How To Throw In Street Fighter 2

Information technology's never as well late to learn how to play Street Fighter.

In Patrick Miller'southward new book, From Masher to Chief: The Educated Video Game Enthusiast'southward Fighting Game Primer, he helpfully breaks down the genre'southward basic concepts and game theory into an easily digestible read — even if you oasis't seriously played a fighting game since Street Fighter 2 all-simply defined the genre more 20 years agone.

With some assistance from fellow fighting game enthusiasts, like Skullgirls developer Mike Zaimont, Seth Killian and other fighting game community veterans, Miller explains concepts like mixups and crossups, chains and combos, footsies and reversals, and much more than. Whether you lot desire to have a amend understanding of how to play fighting games or only want to feel smarter during this weekend'southward Evo fighting game championships, it's worth the fun, informative read.

We're publishing a slightly abridged version of the book'south first chapter with Miller's permission. The total book is available to download for gratuitous in PDF format at Shoryuken.com . Versions formatted for ebook readers are forthcoming, Miller said.

Chapter I: Everything You Need to Know About Fighting Games

Street Fighter Two is intimidating. Understandably so: Whatsoever given grapheme has somewhere between 18-24 different normal moves coming from six buttons (3 punch buttons and three boot buttons that each perform unlike attacks depending on whether your character is continuing, crouching, jumping up, or jumping forward/backward), a few throws, special moves, maybe even a super or two.

At whatsoever given moment in Street Fighter Ii, I could conceivably perform upwards of 35-40 different actions. As such, the almost useful thing a novice can do is simplify the game. If you acquire to think of Street Fighter 2 as a series of predictable situations with optimal solutions, you can forget the 34 dumb choices in any given situation and focus on executing the i or two good choices.

In rather broad strokes, fighting games are about imposing your volition on your opponent. Your goal is to make a series of intelligent situations that constrict your opponent'southward options, forcing them to make ever-more-dangerous gambles until they do something you can punish them for. You want to put your opponent in these situations over and over until they lose, and then you put them in these situations once again and again until they don't want to play with you any more. Basically, you're making the game equally tortuous and awful every bit possible for your opponent while they attempt to do the same to you lot. It'due south a beautiful affair.

To begin: Fighting games are about making your opponent's character lose his life before your character loses hers. Characters in fighting games take impairment when you hit them. A "hit" happens when one character presses a button to perform an assail, and that assault connects with the other character's body. These moves are ordinarily different kinds of punches, kicks, and throws, but they range into more than exotic stuff like flying uppercuts and fireballs.

While y'all may exist seeing punches and kicks, however, the game itself is just seeing unlike kinds of boxes moving effectually. When you hit your opponent with an attack, the game sees your character creating a box that does damage ("hitbox") overlapping with an surface area occupied by a box that belongs to some other grapheme ("hurtbox"). In Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, you can actually turn on a view manner that shows hitboxes and hurtboxes.

Ryu_1

Blue Ryu's hitbox (ruddy) is touching Orange Ryu's hurtbox (blueish).

Printing medium boot while Ryu is crouching, and y'all'll see a ruby-red box surround his leg. You can see that when you lot apply your normal moves, your character winds up a trivial flake in the start of the set on, then the hitbox shows up. If your box hits someone, they have impairment and are sent into a "hitstun" land for a lilliputian while, during which they cannot move, attack, or block. If your opponent'southward hitbox comes into contact with y'all either earlier your hitboxes show up, after your hitbox disappears, or manages to connect with your character'due south hurtboxes while cleanly avoiding your assail, then you'll get striking instead. If your hitbox hits someone while they're blocking, and then they'll be sent into a "blockstun" state, where they won't be able to move or set on but take no damage (unless your attack is a special move, in which case they'll take a lilliputian impairment for blocking it.

Each attack consists of iii phases: "Startup," which is the part of the animation earlier you project a hitbox; "Active," which is when your attack projects a hitbox; and "Recovery" which is afterward your hitbox is gone and the move winds down.

Ryu_roundhouse

This diagram illustrates the length of each phase of Ryu'southward continuing heavy kick.

When you lot're just starting out with a new character, 1 of your beginning steps is to understand each move'south advantages and tradeoffs in society to find out which moves are skillful in unlike situations. If a motility has a really short startup animation, that means y'all can use it to stop slower attacks earlier they start and put your opponent nether pressure; conversely, if a move has a slow startup animation, you lot'll take to exist more careful nigh how or when you utilize it.

