Actually knowing how to play USF4

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

Ever since I got this game, I’ve done nothing more then fuck around with it and play in the most scrubbiest way possible. There have been times when I wanted to learn how to play. I would go on the internet to find help for this game and such(this is my first fighting game that I want to learn). I would find it, but in the end, I didn’t understand a single thing that the source was saying and either mess around some more or try playing different games (P4A, CVS2, or Tekken). I figured since you guys are like pretty good at this game (and fighting games in general), you guys would know some good tips, suggest good sources and guides, etc.

OTHER QUESTIONS: Should I even play this game as my first fighting game? Will this game even teach me basics that are in all fighting games?

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

2

Well this seems to be your first forum as well, try newbie dojo

3

Honestly just wait for SFV. It’s much easier to learn a game when everyone is trying it out.

Online will be very frustrating for you at this point of the game’s lifespan.

4

Try Super Street Fighter 2 turbo. It’ll teach you all the basics. It’s pretty simple to pick up and play with no extra mechanics, like focus or ultras etc. And with the high damage output it really forces you to learn to make better decision and not button mash, dp randomly or other bad habbits

5

My first fighting game was vanilla sf2 so the transition was probably a couple weeks back in 2009. For you, as a first fighting game? sf4 will fuck up your execution with all them shortcuts.
Didn’t even know I was doing the shoryuken wrong till playing sf2 months back.

I wonder if sf5’s gonna have that problem. I hope not. Take shortcuts out.

6

SF4 is still one of the simplest fighting games out there right now I’d say. Rising Thunder is on its way and that game’s also rather simple. I feel other fighting games while sometimes easier on execution usually make up for it by having way more mechanics/systems making them overall much more complex than SF4. I see people recommending SF2 as well, that game is definitely easier to pick up and play too.

I’d say some things for beginners of SF4 (and SF2, just ignore the focus attack and ultra combo) to focus on would be…

-Pick a character to stick with after you’ve tried out everyone. Sticking with a character is a great way to improve quickly. Some characters are more suited for beginners but you can get pretty far with almost every character with basic fundamentals

-Get used to the movement of your character, especially on the ground. This is extremely important as if you aren’t confident in your character’s movement options on the ground you are going to resort to jumping as your primary way of moving, which is easily countered by good players.

-Learn what all your normal moves do, their ranges and what they are best used for

-Same with special moves, super combos and ultra combos, but also practice them until you can pull them off without having to think about the motions

-Practice blocking jump-ins, crossups, overheads and low attacks. Also practice throw teching and focus attack-backdash. SF4 doesn’t really punish blocking outside of chip damage from special moves, so good blocking is not only very effective but outright vital.

-Learn your anti air moves and when to time them. They are dependent on the character but people who approach just by jumping will be handing wins to you on a plate when you learn this.

-Learn how to punish unsafe moves on block or whiff. They don’t have to be combos, think of combos as optional extra damage; if you can’t get in a situation where you can deal any damage how does learning a combo help? Once you are comfortable with the concept of punishing, combos become easier to implement.

There might be some other basics missing here, but I hope this helps :slight_smile:

7

SF4 is still the most popular game so you might as well learn to play what everyone else is playing, plus plenty of people will still be playing it on Xbox360 after SF5 drops on PS4

