The update went live this afternoon, alongside the release of DLC characters Zeus and Isaac and the new Graveyard level. Detailed patch notes have already been posted online earlier in the week. I’m mirroring the complete verified list here, because frankly i’m proud of these changes and i hope the fighting game community embraces them.

    General Changes
• AP burst victims in online matches no longer erroneously receive the 30 AP bonus.
• Blocking another attack while in block stun reaction no longer zeroes out X velocity.
• Characters can no longer block or dodge until frame 5 after landing during an air attack.
• Characters can not perform supers until frame 12 after landing during an air attack.
• Characters now remain grounded for the first 10 frames of jumping (previously 9 for Kat, Ratchet, Sackboy, Sly Cooper, and Spike).

    Big Daddy
• Air F+Triangle has 11 additional frames of startup.
• Air D+Square now gains 20 AP (previously 10), and victim’s reaction is reduced by 3 frames.
• Level 1 Super now causes an initial stagger reaction on frame 36.
• Level 2 Super’s Triangle attacks are sped up.
• Level 3 Super attacks become active 3 frames sooner and recover 6 frames earlier.
• Level 3 Super attack volumes have been adjusted to be more centered around Big Daddy.
• Level 3 Super victims swim faster and no longer get stuck upon entering Infinite Avoidance.

    Cole MacGrath
• F+Square -> Square hit volume enlarged to hit small characters more consistently.
• Neutral Triangle firing rate has been sped up by 4 frames (moved to its recovery instead).
• Ground neutral Circle recovery has been reduced to 20 frames (previously 28).
• Level 3 Super tornado movement speed has been increased.

    Dante
• Ground neutral Square attacks can now be canceled into Triangle attacks on block.
• Dante can change facing direction between attacks during Square and F+Square chains.
• Ground U+Square is now jump-cancellable on both active frames.
• Air Square hit volumes were adjusted to combo more consistently against short characters.
• Air D+Square (Helm Breaker) now generates 20 AP (previously 10).
• Canceling ground U+Triangle into air neutral Circle now takes 2 frames longer.
• Neutral Circle active counter period has been reduced to 25 frames (previously 30).
• Neutral Circle recovery has been increased by 5 frames.
• Level 1 Super cost has been reduced to 125 AP (previously 150).
• Level 2 Super cost has been reduced to 325 AP (previously 400).

    Nathan Drake
• Neutral Circle has been changed considerably:
  • Barrel no longer explodes if countered or destroyed by opponents.
  • Barrel’s hurtbox size has been increased, making it easier to destroy.
  • Barrel’s lifetime has been reduced by 24 frames.
  • Barrel’s explosion is now only active for 5 frames (previously 30).
  • Teammates will no longer cause damage to friendly barrels.
  • Hitting Drake with twitch attacks will no longer prevent him from creating a barrel.
• U+Triangle explosion is now only active for 5 frames (previously 15).
• U+Square explosion is now only active for 5 frames (previously 15).
• Level 1 Super hit volume has been reduced to 1.85 meters (previously 2.25m).
• Level 3 Super timing has been adjusted so that Drake and the Descendants now become controllable at the same time, 50 frames after the super is initiated.

    Emmett Graves
• Level 2 Super cost has been reduced to 325 AP (previously 350).

    Evil Cole
• F+Square -> Square hit volume enlarged to hit small characters more consistently.
• Neutral Triangle firing rate has been sped up by 4 frames (moved to its recovery instead).
• Neutral Triangle Overload size has been increased to 5.5 meters (previously 5m).
• Neutral Triangle Overload recovery has been reduced to 40 frames (previously 70).
• Fully charged neutral Circle punch has been changed considerably:
  • Startup has been increased to 10 frames (previously 6).
  • Active period has been decreased to 11 frames (previously 13).
  • Recovery has been increased by 2 frames.
  • Armor amount has been reduced to 11 AP.
• U+Circle chain has been standardized to generate 5 AP + 5 AP + 20 AP.
• Up Throw trajectory no longer allows guaranteed follow-up into lvl1 super.
• Level 2 Super startup has been reduced to 16 frames (previously 26).
• Level 2 Super blows up victims much faster, but can be extended to full length by holding R2. Evil Cole now drains AP from victims as you grab them, instead of at the very end of the super.

