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I never played street fighter until the current iteration (USF4), so I don’t know how similar the gameplay are between each iterations. Does USF4 or SF5 (beta) keep the essence of the street fighter franchise? How does it compare to SF2, SF2 Alpha, and SF3? Were they all different?
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After watching a very long SF history documentary, I’m assuming SF2, SF2 Alpha, and SF3 are the main iterations, right?
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I noticed tons of hype and requests around getting Alex in SF5. I watched some gameplay videos and couldn’t tell what’s so special about him. Now I’m very interested to try him out in the upcoming SF5, and maybe I can understand the hype. For all you SF veterans, why do you want Alex so much?
Alex is the “main character” of SF3. He just looks cool and has a neat moveset.
I want Alex back because he’s my favorite grappler in the series.
As someone who played a lot of SF2 and SFA2, SF5 feels pretty good. USF4 was not my thing, and didn’t feel like SF. Probably more similar to SFA3 with all the combo combo combo combo shit. SF3 I never played more than a few times, and it didn’t feel like SF to me at all, which isn’t a bad thing but that game took the series in a very different direction.
Alex is the main character of III and tends to be a popular pick. But he’s nowhere near the best character in 3rd Strike and you generally won’t see him at tournaments.
Havent seen a real response to these questions.
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The SF games all feel a little different in their feel due to having different technical systems. Fundamentals learned in SF2 will get you quite far in the A1 and A2 but A3 has custom combos and the many offensive options which changes the usefulness of those solid fundamentals. SF3 has parries which completely change the game by making fireballs much less a useful tool, and makes the whole concept of attack/defence personalised and superfluous (parry can nullify all attacks so anything telegraphed can lead to your doom). SF4 is very similar to SF2 and returns to strong projectile wars. SF5 is a whole new bag of tricks because every character has their own technical ability! It should hopefully be a very deep and interesting game.
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SF2 and SF3 still have strong competitive scenes in Japan and internationally. A3 less so now, but it was a strong competition game a while. All other games are pretty much dead. Other big tournament games by Capcom which are kinda dead now - Capcom vs SNK 2, Marvel vs Capcom 2 (but replaced by 3).
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Hes lowish tier in SF3 but is very well designed and fun to play/watch. Hes a fan favourite. Watch Daigo vs KSK. You can feel the love and admiration for his style
Yeah the essence was there in IV and it’s here in V but in a much better way.
Street Fighter IV was heavily influenced by 3rd Strike and ST. They took EX moves and selectable supers from 3rd Strike but left out the “controversial” parry system, normal priority system, and pixel perfect hitboxes.
The focus attack was a replacement/compromise for parries, the Revenge meter/Ultra system was completely new to the game as well as focus cancels and red focus which evolved out of it.
The game has ST style hitboxes (read:imperfect to animation) and harkens back to ST with the fireball/srk game back in full swing.
The problem with IV though is that it never nailed the feel of ST or 3S which was perfect in both games just in different ways. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly but it’s the one major gripe I have with the games. Characters just don’t have natural “weight” to them or feel. Alpha 2 is perfect as well in this area, I don’t understand why IV just isn’t. Normals never feel like they have defined ranges it’s just missing something that like I said is hard to describe.
But yes to answer your question, IV is Street Fighter there’s no question and yes all the games are the same but yet very different even the ones in the same series.
V is a big step in the right direction. From what I played the controls are smoother/less stiff than IV, the speed and flow is better. They lifted the normal priority system from 3S which is fantastic.
The game felt good a lot better than IV but but still wasn’t ST, A2, or 3S good, but it was an early beta were talking Birdie build, so hopefully things got even better but I was happy with what I played.
The most noticeable change with V that was noticeable with me was how easy and smooth pulling off specials and supers was. Not sure what they did there but I really like it.
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This is Street Fighter:
Street Fighter 1: 1987, mostly single player, terrible controls, arguably first true one on one fighting game, but only Ryu and Ken are available in the vs mode. Only play it as a curiosity though it was fairly popular when it came out.
Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior: 1991. Breakthrough video game, created the fighting game genre as we know it today. The game was a smash success. While the gaming industry wasn’t as big as it is today, back then this alongside Mortal Kombat which came a year later were Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto level hits, I.E. the biggest selling and most popular games of their time.
Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition 1992 improved gameplay, balance, new moves, fixed some issues, introduced selectable bosses and allowed two players to use the same guy.
