Author: Lance "Tarnot" Hood

Persona’s latest King of Fighters XIII combo video features a lengthy collection of combos from the series’ resident Judo practitioner, Goro Daimon. These strings maximize the fighter’s damage output in many situations, from all sorts of opening attacks.

Though the damage is understandably high throughout much of this footage, there aren’t that many touch of death options shown off–only one makes it into the video, actually. This is a huge difference from characters like Shen Woo, who also received the Persona treatment last month and was able to put down opponent after opponent with only a handful of precision strikes.

Chances are that you’ve never seen Daimon fight quite like this before, but that only makes the video that much sweeter. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Source: Persona

Cody’s overhead in Ultra Street Fighter IV has some unexpected properties. It’s pretty easy to punish on block, some characters can punish it on hit–under specific circumstances–and it gains an increased amount of frame advantage when it hits against standing opponents. Combine these with the fact that it’s slower than most overheads, hits twice, and has some insane reach, and you’ve got a button that honestly feels unique in a world where overhead normals are rather common.

But what do you do with all of this information? GroundedSF took the time to break down this attack in a quick video that demonstrates all of these properties as well as situations where they’ll come into play. Some of the more important applications involve noting when the move connects with a standing opponent and then following that up with any number of links that lead into high damage. Many of these situations involve (multiple) one-frame links, but most combos out of overheads involve similarly tight execution; Dudley, Ibuki, and Evil Ryu all come to mind.

If you’re thinking that an overhead won’t often connect with a standing opponent for some very obvious reasons, you’d be correct. Do remember, though, that the move hits twice, making it a decently-ranged armor breaking normal that, while slow, will shut down focus attacks and net a counter-hit, allowing for even more damage potential.

For more in-depth Cody technology, check out GroundedSF’s previous video that focuses on the properties of Ruffian Kick and Criminal Upper.

Source: GroundedSF

It’s no question that Smug of Team PIE and Fukuoka Gamers Club’s Pepeday are two of the most popular players in the Ultra Street Fighter IV scene right now. And it’s easy to see why as soon as either of them enters a match: they both know their characters and their matchups incredibly well and rely heavily on speed, mobility, and mix-up options to set the pace and keep the momentum in their favor–an approach that lends itself more to hype back-and-forth sets than calm and calculated footsie-heavy play.

When you take two players like this and put them up against each other in an exhibition, the resulting matches are not only exciting to watch, but do an excellent job showing just how important maintaining momentum can be, whether it’s in a single round, over a whole match, or throughout an entire set. This constant tug of war makes every round exciting because as soon as one of the players exerts dominance, there’s a good chance that they’ll continue to rack up a few more rounds in their favor.

If you didn’t catch this set when it was broadcast live from Northeast Championships 15, you missed out on what may be one of the most frantic Ultra Street Fighter IV matches of the year. Check it out below if you want to see what the hype is all about or possibly just experience it all over again.

For full results, as well as plenty more information surrounding last weekend’s Northeast Championships 15, head over to our coverage hub.

Source: Team Spooky

As we’ve seen recently, Ultra Street Fighter IV taunts sometimes have more applications than just provoking opponents into acting without thinking. It seems that Sakura can now count herself among those with additional applications of taunt thanks to this safe jump trick from BGCallisto.

Pick your favorite taunt–it seems to work with all of them–and hit the battlefield ready to bait some reversals like never before! On top of being a wonderfully reliable safe jump, this setup, which follows a two-hit Sakura Otoshi, uses a taunt to space out the frames before hitting the skies. Once the taunt moves to jump-cancelable frames, Sakura can hop in and keep up the pressure.

Until this circulates more, there’s a good chance that opponents won’t expect this jump to actually be safe. Also, since taunts sometimes draw out aggressive tendencies, you can be ready to punish those reversals.

Source: BGCallisto

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS’ Mii Fighters still haven’t crossed over into the realm of legality in some tournament settings, and for many players that means that they might as well not be in the game at all. Why waste time on something that you can’t use to get that fight money, right? Whether its the potential for added set up time before matches can begin or the troubles that surround having to normalize the size of “custom” characters whose height affects hurtboxes, weight, and damage output, the response to some current tournament rulings for these combatants has drawn mixed responses.

All legal issues aside, HermitHelmet has still taken the time to figure out and compile some options for two variants of these fighters–the Brawler and the Gunner–that could make them quite a bit scarier once (or if) they hit the tournament scene.

