Edited with updates
So recently I got a chance to play some El Fuerte at the local arcade. He’s already predicted to land somewhere in the worse half of the tier listing, but I had a lot of fun with him and even managed a few victories.
First off, disclaimer about following text. Its only my personal experiences while playing around with the character. I went into the game totally blind, knowing nothing about the character or system direction.
I would describe El Fuerte’s game play to be a strange mix between Alex and Guy. Very fast and agile character, armed with change up sprints and wall jumps. Also has an anti-air grab and stun gun head butt.
Moves run down
QCF+P: starts ELF running toward the opponent at a pretty fast speed. While running, any of the 6 buttons will stop running to do an attack. My memory is kinda foggy as to what all these options were. Its pretty much just a rock paper scissor style guessing game. It seemed it was easy to avoid this whole thing all together with a shoryuken type attack or just jump away and kick. Range can be adjusted with the stick. The most success I had with this move was running and jumping over fireballs, then grabbing their face and putting it into the ground. I was able to do this on reaction pretty frequently. I don’t think this is a very good move just to throw out there as it leaves the ELF very open. In high end ELF play, I predict this move will be used more as a zoning tool for the the speed of the run alone (LP ends the run).
Side note, running and then canceling, dashing back and then running and canceling again results in a running spasm like animation.
QCB+P: Same move as above only he runs back and then forward. Don’t know much about its properties. Needs to be explored more.
Hold 2 or more kicks: I have to admit I don’t know much about this move. ELF does some kinda horizontal slam attack. I think it breaks block, but I’m not sure really. Sorry.
DP+K: ELF jumps into the air feet first and grabs at ya. Does pretty minimal damage. Imagine Alex’s anti-air grab.
Wall dive: His wall jump/dive has interesting properties. I think I did it by holding away from the wall and hitting strong punch (fierce). I was able to do throws like from the run (QCF+P), only from the wall.
Super: Pretty decent damage and fast start up. I really like it. Very close range though. Used this on wake up a few times with great success.
Ultra: Once you figure out that this is the stun-gun-headbutt, its a lot easier to use. I was getting at least one or two of these a round and if you land it, it’s a chunk. Maybe 30%? You can pick the range using the joystick. I was landing these pretty frequently by baiting a jumping in enemy and then starting the super before they land. Landing on their shoulders just as they hit the ground. If you do this while they are on the ground, it can very easily be avoided/punished with a anti-air or jump attack. Next time I go to the arcade I wanna play around with using the run command to line up ultras on enemies who are jumping back or straight up.
Random notes
-Forward+MK is an overhead with decent range. I was having success landing these and then going into universal throw. In fact, those who play 3s a lot will have an easy time learning the timing and general nature of the universal throw.
-Had strange success with doing point blank, LK anti-air grabs on opponent wake up. If they did a normal I jumped over it, if they jumped, I grabbed them, and if they threw, they swifted. When I landed I would go into universal throw. This fake out worked much better than I though it would.
Sorry if this is vague, but I noticed there was nothing on El Fuerte and felt he needed a little love. Let me know if you had any questions.
Oh, and El Fuerte has the most epic/hilarious winning animation in the game.
