Ok, so I was in my arcade the other day, and me and my friend decided we’d play A3, since the machine is generally untouched… and you can tell it gets like no play, because the sticks weren’t even broken in yet…
Anyway, back on topic - I never got into Alpha 3 when it came out, so I really know nothing about the game…
In short, if anyone could post general info for R. Mike, like what Ism she’s best in, strats /combos etc. it’d be much appreciated.
i think mika is at her best when played in v-ism. she has damaging, fairly easy-to-land vcs, and the usual benefits of the mode: invincibility, free command throws, and the ability to otg.
her best pokes:
low jab: this is rapid fire and can be combo’ed from.
low short: this has great reach and even better priority; try to use this offensively rather than defensively. it’s not ideal to reverse poke strings with, but if executed at the same time or before the opponent’s attack, it will usually win.
low forward: not a bad poke. it’s quick and its priority/usefulness varies, depending on the opponent.
t+forward: slightly slower than the all the pokes listed above, but once it’s in its full hitting frames, this move can be highly dominant. not only does it beat low-hitting attacks such as the shoto’s crouching kicks, it will also beat a large number of crouching strong type moves. in close combat it’s usually a good idea to use this move as a follow-up to a previous poke - low jab, low short or even a t+forward will help reduce the impact of its start-up.
low roundhouse: a slide that knocks down, but can be recovered from, depending on the distance. when close, it can travel under some projectiles: sonic boom, psycho shot. decent priority again, but has recovery and as such must be spaced correctly and/or used sparingly, for a surprise tactic. it’s an important move though, because you’ll need it to set up her wake-up games.
anti-air:
low jab-> fierce flying peach: this seems to be her most her effective anti-air normal. it works from all ranges. if the jab scores a counter hit, the flying peach will hit nearly every time. if the jab didn’t counter-hit the opponent, but you still cancelled into the flying peach, be careful as you can be punished by quick players. its priority is great. it beats all the important jumping attacks - zangief’s splash, all shotos’ jumping attacks, charlie’s, karin’s jump short, guy’s d+strong etc. hit the button just before the move makes contact.
for akuma’s dive kick, use standing jab-> fierce flying peach instead.
low strong: not bad. be sure it’s done early.
kk airthrow: great range.
combos:
jumping roundhouse -> low roundhouse
(optional jumping attack)low fierce-> roundhouse shooting peach
cross-up splash-> low jab x 3-> low short
basic vcs:
anti-air vc: low short or low jab-> roundhouse shooting peach x n -> whiffed normal-> otg roundhouse daydream headlock
for an anti-ground vc, start with low fierce. p2 v-r.mika cannot use the shooting peach x n when in the corner so use the following instead to switch sides during the vc and keep them mid-screen:
vc1: shooting peach-> whiffed shooting peach-> shadow shooting peach hits-> continue in other direction with shooting peach etc.
corner: any vc activation-> fierce paradise hold x 4. this is most effective against ryu, ken, akuma, dan, honda and blanka, because they are the only characters who can’t perform a recovery during the combo.
unblockable (prefereably after a knock-down and against a meterless opponent) :
vc1: cross-up splash-> low short-> low fierce-> shooting peach-> etc.
basic strategy:
low jab x 2~3-> low short short-> jab flying peach is a semi-safe combo that leaves you safe and in a good position when blocked: paradise hold, anti-ground vc etc.
the paradise hold has great range and can grab opponents even when they’re in the midst of a normal attack. eg. ryu’s low foward.
at times you can even just walk with range and paradise hold the opponent.
use her pokes to make the opponent become defensive so you can set up ticks into her fierce paradise hold or pressure with her t+forward. low jab x 2~3-> low short-> fierce paradise hold works even if the opponent blocks or is hit. her low strong can be used as a dash - useful against defensive opponents, where you can hop close to them for your daydream headlock, more low jabs, or low short-> paradise hold.
mix up your strategy against waking up opponents by using:
standing fierce: great guard damage and also puts you in position to cross up the opponent. a fierce paradise hold after a blocked standing fierce works well when used a surpise tactic.
