Super Street Fighter IV (3DS/PS3/X360)

[imp]

haha, Tokido is selling his own shirts:

The best bit is the back design:

BAM!

EDIT: p.s. Cheer up JLM, it might only be Rose that gets dropped from EX Legs into U1 in the corner.

[Qazimod]

Have to dash early, but props to JLM, Joffo, Kloid, Craig and the others for the lobbies - awesome funs, although I was a bit miffed at getting so many diagonal-charge characters on random select. May be around later in the week too as I'm on holidays...

[carlito]

Mago's biting Iori from KoF's swagger HARD.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Must learn to random select better. At least I got one win.

[cale]

Anyone going to be on tonight? About 10ish? I fancy some lobby funs.

[carlito]

Some interesting AE stuff I translated and posted on the internet after a few drinks, a bite to eat and some banter I had with Mago and co. last week.

link

[JLM]

Tremendous lobbying for most of today. GGs to Joffo, Goemon, Kloid, Qazimod, Singho, Fitzcarraldo and anybody I may have missed. Rufus' new alt in pink is phenomenal. So good.

Perhaps even better was the lobby later on with cale, purely because the third guy in the lobby was just the perfect addition. He was a guy called wtfbbqjacob or something. His main is Viper, but he alternates between Makoto and Sakura most of the time. As you can imagine, the latter bit of that makes him an ideal lobby random.

Between me, cale and this gent it was just Sakura vs Makoto in one combination or another for several games in a row and it was grand. Then we all worked through just about every other character we use. Hakkers, Dudders, Thawk, Sak, Chun, Rose, bit of Gen, Ryu and so forth. Cale also busted out Rose, Abel, Gouken and a smattering of other characters when deviating from the Sak/Mak theme. Joffo, you'd have loved it. So would Hyper P. And Donut. Sakura and Makoto are like the rllmuk SSFIV mascots.

Oh, and nate joined us for a bit, which was good fun until a guy joined at the end who absolutely beasted us with Dan and was so good that it wasn't even fun to fight against him. Or at least not for me. All the time I was doing damage I just knew he was building meter for whatever fancy finish he had in mind to kill me. I got crl fierce - > light dan kick - > EX dp - > FADC - > Ultra 2. Nate got Saikyo crushered. It was brutal. He switched to one of his real characters after that and I bailed.

I'm quite pleased with my Sakura now, but there is still much work to do. I hit cr. medium punch - > EX dp - > FADC - > crouching fierce - > EX tatsu - > jab dp - > ultra 2 with punches on some guy in ranked. I squealed a little but my mic was off so it was ok.

Street fightings!

[Qazimod]

Yeah, much love to everyone for the lobby - I had to leave early to catch some telly but it was great fun. I don't play as regularly as I used to but you guys have some mental combos in your repertoires these days; I could only watch helplessly as my Ibuki got completely battered. Oh, and random select madness was also as fun as ever.

[carlito]

I really got into the swing of Sakura when I got her up to B a while back.

Once you find that "brave because my tatsu's are pretty much safe on block" zen, the beast becomes unleashed. You just blocked my tatsu, what I am I going to do? I'm going to bust out cl.HP because THAT SHITS IS FASTER THAN YOUR JAB SON!

Alhough it's over when Dhalsim comes on the scene.

[JLM]

Yes, this has been the joy of it carlito. Rushing down with reckless abandon despite this game being a turtle's best friend. Lots of crouching jabs as well, keeping them in block stun so that their stun meter can't reset, and tagging people with overheads when they decide that down back is the answer. Oh, and creating a bootleg block string that's just long enough for them to go "right, it must be punishing time now" and the BAM! EX dragon punch.

Jumping fierce punch is magic as well. You can do that Fei Long/Adon thing where you press it so late into the jump that they block in anticipation of cross up jumping mk.

Sak is the bestest.

[ah]

sagat was boring last night, and took ages to get to C rank. it didn't help that it took me half the session to realise that his crossup is actually LK, not MK or HK as i'd been assuming, but it helped even less that it took me 90% of the session to realise that jumping at people or otherwise getting in their face isn't really sagat's happy place. lameness. bison next. i know a combo for him, so that's a start.

[ah]

learn the target combos, especially the lp mp hp xx neckbreaker one because it looks f'in sweet. mk xx that spin kick special she has is a pretty nice basic combo. only ex neckbreaker goes through fireballs. when you get a knock down, use different kunais on wakeup to keep them guessing about whether or not you'll cross them up, and slip into another target combo/knockdown.

note: i suck at no just ibuki but 33 other characters in this game, so my advice should be taken with a lot of salt. and not the hilarious ragequit kind either.

