Image related. (Awesome pic Shin Oni! I had to use it.)
Well. The game has been out for a few days now. In the practice mode, I'm able to pull off Combos, EX Cancels, Dash Cancels and many other wonderful things that you'll see in a tournament. However.. I go online and the large amounts of spamming resorts to me having to do the same or resort to tactical blocking even spam of my own to beat them. Now..I cant seem to get past the 800-1000 battle point range due to the large amounts of spammers,
mostly Ken, online. Let me list some examples, then get into how 'I' specifically counter those problems now and again.
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The Characters.
Ryu - Fireball Fireball Fireball, and if that doesn't work... Hurricane kick followed by a Shoryuken. I usually end up going up against mostly the earlier instead of the latter, his Ultra is also one of the best in the game so if he gets a few fireball hits in... its over if the ultra hits.
Ken - SHO-RYU-KEN. It is no god damned wonder his (and Ryu's) name are in that attack. They'll get in, Sweep, then toss in a fierce Shoryuken as wake-up game. It has damage as well as MASSIVE priority to most of the attacks in the game.
Zangief/Blanka/Chun-li - The Anti-Ken/Close Range game. Blanka worse than most due to the electric attack doing quite a bit of damage as well as some massive knock back. He's also got some nasty charge attacks if you go about playing defensively/projectile. Zangief, who I consider a awesome character, I won't get angry if you do his throws.. Pile Driver in particular. However, to those who spam Double Clothesline, and Running Powerbomb.... Chun-li is the weakest in this group, her anti-close range game being the lightning kick.
Akuma - I honestly, never had any issue with Akuma due to his low Hit Point/Stun Values. He takes tons of damage when hit, even by Sakura. But I'm getting tired of him being played like a Ryu character. The orange fireball in particular is annoying when spammed due to the multiple hits.
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The Counters.
Note: Done with Sakura
Ryu - If you know how to Focus Attack/Dash Cancel, you are set.. and you won't lose any life unless a fireball sneaks in between one. I have only lost of a few Ryu's online and that is due to a lucky Ultra Combo hit while I'm charge up Sakura's fireball, or running in with a Shoryuken. But if he keeps spamming fireball, your Ultra Combo is gonna be set and you'll still be at full life. As for the sweep/Shoryuken - See Ken.
Ken - He was a bit problematic for me until I figured out something. Ken's Fierce Shoryuken has so many frames where he is left wide-open. So wide open that a ultra will almost always hit or a EX. With Ken. I played rather offensively. MAKE him use his Shoryuken, Run in with a Jumping Sweep, following usually a projectile attack so he has to block or take the hit, or run in with a normal sweep. It depends on how gutsy you are and how the Ken is playing. He will usually follow with his own sweep, or a the Fierce Shoryuken. By then.. I am already pressing back and blocking like crazy. On the way down, you can hit him with whatever, I usually go with my own Shoryuken(EX). If he's a bit fireball heavy.. well, the same with Ryu, Focus Attack with Dash Cancel.
Zangief/Blanka/Chun-li - These are pretty straight forward. Blanka first. That lightning is annoying. But it is easy to block as well as see when coming. I usually go offensive as well, running in for a single attack and block when he begins to spam. To be honest... the same could be said for the rest of the characters in this bracket. Zangief requires more jumping game however, to avoid his throws.
Akuma - See Ryu/Ken.
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Anyways. Those are the 'main' troublemakers I run into online. Actually Ken mainly.
However, I am interested in how others deal with the spammers. My tactics on occasion do fail. And most of the time I have to resort to spamming my own attacks instead of actually playing the game with combos, cancels and strategy. But in the end I usually end up spamming Sakura's EX Shoryuken... much to my dismay.
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I seem to be really good as Ken in this game, but I hate spamming only one or two moves. It takes the fun completely out of the game for everyone involved.