If a motility stuns your enemy for a long fourth dimension when y'all hit them with it, you tin use information technology to start combos and exercise heavy harm to your opponent (if it hits) or utilize it to keep your opponent blocking and make it hard for them to beginning attacking yous; if a move doesn't stun your enemy for so long, your opponent might accept the opportunity to hit you subsequently blocking information technology, pregnant you lot should but use that motility when y'all're absolutely sure it'll hit. Some moves cover the expanse above your character'southward caput, so they're good for hitting enemies that jump at y'all; moves that extend far across the screen are skilful for keeping your enemy at range. And so on.

Fighting games are, at their about basic level, really fancy versions of Rock, Newspaper, Scissors

Note that every move in the game has an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on the state of affairs information technology'south used in. That doesn't mean all moves are equally good; there are some moves that are pretty useless or highly situational, and part of learning a fighting game is figuring out which ones are which. And remember: No matter how cool (or not cool) any given move may look, to the game information technology'due south merely a unlike kind of box. So don't pay too much attention to how painful or flashy something looks; often, the coolest-looking moves are the ones you lot desire to apply sparingly.

Private moves are the diminutive unit of measurement of composition for a fighting game, but eventually your understanding of fighting games will grow to include effective combinations of moves that can work together to mask each others' weaknesses and synergize with each others' strengths in ways that encourage certain styles of play. But before we offset understanding different styles of play, nosotros should understand the bones graphic symbol classic from which all others are defined: Ryu, the Adam of fighting games.

Ryu vs. Ryu

Ryu is the character that the entire genre of fighting games was designed around. Every fighting game, from King of Fighters to Guilty Gear to Marvel vs. Capcom to Tekken, can trace its design history back right to Ryu. So let's break Ryu down — and in doing so, interruption down pretty much every fighting game ever.

As information technology happens, pretty much everything you lot need to know nigh mod fighting games is right here in this commutation. We're going to dissect this in-depth, and so go ahead and lookout man it a few times! And don't worry if y'all can't do all the moves with the precision or timing that you encounter in this video — we're going to commencement by analyzing the game menstruation, and get to the physical execution part later on in this book.

Also, I want you to keep i thing in mind: Fighting games are, at their almost basic level, really fancy versions of Rock, Newspaper, Scissors. Whatsoever given movement in a fighting game is defined in part past what it wins against, what it loses against, and what it draws even against. As you get through this next department, attempt to think about what each player is doing, and when those actions would win, lose, or draw.

At present, let'southward starting time with Phase 1: Orangish throws a fireball, Blue jumps over it, Orange hits Bluish with a Dragon Punch.

Ryu_2

Orange throws a fireball at Bluish.

Phase i: Crouching Fireball, Hidden dragon dial

Ryu's fireball and Dragon Dial are two attacks that are so interesting they basically divers a major chunk of the fighting game genre. The fireball has a fairly loftier corporeality of startup fourth dimension before information technology turns into a hurtbox. Once information technology is out, Ryu has to wait for a little flake before he tin motion freely, and and then he can move and attack at will. Depending on which punch button the Ryu role player uses to perform the fireball, the fireball'due south hitbox could exist only halfway beyond the screen or almost all the fashion across by the time he recovers.

Once Ryu recovers from throwing the fireball, he basically has the ground-half of the screen covered. This fireball leaves his opponent with the following options:

Get hit by it, leaving him in a short corporeality of stun and taking a fleck of damage,
Block it, so he takes less stun and damage amount of damage,
Respond with a fireball of his own to cancel information technology out, so neither player takes stun or impairment,
Jump over it, fugitive the fireball entirely and opening upwardly an opportunity for a counter-assault.

Substantially, throwing a fireball means putting yourself at risk in the immediate moment (by performing an set on with a long startup period) in guild to gain an advantage once information technology'south out and covering a whole bunch of screen space.

So Orangish threw a fireball at Blue. How is Blue supposed to find the all-time option available to him? Well, we'll start by looking for the ideal event: Bluish wants to avoid taking damage or being stunned. That ways that Player 2 tin can either respond with a fireball to cancel out Player i's fireball, or spring over it to avert it completely.

