Not long after the release of Street Fighter IV,seasoned fightersnoticed a depressing trend among Ken players -many would play as if they were obeying a rigid set of pre-planned attacks instead of reacting and adapting to the fight."Flowchart Ken"was born. You do not want to play like this.
But to be fair, the problem isn't limited to Ken. Anyone can engage in blindly ineffective tactics, no matter which character they choose.Since the release ofSuper Street Fighter IVwe've seen plenty of playerspick one of the game's 10 new fighters and stick to their attack plan even if it's getting them pounded.
Want a better shot at online victory? Learn to avoid these10 recurring mistakes made with the 10 new fighters with text from expert street scrapper and Capcom Unity bigshotSeth Killian.
Juri
Juri’s dive kick is so much fun that it’s almost irresistible, but it shouldn’t be your first choice every time you get into the air.It’s great if it connects, but your opponentcan block it like anything else, so if you go for it all the time, you’ll be sorry.This move is so overused that you can beat a lot of Juri players without even bothering to attack—just block and wait for them to dive down at you, then smash 'em in the grill.Don’t be this guy.
Hakan
If you’re not oily, you’re usually at a disadvantage. If you square off against most of the cast without oiling up, you can get some hits here and there, but you’ll probably come out on the losing end.Oiling up massively increases your grab range and the effectiveness of your normal moves, so make it a priority.
Strong Hakans are even prepared to take a hit for a chance to oil up. Even if it means taking a bit of damage, don’t be shy about going for the oil—even if they hit you out of your starting animation, you’ll still end up oily, and the trade is often worth it to turn the tables.
Cody
He has a great offense, but a lot of Cody players crumble when you put them on the defensive. He doesn’t have a Dragon Punch equivalent, and just blocking all day will get you thrown, so you need to come up with a creative arsenal of moves to stop people from jumping at you.
His standing back+medium punch is a good general option—you have to try it to believe how well it can work. You can also use his hard kick Ruffian Kick, his medium kick slide, or even his crouching hard punch if you happen to have the knife.The key here is not to go with the same thing in every situation—always Dragon Punching might work for Ryu against jumpers, but getting predictable on defense as Cody gets you… dead.
Guy
Avoid getting addicted to the “wow, this hits everything!” power of the EX Hurricane Kick.This move has incredible priority, but almost zero horizontal range. This means if you’ve decided to go for a reversal move after getting knocked down, against smart opponents pressuring you from outside of point-blank range, it can actually be better to use the normal version of the move.You’ll save your super meter, as well as getting some bonus horizontal range instead of just flying haplessly straight up.
Adon
It’s easy to fly off the wall a lot against intermediate or beginner players, but stronger opponents will make you pay for it.Since it’s difficult to follow up the Jaguar Tooth with a big combo, using the move basically means taking a significant risk for a relatively small reward, so use the hard kick version sparingly.All moves have their proper use, but just because you have a special move and can’t think of anything more exciting to do from across the screen, doesn’t make this a good idea.Consider using Adon’s lightning-fast dash to close the distance instead.
Next page: Makoto, Dudley and the rest of the newcomers!
