First Impression: Super Street Fighter IV

I just got home after buying the game and of course picked Guile (vs Balrog) right off the bat. The very first button i pushed was DF+HK. The second button i pressed was DB+HK to check if they had changed his High Kick command. Guile did a sweep. And it comboed.

SSF4!

36 thoughts on “First Impression: Super Street Fighter IV

  1. Jinbish

    //Guile did a sweep. And it comboed.//

    And the Maj was pleased. And the Sonic Hurricane was selected as Ultra for Guile. The prophecised eponymous Sonic Hurricane could be comboed after FADC Flashkick. And so Balrog (Boxer) received judgement for his past indiscretions of Headbutt->Ultra. And the Maj was pleased.

    Lo it came to pass that SSF4 became available in the UK (I feel your pain @jamheald : ). And there was much rejoicing.

    {As a Guile mainer from SF4, I really am looking forward to getting some Ultra combo revenge on Balrog.}

  2. EasierToRun09

    Hahahaha. The “SSF4!” at the end portrays the perfect message, and made me laugh. Bravo sir.

  3. Maj Post author

    Hahaha you guys are weird.

    SSF4 is pretty dope. Lots of new toys to play with. This is totally minor but i like how when you change characters in Versus Mode, it remembers the stage you had previously selected instead of starting at the top. That makes it a lot easier for me to retry combos.

    Kinda ghetto how the returning characters still have old artwork though. One of my favorite things about new Street Fighter games was always the new artwork. Guile’s character select portrait still looks goofy.

  4. ShaXan

    Well. I don’t think we can use Dee Jay’s Climax Beat on Sakura, unless you want to go to jail that is.

  5. EasierToRun09

    @Maj

    I love how training keeps your settings too. Just small things that make it a bit easier. I wish you could change ultras more easily though, I like to tinker with a few different combos with both of a character’s ultras, but they got a ton right regardless.

  6. fenris

    @maj versemeagain is spamming on eventhubs as well, I don’t think anyone would be mad at you if that got deleted

  7. Maj Post author

    fenris: Thanks for the tip sir. No clue what that guy was thinking. Guess it comes with the territory.

  8. jamheald

    Ex machine gun upper dash into climax beat midscreen looks like it could take some mastering.

  9. ShaXan

    They have some good tips.

    ————————————————————
    I have a tendency to double post

  10. Maj Post author

    Yeah, having to go back to the character select screen to change ultras gets to be a drag. Also it’s weird that they put up a confirmation box when you Restart in Training Mode, but at least the default option is Yes instead of No.

  11. ShaXan

    Dee Jay is amazing, in Vanilla I tried to use Guile, but I almost had no options when someone crossed me up after a knockdown, but DeeJay can just EX up kicks right out of there.

    Another great thing about SSF4 is ENDLESS LOBBIES. when you have people who will do audio with you, it’s so much fun!

    ——————————-
    Fun Fact:

    That youtuber DarksydePhil (Phil “DSP” Burnell) used to be a god at Super Turbo. He beat S-Kill at Evo 2k7, and he also fought Justin Wong, and did really well against him, though I don’t remember if he won or not.

  12. Maj Post author

    No DSP propaganda in here plzkthx. EvoEast2k7 was the only tournament where he’s done well and that was the year ST was run on PS2 with the ghetto CCC2 version. Sirlin promised it would be arcade-perfect but it turned out to be a glitchy, laggy mess.

    Honestly it’s pretty difficult to tell who’s good at ST from recent tournament results because the big names never practice anymore and most of the new players don’t understand the game. Justin doesn’t even play ST. He just picks O.Sagat and turtles his ass off. The only real measuring stick left for ST bragging rights is Japan (plus i guess a few of the proven HDR players). But if you put DSP next to B4-era Valle/Watson/Choi, he wouldn’t win a round.

    I wouldn’t mind DSP because anyone who plays SF is cool by me and he’s a pretty decent player, but he talks way too much shit. Why would someone go so far out of their way to make themselves unlikeable?

  13. ShaXan

    Mmm, yeah, I used to watch his ST vids, but he is a complete jackass. I thought he was pretty good though, and when I went to his page, he had played S-Kill and stuff.

