Sim is a little BITCH!! End of story.
Alright ladies time for round 2 of the Phoenix’s Strategies for kicking various asses.
vs. Sagat: So let’s be honest here. No other Sagat player on XBL matters other than nappyNIGHTMARES. Everyone else I’ve run into plays just sloppy and is easily beatable because they don’t play to Sagat’s strengths. nappyNIGHTMARES will be my reference point here.
Sagat’s game is very tight when played correctly… to the point where Guile will be mercilessly trapped in the corner across the screen being chipped at with Tiger Shots all day. Fortunately Guile has a rather significant advantage over Sagat - the recovery time for his booms is quite a bit shorter than Sagat’s is for his Tiger Shots. Your goal with Sagat is to get him into a nice comfortable pattern of throwing Tiger shots. Then FIGHT your way to about half screen away from him initially. Neutralize one or two of his Tiger Shots until you feel you have the frame advantage, then kick him in the face with a forward hopkick or a knee bash. It will be a clean hit that, of course will shave off more damage per connection than Sagat’s blocked Tiger Shot. The knee bash will go farther than the hopkick, so use that if you’re really far away from Sagat. But switch to the hopkick once you’re within its considerable range (since Sagat extends his arms quite far to throw a low shot). The hopkick will clean hit all Sagat’s low attacks, and Sagat players LOVE to throw out repeated low kicks. Hopkick them and put pressure on Sagat to slow down a bit with the Tiger Shots and the generally retaliatory moves.
Fighting Sagat this way requires a LOT of patience and a constant awareness of your energy levels versus Sagat’s. If you forget about your life bar then you’re at a disadvantage because Sagat can chip you to death without you’re realizing it if you’re not careful. You’ll also need to learn when to take opportunities. If Sagat has the upper hand in any transaction he can punish you severely. Make SURE the frame data is on your side before you do anything.
Some Sagat’s like to mix things up considerably however. This will complicate matters because it will require Guile to know when to stop and hesitate for the Tiger Knee, the Uppercut, or the super. If the uppercut whiffs at close range you know what to do for 33% damage!! The super will more than likely not whiff but it will score up to two blocked hits that will push you away from Backbreaker range. Before you attempt it against the super, walk forward about a step, then jump or you’ll completely miss it. Be sure to counter the Tiger Knee because it will more than likely be followed by Sagat’s high priority grab. You can Flash Kick it, c.FK it or whatever works, just don’t let him land on the ground safely.
If Sagat tries to jump at you, then Flash Kick him or hopkick backwards and boom him. His Leg has high priority but I think it can be stopped with Guile’s j.FP at most distances (other than up close). As Guile you’ll want to stay on the ground as much as possible though because ALL of Sagat’s specials, and his standing kicks are extremely effective anti-air attacks. A good Sagat will lock you down with Tiger Shots, then bust the knee out if he correctly anticipates your jumping.
Sagat is difficult to MK Walk because he does not get much height with his jump. For 90% of the match you won’t be close enough to him to attempt this anyway so don’t worry about it. Sagat is a difficult match in the hands of a player who knows what he’s doing, but he’s not impossible with patience.
vs. Fei Long: Fei Long is one of the most annoying people to fight against Guile. He was one of the shittiest characters in SSF2T, so Sirlin made him slightly better. However Guile should not have too big an issue beating him still. First thing’s first… Fei Long has no fireball, so you may be able to play an effective game of keep away. However two things will get in your way. First Fei walks quickly, so he can catch up to you fairly easily. Second, Fei has that retarded ass Chicken Wing kick that goes through fireballs and will cause problems it it connects at close range. Know that the initial hit of that move shaves off negligible damage, but the other two hits hurt a lot more…and he can and will juggle it with the Flamer Attack Kick. It’s easily recognizable if you’re as fast a Guile a you should be, because it has slow start up time (just look for when Fei shows you his ass and proceed to kick him in it). Guile can stop it with his nj.HP and Flash Kick. There is not a time in this matchup where you don’t have the opportunity to charge, so you should always be ready to bust out the Flash Kick.
You can almost always safely begin this match with a c.FK as I’m quite sure it will win against most of Fei Long’s moves at that distance, and it will leave you still with enough time to bust a counter Flash Kick if he jumps first. It will also stop those damn Rekka Punches that many Fei Long players like to start with.
Fei players, in recognizing their significant disadvantages against Guile, will try to make you whiff everything by baiting moves and punishing you. Don’t fall for that. You can keep steady pressure on Fei Long at 2 character lengths away and be able to recognize and counter the Chicken Wing when it inevitably comes at you. Fei has been typically pretty bad at zoning matches because his block stun rarely recovers fast enough to safely land clean hits from this distance.
Up close, the tables turn significantly (so we know what not to do folks!!). Fei is generally faster at attacking Guile up close. All his normals will connect faster than Guiles, his increased throw range makes him capable of tick throwing like the best of em (i.e. Dictator and Chun Li), and the Rekka Kens will beat Guile’s c.FK to the proverbial “punch”. Fei’s fierce punches are apparently pretty easy to link too because they stay activated for a significant amount of time. Be quick on the reversals in this scenario. Reverse Fei’s onslaught, throw a couple booms, and flee to the other side of the screen where your chances are MUCH better.