Now, at the kickoff of Phase 1, Bluish is standing almost half to two-thirds of a screen-length away from Orangish. At this range, it would probably take Bluish too much time to a) realize that Orange is throwing a fireball, b) decide to throw a fireball, and c) successfully execute the fireball movement in order to cancel the starting time fireball out.

If Blue tried to throw a fireball, he'd probably end up getting hit past the first fireball before his own fireball had arrived on screen, or perchance he'd successfully cancel information technology, but would still be a little chip behind Orange, because Blue started his fireball afterward Orange did, meaning Blue will recover after Orange — which leaves Orange with time to follow the fireball up with something else, like walking upwardly to Blueish and hitting him, or throwing another fireball. So Bluish decides to jump at Orangish and hit him with a jumping boot.

Unfortunately, this is where the Second Interesting Motility In Fighting Games comes in: The Dragon Dial. The Dragon Dial is basically the anti-fireball; where the fireball sacrifices the present for the future, the DP borrows confronting the future in favor of Right NOW. Upon completing the DP move, Orange is invincible for the starting time of the move; within a fraction of a second, he admittedly owns the infinite occupied around his fist.

Once Orangish hits Blue with the Dragon Punch, he knocks Blue into the air and sends him into a "knockdown state," where he tin can't practice anything until he gets back up off the ground. Of course, the DP has plenty of recovery time; if Orangish didn't hitting Blue cleanly with information technology, and then Blue could have punished Orangish when he came dorsum downward to the ground.

The Dragon Dial is the peachy momentum-breaker; its near-instant activation time and ultimate priority mean that, basically, if you know that your opponent is going to do something, you can beat information technology with the Dragon Punch. Your opponent can keep you pummeled under a barrage of fireballs and well-timed moves designed to keep you blocking, but ane properly-timed Dragon Punch will opposite the momentum entirely and put yous back in the game. However, if you miss a Dragon Punch, yous might well lose the game. High chance, high reward.

And so, to recap Phase one: Orange throws a fireball. Blue reacts by trying to spring over the fireball and gets striking with the Dragon Dial, sending Bluish down to the ground, where he'll have to wait for a 2nd or 2 to stand back upward earlier he can exercise anything.

Ryu_4

Hitting your opponent with a dragon punch puts them into a knockdown country.

That puts us into Phase 2, which starts with Orangish jumping over Bluish'southward knocked-downwards torso, hit Blue with a jumping kick when Bluish stands up. Bluish blocks that jumping attack, performs a Dragon Punch of his own, and gets swept for his trouble. What just happened?

Phase ii: Frame advantage and baiting the DP

Stage 1 ends with Bluish recovering from the knockdown that the Dragon Punch caused. During this time, Blue can't take any impairment (y'all can't hit an opponent lying on the ground), but he can't practise annihilation, either. Recall that every set on has a certain amount of startup, and simply a select few are invincible during that startup; Orangish can use the knockdown period to maneuver himself into an advantageous position, which he does by jumping over Blue's knocked-downwardly body, and starting his attack while Bluish is all the same getting upwardly.

Basically, after Blue gets knocked downward, he stands upwards right into Orange's jumping kick. In this situation, Blue has the post-obit options: get hit, block, or try to dragon punch Orange. In this example, Blueish decides to block instead of going for the Dragon Punch (called a "wakeup DP" in this instance, since Ryu is "waking upward" from knockdown). Merely why cake? The respond has to practise with the reason Orange jumped over Blue before starting the kicking. Jumping over your grounded enemy is called a "crossup," and it'southward a very important tactic for fighting games. Simply before we talk almost crossups, we'll take to talk more almost blocking.

Blocking is hands-down the most important thing that a beginner tin learn

In order to avoid damage, you can block attacks past holding backwards on the joystick. Some attacks must exist blocked low (hold down-back) or high (hold back). In full general, virtually crouching boot attacks must be blocked low, almost jumping attacks must be blocked high, and most other moves can be blocked loftier or depression. Note that in fighting games, your inputs are dependent on your opponent'south position: "agree back to block" means "hold the joystick in the management abroad from your opponent," and so if you're standing on the left side of the screen and your opponent is on the right, yous'll hold left to block, and perform a Dragon Punch by rolling the stick from right, to down, to diagonal downwardly-correct, and vice versa if your opponent is on the correct stand and you on the left.