    Fat Princess
• Neutral Square now causes a light overhead reaction and gains 5 AP (previously 10).
• Charged neural Square armor does not activate until frame 6 (previously 1).
• Air F+Circle (Summon Warrior) now has 21 additional frames of startup and longer recovery.
• If Fat Princess summons any assists in the air, she will now land in attack state.
• Level 3 Super effectively has been improved by increasing the number of mages and bombs that appear, removing the warriors’ startup delay, and allowing projectiles to begin tracking opponents during respawn invincibility.

    Heihachi Mishima
• U+Square will not collide with other players for the first 26 frames of the attack, allowing the second uppercut to connect more consistently if the first one whiffs.
• Air U+Triangle now gains 20 AP (previously 10).
• F+Circle -> Square VFX for Wind God Fist and Electric Wind God Fist are now more distinct.
• Level 2 Super will no longer be extended if Heihachi is hit by a Freeze Missile.

    Jak and Daxter
• Air F+Square now activates on frame 6, so it no longer drives through opponents.
• Neutral Triangle now causes a heavy reaction and gains 20 AP (previously 10).
• Neutral Triangle startup has been reduced to 20 frames (previously 28).
• Neutral Triangle recovery has been increased to 18 frames (previously 8).
• F+Triangle no longer causes an eject roll reaction, and each shot gains 6 AP (previously 10).
• F+Triangle shots fire 12 frames apart (previously 15) and travel 7 meters (previously 9m).
• F+Triangle now continues to fire when holding the button down.
• Neutral Circle (Drone) lasts 1 second longer and fires a total of 21 shots (previously 12).
• Neutral Circle laser shot lifetimes have been increased 0.3 seconds (previously 0.225 sec).
• F+Circle homing blasts have increased range (~8 meters) and speed, cause a mini-launch lift reaction, and accumulate 20 AP total (previously 10).
• U+Circle startup was reduced to 25 frames (previously 41) with 2 more frames of recovery.
• D+Circle hit volume has been reduced by 50% so that it no longer hits behind Jak.
• Level 1 Super cost has been reduced to 125 AP (previously 150).
• Level 2 Super now causes an initial shock reaction 12 frames after timescale returns to normal, which stuns nearby opponents and pushes them into the killing blow. The speed of the super has been increased by 25% and can now kill during the jump arc.

    Kat
• Backward evade has been standardized to behave like the rest of the cast.
• Ground D+Square reaction has been shortened to 50 frames (previously 49) and D+Triangle minimum cancel times have been increased to 10 frames (previously 9) to prevent D+Square, D+Triangle -> Square infinite.
• Level 1 Super will no longer kill people protected by a Gravity Shield.

    Kratos
• Second neutral Square attack recovery has been reduced to -10 on block (previously -14).
• Third neutral Square attack recovery has been increased to -10 on block (previously +0).
• Neutral Triangle now gains 20 AP consistently – it can no longer gain 40 AP.

    Nariko
• Air U+Square startup has been increased by 2 frames and gravity properties were adjusted.
• Air D+Triangle now flattens victims that are grabbed out of the air.
• Air U+Circle now completes the entire animation upon landing.
• Level 2 Super cost has been reduced to 325 AP (previously 350).
• Level 2 Super ammo limit has been removed and rate of fire has been decreased. Turning the cannon around will now knock away any nearby opponents.
• Level 3 Super now ends properly when the timer expires, and can no longer be extended by performing her Circle attack or holding L1 to block.

    Parappa
• Ground F+Square pushback has been reduced to allow more follow-up options.
• Ground D+Square -> F+Square chain has been removed for easier U+Square follow-ups.
• D+Circle (Boxy Boy) will no longer repeatedly eject AP orbs when dropped inside a ledge.
• Level 2 Super duration has been shortened to 4 seconds (previously 5 sec).

    Col. Mael Radec
• U+Circle active period has been increased to 70 frames (previously 40).

    Ratchet and Clank
• Neutral Circle (Mr. Zurkon) fires 15 shots (previously 17), each worth 2 AP (previously 1).
• D+Circle (Tesla Spike) has 6 AP of durability (previously 1).
• Throw victims no longer cause twitch reactions after being shot out of the Suck Cannon.
• Level 1 Super projectile collision was shrunk by 90% to increase effectiveness on ramps.
• Level 2 Clank can now be hit by Raiden’s lvl2 initial burst and Jak’s lvl2 initial shock.

