Ever since I started playing street fighter I always picked motion characters and avoided charge characters,but recently I’m trying to learn how to play charge characters and I know how to execute their special moves consistently (except moves like Bison’s headstomp) but one thing I couldn’t figure out is how do you stay on the offensive as charge characters? How do you cancel into special moves mid combo without dropping the charge? Everytime I play I feel like I’m holding down back nearly 90% of the time, and when I do manage to get in, I don’t have combos.
Any help would be appreciated.
Usually charge characters will have a normal to move them forward and keep the pressure while also being able to hold charge. In Guile’s case it would be his fw/bk LK, Bison has his slide and vega has his down forward HK.
I played Guile for a while now, though I’ve started playing dudley because I got bored of him.
Cancelling into special moves mid combo isn’t too hard to get that hang of, you just need to remember to hold your charge position whenever you are executing normals. For example if I would jump in with Guile, I would be holding down back from the moment I jump so that when I am combo-ing from a cr.MP I already have the charge to cancel it into a Flash Kick. Same apply’s with bison, Say you’re going to cross up the opponent, you would want to jump and hold down back of the side you would be landing on, do a couple of crouching shorts (or whatever combo’s bison do I’ve never played) and then you will already have the charge to cancel or link into his scissor kick.
The way I practised was to go into training mode and start with the stick in neutral and then as soon as I start inputting the combo hold the charge because while you’re inputting normals you wont be walking backwards. The same apply’s for pressing LP if you want to charge while standing and not move backwards.
I probably explained that very confusing and others can probably explain much better but I hope some of it was helpful!
Whenever I am doing something that moves me forward (apart from walking) I am usually holding back or down back so I have charge ready at any point. I think a good way of practising holding the charge well is to do Guiles UDK, cr.MP, Sonic Boom combo.
This video might help a little? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy8S8wWB2lU
Thank you so much! You covered alot of points that immediately improved my approach with Bison, I noticed that I have the tendency to hold forward while doing a combo because my brain automatically thinks that I should do that otherwise I’ll walk back, same thing with other characters. I definitely need to get rid of this
I never thought of using the slide to move forward,started using it at the right range and it certainly is a table turner. Once again thank you for helping me understand how charge characters work.
Careful with bisons slide. its pretty easy to react to with a focus attack
I’ll definitely keep that in mind,thank you. SFV is dropping soon so maybe the slide there could be safer I assume.
Well no more focus attack so thats a plus. But I have no clue how good it is in 5, I’m sick of maining Bison after 6 years in sf4. So I haven’t even tried him in the beta, he looks extremely good though.
SFV Bison doesn’t have anything close to SFIV one. The slide is relatively easily punishable there too. However you won’t take Focus crumple to Ultra for too much damage. But a good quarter of your life nonetheless.
No Problem, I’m glad it helped a little!
Yeah using the slide recklessly can get you punished quite a lot, when I’m fighting a bison I like to stand at a range where I could focus a slide or one hit of his scissor kicks. It’s good to use to slide in if their knocked down to get close while holding your charge (from what I’ve seen online anyway). Though of course SFV Bison will probably play quite differently anyway 
When playing a charge character you have to condition yourself to always hold down-back in all situations where possible. For example, if you walk forward and press HP, you should start holding down-back the instant you press the HP button so that you minimize the required charge time after the HP ends. Do this when jumping, throwing, or during special moves also. Making this a habit minimizes the downtime of your special move availability.
also you should end your special moves at back so you can start charging sooner. so sonic boom becomes b f b+p