Monthly Archives: January 2010

Weekly Screenshot: Heavy Rain Forecast

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Whoever comes up with the best title picks the game highlighted in the next few screenshots. As always, the rules are one entry per person and i’ll choose my favorite on Monday.

cybotsu-jackal-warlock-01

CB Mary’s Jackal cancels BIT Upward Blast into Giga Rain during Arieta’s Warlock’s air Final Sacrifice startup, as her Imitation Beta shadow starts to fade. Normally Warlock’s decoy maintains a fixed distance, but disappears by reuniting with Warlock when its timer is up. It’s possible to widen the separation by backdashing quickly as it begins to drift forward.

Impact Freeze

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One of the least discussed technical topics in fighting games is the existence of impact freeze, also known as hitstop. Someone asked about it earlier this week and i couldn’t find any articles addressing it, so i thought i’d talk about it today.

Frame data usually gives you startup, active period, and recovery for each move in the game. When an attack connects, the remainder of its active period is converted to recovery (assuming it’s not a multi-hit attack).

Impact freeze definitely exists in most fighting games and the easiest way to spot it is by mashing jabs. It’s impossible to chain a jab into another jab before it reaches an active frame. You can stand next to someone and double-tap jabs all day and you’ll never get one to whiff chain into another before it connects.

Now that we’ve established that mashed whiff jabs reach at least their first active frame, you can compare whiff jabs against connecting jabs. It’s easy to tell that whiffed jabs come out three or four times faster than connected ones. That’s because when they whiff, you’re looking at 3 frames of startup followed by 1 or 2 active frames and then canceled back to startup. When they connect, it’s like 3 frames startup, followed by around 10 frames of impact freeze and then back to startup. Therefore whiffed repetitions take around 4 frames, whereas connected reps last around 14.

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CV Spotlight: Gen’s KoF99-2k2 TACVs

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Produced by Gen with help from Sensui, KZR, Harry, and Vice Vecta, this sixteen minute long tool-assisted combo video covers KoF94 and the entire King of Fighters Nests arc: KoF99, KoF2k, KoF2k1, and KoF2k2. Almost every character makes an appearance.

Gen CMV’s by Withering Surface Entertainment | Part 2

Once SNK introduced strikers (aka assists) in King of Fighters ’99, the series became noticeably glitchier. As a result, later KoF titles became similar to Capcom’s Marvel series in the sense that it’s very difficult to follow what’s going on inside combo videos unless you’ve been keeping up with major bug discoveries. Thankfully, this video provides explanations via subtitles at confusing points and even contains an entire segment of glitch setups starting at 10:10.

Some of the more stylish combos include the KoF2k2 Leona combo at 0:37, the Vanessa combo at 1:20, the Yuri combo at 4:00, and the Kim combo at 7:15. If you want a local copy, a downloadable version can be obtained from the newly relaunched Cyberfanatix website.

Street Fighter Footsies Handbook, Chapter 6

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So far we’ve concentrated primarily on that vital spot right outside the opponent’s poke range. Now it’s time to explore some close quarters combat.

Element 16: If your character has a damaging combo starting with c.LK, a good way land it is by taking a step forward after forcing your opponent to block a light attack or a jump attack, or even after a knockdown. This makes a lot of players twitch because it looks like you’re going for a throw, plus nobody likes letting someone walk all over their personal space. Closing the gap carries the additional advantage of enabling you to maintain offensive pressure with longer attack strings. The exact duration of your walk depends on your opponent’s habits. If they like mashing buttons during block stun, then time your c.LK to stuff their jab startup. If they’re extremely patient, then you’ll need to taunt them by walking forward for quite a while.

Element 17: One of the dirtiest tricks i’ve ever seen was Daigo‘s ST Ryu knocking down Jason Cole‘s Dhalsim, crossing him up with a blocked j.HK, then walking backward for half an eternity before nailing him with c.MK xx Fire Hadoken. It connected because Daigo timed that c.MK to coincide with Dhalsim’s recovery from j.HK block stun, so Cole got hit low as he stood up to counter-throw. This is another way to punish defensive throw attempts and it works even in games without throw whiff animation. Of course this is a variation of the element outlined above, but it’s slightly more versatile because some characters don’t really have c.LK combos. Since you’re probably not hit-confirming the combo here, make sure to finish with a move that leaves you safe if blocked.

Element 18: Uppercut that shit!

Once you scare your opponent out of pushing buttons at close range, you get to walk forward at will. That’s when the real fun begins.

Rule #4: Tactics are more reliable than gimmicks, so build your gameplan around tactics. The ideal definition of a solid tactic is a 50/50 mixup wherein both options are equally damaging, equally safe, favorable to your position over the opponent’s, and designed such that no single defensive maneuver counters both options. There aren’t many perfect examples out there, but three characters immediately come to mind: ST Vega, CvS1 Nakoruru, and MvC2 Magneto.

Conversely a gimmick works only once, because it’s a trick designed to counter the opponent’s most common reaction without properly accounting for alternatives. Of course shenanigans have their uses, but only until your opponent realizes that you’re bluffing about having anything else to resort to.

Your goal should be to get as close to a fully tactical gameplan as possible, because that’ll actually make your shenanigans considerably more effective as well. Remember, you don’t get in trouble for using shenanigans – you get in trouble for depending on them.

SF4 Combo Challenge 05: Rufus / Viper

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It’s been a while since the last one, hasn’t it? With this pair of challenges i tried to focus on the essence of each character – the main reason people seem to choose them. Hopefully it’ll be fun for Rufus and Viper players. Neither character has appeared in a prior game, so i had a little fun with the bonus combo.

Rufus and C.Viper both have access to a wide variety of juggle combo options.

Challenge R: Using Rufus, juggle four or more moves. (Start by knocking down the opponent, then connect four or more distinct moves before they touch the ground. Multi-hit attacks still count as one move.)

Challenge V: Using C.Viper, combo together all three of her special moves, all of her EX moves, and her ultra. (For the purposes of this challenge, all three regular versions of her Thunder Knuckle count as the same move. Ground and air versions of her Burning Kick count as the same move.)

Rule #1: Start from 0 stun. (If you intend to dizzy the opponent, that is.)

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.)