Blocking is hands-down the nigh important matter that a beginner can learn. Recall, your goal is to reduce your opponent's life meter to zero earlier she can get yours, and if yous learn how to block better than your opponent tin, you lot'll have a much easier time to practise that! You can't lose if you lot don't get hit.

Now, allow'south go dorsum to the instance. When Orange jumps over Blue, he makes life harder for Blue in two significant ways. Starting time, he makes his jumping kick harder to block, considering Blueish has to cake in the opposite management, since Orange is now on Blue'due south right side, not his left — that'due south the "crossup" I mentioned earlier. Second, he makes information technology harder for Blue to perform a "wakeup Dragon Punch" to counter the kick; the proper DP input is toward, down, downwardly-toward, but when "toward" changes from "left" to "right" halfway through the input, information technology makes information technology much harder to properly perform. (Some games are more forgiving than others in this regard; Street Fighter IV is i of them.)

Fifty-fifty if Blue successfully executed the wakeup DP, depending on Orange's timing, there is a good hazard that it would miss completely, because Bluish would withal exist facing the original direction while Orangish would be in the middle of jumping over him, meaning Orange would jump make clean over Blue'south Dragon Punch and state in fourth dimension to punish Blue. For Orangish, the crossup jumping kick is a very solid decision, considering it's hard for Blue to punish.

Note that non all jumping attacks take this "crossup" property that lets you hit an opponent while you're jumping over them, though unremarkably almost characters will accept one or two moves that brand for good crossups. If Orange had jumped over Blue with a move that didn't have a hitbox which let him cantankerous upward, Blue merely wouldn't accept to block that jumping attack and would be free to motility once he was done standing upwards from knockdown. And sometimes, yous might attack with a crossup move that makes contact when you're on one side, but the momentum from the jump carries you to the other, so they take to block your leap attack one way and your followup footing assail the other. Sneaky!

Ryu_5

Jumping in with a crossup kick.

So Blue wisely decides that blocking is the Smart Matter To Do, and successfully blocks Orange's crossup jumping kick. Blocking the kicking ways Blueish won't take any damage, which is a good matter, just he'southward not out of the burn down quite yet; Blue is stuck in blockstun for a niggling while, with Orange standing right adjacent to him. While Blue is recovering from blockstun, Orangish tin can force him to block additional moves that could inflict pocket-sized damage ("chip harm," which is incurred by blocking special moves like fireballs and Dragon Punches) and extend his blockstun paralysis, or require a specific blocking input (a low kick that Bluish must block past holding downward-back, or an "overhead" punch which must be blocked by holding back — Ryu's forward + medium punch, for example), or walk right side by side to Blue and perform a throw, which is a fast, short-ranged attack that cannot exist blocked.

Put yourself in Blueish's shoes here, for a second: You lot just jumped over a fireball, got knocked downward by a Dragon Dial, and were forced to cake a leap kick that left you unable to exercise anything. Orange is standing in front of you, but considering you're still reeling from blocking that jump kicking, you lot're at a disadvantage considering yous have to recover from blocking that kick, and Orange doesn't have to.

This ways that your adjacent opportunity to set on comes after y'all've recovered from blocking that kicking, and you still take to wait for that assault'due south startup phase before your assail's hitboxes come out. In fighting games, we mensurate time in terms of animation "frames"; our games run at sixty frames per second. If Orange'south jumping kick forces you to block for, say, fifteen frames of animation, and y'all desire to perform a crouching medium punch with six frames of startup immediately after you're done blocking, you'll need to look a whole 21 frames (well-nigh one-tertiary of a second) for your hitbox to get in.

That might non seem like a whole lot, but in Street Fighter, it'south the departure between your crouching punch succeeding, and your dial getting stuffed by pretty much whatsoever assail Orange has. This is chosen "frame advantage" and "frame disadvantage"; basically, Orange's moves take put him in a situation where he has the "frame advantage" because he can start his moves before Bluish can start his.

Equally I mentioned before in this section, Ryu has probably near 35 moves or so. In Blue'due south situation, withal, pretty much all of his moves are really, really bad ideas, considering they'll get blimp past just well-nigh anything Orange does due to Orange's frame advantage. Right now, Blue tin can either a) keep to cake and hope he makes it out with relatively minor damage, b) get hit, which is not really platonic, or c) try to perform a motility. Of the moves that Blueish has at his disposal, only one is fast plenty to have a adventure at beating annihilation Orangish does. You guessed it — that move is the dragon punch.

