Monthly Archives: November 2009

CV Spotlight: DaDoppen’s SF4 Seth Combos

It’s no secret that the boss of SF4 is practically a Marvel character in a game full of Alpha characters. He has literally everything a combo fanatic could want. DaDoppen aka Doopliss takes a big step toward unlocking Seth’s combo potential with this enjoyable video.

SFIV Seth Additional Combos

Be sure to check it out, because there’s some weird and interesting stuff in there. You’ll see everything from wall jump combos, to teleport combos, to promising setups such as the one at 1:01. He’s even got Seth’s ultra pushing Dan backwards into an LP Sonic Boom at 1:25, causing the ultra to register only one hit. Very strange.

Counterproductive Winning

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Let’s start with a brief history lesson. Back in the day, uninformed players would call certain tactics cheap and this would lead to unsavory behavior which got in everyone’s way. People would literally get beaten up outside of arcades for using throws in Street Fighter II. To deal with this ridiculous problem, the players who ran SRK developed and publicized a philosophy of “playing to win.” This was an important step for everyone to take in order to get past their self-imposed stumbling blocks.

Fast forward to today, and the fighting game tournament scene is the strongest it’s ever been. There’s no longer a stigma associated with infamously dominant tactics and “cheap” is no longer a dirty word. All of this is great but we might have gone a little bit too far.

We’re beginning to see a subtle misconception developing – that playing to win is the best way to become a better player. On the contrary, the original argument only held that playing to win is the best way to determine who’s the better player. Sometimes playing to win can lead to bad habits, lazy shortcuts, and poor fundamentals.

See, back in the day, we had people praising themselves for combo skill or mastery of a bottom tier character; finding subjective rationalizations to consider themselves “the better player” while losing to someone “abusing cheap tricks” or whatever. Of course this is foolish because how can you consider yourself successful for achieving a subjective goal when your opponent doesn’t even know what it is? The only definitive way to determine the winner is by playing a match and seeing who ends up with the victory symbol. That’s the only clear goal which both players unquestionably share, so it’s the only properly defended prize.

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SF4 Combo Challenge 03: Ken

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Ken’s dual challenge is a little bit different in that neither combo involves damage goals.

Ken’s Hadoken and Shoryuken specials both have lengthy recovery periods.

Challenge: Perform four or more Hadokens in one Ken combo, and another containing four or more Shoryukens.

Rule #1: Start the opponent with 100% vitality and 0 stun.

Rule #2: Obey gauge limits. (Set S.C. Gauge to Refill but use only 4 stocks. If you plan on building enough meter to use 5 or more bars, set S.C. Gauge to Normal or Max Start so that we can verify your method. Keep in mind that super meter charges slower during combos.)

Weekly Screenshot: Gone with the Wind

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Believe it or not, i’ve had this screenshot laying around for a while – slated for today all along. It’s the last remaining piece of the original batch. Total coincidence that Cody was announced for SSF4 this week (along with Guy, Adon, and possibly Ibuki).

SFA3 A-M.Bison’s Alpha Counter is triggered by V-Cody’s HP Criminal Upper.

Whoever comes up with the best title wins an unworn XL-size official Evo 2004 shirt. As always, the rules are one entry per person and i’ll choose my favorite on Monday.

SF4 Combo System Exploration, Part 2

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Having investigated SF4 a little further, it’s apparent that the entire combo engine is based on a list of special properties arbitrarily assigned to various moves. In order to predict exactly what will combo into what, we need to put together a comprehensive chart of these traits by testing every attack.

Here’s an incomplete list of specialized attack properties i’ve encountered while experimenting primarily with Ryu, Zangief, El Fuerte, and Ken:
– always creates a juggle state against a grounded opponent
– always creates a juggle state against an airborne opponent
– only creates a juggle state against a non-reeling airborne opponent
– only creates a juggle state against a reeling airborne opponent
– resets the juggle counter without creating a juggle state
– possesses an inherent juggle potential of __ (some integer)
– knocks down on counterhit
– always renders opponents invincible
– renders grounded opponents invincible
– renders airborne opponents invincible

When an opponent gets knocked down through conventional means, they can only be juggled by an attack with a juggle potential of one or greater. After they’ve been juggled once, they can only be juggled by an attack with juggle potential of two or greater, and so on. Generally whenever an attack creates a juggle state, it also resets the juggle counter.

For example, the first hit of Ken’s MP Shoryuken has no inherent juggle potential and knocks down on counterhit. The second hit possesses an inherent juggle potential of one.

The first hit of Ken’s HP Shoryuken only creates a juggle state against a non-reeling airborne opponent, knocks down on counterhit which satisfies the airborne condition for creating a juggle state, and has no inherent juggle potential. The second hit only creates a juggle state against a reeling airborne opponent and has no inherent juggle potential. The third hit has a juggle potential of one.