Street Fighter 2’ Hyper Fighting: 1992 introduced speed.
Super Street Fighter 2: 1994. Introduced 4 new characters and lots of new moves/tweaks to the old ones
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: 1994. Added Supers, more changes, speed, and Akuma as a secret boss.
Street Fighter Alpha: 1995. Introduced chain combos, 3 levels of super, air blocking, alpha counters and had a very anime inspired look. Its called Street Fighter Zero in Japan because it’s a prequel and many new characters as well as some redesigned SF1 characters were introduced.
Street Fighter Alpha 2: 1996. BIG improvement over Alpha 1 in every way. Amazing backgrounds and music. 5 new characters. Worth playing today just for the story mode, it’s that good.
Street Fighter III: New Generation. 1996. All new cast. All new gameplay. Parry system introduced. The first SF3 is a bit rough around the edges, ok it’s really rough to play but the new characters were amazing and the parry system had potential. Fun fact: Ryu and Ken were almost completely left out of the game! The team had almost complete creative freedom because of the success of 2 and this was them really flexing their creativity. The animation in this series to this day has never been matched in terms of detail.
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact: 1997:
3 new characters, HUGE gameplay improvement over NG. Remixed backgrounds and music.
Street Fighter Alpha 3: 1998
Very polarizing entry. Some love it others hate it. At the time though it was very well recieved and popular. Radical changes in gameplay, style, music, backgrounds etc.
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike: 1999. 5 new characters, awesome new music and stages. Literally perfect gameplay. This is the high water mark for the series, the peak, and it’s my favorite video game of all time.
You really owe it to yourself to get 3rd Strike and Hyper Fighting on XBLA or PSN for last gen consoles, use Mame for the Alpha games and Super Turbo, and just seriously play through them at least once.
The main games are usually the last in the series (HF, ST, 3S) but with Alpha I think because they are so different both A2 and A3 are each separately worthy of “main” or “best”, depending on your taste.
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I main Alex in 3S (and Q). Alex is incredibly fun to use and I love his design. He’s basically this cross between a Native American, a wrestler, a street fighter. His story is cool. He’s very strong but also a newcomer. He knows about Ryu and is seeking him out.
Gameplay wise he’s total rush down, and interestingly enough a mix of power/pressure and grappler. Not in the same way as Mika, definitely nothing like Hugo/Gief, he’s powerful fast and completely unique.
I can play every character in 3S I chose Alex because IMO he’s the most fun to use.
TL;DR Version:
1: Yes.
2: Play Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting (or Champion Edition), Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 2 or 3 (or both), and Street Fighter 3:3rd Strike, those are the main games.
3: Alex is awesome.
Thank you for all the responses. It’s very interesting to hear from veterans talking about SF. For me, USF4 is THE SF lol. I started USF4 as my first fighting game when it launched on PS4, and I’ve spent ~600 hrs since April… 1 major difference I noticed in SF5 (beta) is that hit confirm is kind of gone now since you can’t link jab into middle or heavy for most characters. I believed a lot of people are happy about that, which is kind of interesting for me.
As a new / casual players, it might be good because things like…
c.lk -> s.lp xx shoryuken FADC ultra1 as Ken
c.lk -> c.lp -> c.mp xx fireball FADC s.hp axe kick combo as E Ryu
can be hard for beginners.
As a veterans, hit confirm and FADC is basically the fundamentals for SF4, right?. They are easy once you learned them. They can be applied to most characters (even from shoto to charge). I recently picked up Decapre (she’s soooo fun btw). Since I can easily do [jab jab xx shoryukan] as ken (my main), I was able to do [jab jab middle punch xx stinger] right away. I was also able to add in FADC for that extra air throw. In a way, I was able to apply the fundamentals I learn (jab jab special and FADC) to different characters and enjoy the game right away.
So… Why do people hate hit confirm and FADC?
P.S. don’t be mad at me if im using the word “fundamental” incorrectly.
I read through the entire thing. Thanks for the thorough explanation. I actually tried out 3rd strike very recently on PS4 stream thingy (the one you rent the game). It’s so different… and i’m really not used to it. Like i mentioned, i played usf4 for 600 hrs this year as the first fighting game ever (I’m currently at about 2500 PP, so not great nor bad). I played both sf5 beta 2 and 3 (like an hr ago), and without fadc and hit confirm, it feels like a brand new game again. However, all veterans seem to like it, so I’m very exciting to learn more about it when it launches.
