Sony Japan RULES

11:23 Japan Standard Time.  My broken PS3 comes back only 3 days after having a fatal Blu Ray Drive Error.  They sent a courier to my house to pick it up, and drop it off.  Not only did they re-package everything beautifully as though it was brand new, they decided to send me a brand new Sixaxis controller.  I am really surprised at how great the experience with their warranty was, completely hassle free.

If I had an Xbox360 I probably would have had to wait a couple weeks at least.

How to Practice EFFECTIVELY

My PS3 is dead.  I got the code of death, 80010514.  Game over, until my Sony Japan warranty goes through.

Doesn't mean the blog is finished.  I'm here with an installment regarding practice.

Every modern street fighter game has a training mode, all are useful but only if used with a purpose and used correctly.  I'm going to help with that purpose, and the rest is up to you.  A well known player, Julien Beasley (tea-hawk.blogspot.com), has his own ideas about practicing, namely how many repetitions of a move to do to get your muscle memory trained.  Although I agree with him in many ways and of course believe that reptitions are the best thing to do, there are some mental things that most guides to improvement don't address.

Set a goal.  What do you want to do, and when do you want to do it by?  Be realistic.  If you're trying to learn Magneto's ROM infinite in Marvel it's not going to happen immediately.  There isn't a rush, these games have been played and will be played for years and years to come.

"Anything worth doing well is worth doing poorly" -  When a new game comes out, or if you're picking up an old game, or even a new character there are undoubtedly things that you will need to learn.  You must be perseverant and not lose sight of your goals, if you want to put in the time to be great, you have to suck (relatively speaking) first.  Street Fighter IV has been a big eye opener for a lot of players, everything is different in this game some even saying that execution is more difficult than in other games.  Don't get discouraged and beat yourself up, even if you're practicing El Fuerte's RSF, you will eventually be able to do it.  There is nobody watching you, there's nobody laughing, fucking up a combo a hundred times won't make your penis smaller.

There's a saying as well, time waits for no man.  Your execution will not improve by watching match videos, it will only improve by putting in the time at training mode or during matches if you're not worried about trying new tactics.  You won't get better by osmosis, wasting time, drinking beer, smoking pot etc... if you want to get better at Street Fighter you have to GET BETTER AT STREET FIGHTER.  PERIOD.  Watching Match videos is ok, but only to analyze and only after playing yourself.  With the relatively good netcode for things like GGPO, 2DF, SFIV, HD Remix you can get in games any time even without a console.

Don't stop training.  Wade Boggs used to go out every day for batting practice, though it can easily be seen that he had a natural talent.  If he went out there every day during his career for practice, why wouldn't you?  The best players keep themselves sharp by practicing and playing, the top Japanese players like Tokido practice 10 hours a day!  It's going to come down to your level of commitment how good you can become.

Theory fighter is just that, theory.  A street fighter player with poor execution is going to be in a tough spot in match, where that one mistimed shoryu or "ghetto" version of a combo can cost you the match, the round, and maybe even the tournament.

Let me know what you think.

Regarding El Fuerte- Advice Part 1

Sup guys.  

Today I wanted to start my "Advice" postings for all of you to level up.  Now you might ask what qualification do I have to give out advice, well... I've been playing Super Turbo for 15 years and am considered by some as one of the best players on HD Remix for PSN. (Shoryuken.com Best of PSN thread)  I have been playing SFIV in Tokyo for a bit over a month now but am getting the hang of it quickly.

Anyway enough about me, let's talk a little bit about Fuerte.

Pros:

Body Splash can hit as a crossup

Ultra can be used as an anti air and does decent damage

Has a strong punisher in Run Stop Fierce (RSF, Punch Loop, El Fuerte "infinite" etc)

Very tricky and mobile.

Decent Focus Attack

Cons:

Punch Loop is very difficult

Has few decent punish combos besides Punch Loop

Takes a lot of damage quickly (900 stamina)

My main advice to anybody who wants to play Fuerte is that you NEED to learn Punch Loop 100% at least until 5 hits.  It is his most damaging combo, causes dizzy and can do a lot of things for you in terms of wakeups.  If you cannot do the Punch Loop either PRACTICE HARDER or play a different character because you will not get very many wins without it.

That being said lets take a look at what it can do for you:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdmBS7V6DI0  19 Seconds, Tokowa hits Focus Attack 4 reps of RSF and a Slide Kick to bring Ryu down to 50% life.  The Ryu player starts frantically jumping as he knows a couple more hits from Fuerte will stun him and he will likely lose the round.

