Game Version: Capcom Fighting Evolution (beta) / PlayStation 2 / North America / 2004

Rewriting the rules of the Custom Combo system with every new fighting game has become something of a tradition for Capcom. Players encourage game engine overhauls because they provide new features for us to explore while adding variety to the Street Fighter landscape. Although the SFA meter system in Capcom Fighting Evolution stems from CvS2 A-Groove, several important distinctions emerge. The most obvious modifications are the ability to cancel whiffed attacks during CC mode and the restoration of the 50% CC activation.

Custom Combo empty cancel windows vary from one attack to the next, but generally occur during the early active frames of moves. During this period, a whiffed attack may be interrupted by any normal move, special move, or super move, but not by LP+LK throws. Projectile special moves can not be canceled in this fashion, probably because technically they have no active frames.

Advanced movement capability has consistently been the primary application of most fighting game whiff cancel techniques. The main challenge of constructing midscreen juggle CCs lies in reestablishing striking distance after every successful hit. With CFE Custom Combos, swiftly advancing moves such as Guy's MK Hayagake (QCF + MK, K), Guy's close s.HK attack, and Sakura's HP Sakizakura Ken (DP + P) can serve as transportation between preferred immobile juggle hits.

Even though CFE Custom Combos come equipped with customary post-superfreeze frame advance, new game engine rules negate its effects while the opponent is in hit stun. Consequently, mid-combo CC activations now cost about 5 or 6 frames. If the attack following CC activation has 2 ST, the preceding attack must have at least +8 HA to enable the link (which will still miss about half the time). Sakura's c.LK yields +2 HA and her c.MK has 4 ST, so the combo is impossible as a simple link. Strangely enough, CFE permits renda kara canceling into CC activation, which produces the equivalent of up to +12 HA regardless of the specific attack used. Most attacks of a given strength cause uniform hit stun, so hit advantage is usually determined by recovery time, which is bypassed completely in this case. Chaining the desired rapid fire weak attack directly into either LP+HP+HK or LK+HP+HK button commands is the easiest input method.

While elementary and straightforward in concept, these combos require extremely precise execution. Each combo demands several instances of one-frame accuracy. Both were performed alongside the four clips in the preceding CFE Prehistoric Link Combos notebook entry using the Capcom Fighting Evolution beta version mentioned therein.

  cfeemptycancel01.jpg (320x224, 45 KB, JPG)
  cfeemptycancel01.wmv (0:12, 1,112 KB, WMV9)
  cfeemptycancel02.jpg (320x224, 51 KB, JPG)
  cfeemptycancel02.wmv (0:12, 1,130 KB, WMV9)