    Raiden
• Air D+Triangle, Air F+Circle, and Air F+Triangle are all more punishable on block.
• Down Throw now causes a bounce reaction, allowing combo follow-ups.
• Level 1 Super recovery was increased by 8 frames and can no longer be steered using LS.
• Level 2 Super air Square and air Triangle attacks are no longer blockable.
• Level 3 Super decoy NPC boxes will now cause the game camera to zoom out properly.
• Air U+Circle will no longer perform follow-up stomps on destroyed boxes during lvl3 super.

    Sackboy
• Neutral Triangle (Jam Session) startup has been reduced to 40 frames (previously 57).
• F+Triangle frame advantage has been increased by +5 on hit.
• F+Triangle can now be canceled by rolling and jumping during the charge-up period.
• Down Square (Bounce Pad) active period ends after 0.3 seconds, matching the air version.
• Neutral Circle (Cake Mine) will disappear after 5 seconds.
• D+Circle (Electric Panel) startup has been increased by 16 frames and recovery has been extended slightly. Interrupting Sackboy during startup will now prevent the Electric Panel from being created. The mine itself can now be absorbed and reflected.
• Level 1 Super cost has been reduced to 125 AP (previously 150).
• Level 2 Super cost has been reduced to 325 AP (previously 400).
• Level 3 Super victim bubbles are now able to move 50% faster.

    Sir Daniel
• Down Throw no longer makes Sir Daniel jump on the wrong side of the victim.
• Level 1 Super active period has been increased by 8 frames.
• Level 1 Super recovery has been reduced by 4 frames.
• Level 2 Super cost has been reduced to 325 AP (previously 350).
• Level 2 Super homing Spirits now have delayed activation, following the non-homing Spirits. They will not blow up on opponents as they leave the Chalice, improving the chance that one homing projectile per opponent will remain after after any initial kills.

    Sly Cooper
• Neutral Circle active counter period has been reduced to 15 frames (previously 26).
• Neutral Circle recovery has been increased to 25 frames (previously 11).
• Level 1 Super is now vulnerable from frame 5 until Murray’s hit volume becomes active. Interrupting Sly during startup will now prevent Murray from attacking. The hit volume that appears when Murray splats onto the ground has been made smaller.

    Spike
• F+Square causes a stagger reaction and gains 20 AP (previously 30) when not fully charged.
• Air D+Triangle now gains 5 AP (previously 10 AP), causes a shock reaction with correct hit stun, and can be countered by projectile counters.
• Neutral Circle now has an extra 5 AP running hit added to its second stage.
• Forward Throw (Monkey Trip!) now causes an eject roll reaction (previously stagger).
• Throws have been remapped to be more intuitive:
  • Up Throw: Sonic Revolution (cases eject tornado reaction).
  • Forward Throw: Monkey Trip! (causes eject roll reaction)
  • Down Throw: Crash Hurricane (causes flatten reaction)
• Level 1 and Level 2 Supers can properly change facing direction on activation.
• Level 2 Super projectile travels faster and explodes on impact with solid walls.

    Sweet Tooth
• Ground neutral Triangle can now be steered using LS while active.
• Ground neutral Triangle now gains 30 AP total (previously 8 AP) from a victim caught in front. Victims behind get ejected (previously light reaction) and earn 30 AP (previously 10).
• Air neutral Triangle now gains 30 AP total (previously 25 for front hits and 15 on back hits).
• U+Triangle (Machete Toss) now continues through all opponents after a successful hit. The machete’s hit volume now deactivates properly when it becomes lodged in the ground.
• Level 2 Super cost has been reduced to 325 AP (previously 400).
• Level 2 Super rocket explosion radius has been enlarged by 0.5 meters, missile flight speed and maneuverability have been increased, and minimum detonation time has been decreased to 6 frames (previously 15).
• Level 3 Super duration has been reduced to 13.5 seconds (previously 15 sec).

    Toro Inoue
• Ground neutral Circle duration is now infinite.
• Oni air Up+Triangle can now only be used once per jump.
• Oni air D+Triangle startup has been increased by 9 frames with 4 more frames of recovery.
• Level 1 and Level 2 Supers can now turn around properly during the first 5 frames of activation and will no longer slide during activation if Toro was running.