Now, let me bespeak out something hither: Every bit Blueish is making his decision here, he'south substantially trying to brand an educated estimate at what Orangish is doing. Subsequently all, Orange landed correct next to Bluish after the blocked jump kick; neither thespian really is far plenty to try and react to what the other player does (though somewhen, given enough practice, they might be able to). Orange's frame advantage hateful that he could decide to walk up and throw, or continue to attack, or fifty-fifty jump again, and Blue will really just have to guess at how to respond appropriately.

Then Bluish is fed upwardly with blocking and getting hit and generally being beaten upward, and decides to go for a Dragon Punch. After all, that Dragon Punch volition crush pretty much whatever button Orange decides to press: If Orange walks upwards for a throw, he'll become hit; if he tries to make Blue cake a low kick, he'll become striking; if he jumps, he'll get striking; etc. Then Blueish majestically soars through the air ... and doesn't hit anything, because Orange didn't perform any attacks at all. Oops.

Ryu_6

A baited Dragon Punch.

Folks, that's what we call a "baited" Dragon Punch. See, Orange correctly read the situation from Blue's perspective: Blue was tired of being on the defending stop, and he knew that he had one pick to opposite the momentum, which was the Dragon Punch. From Orange's perspective, he could either choose to attack, and gamble getting hit past the DP, which would have knocked Orange down and shifted the momentum in favor of Blue; or sit down at that place and practise nothing, which would either reset the momentum dorsum to even, if Blueish decides to cake, or give Orange some other opening, if Bluish decides to exercise a Dragon Punch. Basically, Orange took a conservative tack by not taking the risk of getting DPed, and his read of Blue turned out to exist correct. Once Blueish lands from the DP, Orange sweeps him, knocking him down again and bringing u.s. into Phase 3.

Phase iii: the close-range high-depression-throw mixup

Poor Blue just can't catch a intermission. His perfectly-timed counter DP ended up getting baited and punished, and he gets knocked down once again. This time, Blueish blocks a few light jabs from Orange before getting thrown, knocking him down yet once more and setting the stage for farther pain. What happened?

At the beginning of Phase iii (after Blue gets swept), he'due south basically in the aforementioned position as he was after getting DPed at the end of Phase i, except this time he doesn't take to cake the crossup jumping kick — though, depending on timing, Orange probably could take made him cake that if he had wanted to. Again, Orange has the momentum, considering he can start setting upwards his attacks while Blue is still standing upward from the knockdown.

Pace into Blue's shoes for a 2nd, at present, and feel what it'due south like to be well and truly broken. You dodged a fireball and got striking; you tried to counter a whole agglomeration of attacks that never came and got hitting. Orangish is pretty effortlessly making y'all look like an apprentice. You want nothing more than to be out of this situation, but Orange seems to be reading your heed re: potential get-out-of-jail-free Dragon Punch opportunities, so you've resolved to just concur dorsum and block until the danger is over.

After all, he can't keep yous in blockstun forever; block plenty attacks, and Orange will eventually be pushed out far enough that the momentum will reset and you can take another stab at winning this game.

Which is why Orange throws y'all. Because he knows you lot're broken. He knows you can't muster the volition to try another counter Dragon Punch. Then he walks upwards, makes you block a jab or ii, and and so takes a step forwards and throws you, dealing a solid amount of damage and knocking you down.

Ryu_7

Setting up a throw with the jab ("tick throwing")

The throw is typically performed by walking next to your opponent and pressing forward or backward and heavy punch or kick. (Some characters accept additional throws likewise, merely everyone has those two.) Throws be to stop people from thinking of blocking as an invincible wall backside which they can hide from attacks. Every bit information technology turns out, blocking attacks gets pretty easy pretty apace; you but hunker-block everything except for jumping attacks and "overhead" attacks (standing attacks which force you to block high), both of which you should be able to react to if all yous're thinking about is blocking. By adding throws into the mix, the attacker gets to crevice a determined blocker by making him block one jab, then throwing him; or making him block ii jabs, then throwing him; or 3, or zero. A determined blocker can escape a throw (called "teching a throw") for low or zero damage, depending on the game, only in order to do so they basically need to go for a throw at the aforementioned time or slightly later than the assailant'due south throw, which is tricky. Orangish forced Blueish to block a fast, lite attack, then threw him. This is chosen a "tick throw."

