I just recently got Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the PSP and I can’t seem to Alpha Counter. I hold the HP and HK and I go into the V-ism combo mode. How can I just do an alpha counter without activating V-ism?
One more question: Is V-ism better for most characters? I use Ryu and Ken mostly and I was wondering if I was better off learning to use the V-ism effectively.
V-ISM generally better if you can do the high-damage combos. Until then you’re usually better off playing A/X-ISM instead.
To Alpha Counter you have to press towards+two buttons of the same strength at the same time, while you’re blocking. You can actually use down-towards or up-towards instead of just towards +the attacks IIRC. Thats how it works in other versions of A3 anyway, I assume the PSP version is the same.
You might not wanna alpha counter too much though. Makes your guard meter shorter and does low damage.
For Ryu it is clearly to say that his V-ism is better. For Ken it is a little bit more difficult to decide. While Ryu can’t do decent damage with his A-ism hitconfirm, Ken can do damage. Ken’s super is practically the only super in the game that is worth doing hitconfirmed. (there are one/two other)
But on the other side V-Ken has the obvious advances. Perfect control of the near and back normals. Hadou-rave. VC1/3 unblockable. Guard crush inflection loop. Blow throw and counter activation.
But then, there are some match-ups that the japanese players rate better for Ken if played in A-ism. Ken has a better match-up against Juni for example if he faces her in A.
But in order to hold a chance the Ken player has to understand the mechanics of the gameplay just fine. Otherwise Ryu would be a better choice if you like shotos.
alot of v-ryu’s stuff requires really precise input, and i’ve read the psp pad isn’t exactly great for fighters. if you can get around it, great, but most other characters have vc’s that are less execution-heavy.
ryu lost all his hurricane kick stun damage in the revisions too. he’s still a great character, but the loss of a hit confirmable combo that did upwards of 30 stun AND pushed your opponent into the corner is a big one.
if you can’t get a handle on ryu’s vcs, he’s still solid in a-ism; shinkuu tatsumaki level 1’s are great for wakeups, still has hopkick, good normals/specials.
I really want to get better at V-Ism, but I know fuck all about combos. I barley know how to cancel, do 2-in-1’s, crossups, and all that fancy other stuff. I can’t even grab efficiently or do air-saves without mashing the buttons. I only started playing Street Fighter games in general two weeks ago after a childhood of playing them.
Thats not to say that I am completely horrible, because I have beaten Alpha 2 on the hardest mode. I know when to use all of Ryu and Ken’s specials and when not to use them. But I feel that I keep falling back into the same pattern and I keep using Ryu’s trip attack a lot (Down roundhouse). I know real opponents won’t fall for that over and over again.
Also, whats the best Ism in Alpha 3 that makes characters similar to their SF3 counterpart? Are any of the ism’s remotely similar to their SF3 characters or are the two completely different sets of ideas? I know theres parrying thats different, but I was wondering if I can practice other basic concepts that are in every SF game. I just wished I had a way to practice SF3 when I am not at my house.
P.S. Aside from XBLA, is there anyway to play SF games online? And if I were to do so, whats the best kind of USB controller for playing them?