    Items
• LR-3 Railgun hit volume thickness has been doubled and aiming sensitivity reduced.
• Sonic Rift hit volume sizes have been increased by 33%.
• Sturgeon power swing armor has been extended until the end of its active period.
• Murder of Crows and Sackbot can no longer be countered during their AP eject hits.
• Sackbot no longer allows opponents to generate AP or pick up AP orbs while attached.
• Spear of Destiny now has 21 AP of armor during startup and active frames. The initial strike now generates 20 AP (previously 10).

    Platform Ledge Sweep
The reaction type caused by Kratos’ D+Square actually animates beyond the time it takes to reach the ground. Sweeping an opponent off a platform ledge gives you a few extra frames to juggle them before they air tech. I’m sure someone can find a clever use for this bit of minutia!

    Post-Stagger Meaty Setups
Heavy stagger reactions tend to force opponents low to the ground – stagger kneel (caused by Sweet Tooth’s j.Square) and stagger drop (caused by Sir Daniel’s j.F+Square). Therefore both can serve as convenient mid-combo meaty setups for high attacks and projectiles.

    Ceiling Bounce Followups
On stages with solid ceilings such as Dojo and Invasion, it’s possible to launch an opponent into a sort of ceiling splat reaction, providing an added followup opportunity as they peel off the ceiling. Certain characters can even add extra eject attacks to their air combos.

    Multi-Victim Combos
Since multi-victim combos yield diminishing returns for AP accrual, it takes a few extra hits for additional opponents to reach the infinite avoidance limit. As such, it’s possible to perform longer combos against secondary and tertiary victims.

    Hedgehog Grenade Counter / Reflect Setups
Once thrown, the Hedgehog Grenade remains dormant as a proximity mine until an opponent moves within three meters. Obviously it works great as a combo extender, but it also serves as the perfect trigger for a mid-combo counter after being planted by the opponent.

    Freeze Missile Combos
The Freeze Missile is my favorite combo item in Battle Royale. Upon impact, it slows victims down to 25% speed for nearly 10 seconds, including all their defensive and hit stun states. Why hasn’t anyone made a Freeze Missile combo video yet?

    Killer Bees Combos
The Killer Bees are my second-favorite combo item in the game. They fire auto-targeted projectiles at the nearest opponent, with a cooldown of 0.5 seconds – perfect for extending chain combos. Why hasn’t anyone made a Killer Bees combo video yet?

I hope this helps stir up some new ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing even more innovative combovids from the PASBR community when the new DLC characters become available!

Super Comboman is a side-scrolling beat-’em-up featuring a customizable combat system based on unlocking and arranging special abilities, in the form of colorful stickers. The story follows an energetic islander named Struggles, as he takes on odd jobs to support his little brother. (Un)fortunately he tends to get carried away with practicing his spectacular combos, and usually ends up destroying everything in sight! Apparently this project has been in development at Interabang Entertainment for over 1½ years. They’re currently putting the finishing touches on the game, so it’s already available for pre-order through their website.

Señor Footsies is a simplified 2D fighting game by Luke Esquivel, featuring two identical characters with very limited movesets. They can walk back and forth, perform a quick low kick, commit to a longer range sweep with more recovery, or build meter to use a pistol. Whoever lands the first kick wins the round, so the entire match revolves around cautious mobility, space control, and – you guessed it, footsies. What began with hand-drawn sprites has evolved into 3D models and a complete visual overhaul, but no release date has been set.

Street Sweeper is another minimalist fighting game built around a streamlined version of traditional footsies, developed by Robin Ramirez. The goal of the match is to connect a low roundhouse sweep, by using a quick high kick as bait, performing a well-timed parry, or simply outmaneuvering the opponent. There’s a free playable PC version available for download, including a second character recently added to the mix – and many more on the way. The character sprites and backgrounds are adapted from SNK’s various Neo Geo Pocket fighters.

Lastly, i’m sure everyone in the FGC has heard of Divekick since it was featured at MWC2012 and Evo2k12. The combat system revolves around the somewhat polarizing fighting game concept of divekicks, recently popularized by SF4′s Rufus and MvC3′s Doctor Doom. It was developed by One True Game Studios and successfully funded via Kickstarter, before picking up a publisher and refunding everyone’s donations. A release date hasn’t been announced yet, but i’m sure we’ll be hearing more details soon!