When Ryu knocks y'all downwardly and stands right side by side to you lot, he has a whole bunch of options: He tin make you lot block low, he can brand you lot block high, or he can throw y'all. Every bit the defender, your job is to either dragon punch (at just the correct fourth dimension), or defend the incoming throws and attacks until you lot encounter an opening to counter-set on or escape to safety. This is known as a "high/depression/throw mixup"; the defender is basically put into a situation where he probably won't accept time to react to seeing what the attacker does and defend appropriately, so he has to guess whether the assaulter is going for a high attack (block high), low attack (cake low), or throw. Even worse, the attacker is forcing the defender to make these decisions at an extremely fast rate; if Orangish forces Bluish to cake three jabs, he could take easily at whatever point made one of those a low short kick, or a throw endeavour, or ended the string with a loftier attack. Manifestly, as the defender, you lot desire to avoid these situations as much every bit possible. In this case, Bluish got thrown, which resulted in moderate damage and yet another knockdown.

Phew! Nosotros just analyzed a mere nine seconds of high-speed decision-making, and all of that started from 1 fireball. 1 humble fireball, coasting across the screen, enabled Orange to keep Blue constantly on the losing side of the decision-making process. Past at present, you lot tin see how that happened. But why'd Orange throw the fireball in the start identify?

Phase 0: Fireballs, footsies, and jockeying for momentum

Earlier in this article, I described the art of playing fighting games as, more or less, "making the game as miserable an experience every bit possible for your opponent." You can encounter how Orange did that; he threw a fireball that got Blue to jump, and that one ill-timed jump sent Blue into a cascade of unfair decision after unfair decision. The right fireball at the right time gave orangish control of the match — in other words, momentum.

Simply how practice you get that momentum? Certainly non by throwing fireballs willy-nilly; if Blue had predicted the fireball and jumped in earlier, he could have hands landed a damaging combo into a knockdown and sent the momentum in his favor instead. The art of jockeying for position is where much of the beauty and skill of fighting games comes into play; recently, people take been calling it "the neutral game." We can broadly define the neutral game as "the process of turning an equal situation into an advantageous one."

Understanding the neutral game is important for a budding fighting game player because, frankly, this is where you lose the game; it doesn't matter how good your combos are or how clever your high-depression-throw mixups are if you lot tin can't become that first knockdown y'all need to ready them up. And when you start playing fighting games, information technology's easy to focus on spiffy special moves and combos without thinking besides much near how to create openings to land them.

Let'due south travel back to the first of the friction match nosotros watched earlier and intermission down each character'south options. From the very starting time of the match, both players starting time at a range referred to as "one-half-screen," where neither player can hit each other with annihilation except for a fireball or hurricane kicking (Ryu'due south tertiary special motility — don't worry nigh this for at present), and neither choice is specially skilful.

Ryu_8

Ryu at half-screen distance.

When you lot're at one-half-screen, with no frame advantage, information technology's pretty easy to meet a fireball starting up and punish it with a jump-frontward kicking and philharmonic from in that location.

If either of the Ryus takes a step forward from half-screen, they'll be within range to sweep each other, which would requite one of them the knockdown he needs to kickoff his crossup / tick throw shenanigans in close or pressure with fireballs. If he'due south walking closer still, he'd be within ideal range for fast, weak attacks (jabs and curt kicks) to set up throws, but information technology's typically rather unlikely for both Ryu players to simply close the distance like that without one sweeping the other start.

If i of them instead decides to take a step or 2 dorsum from half-screen (we'll telephone call this range "two-thirds"), he'll be in prime number fireball-throwing range for 1 major reason: At this range, you're also far to react to seeing your opponent start throwing a fireball by jumping over, since past the fourth dimension you're jumping over that fireball, the fireball-thrower has already recovered in fourth dimension to Dragon Punch yous out of the air, because the fireball has had to travel further to reach you lot. In social club to punish a fireball with a jump attack at this range, you'd have to start your jump around the same time they beginning throwing the fireball, if not earlier — which ways you lot're anticipating a fireball, non reacting to information technology, and if that fireball doesn't come, yous're probably only going to eat a Dragon Punch instead.

