Super Street Fighter IV has been out for a while, so i’m somewhat behind on posting these. Still better late than never, right?
SSF4 Cody Combo Video: Jailbreaker
Cody is simultaneously the most surprising and most disappointing combo character in SSF4. He has a lot of cool building blocks, as demonstrated in detail by Persona. Rocks into EX rocks at 0:35 is awesome, those low fierce links against Honda at 1:04 are pretty cool, and that starter against Akuma at 1:59 is one of the more stylish dizzy combos i’ve seen in the SF4 engine. Unfortunately, Cody can’t quite seem to combine all these pieces into anything truly spectacular. Maybe it’s my fault for expecting more from his unique knife-wielding mechanic.
SSFIV Ansatsuken & Bushin Combos
When did Capcom start referring to Shotos as practicing ansatsuken? Has it ever happened before SF4? Anyway the Combonauts team of Tigre III and Krusan have come up with a very creative title for a combo video starring Gouken and Guy. They have a nice midscreen Gouken juggle combo at 0:59 and another at 1:36. Vega’s actually a surprisingly decent combo dummy even though he doesn’t seem particularly useful on paper, although it helps that he’s tall. Guy’s super to ultra combo at 3:01 is very interesting as well.
SSFIV: New Character Combo Video
Wasting no time with any of the returning characters, Doopliss headed straight for the SSF4 newcomers – showcasing as many as five or six combos per character. Highlights include Adon’s EX air Jaguar Kick connecting once off vertical j.MK at 1:27, Dudley’s c.MK juggle starter at 1:33, Makoto’s F+HK against Dhalsim’s j.LP at 2:26, and a nice use of the knockdown hit of Ibuki’s s.MP at 4:15. Any SF4 veterans who want a quick overview of what the new characters are capable of will greatly appreciate this video.
Shotokan was just a, pretty, random art they picked when in America, they practice an unnamed assimilation art that’s been watered down by the safety police (Gouken) but realistically it’s Ansatsuken, whatever that is.
Regardless of what they’re actually imitating, i just can’t imagine myself calling them anything other than Shotos. I mean, “Ansatsus”? Doesn’t sound right.
If I remember correctly, Japan has always called their fighting style Ansatsuken. It means something like “assassin fist” style, and refers to the original kind of martial art that Gouken and Akuma used, since it was fueled by killing intent or whatever. Canonically, Gouken decided to not kill and use some sort of alternative mystical energy source to power his attacks, so that’s what became the fighting style that Ken, Ryu, Sean, etc. use, so it’s no longer an assassination fighting technique, but the name stayed.
Jam’s got the rest right, Capcom USA decided that Ansatsuken was too foreign for us westerners and said it was Shotokan karate, which is an existing style that some people actually knew of, so that’s where we get all of that. Same kinda alteration that caused the Shen Long confusion and the Balrog, Vega, Mike Bison naming fiasco, but in the end it’s all good and no one really cares to change what we’ve all gotten used to over the course of a bunch of years.
And hey, what Ryu uses is closer to Shotokan than Sagat’s fighting style is to Muai Thai, or whatever the hell Juri is doing compared to Tae Kwon Do, or E. Honda and Sumo…
You get the picture.
i know where the shotokan thing came from, but i have never heard of them practicing ansatsuken before. as far as i know, that is gen’s fighting style. the assassin’s fist, gen is an assassin. it makes more sense than everything else in capcom’s canon though, so it probably isnt true. everything i find on ryu, ken, akuma, and gouken’s fighting style says its an unnamed martial art focused on killing, gouken purified the art and taught it to ryu and ken that way but gouken actually knows both the lethal AND non-lethal versions, akuma knows only the lethal version.
Well, i know it always officially stated as shotokan karate in Capcom’s official bios, at least in America. But i also remember people saying, “It’s really ansatsuken, not shotokan” since way back in the early Alpha days.
I’m not sure if they were saying that based on Capcom of Japan’s official statements or if they were saying that based on the characters’ actual attacks. It doesn’t really matter to me though, i’m still gonna call them Shotos. It’s clear, it sounds good, and it’s familiar now.
I mean, even if CoA had listed Evil Ryu by his proper CoJ title of “Satsui no Hadō ni Mezameta Ryū,” we all would’ve (and should’ve) called him Evil Ryu anyway. Obviously the meaning behind his real name is much cooler than the meaning of “evil” but i don’t have to look up the spelling of “evil” on wikipedia every time i want to refer to it.
something I never got was the changing of Gouki to Akuma. Sure, the way they write Gouki is clever in that the second character “ki” would mean spirit/energy if it weren’t written using a kanji that means ogre/scary dude/ghost/demon etc.
I mean, he’s got a demon thing going on either way, and even though Akuma is a simplification (or entirely different, I don’t know how different it is between the ogre-demon (ki) and the evil spirit (akuma), it’s still a foreign word to us…so why the change?
also yeah, pure karate (shotokan or otherwise) doesn’t have judo throws, right? that’s what ryu/ken/akuma/blah use, like seoi otoshi, tomoe nage…it’s always been an unnamed mixed martial art (well, not like sagat’s new outfit MMA), but killing power always floats around the canon
@Maj
doesn’t “Satsui no Hadō ni Mezameta” mean “killing power awoken” or something like that? as far as i know, akuma has that power as well but is, ultimately, a force of good in the universe. when you look at some of his actions, akuma is the greg house of street fighter. sure he’s a bit of a dick, but ultimately he saves lives. its messed up of him to pick on ryu, but bison’s slaughter of those too weak to fight him pissed him off and he took action. he also fed that little kid (http://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters/akumaryufx.jpg). granted evil ryu is an evil bastard that murders people, but i dont think the satsui no hado guarantees you will go on an insane killing spree.
I think Ryu’s fighting style is probably closest to Kyokushin karate. In Japan his fighting style was never ansatsuken it was just a fighting style based on ansatsuken.
I always thought it had something to do with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXnEeNglN5g#t=42s
@error1
Ken’s crazy kicks are definitely Kyokushin