Author: James "Bafael" Maule

In light of Ultra Street Fighter IV‘s inclusion in digital pre-orders of the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, I’ve decided to dedicate some time to examining the most slept-on online-capable Street Fighter title: Street Fighter IV: Omega Mode. Packaged as a free alternate version within the edition select of USFIV, Omega uses leftover game files, recycled taunts, and repurposed animations to completely change each character’s toolset; it’s essentially a completely new and unique Street Fighter title built within SFIV’s engine, with an entirely different balance philosophy than Ultra.

Omega was not popular at release due to some easy infinite combos — not to mention players’ interest in Ultra as a more serious, competitive game. I personally think Omega went woefully unexplored for being an extremely interesting venture, and I’ve started a series where I document each character’s Omega changes, and then show off some basic optimal combos.

This week I’m looking at Rose and Sagat. Rose’s defensive options were overhauled, with a new counter and invincible reversal, but a significantly nerfed backdash. She has a new special move that works something like a single-hit Aegis Reflector also gained the ability to combo Super into Ultra, giving her powerful burst damage. Sagat has a new special move based on his Tiger Raid from the Street Fighter Alpha series, and his combo routes have almost totally changed due to significant buffs to his normals, including a new target combo. It seems more emphasis has been placed on his elbow and knee-based normals, giving him a bit more of a Muay Thai flair. Both characters feel very similar in spirit to their Ultra versions, though they offer new bells and whistles through their gameplay.

Click here for a playlist of all Street Fighter IV: Omega videos I’ve released thus far. I’ll add future videos to this playlist as I finish them.

I plan to go through the entire roster over time, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!

In light of Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection‘s release, I’ve been bombarded with requests to do some Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike character tutorials. It warms my heart to think that people want to learn my favorite title in the franchise even twenty years down the line, so I’m only happy to oblige. My latest video is on Ken, who is probably the most-played character both casually and competitively. Ken is very strong in this game, generally agreed to be the third best character overall. Many of his tools, such as his target combo and air EX Tatsumaki, have become signatures of his toolset in later games, so 3rd Strike could be considered Ken’s breakout game.

This video is part of a series of Street Fighter III character tutorials, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!

Here’s my previous SF3 character guide, for Ryu.

Check out these guides to 3rd Strike system mechanics, as well:

• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial roundup – Anti-air, okizeme, juggles, and piano inputs
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial roundup — Parries & taunts

In light of Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection‘s release, I’ve been bombarded with requests to do some Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike character tutorials. It warms my heart to think that people want to learn my favorite title in the franchise even twenty years down the line, so I’m only happy to oblige. My latest video is on Ken, who is probably the most-played character both casually and competitively. Ken is very strong in this game, generally agreed to be the third best character overall. Many of his tools, such as his target combo and air EX Tatsumaki, have become signatures of his toolset in later games, so 3rd Strike could be considered Ken’s breakout game.

This video is part of a series of Street Fighter III character tutorials, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!

Here’s my previous SF3 character guide, for Ryu.

Check out these guides to 3rd Strike system mechanics, as well:

• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial roundup – Anti-air, okizeme, juggles, and piano inputs
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial roundup — Parries & taunts

In light of Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection‘s release, I’ve been bombarded with requests to do some Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike character tutorials. It warms my heart to think that people want to learn my favorite title in the franchise even twenty years down the line, so I’m only happy to oblige. My latest video is on Ken, who is probably the most-played character both casually and competitively. Ken is very strong in this game, generally agreed to be the third best character overall. Many of his tools, such as his target combo and air EX Tatsumaki, have become signatures of his toolset in later games, so 3rd Strike could be considered Ken’s breakout game.

This video is part of a series of Street Fighter III character tutorials, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!

Here’s my previous SF3 character guide, for Ryu.

Check out these guides to 3rd Strike system mechanics, as well:

• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial roundup – Anti-air, okizeme, juggles, and piano inputs
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial roundup — Parries & taunts

Cody Travers has returned in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition under the new mantle of Mayor of Metro City. Although Cody is a series veteran and was previously playable in Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Ultra Street Fighter IV, his normals have been almost completely overhauled, while his special moves have been redesigned and repurposed. Additionally, his V-Triggers are completely new, and add many additional special moves. He seems to reference his Final Fight toolset moreso than his previous Street Fighter incarnations — though he feels versatile and strong. I’ve put together this guide of his most essential combo routes, so that players can quickly learn the basics and start developing their neutral game. Here are your best bread-and-butter combos that I’ve found for every common scenario. This video features anti-airs, punishes, confirms, counter-hit combos, crush counter combos, juggles, and more.

This Cody bread-and-butter video is not the full Cody tutorial I’m working on, but rather simply a guide to his basic optimal combo routes. The combos are all my own findings, alongside a few things I’ve observed from other players. Although Cody is technically a returning character, he’s been almost completely reconstructed, and he has multiple similar combo routes with huge potential for okizeme and V-meter optimization. Thus, I wholeheartedly encourage anyone watching to point out superior combo enders and combo routes in the comments, for both me and the other players, so that I can amend them into the final video when I release it!