(optional) low short-> fierce paradise hold
taking a few steps back and then low strong-> daydream etc.
jumping over the opponent, feigning a cross-up splash and landing
into a daydream headlock.
i hope that’s given you rough idea of what to do with v-mika. if you have any more questions or queries, post them and i’ll see if i can help.
Thanks for the info, man.
I’ve been attempting to learn R Mika myself (And this game, for that matter :P), and another good anti-air option that I know of is her standing roundhouse. It’s good for long reaching air attacks, like most of Zangief’s, or like jumping roundhouses from Shoto characters.
Any good tips on A-ism? I’m really not good at V-ism stuffs. 
I can give a couple tips for that. Cause I currently use A-Mika, i’m gonna try and pick up V-Mika though…
A-ism tips:
Level 1 720 super is your best bet. You can mash it for more damage when she’s headbutting. Three level 1s does alot more damage than 1 level 3. The level 1 720’s damage is not that far from the level 3 anyway. So for the most part, ALWAYS go for level 1s ONLY. Unless the slight increase of damage for the level 3 is enough to win the round.
The main goal is to throw out set up after set up, and watch how your opponent reacts after blocking.
Set ups for 720:
The 720 can grab the very very early part of v activates.
Go for distanced crouch roundhouse slides, to get knock downs, and mix up from there. A crouch fierce shoulder will outprioritize most wake up normals. So this will have the opponent, blocking or going for DPs or V activations. Best bet is to go for the crouch fierce when opponent’s meter is empty. Upon hit of crouch fierce(doesnt even have to be a counter hit!), you can immediately forward jump roundhouse. Also, if you do the jump roundhouse upon them blocking(midscreen), you cross up for the 2nd 720 set up above. I thought that a forward jumping roundhouse would be a better option than a shooting peach because upon landing the shooting peach she’s on the ground recovering, whereas a jump roundhouse she can go for the wakeup 720 mixes.
As for the rest of basic gameplans, pretty much the same can be applied as what Middlekick said for V-Mika. Poke strings, etc.
An anti air option that hasn’t been mentioned yet is her crouch strong in deep. It’s not super priority but it does help against some cross ups. And on counter hit you can get a jump up roundhouse opportunity
Rock on! Thanks for the help! That Crouching Fierce tactic really helped me become tons more aggressive, instead of just doing lots of insta-slide kicks with varying levels of success, heheh. 
Some questions:
You mention J. Roundhouse crossups…Just how DO you crossup with that? Do you have to be kinda far away? Do you have to hit high in the jump with it, or what? Does it not work well on some characters, or something? I still can only crossup with the body splash…
With that Crouching Fierce into Jumping Roundhouse tactic…What are the best moves to mix it up with? Sometimes, the opponent flies waaaay too high to tag them with J. forward Roundhouse…It seems like J. Short, and J. Roundhouse (Straight up, that exploder kick) work well for this, especially J. Short since it aims up (Finally, a good use for this kick!). Also, Standing Fierce and Roundhouse work alright for hitting the enemy as they come down (For when they recover and attempt to counter)…What do you think are the safest ideas?
The jump roundhouse doesn’t connect for cross up, i meant cross up as in just jumping over to the other side of your opponent. But it’s not empty cause you have the roundhouse out and it should keep the opponent in place IIRC, as you pass over their head, then they can move. Often times, I’m jumping over them and they’re whiffing moves medium and up. Or trying to jab as I land and they eat the 720 soon as Mika hits the ground. Doing this tactic of jumping over them with roundhouse works really well against charge characters too because it ruins their commands.