[Qazimod]

Yeah, get to know the standard light-medium-heavy target combos - I think with the punches you can get two hits from the medium one or something. As well as kunai nonsense, remember to take advantage of her mobility; Kasumi Gake (QCF+K) is great for escaping corner traps, especially if you end on Roundhouse for a longer dash, and Tsuji-goe (Dragon Punch input) allows for good escapes with plenty of airtime for kunais or Supers.

Note: I suck at everyone, but Ibuki kind of became my main when I used to play 3rd Strike more regularly, and so I end up using her more often than most.

EDIT: oh yeah, EX-neckbreaker is a godsend for fireball spammers; EX armour goes right through the projectile and leaves them wide open, and it can be done from most distances.

[Nick R]

I bought Super SFIV and although I knew it'd be awkward playing with the standard 360 pad, I didn't realise it'd be this awkward!

Not that I was ever at all good at them, but I loved SF2CE on a 3-button Mega Drive pad, and Marvel vs Capcom 2 on a Dreamcast pad (yeah, the DC D-pad was painful, but the game's omission of the MP and MK buttons made it perfectly suited to a pad with 4 face buttons). But SFIV on a 360 pad? Like Hyper SF2 on the PS2, I'm using the D-Pad not the analogue stick, and like that game, I'm fighting the pad at least as much as the opponent!

Xbox Live win ratio so far: 25 fights, 2 wins. And that's mostly setting the search priority to "Same skill." Now, I don't mind losing online. But losing because I jumped straight into a fireball when I intended to throw a hadouken of my own to block it gets annoying...

Flowchart shoto? Ah, I dream of being consistent enough to be a flowchart shoto! At the moment, there's a 50/50 chance whether a QCF or Dragon Punch motion will come out as the one I intend... which seems to fall to a 1 in 4 chance if it involves a double motion for Supers... and a 1 in 10 chance if it's an Ultra.

And the trial challenges? I can just about cope with the ones for each character where they first progress from specials and supers to simple combos like Standing MP > Crouching MP (though I don't understand the timing distinction between what the dummy will be able to block, and what will register as a successful combo), but forget anything more complicated than that - words like "cancel" and "buffer" terrify me!

Thinking that maybe charge characters would be more suited to the pad than shotos, I started the trials with Honda and Guile. But I couldn't pull off the quick charge-back-forward-back-diagonal-up-forward (or whatever it is) motions that their supers require...

Online, I've been having more luck with Focus Attacks than specials and Supers. Though since I'm unable to do any combos I have no idea what to do when they crumple, so I just sweep...

Even having said all that, it's quite a fun game - I'm just not sure I'll get my money's worth from it until I get one of those £30 Datel fight sticks. Anyone used one of those? Will I be better with one than with the pad? (Bearing in mind that the last time I played a beat 'em up with a joystick was, I think, a Marvel Super Heroes arcade machine at a seaside resort in about 1999...)

Also, is the rllmuksf4noobs Gamertag mentioned here at all active, or have all the noobs from Rllmuk either stopped playing it or become pros?

[Uzi]

Even having said all that, it's quite a fun game - I'm just not sure I'll get my money's worth from it until I get one of those £30 Datel fight sticks. Anyone used one of those? Will I be better with one than with the pad? (Bearing in mind that the last time I played a beat 'em up with a joystick was, I think, a Marvel Super Heroes arcade machine at a seaside resort in about 1999...)

Also, is the rllmuksf4noobs Gamertag mentioned here at all active, or have all the noobs from Rllmuk either stopped playing it or become pros?

First of all- you'll enjoy the game a million times more if you find a control device you're comfortable with. All of them will take some adjusting and practise before you feel at home

Hold off on the datel stick for now. I heard it has a good innards to rip out and use in other sticks or custom jobs but as a stick itself, I have no idea if it's decent. Better options out there for the same amount of cash probably like the EX2 or possibly a fightpad would suit you better anyway given your history.

Use this stick/fighting pad guide especially for new/returning players I wrote a while back http://gamerdork.net/?p=464

That should explain all the basic options without too much babble

And of course the rllmuk arcade stick thread http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?showtopic=202427

[Qazimod]

I personally wouldn't recommend the 360 pad; the analogue stick's too woolly for precise taps, the d-pad's too stiff for rotational moves, and having commands on the shoulders and triggers is a nightmare. Whilst I'm not up on the stick scene that much (I do own a cheap T6 Hori but I have too much travel on mine and the gate's hard to work with, so I should really invest in something better) I mainly use a Fightpad; the floaty d-pad allows for much easier rotations and the six button layout makes everything much more straightforward. A few people have found the pads to be a bit defective, but mine is still as good as it ever was.