I really dont understand the whole 'anything to win' mentality that a lot of people have, in any medium. It particularly annoys me in gaming though, since games should fundamentally be for fun, and as pedrovay says, theres no fun in spamming a move or two in a fighting game.
Well, beyond the odd match just to see if it works... i do like to see what i can get away with sometimes... i dont have SF IV though, so dont worry, its not me!
I like that at the end of the fight, the winner is given a grade. If you play like a cheesing prick, you usually receive D's in technique.
I know it doesn't help that you lost, but it is nice to have the game validate the same idea that you have of someone being a crappy player.
Anyway, adapt to cheapness and overcome it. There is always a way to win. You just have to be able to see it and act upon it accordingly.
@Steel
Ah, is that what the technique score is? Well good, I'm not a prick, then. :P
@Ajaxender
The thing with Street Fighter is that it's basically built for tournament play. I play it just for fun, since I know I'll never be anywhere near good enough to compete, but there are a ton of people out there who do. The HD Remix that was just released was basically created by the champion himself, if I remember correctly.
crouch + light kick x 300 = me saying "for fucks sake" and smashing my controller
The funny thing is that spaming moves like this is the complete antithesis of the "playing to win" mentality. Doing the same moves over and over again makes you the most predictable player on the planet, and is the least effective strategy of all time.
Mix up your attack strengths and height and for god sake, if you're not attacking make damn sure you're blocking.
Bison is my main, and he has no problems getting around projectiles. Devil's Reverse is my best friend.
The one thing im still struggling nailing is the Focus Attack/Dash Cancel for some reason... anyone got a few pointers or anything?
Also- Fei Long also works really well against Ken. His dragon kick doesnt have priority over the shoryuken, but when Ken is left wide open after missing his attack the EX variant will just shred Ken apart.
I honestly havent run into too many Akumas online yet suprisingly (i've actually fought Gouken more than Akuma). Thankfully though the Akumas I have encountered all use him just like what this article talks about, whereas I actually use Akuma's abilities and use some of his tactics to make him completely different than Ryu and Ken (using his teleport, some of his air combos, etc).
you know what i hate , when people jump in high attack then the low sweep then up high then low sweep then up high then low sweep. then throw.
what the hell? all i can do is sit and block because i dont have enough time to counter because of the constant low weak hits. then a grab. i played a guy who did this the whole time and NEVER even used any special attacks or anything.
@SephirothX
Dash Cancels are very easy to do, but I don't know how well that works at the X-Box 360 analog. I use the MadCatz CE Joystick (The 150 dollar one.) and it makes it easy to do. I can see the two medium attacks on that controller making it rather hard to do.
@Furyfire
I might have just been struggling with them because my thumb was painfully sore after extended sittings of SF4. Though I cant blame the d-pad on mine, I'm using the PS3 version of the game... I'd denounce myself as a gamer if I willingly bought a 2D fighter for that terrible 360 dpad.
Certainly Spammers can be overcome, but its dissappointing when you have to reduce your play to overcomming some overpowered spam move.
As a Chun-Li player, I've made sure to move beyond lightening spamming. Aside from other moves doing more damage than it, mixing up moves makes fro more interesting fights. Her new combos are pretty sick, so there's way more satisfaction in passing those out instead.
If you're gonna play ranked matches, you're gonna have to figure out what works and what doesn't. Because you're gonna deal with spammers. But once you learn, the spammers are just easy wins.
If you're losing to spammers, you're bad.
We're not in 3rd grade anymore. There are counters and reversals to everything. Nothing is "cheap" in SFIV.
@fetusmilk: actually yeah, i always fall victim to this too and would seriously like some advice on what to do. i can block the high then low but then they always get in another hit :(
@Manta
Depends on the player. I can beat some spammers and sometimes I lose to them. It all depends on the fact that they can sometimes pull a move off faster and more often than I can. And you just lied there. SETH is "Cheap" in SFIV, and you cannot say otherwise.