The first video involves some added mobility to the Mii Brawler’s Shot Put special, while the second covers added movement options for the Mii Gunner, including increased jump height, a backwards slide involving the forward air, and a couple of other interesting mechanics manipulations that should help make your Gunner even harder to pin down.

Source: HermitHelmet via Smash Boards

Indo Imran recently put together a collection of Blanka Red Focus combos that could stand to give the Brazilian fighter an edge in future Ultra Street Fighter IV matches once the tech catches on with a wider swathe of players. In a similar vein, the Red Focus enthusiast has released another collection of combos that center around the mechanic, this time with Chun-Li as the star of the show.

In stark contrast to most Chun combo videos, you won’t find leg loop after leg loop in this footage, which is a nice change of pace. Instead, the combos involve EX Red Focus cancels from Kikokens to push the hit counter, as well as the damage and stun numbers, up several notches. This helps to keep execution at more reasonable levels as well so that the combos may actually be useful outside of training mode.

But, there’s a catch. While the options are undeniably flashy, the damage numbers take a huge hit thanks to the scaling involved. These combos stand as yet another excellent example of how the Red Focus mechanic’s uses can be rather limited outside of the elite few who actually gain substantial damage from its use. However, they’re still a great way to close out a match in style.

Source: Indo Imran

Option selects can be difficult to add to your approach in Street Fighter, but that doesn’t change their importance. Making a hard read is always good, but sometimes it’s just easier to throw a bunch of information at the game and let it pick the best outcome based on the situation at hand. In his last tutorial video, Momochi of Evil Geniuses covered some basic strategies with Ryu, which naturally included some fundamental option selects.

In his newest tutorial, Momochi dives deeper into the subject with more advanced applications and expands the roster of characters that he covers well beyond Ryu. Yun, Ken, and even his previous main Cody make the cut, showing off how they can best use this mechanic to their advantage.

Option select sweeps, standing strongs, crouching forwards, and other choices expand upon the concept of option selecting and will hopefully help players struggling with applying this tool to their own character figure out some applicable moves.

Source: Momochi & ChocoBlanka TV

Last week, we featured Michael Galardi’s return to the world of YouTube-based Street Fighter guides. This return came in the form of an in-depth tutorial centered around Ultra Street Fighter IV’s Sakura–a character that Galardi had released a generous amount of content for in the past. Today’s video, however, shifts the focus over to Abel and his matchup against Guile and shows that he will be expanding the All Things series to cover a host of characters.

Many of the tips are applicable outside of this matchup: kara Tornado Throws and Ultra 1 uses apply to plenty of characters, as do a few other bits and pieces throughout the footage. There are plenty of Guile-specific tips as well, things like how to punish his sweep as well as tons of footsie options to handle some of the soldier’s go-to buttons in the neutral game, setups to beat Flash Kicks, and the best ways to handle trade situations.

If you’re new to Abel or just looking to brush up on the character, this video has a lot to offer.

Source: Michael Galardi

In his latest character tutorial, Bafael explores how to optimize various situations as Poison in Ultra Street Fighter IV. This guide differs in style from what you’re probably used to seeing, but I think it works just as well if not better than a more standard structure.

In the video, Bafael shows a handful of basic situations and the way that he’s seen plenty of Poison players handle each of them. He then demonstrates different options that net better results, be it due to positioning, damage, meter expenditure, or a combination of other factors. These situations include different anti-air options, new takes on how to combo into her Ultra, and a whole lot more. If you’re looking to step up your Poison, this is a great place to get some ideas.

Bafael has also included a fully-typed description of what’s going on in every scenario given to assist in the learning process.

If you enjoy this style of tutorial video, Bafael has released tons of other content ranging from character tutorials to mechanics breakdowns. Follow this link to check them out!

Source: Bafael

We’ve all been there: barely visible health, no meter to speak of, back to the side of an old temple or the outside of a drive-in on a Friday night with a rock opera-loving dude who has no business in a suit that tight winding up an EX Messiah Kick to send us packing thanks to chip damage. It’s a mouthful, but it happens.

Chipping out an opponent with an EX Messiah isn’t an inherently bad tactic; the move deals great damage through their block and is pretty fast, too. But there are ways around it that might not seem very reasonable when we’re staring death in the face.

This quick clip from Macro Micro Games’ Carolyn Dao shows team member Julio using Yun’s focus attack to absorb the first hit of this physics-defying move before dashing out of the corner to punish the overzealous Rufus. This tactic certainly isn’t going to change the way that we fight against Rufus every time we face off against him, but it may give pause to the Rufus player itching to get the match over with so they can go dive kick someone else.

Source: Carolyn Dao