In PASBR, whenever a combo generates 100 AP or more, the victim instantly enters infinite avoidance state. They’re automatically ejected at a 45° angle and remain invincible the entire way up and down until they land – unless they attack or perform some other offensive action to relinquish their invincibility before landing.

When infinite avoidance occurs, whichever character triggered it receives a 30 AP bonus. Ideally, you want to perform a combo that adds up to 99 AP, then finish it with your strongest attack (which earns around 30 AP for most characters). That would cause AP burst at 129 AP and you’d end up with 159 AP after the bonus.

Of course, most characters can’t quite reach 159 AP because the vast majority of attacks are valued in increments of 5 or 10 AP. However, many characters can rack up 90 or 95 AP, making it possible to achieve 150 or 155 AP combos.

If two characters are beating up on one opponent in a 2v2 or FFA match, infinite avoidance is triggered when their attacks combine for 100 AP, not when they reach 100 AP independently. Only the character who performs the final hit to trigger AP burst will receive the 30 AP bonus.

There’s one major exception i should mention. Certain attacks in the game don’t cause hit stun, such as Sir Daniel’s D+Circle flames or Dante’s Triangle bullets. We call these “Twitch” reactions, and twitch reactions neither count against the infinite avoidance limit, nor can they trigger AP burst. That’s why Dante sometimes seems to break the rules, but it’s kind of his reward for having such a specialized Triangle button which isn’t useful in direct combat.

Our primary reason for implementing this system was to prevent players from getting caught in combos for painfully long periods of time. We were able to preserve PASBR’s open-ended, freestyle combo system, while ensuring that no player has to surrender control of their character for longer than 5-10 seconds at a time.

However, this system is more than a failsafe. The AP burst mechanic provides an interesting strategic choice for advanced players: Do you want to end your combo early and keep your opponent nearby for a wakeup mixup or air tech reset? Or do you want to maximize your AP gain at the cost of ejecting your opponent to safety?

Furthermore, setting the infinite avoidance limit at 100 AP basically ensures that it takes at least two clean hits to combo into super at the beginning of a match – or after performing a lvl3 super. That’s because every lvl1 super attack in the game costs at least 100 AP.

Even if players were to discover 159 AP combos with every character in the game, it’s extremely difficult to cross the threshold from 99 AP to 100 AP without triggering AP burst. Dante is the biggest potential exception to this rule, which is why his lvl1 super costs 150 AP.

Overall, Battle Royale’s AP burst system ensures a more balanced gameplay experience for all characters – while presenting players with interesting tactical choices. Best of all, it allows PASBR’s combo system to remain open-ended, providing ample room for freestyle creativity.

I started recording combos for fun this weekend and somehow ended up with enough to release a video. I’m surprised it got done so quickly, but you know how it goes. At some point along the line i became invested in finishing the video, so i stayed up way too late last night and ultimately got lucky to capture a clip with every character. Anyway i hope you guys like it!

If you have any questions or want to learn more about PASBR’s combo system, you can find a detailed transcript at ComboVid.com with explantions of each clip. And within a month or two, i’m sure people will discover ways to top every single combo in this video. I can’t wait!

The strangest thing about working on vanilla SF4 Guile combos in 2012 was knowing that his capabilities are vastly inferior to every other version from SSF4 onward. Reducing Sonic Boom charge time from 55 frames in SF4 down to 50 frames in SSF4 made a world of difference! Moreover, DF+HK was upgraded from a simple knockdown to a free juggle setup, F+HK frame advantage was boosted from +4 to +5, and he was given a combo-friendly secondary ultra in Sonic Hurricane. Many clips in this video would’ve turned out quite differently with those changes. Yet i still found SF4 Guile to be an interesting combo subject, despite his drawbacks.

0:11 Both hits of Guile’s EX Sonic Boom carry a juggle potential of two – making it possible to follow up a regular Sonic Boom knockdown with two EX Sonic Booms, provided the first EX Sonic Boom only hits once. Cammy’s vertical j.LK trades with Guile’s lvl3 Focus Attack, creating a free juggle setup for the LP Sonic Boom and allowing just enough time to charge the first EX Sonic Boom and buffer the motion to begin pre-charging the second EX Sonic Boom.

