Branflakes Online

Haven’t been here for a while.  I was doing so well posting at least once per month until 2011 rolled around.  January is always pretty busy for me, so that’s my excuse for that month.  February… well February was when Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 was released.  Hooray for mashfest!  I actually don’t really like the game that much.  I suppose it’s fun and flashy and all, but when people say it’s “too easy”, I have to agree with them.  Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 was way harder execution wise.  Seriously, my execution in the Marvel series is such trash.  Okay, maybe my execution isn’t TRASH trash, but it’s no where near top player level.  It’s more like intermediate level… if that.  So for an intermediate player like me, you’d think that I could maybe do 50% damage or so with an opening.  You know, something similar to MvC2.  Nope, not the case.  I can do pretty much 75-100% with an opening.  I’m not tooting my own horn here, my execution is balls, it’s just that MvC3 is just too easy.  If you don’t believe it, you’re an idiot.  I’m sorry, you just are.

Sentinel.  X-Factor.  Profit.

So after about a month of playing all MvC3 and trophy whoring, I’m back to “work” and playing SSF4 again.  Horrible, HORRIBLE first hour with the game.  I was dropping combos left and right.  But now, I think I’m sort of back into the groove after playing 3-4 hours worth.  Unfortunately, there were no good players online tonight.  Maybe they’re all playing MvC3   In any case, here’s the rundown:

Dudley: got randomed out really early by a Dudley.  He was jumping in on me all day with the elbow and j.fp.  I’m not sure if c.mp works for all of Dudley’s jump ins, so I never attempted it.  I’ll have to get into training mode to test that out.  It looks as if some of Dudley’s air attacks hit pretty low, to a point where Chun’s c.mp won’t work.  I’ll see though.  Other than that, pretty standard fair.  Solid close game with c.lp linking into s.hk.  Seems that if you just sit there and block and look for the tech, there’s not much else he can really do to you.  It’s more difficult when he starts throwing in overheads.  I’m not sure if it’s the right strategy, but I treat him exactly as I treat Rog – throw Kikokens and s.hp when he gets airborne.  Watch for his ducking when at mid-range.

Ken: not sure why there’s a huge surge of Ken players.  Maybe they all heard he’s better in AE and wanna get a head start?  Or maybe they’re all scrubs.  In any case, nothing really new here either.  Chun’s c.mp doesn’t really work on Ken’s j.hk.  Not worth the risk at least.  Anti-air with s.mk and df.lk as usual.  S.fp anti-air works well from a distance.  I’m starting to use that one a lot more than I used to.  It’s good with proper timing.  Try to stay out of the corner against Ken.  His f.mk and c.mk can keep you locked in there pretty good.  Which reminds me, I need a lot of practice against Rufus.  Where the hell are the Rufus players?

E. Honda (not Rufus): this guy is pretty simple.  The theme for the night seemed to be throw Kikokens and anti-air when they jump.  It really didn’t stray too far away from that strategy all night – especially not against Honda.  Abusive online butt-stomps got me a few times, but it seems that if you backdash before the first hit or even after blocking the first hit, you can avoid the second hit and punish accordingly.  Backdashing obviously won’t work in the corner, so I think forward dash will work in that situation, but I have to try it out to be sure.  It makes sense since when Honda does butt-stomp, he’s almost always above you.  Your chances of backdashing or forward dashing out from under him seems pretty good.  Maybe not forward dash since you don’t have invincibility frames… definitely going to have to test that one out.  And maybe not when Honda does a low lk butt-stomp.  Training mode tomorrow for sure.  Being in the corner against Honda sucks.  He can sit there on down-back and wait for you to do something.  Pretty bad situation to be in so just don’t get there.

That’s it for now.  I forgot how late it can get when playing SSF4.  I swear I can play forever.  What I didn’t forget was how BAD I play at this hour.

I’m so freeeeeee!

This is quite possibly the last post of 2010. Its been a good year for SF – actually, its been a good year for fighting games in general. I honestly couldn’t be happier with the quantity and quality of the current fighters. 2011 looks like it might even be a better year than 2010 with the releases of Marvel vs Capcom 3, Mortal Kombat 9, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, SSF4 Arcade Edition… and more big games I’m sure I’m forgetting.

For the record, I believe the Mortal Kombat series is complete garbage from a competitive standpoint. It was garbage before and it’ll still be garbage when MK9 is released. I’d put money on MK9 being just as unbalanced and broken as any of the previous iterations in the series. Too much focus on “cool” shit, like circular saws to the nuts. Too little focus on balance and gameplay.

But I’ll still play it and probably enjoy it.

Another night of online play, another shit load of lessons learned.  Here’s today’s lessons.

C. Viper – This is supposed to be a bad matchup for Chun-Li and I can really feel why.  It might be my lack of experience against Viper players, or just the matchup in general, but I’m totally missing something here.  It feels like Kikoken is totally unsafe as Seismo can go right threw it for way more damage.  Even worse than that, Viper can super jump over Kikokens into full combo.  I end up neutral jumping a lot in this match which is something I should probably stay away from.  What seemed to have worked is wake up pressure.  I’m not sure if it’s 100% safe, but meaty c.mk on Viper’s wake up seemed to work really well.  I’ll have to try it out in training against Seismo, EX Seismo, all Thunder Knuckles, Super, Ultra… yeah basically everything Viper has.  I’ll also have to try out a variation of a safe jump.  Regular safe jump after a front throw doesn’t work out too well, so I’ll have to try an empty jump and option select throw+c.mk as soon as I land.  Didn’t really learn much tonight, I guess, just found a few things to try out.

Cody – I really have no good match up experience here, so I was happy to get some Cody matches in tonight.  I was having a lot of trouble with his normals and specials as everything seemed safe.   Low and behold, after checking frame data, it seems that most of his normals ARE safe.  In fact, most of his normals were actually plus frames ON BLOCK.  All his punches are plus frames on block except his hard punches.  But even then, his far s.hp is only -3 on block and his c.hp is only -1 on block.  No wonder the guy was using it as a frame trap.  His specials aren’t really that safe but Cody is usually too far to punish after block anyway.  Once you get used to not falling for false openings, this match up isn’t too bad.  I’m not sure that Cody has any wake up anti-air moves that hit directly above, so staying on him with cross ups worked well.  That or the Cody player was a dumb ass… that I lost to a bunch of times.  Haha.

Sagat – Not really much to report here other than I seemed to play better using Kikosho rather than Housenka here.  It’s crazy, I know, but I always play too defensive when using Housenka.  Maybe I need to change my state of mind when using Housenka.  I should try using it like I use Kikosho rather than as always looking for the anti-Tiger Shot ultra.

Balrog (Boxer) – I didn’t play any good Boxer’s tonight, but I did play a few mediocre ones.  Even though they weren’t that great, I feel like I’ve FINALLY got this match up down.  It’s not supposed to be disadvantageous for Chun but I’ve been having trouble here for the longest time.  I never trusted s.hp as an anti-air and I really, REALLY, should have.  Trading on it is fine… doesn’t happen that often anyway.  Neckbreaker the wake up headbutts, focus the dash punches, throw the EX dash punches, s.hp the jump ins, kikoken the rest… easy right?  We’ll see when I get a competent Rog.

That’s it for tonight.  Lots of matches and lots of losses.  Awesome.  Gotta work on frame trap mix up.