[joffocakes]

If you don't plan on playing the game too obsessively, or taking up other fighting games (MvC3 in a couple of months!!), then the 360 pad is perfectly fine. I used that exclusively for my time with SFIV, and only recently switched to stick for Super and I'd still say i'm more confident with the pad. The Dpad is indeed stiff, but thanks to SFIV's generous leniency with inputs a bit of practice should get you up to 100% consistency with the special moves and stuff.

The fightpad is good though, and pretty cheap in HMV at the very least; I'm sure I saw it for £12 recently.

If you're going to be playing a lot of fighting games though, you might as well get a stick. I've got the Mad Catz SE fightstick and it's great, though I have changed out the buttons for better Sanwa ones. As a bonus, that was hilariously easy to do and well worth the couple of quid I spent on them.

Lobby times the other night were excellent times; wildly better than the ranked match horrors I've been experiencing using Honda. Had some guy with exactly 10000BP for Fei called tazimakali or something rage quit on me after pretty much perfecting him the first round using lp and ex headbutts. And another Fei I beat called FoX Who said "Good game; you're amazing at running away". Miaow.

I'll likely be back on after Peep Show if any of you tykes are kicking around. Also! I just watched all ten episodes of Archer, and it's excellent. Watch that after Breaking Bad (I've no idea what Breaking Bad is).

[Broker]

spent the first proper evening I've ever spent playing online on my ps3 this evening. Lot's of easy pickings for ken, especially in custom matches against people of the same skill level when ive got no bp for anyone. I've been playing local multi most days for about 6 months, so picking people apart in the first round as they've no idea what to expect is fun. Cancelled Ken's ultra II with a backwards jumping mid kick from cammy and managed to catch the gyro drive smasher off it, which looked awesome. Lot's of lag, lots of fighting a few rubbish people again and again because they're sitting in the lobby.

racked up a few hundred bp with cammy, juri, ken and cammy, but there was too much lag, too much waiting. I love local multi to death.

[imp]

I bought Super SFIV and although I knew it'd be awkward playing with the standard 360 pad, I didn't realise it'd be this awkward!

I'll just add that it might still be worth checking out local Gamestations and GAME stores as they might still have stock they're trying to get rid of. I managed to pick up a madcatz SE stick for £20 earlier in the year. And as Joffo mentioned, it's very easy to swap out the innards for arcade-quality parts if you get more into it in the future.

As for the trials - I wouldn't worry about those until you get much more comfortable with the game. The timing for a lot of them can be very strict, and it's difficult to grasp until you're more familiar with the mechanics of the game as they don't give you a lot of help.

Hope you stick with it, it's a really fun game and very rewarding if you do.

[hegg]

Had some guy with exactly 10000BP for Fei called tazimakali or something rage quit on me after pretty much perfecting him the first round using lp and ex headbutts. And another Fei I beat called FoX Who said "Good game; you're amazing at running away". Miaow.

That Tazi bloke I've played a fair bit, he's never ragequit on me though. Fox Who I don't play against anymore, really salty as I remember. And was a right dryu back when I played him before. I avoid known dryus these days.

There are a bunch of salty players online always hosting that I steer clear of.

Oh I forgot, C to C shine get! Had fun with Fuerte, not so much with Gief...and I hadn't got Boxer up to C which was surprising. A few fights with him and I'm reminded how stunningly easy his links are. I really should play as him more. It feels nice to play as someone with such easy links and a useful Ultra.

Jumped in to a random lobby yesterday and went random select all the way. Felt very sexy.

[joffocakes]

Congratulations sir! I loved getting that acievement; made me realise further what an amazing game SFIV really is. All these eventhubs Ryu kids complaining about the nerfs would benefit greatly from trying C to Shining C and having a look at the bigger picture. Including Yun and Yang there's 1369 matchups to consider when balancing a roster this size. It's amazing it's as refined as it is with characters so diverse in playstyle.

[Goemon]

Lobby times the other night were excellent times; wildly better than the ranked match horrors I've been experiencing using Honda. Had some guy with exactly 10000BP for Fei called tazimakali or something rage quit on me after pretty much perfecting him the first round using lp and ex headbutts. And another Fei I beat called FoX Who said "Good game; you're amazing at running away". Miaow.

Whoa, even 10000k people rage quit!? Don't you lose more points for quitting?

Fighting charge characters requires tonnes of patience, you would have thought they would have known that.

I think AE has nerfed the charge characters, actually now that I think about it I remember reading that fireball characters were nerfed too. This is hopefully help characters who have difficulty dealing with zoning games better.

[imp]

Congrats on C to shining C Hegg!

I really wanna try out Yun and Yang so badly. I could really do with some mad rushdown play. IMAGINE IT: dive kick into c.LKxinfinity from three angles!

[imp]

Shiiiiit. Page 2.

Quick, someone post some Mike Ross...Okay. GO!

[kloid]

Mmm. Just what I was in the mood for.