0:18 Guile’s close s.HK has 3 active frames and normally yields only +1 frame advantage. Seth’s HP Tanden Storm avoids the first active frame and provides a counterhit bonus; both necessary to link into far s.HP, which is cancelable into Guile’s MK Double Flash super because Seth’s superfreeze provides ample charge time. Interestingly enough, the airplane wing on the Small Airfield level can’t be broken until the plane comes to a complete stop and finishes bobbling. This combo deals 696 damage and 450 stun, which may be Guile’s maximum.

0:31 Guile’s HK Flash Kick is interrupted by Akuma’s LP Zanku Hadoken, followed immediately by EX Flash Kick with a juggle potential of one, and capped off by Guile’s Flash Explosion ultra. The main trick is completing Guile’s c.LP xx HK Flash Kick input before Akuma’s Raging Demon superfreeze occurs. That’s possible because the SF4 engine only allows kara-cancels on the first frame of a normal move. If a special move command is received any later than that, it gets stored until the normal move connects and then comes out automatically. In this case, Guile is able to recharge for EX Flash Kick before his c.LP even connects, by performing the HK Flash Kick input before Akuma’s superfreeze. Optimal spacing takes care of the rest.

0:44 Guile’s F+MP misses Dhalsim’s Yoga Tower until Dhalsim cancels into s.HK, creating a convenient counterhit meaty setup for c.MP xx HP Sonic Boom, which requires near-perfect charging as well. More importantly, Dhalsim’s hitbox shape is perfect for the rest of this quirky sequence. Almost every other character can block the HP Sonic Boom after the s.HP, c.MP link. Furthermore, Guile’s s.HP becomes active on the 5th frame whereas F+HK only provides +4 frame advantage. Dhalsim’s crumple stun animation actually allows F+HK land meaty, enabling that link. Lastly, Guile’s s.LP connects on its second active frame after the LP Sonic Boom, increasing its frame advantage from +5 to +6, thus making it possible to link into c.HK which connects on the 6th frame. This combo inflicts 440 damage and 625 stun.

0:54 Honda whiffs c.HK to create a meaty setup for LP Sonic Boom, giving Guile’s j.HP a little extra time to catch up. Normally Guile’s EX Sonic Boom produces only +4 frame advantage, but Honda’s extremely wide crouching hitbox creates a gap between those two hits, increasing Guile’s frame advantage by varying amounts. The difference isn’t much at close range, but it’s enough to link far s.MP, which connects on the 5th frame and moves Guile forward a sizable distance every time it’s canceled into Sonic Boom. Obviously the separation between EX Sonic Boom hits becomes huge at long range, providing a great deal of extra charge time on top of the existing extension gained by using EX Sonic Booms instead of normal Sonic Booms. Yet all five charge windows are essentially airtight. This combo yields 464 damage and 630 stun.

1:04 Much like the combo against Akuma, the input for c.MP xx LP Sonic Boom is completed before Sagat’s HK Tiger Genocide superfreeze, letting Guile recharge before c.MP connects. Guile’s normal Sonic Booms connect on the 9th frame and his LP Sonic Boom generates +10 frame advantage. That extra frame is used to kara-cancel far s.MP into HP Sonic Boom for a movement boost. The spacing for this combo is perfectly aligned to bring out Guile’s far s.MP instead of close s.MP before the third Sonic Boom, because canceling close s.MP doesn’t provide any forward movement at all. The fourth Sonic Boom requires near-perfect charging from the beginning. The command for HK Flash Kick xx FADC, Flash Explosion is as follows: charge D, c.LP, tap U, charge DB, DB+MP, DB+HK, DB+MP+MK, F, F, DF, DB, U+KKK. The trick is buffering the Flash Kick input before pressing c.MP to buy a little extra charge time for the ultra, which means the Flash Kick must be fully charged by the time c.LP connects. Adding any extra hits would deny the cross-under dash. This combo inflicts 398 damage and 450 stun.

1:21 Counterhit s.HP provides just enough hit stun to FADC into s.LP, and burning super meter so early allows Guile to rebuild a fifth bar by the end of the combo. It’s fairly easy to combo s.HP into lvl2 Focus Attack using a trailing LP Sonic Boom, but unfortunately there isn’t enough combined hit stun for a jump attack instead. The triple Sonic Boom sequence at the end of the combo requires perfect charging, and obviously it’s more impressive than the prior double Sonic Boom sequence, but it seemed boring to repeat the same string twice. Balrog might be the only character wide enough for three Sonic Booms and tall enough for DF+HK. This combo deals 503 damage and 810 stun.