Remember to subscribe to the Shoryuken channel so you don’t miss any of the awesome upcoming SFVAE content.

In light of Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection‘s release, I’ve been bombarded with requests to do some Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike character tutorials. It warms my heart to think that people want to learn my favorite title in the franchise even twenty years down the line, so I’m only happy to oblige. I’ve started with Ryu, as he’s a strong character in the engine and one of the most popular — though I expect I’ll prepare a similar video for most of the cast.

This video is the first in a series of Street Fighter III character tutorials, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!

Check out these guides to 3rd Strike system mechanics, as well:

• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial roundup – Anti-air, okizeme, juggles, and piano inputs
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial roundup — Parries & taunts

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection has just released, and I’ve been getting endless requests to do some tutorials for my area of expertise: Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Despite being almost twenty years-old, 3rd Strike is probably more popular now than it has ever been in the past — largely due to the massive influx of new players since 2008, as well as its cult following, and its endurance in Japanese arcades. In light of the new release, I’ve prepared a few guides to help new players get into the old engine.

The first of my two guides is a tutorial on parries. Parries are the signature mechanic of the SFIII series, and they add an enormous amount of depth to the game despite being very simple to understand and use on the surface. Parries lead to a lot of extremely interesting scenarios that aren’t really possible (or frequent) in other Street Fighter games, so I wanted to help players learn how to use them properly. I know a lot of new players are turned off by parries, since they often magnify the skill gap between new and longtime players, but despite their reputation they’re really not that hard to use well. Additionally, they give SFIII a very high skill ceiling, which means players will always have room to further develop, even two decades after the game’s release.

My other guide is on “Personal Actions”, i.e. taunts. Unlike other Street Fighter titles, all taunts in Street Fighter III have practical effects which enhance the way each character plays. Some taunts are so useful that they form the core of how the character plays. Others are completely unusable in any competitive scenario! It’s good to know the effects of one’s own taunt, plus one’s opponents’ taunts, so this video should be quite helpful for all prospective SFIII players. I tried to focus on the most practical components of each.

I’ve got many other Street Fighter III primers in the works, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!

Check out the prior batch, if you missed it:
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tutorial roundup – Anti-air, okizeme, juggles, and piano inputs

In light of Ultra Street Fighter IV‘s inclusion in digital pre-orders of the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, I’ve decided to dedicate some time to examining the most slept-on online-capable Street Fighter title: Street Fighter IV: Omega Mode. Packaged as a free alternate version within the edition select of USFIV, Omega uses leftover game files, recycled taunts, and repurposed animations to completely change each character’s toolset; it’s essentially a completely new and unique Street Fighter title built within SFIV’s engine, with an entirely different balance philosophy than Ultra.

Omega was not popular at release due to some easy infinite combos — not to mention players’ interest in Ultra as a more serious, competitive game. I personally think Omega went woefully unexplored for being an extremely interesting venture, and I’m starting a series where I document each character’s Omega changes, and then show off some basic optimal combos.

This week I’m looking at Sakura and Cammy. Sakura seems to be an early version of her SFV version, considering changes to her normals and specials, not to mention she has a new special move that’s a prototype of her VTI attack Hogasho. However, it seems that they were throwing all their special move ideas against the wall to see what sticks; her gameplay design is much more unrefined and experimental. Cammy, on the other hand, is almost nothing like her SFV version, with great hooligan abuse to control the neutral and a new special move that functions as a meterless launcher. To me, both characters are extremely fun to play.

Click here for a playlist of all Street Fighter IV: Omega videos I’ve released thus far. I’ll add future videos to this playlist as I finish them.

I plan to go through the entire roster over time, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!

In light of Ultra Street Fighter IV‘s inclusion in digital pre-orders of the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, I’ve decided to dedicate some time to examining the most slept-on online-capable Street Fighter title: Street Fighter IV: Omega Mode. Packaged as a free alternate version within the edition select of USFIV, Omega uses leftover game files, recycled taunts, and repurposed animations to completely change each character’s toolset; it’s essentially a completely new and unique Street Fighter title built within SFIV’s engine, with an entirely different balance philosophy than Ultra.

Omega was not popular at release due to some easy infinite combos — not to mention players’ interest in Ultra as a more serious, competitive game. I personally think Omega went woefully unexplored for being an extremely interesting venture, and I’m starting a series where I document each character’s Omega changes, and then show off some basic optimal combos.

This week’s subjects are Ken and Akuma. Akuma seems to be halfway between his USFIV and SFV versions. He has better versions of his target combos, as well as access to both his old and new EX air fireballs. Ken, on the other hand, is almost nothing like what was delivered in SFV, and is actually more similar to early versions of Street Fighter II, with a special move based on his crazy kicks and a throwback to his shippu jinrai kyaku super art from Street Fighter III. Yet spiritually, I expect players of both characters will feel right at home.

Click here for a playlist of all Street Fighter IV: Omega videos I’ve released thus far. I’ll add future videos to this playlist as I finish them.

I plan to go through the entire roster over time, so subscribe to the ShoryukenTube YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out!