As for doing the jump roundhouse after a connected cr. fierce, it should connect everytime if it’s not a counter hit. If it’s a counter hit, you can jump up for her hcb kick air throw. If it’s a CH where they pop up real high, you can try and position yourself directly under them and cr. strong.
Also, a tip vs Gief i’ve found that jump away roundhouse works pretty well. As gief is waking up, do a jump away roundhouse and it stuffs everything he gets up with including the lariat. And as for the V activate, i’m not sure. It might actually knock her away where his stand fierce would whiff. Also vs Gief NEVER do the kick shooting peach, unless it’s in VC. Even if it lands, Gief can recovery roll and SPD her.
Also, against hop kicks from Akuma and Ryu, use crouch forward kick.
So I’ve been using V-Mika a bit, and i’m still trying to work on getting the anti air VC begining started in terms of the jab to the ass. Also, to build meter I use crouch foward kicks and jump away roundhouses, instead of throw whiffs(which i’ve seen is common among v building).
That idea of stopping the counter with the air throw is totally pimp. Thanks, man!
Since we’re all trying to learn R. Mika…here’s a random thing I found out that I just haven’t seen documented anywhere. I can’t say whether or not it’s practical, but the Fierce version of the Punch Shooting Peach can go over fireballs. I know that both of them can, but I’m talking about the first hop…you can use it to go right over projectiles, even some high ones like Rose’s Soul Spark. Anyone who has time can fuck around with this, but I don’t think it’s useful for anything that I can think of…it might even be obvious to other people. I just never thought about it, heh 
Also, for A-ism Mika, Here are some nice little corner juggles:
Hit em with Crouching Fierce, and juggle them with her Lv.1 Rainbow Hip Rush super. The other two won’t connect all the hits, but you can time the Lv.1 version properly to connect all the hits.
Hit em with Crouching Fierce, and then do any level of Sardine Beach Special (Why not Level 3? :P). After you activate the super, tag them with the Exploder Kick (Jab) or the Clothesline (Fierce) and get ready for some megalo damage. With any luck, the attack will stun them (I didn’t know the moves on that super could stun!), since R. Mika’s fierces and roundhouses do hella stun. Good stuff! The trick is to buffer the super immediately, instead of waiting for the opponent to fall into a good spot like with the Rainbow Hip Rush.
the key to landing the anti-air vc is to have the opponent low to the ground and activate late. you’ll have the best success with a 100% meter, but landing the jab-start vc with a 50% meter is still possible, though a lot harder.
some more anti-air starters:
vc1-> standing roundhouse-> shooting peach etc.
again, the opponent must be low to the ground. the timing is slightly harder to land due to its long start-up.
vc1-> low roundhouse-> shooting peach etc.
once again this must be used against very deep jump-ins, but more importantly, it must be used a against an actual attack. if the opponent jumps in without attacking, it will not work.
Ah. That’s the key then. Cause I’ll have the jab hit all the time, but the shooting peach will whiff, and then sometimes it all connects. Ok, so it’s based off of if they attack or not. So I guess i’ll have to do more setting up than the usually VC.
I need to work on the unblockable one then.
Also, I have a question about comboing the splash, into activate. How is that done? I was watching a BAS vid of a V-Mika VC where there was the cross up splash hitting, then activate into cr. fierce then shooting peach. However it was done on the console version cause of the practice menu. Is this possible on the arcade version and if so, how?
no, the jab-start vc works even if the opponent doesn’t attack.
for the low roundhouse-start vc however, they must attack for it to work; the low roundhouse hits them of out of their jumping attack.
it’s possible. uh… just make sure the splash is deep and that you hit low fierce as soon as you can after activating.
Mika topic, yay :] I play her a lot nowadays, simply because she’s very unique in her way of playing and a lot of fun.
A-Mika and V-Mika are both good, but i still prefer A-ism since it’s a lot more versatile and complements her very well. Freestyle super = so much fun :]
Another thing is that Mika deals a lot of her damage without the need of meter, and since A-ism has more base damage than V-ism i prefer it any day.