Fighting_game_primer_cover

However, at two-thirds screen range, you lot are roughly around the surface area where you can reply to a fireball with a fireball of your own on reaction. You volition recover after your opponent does, since you started your fireball later, giving your opponent a slight advantage, but that won't be a big enough advantage to punish your fireball; they might just exist able to take a few steps forrad (into half-screen range). You lot can also instead choose to jump straight up over the fireball, which is normally the smarter choice because you don't run a risk getting Dragon Punched (you're all the same too far away), and you don't have to block anything, significant you take no chip damage or blockstun, and so you recover slightly faster from dealing with that fireball.

Farther back from here is the full-screen range. From here, neither Ryu can exercise anything except throw fireballs, and neither actor is likely to get striking by a fireball from full-screen. From hither, you tin safely jump over an opponent'south fireball, considering even if you jump forward, their anti-air Dragon Dial won't hit because you're notwithstanding too far abroad.

(Past the way: It's worth noting here that all this cognition almost what is constructive at any given range isn't something you're expected to know right off the bat. This is the kind of affair you generally accept to larn the hard fashion.)

In a Ryu vs. Ryu mirror match, he doesn't have many good options at a neutral two-thirds or total-screen. He wants y'all to be at two-thirds when he has an advantage, because that puts you in situations where you're probable to either block a lot of fireballs or jump frontwards and consume a Dragon Punch, but in order to put you there, he's going to have to knock y'all downward first.

Then both Ryus offset at half-screen, and both of them need to knock the other downward — probably with a sweep. You might think that the best thing to exercise at the start of the round, and so, is "walk forward a step or 2, so sweep." All the same, remember that y'all're both playing Ryu, and you both desire the same thing — and then it gets a piddling complicated. If your opponent knows that you lot're going to walk forrard and sweep, they could sweep outset, which you'd probably walk right into since yous decided to walk forward. Or they could walk backwards to stay out of range of your sweep, and if they see you lot whiff the sweep, they could hitting the tip of your outstretched leg with their own sweep. Or possibly they stay out of sweep range while you lot're hunting for a sweep and brand you cake a fireball. And then on.

This kind of game dynamic — dancing in and out of range while fishing for hits to plough into an advantage — is called "footsies." If y'all can react to everything, you can exist a god at footsies, simply if you tin't, you'll find that you take to rely on your power to read your opponent in order to give yous the actress time you demand to play footsies well. Later on all, some people volition be more aggressive, some less aggressive, some better at reacting and some less skilful at it. It's like playing poker at a very, very high speed, since in every fraction of a second you lot're making new decisions: Attacking or non attacking, staying at range or going closer/further, and and then on.

If that wasn't enough to twist your encephalon into knots, consider how difficult information technology is to detect bluffs in loftier-speed poker; that is, players will oft be doing things to trick you into overextending yourself. Sentry whatever high-level fighting game matches and y'all'll see them walk back and forth rapidly — they're speedily dancing in and out of range to bait the other player into, say, starting a fireball because they think information technology's safe when information technology's not, or pressing standing light kick at a range where it'due south dangerous to throw a fireball in the hopes that y'all'll react, call back they're throwing a fireball, and spring in for a counter-assault (which will then become Dragon Punched). Basically, once you've learned what yous're supposed to exist doing (knocking your opponent down) yous have to call up near how to make it expect like y'all're going for a sweep and so that your opponent will effort to sweep you, and so on. Mind games!

Once you lot become the knockdown, y'all can become for a crossup jump kicking into some upward-close shenanigans, or you tin throw a jab fireball that is timed to striking them right when they stand up and immediately follow information technology with a heavy fireball — which starts a classic fireball-Dragon Punch trap that SF veteran David Sirlin describes in affiliate i ofPlaying To Win style amend than I can, and then get read information technology.

Fleshing out the Fighting game design skeleton

Everything you lot've read about then far has been the essence of the modern second fighting game; the core upon which everything else is built. By itself, it is perfect — even meliorate than Chess, perhaps, since Chess requires one player to move kickoff. But it's not quite so piece of cake to sell Ryu vs. Ryu: The Game, and so instead we have not-Ryu characters and not-Super Turbo games to flesh out that core skeleton.

