As a long-overdue gift to everyone for helping me reach over 5000 u2b subscribers (and close to 100 twitter followers!), here’s an exclusive look at nearly every source clip that i prepared for last year’s massive sh/f Super Fireball Battle collaboration. Most of them were either unused or trimmed to suit the tempo of the composition. Now you can watch them in full for the first time, without any legitimate editing skills getting in the way.
As a matter of fact, i wasn’t planning on releasing any of these clips, but this milestone caught me by surprise. By the time i noticed how close i was to 5000 subs, there wasn’t enough time to get anything ready – especially since i was already falling behind on SF4 TACV episodes.
Hopefully this small token of gratitude will suffice. Thank you all!
Since u2b lifted their 15-min runtime limit, a lot of people have been requesting my Evo Guile combovid in HD resolution. Here are all three versions re-encoded in 720p. I recommend watching the Evo2k7 Edition Trailer followed by the OHN6 Edition. Skip the Evo2k7 Edition.
The Evo2k7 Edition Trailer was released on July 4th, 2007. Its purpose was to announce the project and provide another (minor) incentive for people to make the trip out to Evo that year. It also allowed me to utilize a handful of bonus clips that didn’t mesh with the format of the main project – and gave me an excuse to publish a Guile video on Independence Day!
In light of XSPR’s recent interview with TZW-ART? here’s a montage honoring his contributions. It’s impossible to overstate the impact of TZW’s works on the entire fighting game community. He set the standard for combo video excellence – before the internet became a household utility, back when most people were completely unaware of the boundaries he was pushing.
Before anyone complains about poor video quality, keep in mind that all of this footage was originally recorded and distributed on VHS cassettes. Back in the day we’d be lucky to see a fifth generation copy of a TZW tape. To me, those scratches and flickers are part of the charm.
Think about how many of these setups are still being used in combo videos today. All those crazy charge tricks, fireball chasing setups, post-KO juggles, trade interrupts, chain glitches, Dhalsim limb setups, backwards attacks … TZW-ART? was the first person to find all of them!
Well, i finally got around to uploading a decent quality version of this old project to u2b, which probably means i should mention it here as well. It was premiered at Evo2k4 after two years of production. About half the clips were recorded by jchensor and about half by me, with a few contributions from MrWizard and zEvil. All the editing was done by jchensor over a six-month period – since he suggested the original premise and since he actually enjoys editing.
If there are any questions about specific combos, i’ll be happy to answer them as best i can, with as much detail as i can remember. Obviously this was before any of us obtained access to tool-assistance, so all of these clips were performed manually.
Wanting to explore the full combo potential of charge characters was my initial reason for making the switch from manual execution to tool-assistance. SF4 Balrog is a great example of a character whose primary limitation is an execution barrier. Combining difficult links with optimized charge timing opens up a whole new layer of combo opportunities for the champ.
0:11 There’s nothing notable about this combo from a technical standpoint. It was the first clip i recorded, simply because i thought it looked cool. Balrog’s Violent Buffalo ultra appears in almost every combo, so i tried to mix it up by using a different pattern every time. It always juggles for exactly seven hits, which seems to be its maximum.
0:24 Although the charge timing is tight, Balrog has just enough time to connect an LP Dash Swing Blow before Rose crumples into airborne state after each lvl2 Focus Attack. The sixth one is a lvl1 Focus Attack to set up the ultra. However, the Violent Buffalo must be initiated with KKK buttons after the backdash, because evidently the PPP version is 1 frame slower.
0:43 These four mini-combos are strung together to save time on transitions. In older games, chain canceling rapid-fire weak attacks would eliminate their entire recovery period, making startup time the only relevant factor. Somehow that’s not the case in SF4, because Balrog can naturally combo far s.LP -> whiff far s.LP -> c.LP whereas c.LP -> whiff far s.LP -> c.LP requires a meaty setup. Balrog’s EX Dash Straight has 6 active frames and provides +2 frame advantage, which becomes +7 on the last active frame, and +9 on counterhit. Far s.MK connects on the 9th frame. Sagat’s HP Tiger Uppercut is invincible for 5 frames and connects on the 5th frame, which makes it impossible to beat or even to trade with a non-invincible attack. Luckily it doesn’t break armor, so Balrog absorbs the impact on the 5th frame, then Sagat cancels into EX Focus Attack on the 6th frame, so EX Dash Straight connects as a perfect meaty counterhit. HP Dash Swing Blow simply links into backward j.LP, and the numbers work out quite nicely to dizzy Sagat at the ideal time. HP Dash Straight, s.LP only works against Sagat and Honda, but HP Dash Straight, c.LK works against Bison and Cammy.