[important moves] (edited 07-12-07)
c.short (4) ***
c.jab (5) *****
s.jab (6) ***
s.short (6) ***
c.forward (11) ****
f forward (11) *****
s.strong (13) *****
c.strong (13) ****
c.roundhouse (15) *****
c.fierce (16) ****
s.fierce (17) ***
j.forward (11) ****
j. d fierce (16) *****
j.fierce (16) ****
j.roundhouse (16) *****
[combos]
–> [1] BnB
c.jab x2, s.short (3 hits, 15)
=> your basic combo for everything, can combo into super and special (most important = 360 P and qcb jab) and generally leaves you in a good position
crossup j. d fierce, c.jab x2, s.short (4 hits, 31)
=> this is also the way to go after a crossup d fierce, setup = VERY easy since you can do the most meaty & deep splash ever after any connected max range c.roundhouse (which you should use a lot, goes under fireballs and a lot of other stuff, great range and nice priority, awesome for footsie games)
crossup j. d fierce, c.jab x2, s.short xx qcb jab, …
=> this is a good way to keep the pressure going after every connected BnB, the jab ass doesn’t combo, but Mika is not about big combos anyway
(close) c.jab xx qcb roundhouse
=> as anti air, don’t use it if they are jumping from far, in that case the ass will whiff
(close) f forward xx qcb short
=> for punishment
–> [2] linking the fierce
–> [3] launching
meaty c.fierce (launch), f forward (2 hits, 26)
meaty c.fierce (launch), jump after them / wait for them to flip and catch them with c.strong / s.strong / c.jab xx qcb roundhouse / freestyle super -> elbow / flip
=> the c.fierce is a very meaty move (18 active frames), making it easy for you to follow up, beware of reversal dp’s and stuff though
=> f forward pushes them back very far & hopefully into the corner, flippable but it’s most of the times safe to throw out the f forward (you can also whiff cancel it)
(corner) meaty c.fierce (launch), c.fierce (2 hits, 31)
(corner) meaty c.fierce (launch), s.jab xx qcb roundhouse (3 hits, 38) / qcb jab (3 hits, 37)
=> both “combos” can be flipped and involve a little risk, going for a s.jab after a meaty c.fierce into qcb jab is pretty safe though
[block strings / mixups]
THIS is where Mika really shines. She can take down half of an average guard meter with one block string. Another bonus is that she can combo specials (and supers) out of or in the middle of a block string, and when you learn to use this well (and you should) she can be quite confusing while setting up her 360’s and some nice 50/50 situations. I give some examples …
–> [1] blocked BnB
c.jab x2, s.short (blocked) xx qcb jab - f forward - c.roundhouse
c.jab x2, s.short (blocked) - f forward xx qcb jab (whiffed), 360 K
c.jab x2, s.short (blocked) - f forward xx 360 fierce
–> [2] blocked c.fierce
meaty c.fierce (blocked) - c.jab xx qcb jab - f forward - c.roundhouse
(corner) meaty c.fierce (blocked) - c.jab xx qcb jab, 360 P / 360 K / whatever
(max range) c.fierce (blocked) - f forward xx qcb jab (whiffed), 360 K
(…) be creative ;]
[super combos]
–> [punch super]
close s.strong xx qcf x2 P (5/8/11 hits, 43/54/70)
=> you can combo all versions of the punch super after a close strong, of course this is not too practical since you can only use it for stuff like punishing big whiffs, a better method for getting good damage out of the punch super is connecting it after a crossup slpash:
j. d fierce, close s.strong xx qcf x2 fierce (12 hits, 84)
=> this is the best way to hit confirm into the punch super, you have to range the crossup splash carefully though since only the close version of s.strong is cancellable, not the far one
–> [grab super]
First rule when using the grab super: don’t be predictable make them blocks your strings and bring the super if you are sure you scared them enough, a whiffed qcb jab is a good setup for any command grab of her. You can also be ghetto and do it after an early crossup splash ^^
I would never use any other version than the lvl.1 720, you shouldn’t waste meter when playing Mika (or in general, heh).