Ken, of course, is a tweaked Ryu; in Super Turbo, he has a high-damaging throw (the "articulatio genus fustigate" ) that gives him a lot of options after he finishes it, and a Dragon Dial that has more invincibility frames, less recovery, and more horizontal range, plus a few different kicks that give him more varied footsies options. However, his fireball doesn't travel every bit apace or recover as speedily as Ryu's, making information technology harder for him to pressure level opponents at far range or hold up against sustained fireball pressure from characters with faster fireballs. Also, Ken's hurricane kick doesn't knock downwardly on hitting, meaning you don't become an easy mixup later on comboing into it.

The sum of these combinations typically make Ken a better grapheme for less-patient players looking to easily punish jump-ins and use knockdowns as opportunities to land throws. If you play a few hours of Ryu vs. Ryu and find your best success with shut-in force per unit area games, requite Ken a shot.

On paper, Guile might appear to exist very similar to Ryu; he has 1 move that's good for beating jump-ins (wink kick) and a projectile (sonic smash) that'southward good for pressure. Guile recovers ridiculously chop-chop from throwing his sonic boom, only it travels rather slowly, and in gild to perform the sonic boom, the Guile player needs to "charge" dorsum (hold dorsum or down-back on the joystick) for a moment, then press frontward and dial.

So Guile tin't win a fireball state of war with Ryu or Sagat, and he can't quite freely motility effectually the screen considering a skilful Guile player needs to e'er be belongings down-dorsum on the joystick to continue a sonic nail or flash kick at the gear up. Much of the time, this means that Guile needs to use his low-recovery sonic boom to close the distance; if Guile can walk behind his sonic boom, he's basically covered past a shield.

Ryu_guile

Guile can employ his low-recovery Sonic Nail to cover his approach.

If Ryu blocks that Sonic Boom, Guile is in range to throw; if Ryu throws a fireball of his own, the two projectiles will abolish out, merely Guile can hit Ryu out of his late fireball recovery with his spinning backfist (toward + HP). In curt, Guile's graphic symbol design is a combination of his moves' backdrop (low-speed, low-recovery projectile) and the actual concrete inputs, which restrict the thespian'southward freedom of movement (the charging mechanic).

And then on, and then on, for Balrog and Dee Jay and Blanka and the residue of the cast. Pretty much every character must have a different answer to the question: "What exercise I do when Ryu throws a fireball at me?" Some characters accept excellent options for dealing with fireballs, only aren't and then dangerous in one case they get in. Other characters have relatively bad options, only if they do make it, you're in trouble.

And it doesn't terminate there. Each subsequent Street Fighter game sets up the Ryu fireball threat differently: The Alpha serial makes yous piece of work harder to find openings, since yous have more than defensive options, but give you lot more tools to put together higher-harm combos. Street Fighter III pretty much got rid of the fireball-DP dynamic birthday by introducing the Parry system, which basically makes fireballs close to worthless — and and then Street Fighter IV took office of that and fabricated it weaker with Focus Attacks to make fireballs worthwhile only not game-defining. SNK's King of Fighters introduced the short hop, dodge, and ringlet systems to give players more options for getting effectually fireballs (each of which, of course, have their own corresponding weaknesses likewise). Heck, we tin even remember of the Vs. serial (Curiosity vs. Capcom and such) as asking the question, "Well, what if Ryu throws a fireball at me in a two-on-ii or 3-on-three tag lucifer?"

In case you were wondering: This is most likely why in practically every 2D fighting game always, (okay, an exaggeration — merely a LOT of fighting games) the "main character" for the game — the one that the first player starts out highlighting at the graphic symbol select screen — possesses a like fireball/DP moveset. That way you tin start learning the game by playing Ryu, see what moves and systems the game gives you to deal with the fireball/DP problem, and begin to build an understanding of that particular game's pattern and mechanics based on what you know near Super Turbo.

Congratulations: That's everything you need to know well-nigh Street Fighter! Well, not really, just information technology'south plenty to get started. I'm going to give you a little fleck of homework: Go discover a friend and play Ryu vs. Ryu for an hour or two, and and so come back and read some more.

Download the total version of From Masher to Master: The Educated Video Game Enthusiast's Fighting Game Primer from Shoryuken.com