8
  1. Learn a character that works well for new players. Ryu, Ken, Guile, Balrog, Fei Long, and Rose are the best choices IMO. By any means, do not start with Rufus, C. Viper, El Fuerte, Seth, Gen, Hakan, Guy, Dudley, Makoto, Ibuki, or Elena, because they are all incredibly difficult to play at a low level.
  2. Make sure you can do your moves 100% of the time in training. In actual matches, it might not be 100%, but that’s ok. If you play Guile, don’t worry about not being able to Super, it’s not very good. If you play Vega and you can’t do U1, play a different character.
  3. Slow it down, and find a use for every move in your arsenal. A move isn’t there just to look nice: It has a use. Find the use for all of your moves (Even if the use is “Don’t use this ever” like Cammy’s C.HK), and get used to the situation you have to use them.
  4. Learn the range and timing of all of your moves, so you can improvise. A good way to hit the opponent is use a move to hit them after they wiffed. Find your moves with good range and speed to use as punishes. Also make certain you learn your walkspeed, this is important.
  5. Find your moves that are safe. Use these a bit more. Think of it like poker: Some plays are safer than others, others get you more reward. Risk and reward is also dependent on how likely the opponent is to stop you.
  6. Start trying to consider the opponent’s options, and what their goal is. This becomes easier the more you play. You can’t get to the next level if you’re only thinking about what you want to do, and not how to stop the opponent from doing what they want to do.
  7. Go play a few games to get the feel for the things you just learned.

After this, you’ll have the very basics down, but there are still a few noob-killing strats you gotta figure out how to deal with.
*Learn to block easy crossups. If you see someone jump when right in front of you, on wakeup, it’s time to start moving forward, because it will block their next move. Unless they’re grab happy, follow this up with crouching guard.
*Learn to deal with stupid throw attempts. If your opponent loves to jumping HK and then grab, just hit the grab buttons as soon as he lands, while holding back. This way, if he got an attack string, it’ll still get blocked, but if he goes for a grab, you’ll break it. I’d tell you how to crouch tech, but you won’t need that once SFV drops.
*Learn to deal with reversal DP. If you see a lot of it, just play defensive, bait out a bad DP, and punish with something that does good damage. Even if you can’t combo, punish with a sweep or an Ultra (if it’s fast enough). Same goes for reversal ultras.
*Learn to beat bad zoners. Every character has a range where if you jump over a fireball, they’ll be completely open to attack. This range is smaller and harder to get to for Guile. On the other hand, they have a range that if you jump you’ll eat Anti-Air. Normally these ranges are next to each other. Make sure to slowly grind your way into punish range by using things like neutral jumps, focus attacks, and sometimes just walking forward. A good player will begin to change up his fireball pattern to stop you from getting into that zone (And stop throwing them for the most part once you’re in), while a bad one will eat a jump in.
*Block low. I can’t count the times I’ve seen new players lose to some scrub who spams sweep. Don’t stay blocked low against characters with really strong overheads though (Evil Ryu, Balrog).
*Block in general. Sometimes you just gotta play defense. It might lead to defeat at first, but the better you get at it, the farther you’ll go. I’m a defense first kinda guy, and I’ll tell you that it’s more important to learn defense than offense.

After this, you’ve got begin to gameplan. Before every match, try to think about what the opponent’s tools do, and how they relate to your tools. If you know the player’s tendencies, bring those into your plan as well. You should make sure that you don’t use the same gameplan against all players and characters, because there’s no one-size fits all path to victory (At least, there shouldn’t be. Some characters don’t have to think, and can do the same dumb crap against everyone. This is no way to play Street Fighter, and I encourage you to avoid playing like this, even if your character has the potential to do so.).

If you’ve learned all of this, and done all of this, then it’s time to figure things out for yourself. Good Luck.

9

Thanks for the great tips on fundamentals and shit. This will help me a lot. You guys are like the helpful part of the FGC. Thanks M8s

10

Since when is Balrog’s overhead considered strong? The average player will never get hit with that move.

11

Fixed.
If you know how to set your opponents up and what times it’s usable, it’s very possible to hit people with it. In the set between PR Balrog and Xian in the Canada Cup Master series, Xian got OHed twice in a period of less than five seconds because Rog had him thinking about all the other options (at 8:52). It’s not a move you just throw out, however, because it IS pretty reactable.

It also has great rewards for an overhead though.

12

By “Strong” I meant damage. Balrog and Evil Ryu get really big damage off of overheads.

13

Starts looking into the character discussions on a character you enjoy and start learning match ups for them.(if you really want to improve your game) They offer great tips on normal/special moves and ultra as well as how to properly use them.