2:24 Fuerte throws the Ryu player, baits him into wakeup shoryu then lands 2 reps of RSF cancelled into Super for the win.  If there were another match I'm sure the Ryu would think twice before wakeup Shoryu.

After the Ryu player loses, the Rufus player is completely dominated in the first round by Punch Loop.  2 hits after the loop he is dizzy and eats 5 more fierces and a slide trip.  2 combos a wakeup trip and an overhead bring Rufus down to 15% or so.

We see the wakeup uppercut bait again in the next match though he fucks up the combo.  Having such a damaging option at your disposal for one relatively small mistake makes them not want to uppercut as much on wakeup, leading to more crossup opportunities, slide trips, body splash tricks and other thing.  What happens usually when a DP is whiffed?  Sometimes a throw or a short punisher combo maybe topping out at 25%ish, with a good Fuerte that punishment becomes around the neighborhood of 40+% with an incredible stun percentage and no use of meter to boot!  What about characters like Akuma, Seth (console, human select), Chun etc who have low stun meters/life meters or both?  Their lifebars get OBLITERATED.

Another way to connect it that I didn't mention yet is the focus attack.  Fuerte's is relatively quick.  Think about it this way, when most characters focus what do they do?  They will attempt an Ultra or some large SADC combo, this usually does around 40%ish at most (for Gief a bit more obviously) Fuerte has this option but his other option costs NO METER allowing one to save EX meter for Runs, Air Grab, Super or in the case of Ultra as anti air.

You NEED this combo.  Unfortunately it is probably the hardest in the game, discovered so far, to learn.  Theory fighter and Street Fighter are two very different things.

That's all for now, I hope I convinced some people to hit up training mode.   I'll be doing another installment of El Fuerte advice as well as some other characters I want to cover.

My next article will regard practicing and mindset.

Japanese Version PS3 Street Fighter IV Released!

I GOT MINE, DID YOU GET YOURS?

Feb 12, 10 AM Japan Standard Time.

The only issue for me is I can't read Japanese so options and online is trial and error.

Thoughts on Characters

I've currently been giving M. Bison a try, and man does he have some of the best normals in the game.  Standing MK will hit over a lot of pokes, standing hard kick is godlike.  It will trade or beat any jump in, nasty range and comes out extremely fast.  It will beat hurricane kicks, and standing (not wakeup) crossups.  I would have to say it's an even more brainless anti air than balrog crouch fierce.  clp is as fast as Balrog and Sagats as well so maybe I can get out of poke strings.  Low strong is fast and will hit a lot of stuff.

He plays a lot like A2 Bison, where he can whiff the devils reverse a lot and build up meter, just hang out at midscreen or farther away and turtle up.  The only thing that is really a weakness is the Psycho Crusher.  It does a fair amount of chip, but it's slow and the priority on the non-ex versions seems really bad, I would much rather have his fireball than that.

Can't wait to try him out at Shibuya Sports!  

Smoking in Arcades and You!

Some of you might know that smoking is allowed in Japanese arcades (Game Center in Japanese) but might not know how bad it really is.  At the vast majority of arcades, a great number of people smoke.  These players don't just smoke a couple cigarettes throughout the course of a night, a lot of these players smoke a cigarette between turns on the machine, and leave the cigarette burning in the ashtray during the match, taking drags between rounds.

How can this affect you?  Quite negatively if you're not a smoker I'd assume.  Personally, I don't believe that a couple nights a week of second hand smoke are going to lead to lung cancer, but the fact is that it will dry out your throat, make your eyes red, and make you smell as though you've been smoking all night.  A small arcade is a lot like a cigar club, but its worth it for the competition.

What you can do:

Start smoking-  probably not the best idea, but if you want to be a jittery nervous mess and plan to stay in Japan go for it.  You'll always be able to smoke at the arcades and pachinko halls.

Personally I am considering puffing on a cigar so that if I am having to take in smoke I might as well look ballin.

Get a cheap medical mask-  These are sold all over japan as a kind of way to stop the spread of colds.  I haven't yet used one but I'd assume it cuts down on the crap in the air pretty well.

Bring an orange-  That's what Johnny Chan used to do at WSOP before the smoking ban!

Take a breath between matches- Simple and probably good for you, though there will be people smoking on street corners almost everywhere in Japan.

My best advice though would probably be to keep yourself hydrated.  A dry throat the next day and a bit of a cough are no fun.  If it gets really bad, bring some throat lozenges/cough drops.