The Art of Street Fighting

I was never really interested in the online gameplay on Street Fighter Turbo II HD Remix. The number one reason was because Dhalsim and Balrog players easily abused their throws. These characters had throws which involved grabbing, smacking them around, then giving them one more blow which knocked them away. What they do is give you a light attack, forcing you to block, then repeat their throw. That was a realy turn off. If I was going to be beaten, I prefer someone with some skill, not someone who duct taped his controller to throw constantly.

But in SFIV, things have been rectified. There are no throws like this. Wake-up attacks are more reliable too, and throws can be escaped in my experience. The point of all this is that online competition for Street Fighter doesn't scare me as much as before. Now that I've played it online, I've gotten a reall good look at myself and at others. Pardon my long windedness, but here it goes...

First of all, my characters are Dhalsim or El Fuerte, both representing different play styles. As Dhalsim, I play defensively, shooting fireballs, reaching across with his stretching heavy punch, and generally taking a slow and thoughtful approach to countering my opponent or setting them up for another attack. Particularly, I've gotten used to teleporting right behind my opponent while my fireball is still on one side.

On the other hand, nearly all of El Fuerte's attacks come out of his dash special, making him a very mobile (and annoying) opponent. Run then body slam, run back then rebound and slide kick, or run back and jump and rebound off the wall and do a flying elbow. That's just the tip, but the point is it's very hard to tell how El Fuerte can mix up his attacks. They all have different hit boxes so it'll be a pain for the opponent to correctly defend against.

So that ends the rant on my side, but it's interesting what kind of players I meet online to fight against. Some are deadly and skilled, while others are surprisingly bad and predictable. I guess I'll talk about it some other post.