I play a pretty solid Sim player here in Sydney regularly and also I alt. Dhalsim alongside Gouken. Here’s my take:
- c.mp stuffs some of his long range pokes AND counter hits
- d.mk from our jump apex breaks his long ranged pokes AND counter hits
- From just inside full screen you can EX flip dive kick on reaction to his yoga fire. Beyond this, or if your reactions aren’t good, opt for the flip grab. You’ll grab him out of the recovery or the startup of any move he attempts - including EX upflame.
- Dhalsim has trouble dealing with advancing air fireballs - especially EX. Use these to build a wall to get behind as you advance on him.
- Once in mix your shit up and apply pressure. I argue THIS is the key - NOT distanced fighting. You want to get in on Dhalsim and pressure the ever loving shit out of him. Once in:
- lk flip grab
- cross-up with lk
- cross-up with mk
- Poke with varying tempos with lp, mp and mk and overheads. This is to screw up his option select techs
- kara grab with your pokes
- Poke like crazy and ball him. FADC the ball and keep at it. You’ll build meter whilst pressuring so don’t worry about stocks.
- After a knockdown during all this in the corner, EX tatsu sometimes. He’ll be anticipating a grab or EX flip. Keep him guessing.
- cross-up tatsu is very effective. Use it.
- If he teleports when you’re in close, this is likely to put him in a worse position. Sweep or hk tatsu on reaction
Sim does NOT want to be knocked down. One of the worst situations for Sim is being knocked down whilst playing against Gief. Akuma when used right can pressure his wake-up just as hard.
Key is getting in. Use patience but don’t fuck around either. Use a mix of c.mp, mk jump arc dive kick, EX air balls and mk tatsus to close the gap and begin the pressure game. Try to avoid focusing his pokes as it is highly likely you’ll eat another and lose twice as much. Akuma can’t ill afford many pokes before we start to feel it so don’t get silly with working your way in.
Be wary when Sim has super when throwing balls - especially red 'uns. You’re ripe for an instant air tele, b.hp, b.mk, flame, super. This hurts.
Remember standing block has LESS pushback. This is worth keeping in mind when gaining ground. Watch out for his LOW pokes however.
Idle demon fips are generally a bad idea. Sim can b.mp on reaction and beat you clean. Likewise with EX upflame. At a distance your poorly timed jumpins will get snuffed clean by b.hk.
A good Sim is a difficult match for Akuma as we are whittled down slowly. As a Sim player I argue that Sim is (very) well tooled to deal with shotos with Akuma being a tad simpler to cut down to size due to his poor stamina. He’s still a headache though - especially up close.
I hope this helps. I’ll try and get some matches recorded some day against my Dhalsim playing buddy. They’re usually pretty entertaining fights with him doing an amazing job of keeping me at bay. Once I manage get in though, things get pretty disgusting though the match truly go either way. It often breaks down to who screws up first or who’s patience and zoning cracks. Zoning in this instance for Akuma being the ability to maintain a close proximity to Dhalsim.
Yes, you could fight this match at a distance as mentioned above. This would likely run the clock and it doesn’t take much for Sim to land a solid distanced poke and thus screw this approach up for Akuma forcing him to come in and err on recklessness and impatience. You can pick your openings and capitalise on them but I personally prefer to bring the fight to Sim and pressure him. Keep in mind though that a Dhalsim player is EXPECTING you to come in. Yes, I guess I play right into Sim’s hands (when using Sim I tend to pressure with pokes but also anticipate them coming in) but the idea is to do it smartly and be tricky about it. The idea is to close that gap and quite literally rip him to shreds.
Oh, and you can ultra demon Sim’s j.hp on hit OR block. Learn this. Thing is, any good Sim player isn’t doing this to Akuma when he has Ultra. Ever.
Good luck mate. Be patient, but be aggressive. That’s my approach.