PS I’ll try out SF2 when i get a time on PS4 stream thingy before SF5 launches!
I recommend using Mame for all the old games, just to play through them.
Street fighter HDRemix, it plays good, some of the changes are whatever, but the problem is the artwork is very ugly.
If you can’t play Mame then just watch playthroughs on YouTube.
FADC is only in SFIV no other street fighter game had focus attacks that was a new addition, and they are gone as of SFV. I doubt we’ll ever see them again
it’s cool that you’re willing to listen to old guys talk about old games and are open about what is better about the old games
one thing that you’ll need to get out of your head is that hit confirming is not in the old games/SFV
you’ll still hit confirm, but you will be doing it out of medium moves, often looking for counterhits, and in specific instances trying to counterhit with your lights
in some ways it will be a harder style of hit confirming than you’re used to (less time to react) but in some ways it will be an easier style for a lot of new players (less memorizing sequences of buttons and specific timings)
this strikes a decent balance between SF4 confirming off of 3 jabs and 3S confirming into super from a c.MK depending on whether it blocked or hit
I started learning Street Fighter with Super Turbo a couple years back, so I’m not the best player but it is my main game. I still maintain the opinion that was the overall best Street Fighter game to date, and also the easiest and least technical SF to learn and get into. I’m quite surprised the mechanics weren’t used too much as a basis for future iterations, considering Capcom is supposedly trying to get more new players into the franchise.
The main differences between ST and any future SF’s to date that I can think of are…
-ST has very high damage and high stun rates, especially with single strikes. To the point where learning combos is largely unnecessary and you can get quite far without them. Maybe 2in1’s for a number of situations
-Not only does that change the neutral, but ST is huge on ‘momentum shift’ and has by far the most amount of single pixel comebacks I ever see in fighters. There are some strange hidden mechanics (a certain range of random damage and dizzy for each attack, plus the losing player may do a bit more damage within that range when their health is low), but overall no major built-in comeback mechanics or systems, so it’s pretty amazing to see all those comebacks
-ST has some of the most fun versions of every SF2 character, and so many strong characters in the game. You want T.Hawk with a 360 that he can option select into a DP that will probably beat yours? Did I mention his 360 is 0f with no whiff animation? And he’s not even the strongest character in the game. Dictator, Boxer, Ryu, Guile, Dhalsim especially, they’re all strong, interesting characters. Guile can play very aggressively and Ryu is much more dangerous, Dictator has the fastest walk speed and great throw game, and Dhalsim is considered the best character in ST - if you can master him. So it’s interesting to see how boring and turtley most of these characters were in SF4.
-the close up game is more easily simplified into low/throw/reversal/bait. If you block an attack, you’re probably at disadvantage. So you need to understand your opponent’s tendencies, make a hard read and then capitalize on that. While of course ST is more than just a 3-way guessing game, most players don’t know or get into ST frame data, what is +frames on block and by how much, etc. That in itself makes it a very different game from SFV, and one of the things that I believe makes ST a much easier game to get into.
-zoning is very strong, but it’s not braindead. If you throw a fireball at disadvantage or your opponent expects it, they might be able to get you with a jump in combo and take half your life. Ryu’s fireball game is quite a lot of fun, whiff punishing normals and walk forward with a fast fireball, trying to stay just outside the opponent’s range and baiting attacks. Needless to say, he’s never going to play like that again…
-throws are very strong, and what makes the close up game more simple. They have great range, 0f startup, but you need to be standing to throw or tech, so that still opens up the opportunity for your opponent to mix you up with lows. A lot of people find the ST throw game really cheap and tough to deal with.
SFV seems to be a pretty different beast than ST from what I played on the weekend, which frametraps and punishing being more of a factor due to the reduced throw game and necessity to get your damage from combos/cancels/v-trigger/super and a little less in the neutral. But ST is… what? 25 yrs old? At this point I can see Capcom is building off of SF4 instead of taking what worked from much older titles, which is fine I guess. I didn’t go in to SFV thinking this would have any throwback to older games. I do wish they upped the speed overall, though, because it makes for some interesting gameplay differences. Faster walkspeed means you might not have time to visually react to many things, like walkup throw attempts. Faster jumps mean you might not be able to reversal anti air as consistently if your opp has you conditioned to focus on something else.