j.jab x2, s.short (blocked) - f forward xx qcb jab (whiffed), 720 P (7/9/11 hits, 40/49/59)
(max range) c.fierce (blocked) - f forward xx qcb jab (whiffed), 720 P (7/9/11 hits, 40/49/59)
–> [freestyle super]
----> [1] combo from BnB
----> [2] combo from f forward
----> [3] 50/50
Well yeah, this is another way to make her block strings even more scary. After activating the super the oppenent can do NOTHING to stop you the ground if you activated lvl.3, the invincibility lasts long enough to get into the range for the flip over their head, it’s 100% unblockable. If they try to jump away (of course you can also bait this, hehe) use the running elbow to catch them. The damage isn’t anything great, but it will cause a lot of WTF situations for your opponents ;]
Ok, I still need to work on the jab-start one then.
And i’ll have to definintly work on the one with the splash, because I can land surprise splashes every now and then.
Thanks.
This block bread & butter you mention. Wouldnt this get me killed? Unless the f+foward distances me enough to where the cr.roundhouse can be safe on block? Cause that can get me hit over and over if performed too close.
Middlekick, I have question, how does Mika defeat the Blanka balls? Can’t seem to punish them in time. Sometimes I can get lucky and surprise my opponent with a cr.roundhouse. Others I cant get to Blanka in time and it can be abused.
Yeah, the c.roundhouse is only safe on block if you hit with it at max range. You shouldn’t have a problem with the distancing in that string though, i use it a lot and it leaves you at a good distance to use the c.roundhouse. If you don’t wanna use it try something else, like cancelling the f forward into qcb jab or something else. Freestyle ^^
if you anticipate your opponent’s rolling attack, an early standing strong will cleanly counter it.
if you don’t have that much time, and you need something a little quicker, iirc mika’s low short might beat it too.
against players that like to abuse the roll, it’s a good idea to try and close in by walking forward after blocking a rolling attack, eventually preventing blanka from using the roll once he’s cornered (a low roundhouse can punish a roll performed by a cornered blanka).
In A, i wonder if the 720 can reach after that string… cause that could be enough pokes to trick your opponent into staying grounded for the move to land. Cause my normal set up of just doing f+foward kick into 720 is telegraphed.
Thanks for that bit of info. I’m sure this will help me.
One more question for now: Does V-Mika have CC series after her VCs? I know after the shooting peach in the corner with VC1, i do a cr.fierce and go back up and i follow with a jump roundhouse dropkick. Is it possible to continue this with jump shorts or anything?
with the exception of her splash (which i haven’t really experimented with in crouch cancels), all of mika’s jumping attacks don’t seem to float the opponent very high to continue a finished vc into a long crouch cancel series. the best i’ve come up with seems to be this:
vc1 shooting peach x n -> till you travel near the corner but not actually in it-> whiffed standing forward-> shadow standing forward hits-> jumping roundhouse-> crouch cancelled jumping roundhouse-> crouch cancelled wingless airplane.
you might be able to get more jumping roundhouses into the series if you hit the opponent late, enabling them to bounce a tiny bit higher.
Alright, i’ll give that one a try.
Also, for the anti air one, do you do VC1 or 2?
I can’t seem to be able to stop Gief’s splash with Mika’s crouch jab, I still need to work on that one. I wonder if the timing is sort of like Guy’s crouch strong.
Also, I’ve attached a V-Mika VC of BAS performing the one with the splash hitting, then activate into the combo.
The quality of the vid is low, but it’s atleast a considerable size to be attached.
Kara s.HP into 720. I believe it can grab them at the start of the round even. It’s huge.
kara HP into 360+K is big too.