    It was super surprising because I think that you actually have to have some modesty, and be able humble yourself and realize that the other person is just as good as you. Which isn’t evident at all in his videos.

    Sorry, I didn’t mean it as prop, just thought it was really surprising, and I didn’t know who else didn’t know.

  14. Tarnish

    Maj :
    Honestly it’s pretty difficult to tell who’s good at ST from recent tournament results because the big names never practice anymore and most of the new players don’t understand the game. Justin doesn’t even play ST. He just picks O.Sagat and turtles his ass off. The only real measuring stick left for ST bragging rights is Japan (plus i guess a few of the proven HDR players).

    I’m hoping that SBO 3v3 qualifier breathes some life back into the fleeting scene for ST. The more I learned about ST compared to HDR, the more I ended up liking ST for what it was, rather than trying to make it something it isn’t. I really agree that most players don’t really understand the game, even with as much as I learn it’s hard to have a conversation about the game with the usual subjects popping up. O Sagat… balance… I always felt like the things that should be most obvious about what makes the game unfun were just kind of elephants in the room.

    I met so many people on the East Coast who played ST, had great advice, but the game is basically without a scene and I’m kind of sad for that. Super Street Fighter IV is fun, but I still enjoy throwing down on GGPO. I’m glad I don’t feel like I’ve been left out in the rain with Super IV this time around. The game’s fun. There’s always going to be those underlying issues, but I feel like playing the game with folks who know what they’re doing doesn’t feel like such a chore any more. Things feel very “right.”

  15. onreload

    ^ When I list the iterations of SF2, I leave HDR out. I’m sure I’m not the only one who does that.

  16. Maj Post author

    Well, i only mentioned HDR because those are the only people practicing right now. The worst thing about that game is that it basically killed ST. Everyone’s stuck in a weird “we should probably play HDR if we’re gonna play ST but we don’t want to play HDR so fuck it let’s just play SF4” funk.

    Someone like Seth, he’s definitely tough to beat because he’s still one of the Keepers of Arcane Knowledge. He’ll pick O.Honda on you and you won’t even know why you’re losing. And he’ll fuuuck you up in theory fighter.

    But practice is practice. When he’s played five times in three years, it starts to show. He can have all the knowledge in the world, but if he’s missing reversals and dropping combos, he’ll lose just like anyone else.

    I mean i can’t even count the number of times i’ve seen Watson enter an ST tournament and clearly he hadn’t played the game for months before that day. It’s still an accomplishment beating him, but definitely not in the same league as beating B4 Watson.

  17. N00b_Saib0t

    i was messing around with guile today in SSF4 and noticed non-ex flash kicks juggle after d/f+hk… you probably already figured that out, but i didnt see it mentioned so i figured i would throw it out there.

    anyway, is it just me or is the game more strict on inputs than classic SF4? not that its a bad thing, but i noticed i cant half ass 720s and guile and vega’s ultra 1s, and SRKs still have a short cut but i also noticed less accidental SRKs trying to FADC to metsu hadouken.

  18. Maj Post author

    DF+HK creates a free juggle state now, so anything will connect afterwards. It’s a pretty big upgrade considering that EX Flash Kick was the only thing that juggled before, and you lost a hit in the process.

    Um, i do think the reversal window is shorter in SSF4 but i don’t know about other inputs yet.

  19. Jiggeh

    I’m not sure if I would say the inputs are any less relaxed than in SF4, when trying out Adon I had a very difficult time getting out the moves I wanted. The inputs for Jaguar Kick and Jaguar Tooth felt like they were completely interchangeable and that it was pretty much random which one would come out.

  20. Maj Post author

    Jiggeh: Isn’t it RDP for Jaguar Kick and HCB for Jaguar Tooth? You just gotta avoid touching F when you’re trying to do Jaguar Kick. Adon definitely would’ve been better if they made the Jaguar Kick command QCF like it was in SFA2, but for some reason the SF4 team seems to be nostalgia-obsessed. Ah well, at least they brought back Dudley’s Thunderbolt.

  21. Smileymike101

    I don’t think you can combo into that 40 frames startup piece of uselessness even after a lvl 3 focus or something.It’s litarally the worst startup in the game, if you don’t count Hakan’s max charged super, which makes it’s startup 97 or something like that lol.

Leave a Reply