1:40 This combo is all about spacing, based on my favorite part of error1′s SSF4AE Guile vid. Sakura’s HP Hadoken extends her hitbox into Guile’s j.HK and establishes the perfect distance for Guile’s j.HP to lead into close s.HP at maximum range. That creates the longest possible gap between s.HP xx LP Sonic Boom, giving Guile just enough time to recover and manually dash into s.LP without requiring a counterhit boost. Sakura’s distance from the corner is also optimized to delay the LP Sonic Boom hit while minimizing its pushback, so Guile can follow up with s.LP, s.HP xx LP Sonic Boom. The rest of the combo is relatively straightforward, although it’s interesting that Guile can use close s.MP after c.LK -> c.LP against Sakura. This combo inflicts 519 damage and 800 stun.

This is a tool-assisted combo video recorded with two ASCII PAD V Pro programmable controllers. Absolutely no cheats, hacks, or game-altering devices were used in the making of.

Jumping feels good and it can lead to big combos, so beginners love to jump whenever they need to make a comeback or find themselves in an uncomfortable situation. Naturally this becomes a lazy bad habit, which is incredibly difficult for intermediate players to unlearn.

In tactical terms, jumping is a risky gamble because you surrender the ability to block and the ability to control your movement for around 45 frames. Your opponent can predict exactly where you’re going to descend, with plenty of time to react with suitable anti-air – unless they’re in the middle of a 40-frame attack when you jump.

In other words, the direct counter to jumping is doing nothing (or blocking or doing something fast like whiffing a jab) at the same moment as an opponent jumps. Doing nothing is usually very safe and actually counters a wide range of attacks – so experts do nothing often, which means jumping at them is frequently a bad idea.

In fact as players improve, they spend less time attacking continuously and more time looking for things to punish on reaction. Since jumping mainly serves as an easy counter to heavy attacks, it works great at beginner levels and becomes progressively weaker at higher levels.

At least 90% of “advanced” Street Fighter takes place on the ground, so the only way to become an expert player is to improve your ground game. If you spend half the match in the air, then you’re basically avoiding playing real SF. You’re just doing stuff and hoping for the best, because if your opponent does nothing then you take 15% damage, lose all momentum, and have to deal with a wakeup mixup.

Unfortunately when most players take this advice to heart, they decide to never jump and try to deal with everything on the ground. Then they run into a Ryu vs Sagat match and throw fireballs at each other for 80 seconds nonstop.

If your friend knows that you’re refusing to jump, the whole match becomes completely flat and everyone starts overusing unsafe slow attacks on a fake assumption. I thought about this problem for a while and came up with a better training exercise.

Before each round, pick a number between 2 – 4 and that’s how many times you’ll allow yourself to jump forward during that entire round. No matter what happens, you can’t jump forward more often than that number.

This creates a much better simulation of high-level game-planning, because your opponent won’t know whether or not you can jump. It forces you to set up your jumps thoughtfully, so that you’re not overusing them or resorting to jumping for no reason. It helps you focus on preparing your opponent for a jump, so that you’re not wasting your ammo on blind guesses.

You can jump backward and jump straight up all you want, because those are completely different mechanics with totally different roles and risks. Generally they’re much safer than jumping forward, and you’re far less likely to fall into the “I’m gonna jump because I might accidentally land a huge combo and win the match!” trap by jumping backward.

The tricky part is that it’s up to you to determine what “jump forward” means, based on your character choice and play style. For example, jumping forward just because your opponent walked into your favorite jumping distance obviously counts. On the other hand, jumping over Guile’s EX Sonic Boom from full screen distance doesn’t count, because it’s fairly safe and you’re not even trying to hit Guile with an air attack in that scenario.

Attempting a crossup after a knockdown shouldn’t count, because it’s pretty much free. Sometimes instant divekicks don’t count, especially when you’re using them as hopkicks. Randomly busting out Akuma’s demon flip or Guy’s bushin flip definitely counts though.

