally forgot until watching this again that crouching MP beats his Randy Savage-style elbow drop from the air. I HATE people in my grill in any fighting game so Dudley staying so close to me was making me start to panic. I honestly think him throwing caution to the wind and just throwing out his Ultra near the end of Round 1 was a complete gamble. I totally forgot about his EX Counter on wake-up. I should have baited that out with an empty jump to EX Legs to Ultra to finish that round out.
At the 15:35 mark, that's when I cursed myself for fucking up. That anti-air rarely beats out on his normals in the air so that was just pure luck that I beat him out there. I landed then inputted Ultra and got EX Kikoken instead. I knew I lost that set right there. Complete input error on my behalf and there was no one else to blame but myself. Hey sn0w if you're reading this, you know I wouldn't have lost this set if I was playing against your Dudley, bro!
Chun-Li vs. Blanka #1 -- I'm not even going to make excuses here, this dude was sick. I was surprised this dude didn't play any gimmicks or played lame like most Blankas online. Nothing but respect here. I'm not mad to take that L home on that one.
Chun-Li vs. Juri -- This guy plays as random as my buddy Ad Infinitum did back when he used to dabble with Juri. I keep forgetting that Chun's air-to-airs lose out to Juri's 95% of the time, so it's better to just stay grounded against this bitch. Wanna know how all of those jump-ins are hitting me? My bad habit drags me to hell again. I don't know what I was thinking even keeping charge against Juri anyway. She's nowhere as scary as Chun's other match-ups. Looking back, that was just really stupid on my behalf.
Makoto vs. Akuma -- Every now and then, I get the urge to attempt to play Makoto and end up failing horribly. I deserved every bit of that anti-air shoryuken at the end of Round 1. Round 2 I dropped the combo (Karakusa xx st. MP xx Hayate) in lag. At the 22:38 mark, I tried to EX Karakusa him through his fireball, but misjudged the distance so it whiffed completely. That was my hail Mary play right there and I knew it was over after that didn't work.
Chun-Li vs. Blanka #2 -- I never ran into this many Blankas when I used to play this game regularly. Much like the first Blanka, this one ran the train on me literally and then some. I'm glad I didn't fall for the ultimate Blanka troll at the start of Round 2 though - LP Blanka Ball whiff then throw. Seen that shit a thousand times in vanilla SF4 and didn't learn to move out of the way until after falling for it at least 800 times. Ah, the staredown at the end of Round 2... I guess I should explain that. I was sitting on down-back charge for Ultra 1 (as usual) so I knew that clown knew I was going for it. I didn't have anything to lose at this point, so I went for it and got EX Hazanshu. Fuck my life... He was sitting on 2 bars to EX Blanka Ball through any projectiles or he could chip me to death with his Ultra 2 stocked. Either way, I was boned. I just threw the Kikoken to wave that white flag.
Chun-Li vs. Ken #2 -- This ran longer than I should have let on. From how many SRKs this flowchart Ken was grinding out, I prolly should have just rushed him down and ended it early. At 27:32, I could have done the toe-taps (in air down + MK) for more damage but I totally didn't think about that at the moment. Then at 27:38, I thought I was going to cross him up, but landed in front of this loser, giving him a free grab. At 27:55, I wanted to slap myself for hitting a button and falling for a wake-up anti-air Ultra. Again, these rounds were too close for comfort despite the fact that I won.
Chun-Li vs. Dudley #2 -- Another Dudley? That's surprising. At 29:48, I literally facepalmed while playing. I was trying to bait out that EX Machinegun Blow and I land right into it. Fuck my life, again... Oh wait, it gets worse. At the end of round 2, I hit cr.MK to punish his whiff and got the back target combo starter. I said, "Screw it..." and I inputted the rest hoping that I would score a counter-hit as this move is really unsafe on block. Of course, no dice. At least I got a round on this Dudley...
Chun-Li vs. Rufus -- Man, this dude pissed all over my Cheerios and then tossed the bowl in my face. For the record, I hate EX Messiah... and anyone with off-the-ground dive kicks. Seriously though, Capcom nerfed the hell out of that from the twins, yet this fool and Cammy can still do it?
Chun-Li vs. Chun-Li -- I HATE this match-up so much. I literally shouted, "Fuck!" when I saw the character come up. I always feel like that I'm on the spotlight and I have to prove that I have the right to be playing this character, then it essentially comes down to who is more patient than the other Chun. And I'm not a patient person most of the time. You see that walking backwards crap he was doing? From what I was taught was that's a worse habit than me sitting on down-back charge as Chun doesn't EVER need to give up space to anyone.
Gotta love that this dude blew all of his meter at the start of Round 2 just to show off. IMO it's a complete waste of meter to FADC with her when she needs meter so much for defense and even more for high damage combos. To each his own, I guess. The dash-up to Auto-Cross trick (37:33) isn't really new shenanigens just something I remembered on the fly to show off. For the second time during this session, I dropped the combo to Ultra. I was facepalming after it missed the juggle.
That's all folks. If you guys liked what you saw here, then leave me a few helpful words of advice for improvement and I'll squeeze in some time to hit the lab and look to improve. After I feel like I've improved a bit more, then I'll record the next episode. Stay tuned true believers!
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