Here's two hours of streamed AE play, starting of with some guy called Demarcus being trolly fuck-about beastly with Viper. How the shit does he mash those dozen-or-so cancels so fast!? I genuinely have no idea what he must be doing buttonwise such that no EXs ever come out. Disgusting.

[JLM]

Oh man, refusing to punish the mashed ultra and then ending with a relentless flurry of boots. That has to be Mike Ross' best Cody performance to date. YOU ARE NOT SEEING IT SAGAT! All three lost episodes are so much better than season 2. Love them.

Also ggs to cale earlier. Another fun mini lobby there, with great comedy non-punishes and moments of outright chokery. cale's Makoto vs a Ryu player who told us he'd just bought the game was one of the most hype matches I've ever seen in an endless lobby.

The full rollercoaster of initially not wanting to beat the guy up too badly, moving onto the attempt at the stylish finish, then the rapid realisation that the quest for said finish might lead to an unthinkable defeat. All the while contending with the most wildly unpredictable of opponents. Full screen EX tatsus, point blank fireballs, uppercuts all over the place but never when you'd expect them. I'm glad it wasn't me fighting him because it was a choke waiting to happen and I think I'd have cracked. High drama indeed.

Also also also, Nicot1ne turned up in a lobby a bit later on, lost his first game to my Chun and left immediately. It's a shame he's one of those types because I love watching his feng shui engine combos.

And finally, I pulled a massive dick move on some guy in ranked today and feel pretty good about it. There's a guy who I've fought plenty of times with Chun and Sakura who has THE LAMEST Blanka I have ever seen. He has 8,000BP, the ugliest play style of all time and he has beaten me by time out on several occasions. When I fight him with Sakura and her outright lack of Blanka ball punishes it's the closest I come to rage quitting. My only consolation is normally that he'll either have to change character or get used to not winning any more when the Arcade Edition changes happen.

Anyway, today I counter picked Balrog and out-lamed him so hard that I ended up beating HIM by time out. It was one of my greatest victories and I will be making some of you folks watch the replay.. Crouching jabs and jab straights to punish Blanka balls was about the extent of my offense, and I regret absolutely nothing.

The icing on the cake? When Balrog wins a round by time out, he looks at the opponent and goes "LAAAAAME!". Fucking yes. Yes.

Yes.

[cale]

Really good fun last night with our Jason plus randoms. You captured my fear perfectly when playing that chap who said he'd just bought the game. Just goes to show that a little knowledge truly is a dangerous thing.

It was nice to have a run with Makoto in a rllmuk lobby. I moved onto random select afterwards but playing as Maks in a fun environment is just the tonic to some of the heartbreak that ranked brings sometime. I played some American Adon player with a hefty portion of BP post-JLobbyM last night and made an amazing comeback after getting tanked in the first round. Took the second round and then thought I'd sealed the third after rushing that shit down fairly well. Managed to hit Ultra 2 > j.mk Tsurugi > ex-Hayate to take him down to 0 health and then blew it by throwing out a meaty s.mp on his wakeup only to be undone by his wakeup Ultra FTW. Proper head in my hands moment that was with Mike Ross providing 'oh of course you'd do that' commentary in my brain to boot. If only I'd just down backed he would have gone sailing into the air and I would have won. And then I thought that I could've added the f+lk after the ex-Hayate for an extra teensy bit of damage and THAT would have done it too. So I hit training to see if it would hit and I think it does only I can't remember 'cause I was semi-drunk by then.

SF is best.

[ah]

bison is my new favourite.

also viper is my new favourite. i won a lot with bison and lost a bunch with viper but i think the two experiences were equally enjoyable. i only landed scissors xx super once with bison, but it was during the K.O. screen which softened the blow of having failed it so many times previously. i played a rufus who was worse than my rufus and got spanked, which was demoralising. so many ex snake strikes after the target combo, but just when i was beginning to think he would never land that ultra he caught me with messiah fadc ultra for the victory - almost made me miss the fat lad. and as viper i dominated a sagat just by jumping and fire kicking a bunch.

i find with playing new characters i go through an initial period of great success, then a major slump of continuous defeat before i actually work out a couple of things and start clawing my way towards to occasional win. i think in those first few games i just have no idea what's not going to work and play all crazy like, but then i get scared of doing a bunch of the stuff that was working because i now know it's punishable, and it takes ages to work out what to do instead. i should watch more daigo "he doesn't care" umehara random uppercut clips to put my mind at ease.

[Qazimod]

Best 1v1 beat 'em up of 2010 fo' sho.

[Asura]

Is anyone up for some Super Street Fighter IV on 360, right now? If you've got a headset, that's even better, as I've not played it in months and will doubtless make for entertaining banter as I LOSE HORRIBLY.