Using air Hurricane Kick to escape the corner might not count if the opponent is in a position where they can’t do anything about it whatsoever, but it should count if they’re standing half screen away and you’re being lazy. Guy’s ghetto jump elbow gimmicks don’t count from super far away, but they should probably count when you start abusing them from close range, such that even the fakeout ones become punishable. Anyway, you get the idea.

As you learn how to utilize jumps more efficiently and find better ways to attack without jumping, keep in mind that “Do you know why you jumped?” is not a yes-or-no question. Rather, it’s a matter of degrees of certainty. Unless you’re a telepath, you can never have a clear uninterrupted view of your opponent’s mental state. What you have is a moving target, perpetually drifting in and out of focus.

That’s where the nuance of fighting game strategy comes from. You’re constantly building up knowledge of your opponent, then deciding when you’re sure enough of their next action to take a major risk – like jumping forward right when you expect them to throw a fireball.

It’s up to you to decide how aggressive (anticipatory) or conservative (reactionary) you want to be, by regulating how often you take chances in a given match. If you don’t take enough risks, you become predictable. If you always take risks at the same intervals, that also forms a discernable pattern. Be a little random to keep them guessing!

Sometimes you might even know without a shadow of a doubt that your opponent is about to throw a fireball, but decide to let them get away with it since you have a comfortable life lead, just to save that read for a future round when you might need to make a huge comeback.

Whenever you reveal that you know what your opponent is thinking, and they’re alert enough to realize what happened, it disrupts their flow momentarily. If it startles them badly enough, they might even rearrange certain attack patterns or stop using that move entirely.

Every time you reach into the pond to grab a fish, the ripples make it hard to see through the surface. Some players don’t mind waiting until the water calms down between reads. Some players only reach in after they’ve spotted multiple fish that are far enough apart to stay in place. And some players know how to read the ripples.

It was actually a lot of fun working on this combovid – even though we had a tight deadline and needed to get everything done quickly. Personally, i can’t wait for the fighting game community to start exploring this combo system and surprising us with creative new tricks! Battle Royale’s core rules are simple and inuitive, but there’s quite a bit of depth in character movesets and how they interact with each other. It’ll be interesting to see what you all find.

For detailed notes and explanations of each clip, head over to ComboVid.com for the full transcript. The video contains some seventy clips and well over a hundred air throws, so it could take a while to read the entire thing. That’s why we began each paragraph with a time code and game title, making it easy to find what you’re looking for.

None of these titles made a significant mark on the competitive scene. None of them really mattered. Yet somehow the fighting game community survived for almost a decade without a new release worth supporting in tournament play.

We steadfastly, stubbornly stuck by MvC2, SF3:3S, CvS2, and SSF2T – somehow managing to help grow Evo attendance numbers each and every year. That’s because one of the most remarkable things about the fighting game community is that when a new version of Street Fighter is bad, we know to play the old one instead. Pretty cool, right?

In retrospect, this approach was nothing short of miraculous. SFA2 and SFA3 got us through the disappointment of the SF3 series. MvC2 kept the community strong through the debacle that was CvS1, until CvS2 repaired most of the damage done by CvS1. Then SF3:3S started becoming good and carrying its own weight. And Super Turbo was there all along.

Then we were given nothing for eight years. It would’ve been so easy to become disillusioned and quit, but enough of us stuck together to define our hobby on our own terms. Let’s not lose that culture of self-reliance now. We don’t have to keep playing Street Fighter X Tekken or any new game if it doesn’t meet our standards.

Don’t get me wrong – SFxT is still a great product for fans of the SF4 series. It’s all your favorite characters thrown into an entirely new setting, paired with awesome rivals from another franchise. That makes SFxT fun to explore in the same vein as CvS2 players enjoyed the chance to try Aegis Reflector combos with Guile in Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Unfortunately the reality is, it takes an extreme level of polish (and a huge dose of luck) to put out a solid tournament-quality fighting game. Personally i think it’s worth supporting Capcom for taking an honest stab at it. You should totally buy SFxT and try it out for a month or two!

However if the game simply can’t hold up to rigorous competitive play, there’s nothing wrong with shifting our attention back to the last version that passed the test. The SF4 series might have gone a little overboard with comeback mechanics and option select madness, but otherwise Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition Ver. 2012 is a truly legit tournament game.

So if you’re tired of SFxT’s gems and infinites, why not go back to SF4? Or try Skullgirls. Just remember, the choice is ours.