All in all a lot of this match will be you throwing booms, c.FKs and nj.HPs to counter his nonsense from 1.5-2 character lengths away, then looking at Fei attempt to reposition himself to a location to where he has a chance. Not too big a deal.
vs. Cammy: It’s widely known that Cammy is hands down the shittiest fighter in this game, and Sirlin’s improvements more than likely did not change that much. Nonetheless don’t let your guard down as Guile. This is probably Guile’s MOST annoying match, even moreso than Fei Long. As least losing to Dhalsim (also pretty annoying) is understandable, but losing to Cammy is disgraceful, right?
Probably. But thinking that way will likely contribute significantly to the lion-share of Guile’s losses to Cammy. Guile can easily stop just about every special move Cammy does with his veritable plethora of jabs. The low jab turns her precious Cannon Drill into mush. His high jab eviscerates her Vagina Attack (where she jumps up and has you eat her out except that she has gonorrhea so it’s damaging). Her Thrust Kick is vulnerable to just about everything unless it connects before she leaves the ground. Like Sagat’s you can easily just jump right through her Super. And the Spinning Knuckle looks like one of those moves a Capcom employee just stuck in there after coming back from the bathroom thinking “What can Cammy do to counter fireball attacks?”(… you know kinda like Geif’s Spinning Lariat, and Green Fist). It’s got such slow startup time that it should be completely useless.
Sadly while all these things are true, they are quite deceiving. Cammy can easily combo into her main special moves, the Cannon Drill and the Thrust Kick. She’s got a nice assortment of really fast and decent priority normals that will facilitate this, and Guile needs to watch out for them. Most Cammy players will try to get in a sneaky 2-hitter, and put on a lot of pressure if they don’t connect properly. The Vagina Attack can catch you off guard at close range if you’re not quick, and the Spinning Knuckle has some frames at the end that seem to be invincible to normals. Other advantages she has are that she walks even faster than Fei Long, and all her grabs have significantly greater range than Guile’s.
In light of all this, Guile needs to play very defensively here. If he loses his cool, he will lose the match to a good Cammy. All her specials may have slow startup times and are for the most part pretty silly to spam, but her normals don’t have this issue. Cammy can bait Guile easily by walking up to him, throwing a blocked c.FK and some standing attacks then walk away to see what Guile does to react. If Guile fucks up, she can land one of those sneaky 2-hitters or just tick throw you to death with s.SP setups on wake until you’re dead and don’t realize you are until Guile makes that stupid noise he makes.
Be cool, boom and counter. Keep Cammy away as much as possible and ALWAYS be ready to break open the Vagina Attack with a couple frames notice. For goodness sakes don’t get tripped up by that sneaky kick at the end of a whiffed one either!! At this point in time, most of the Cammy players I’ve run across lose so badly because they’re pretty sloppy and haven’t been able to figure out that Cammy, much like Guile is a character that should be played more using normals and short, damaging combos, not specials. But perhaps with some more time (because 12 or so years wasn’t enough) they’ll wise up. Cammy can be a formidable opponent for Guile when played appropriately.
vs. Ryu: Ryu is a fair bit better than Guile, so Guile has to be careful fighting him. Much like his overall character description, Ryu’s moves overall seem very polished and controlled, and there are numerous play styles that are possible with Ryu. This is echoes by the fact that the only real improvement Sirlin made to Ryu was to give him a Fake Fireball, and to tweak the distances of his Hurricane Kick a bit. Fortunately Guile can stop every one of Ryu’s play styles with a fair amount of ease, but Guile can be overwhelmed by the sheer variety of mixups that can come from Ryu. For example, If you see Ryu jumping backwards, don’t even think about jumping forwards to chase him because he can anti-air you cleanly with his: j.SP, s.SK, s.FK, s.RK, j.RK, fireballs, s. hurricane kick, j. hurricane kick, dragon punch, and super. See what I mean? He’s got a lot of choices for this scenario and it’s the same thing for many other scenarios. Ryu’s just never caught with his pants down in a match vs. Guile. If Ryu jumps away, then Guile’s best bet is to toss a slow boom and walk forward to follow. Be ready to duck the Hurricane Kick when you see it (or don’t see it) because we all know Guile’s booms just fail against the Hurricane Kick. For the newcomers out there it’s been that way since SF2:WW day 1 launch, so stop whining!
I won’t go through all or even a significant portion of the ways this iconic Street Fighter II matchup can progress. Instead, I’ll state that Guile needs to play completely reactively against Ryu - make it seem like you’re being offensive but actually playing defensively as you counter every move Ryu does. Here are some of Guile’s most significant tricks for Ryu matches:
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Stay out of the air unless Ryu is in the beginning stages of throwing a fireball or super, or unless he’s trapped in Hurricane Kick animation. These are about the only times Guile should even think about leaving the ground. Of course if Guile is out of range of Ryu then he can jump all he wants to avoid a barrage of fireballs.
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At 2.5 character lengths away and closer, Guile can neutralize Ryu’s fireball and recover fast enough to land a clean c.FK or c.RK. Use that a lot.
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Ryu’s RK Hurricane Kick goes farther than it ever did, and his SK Hurricane Kick travels shorter than ever, somewhere around a half rotation. Avoid close encounters with Ryu because skilled players will use the SK Hurricane Kick to get in through a successfully anticipated Boom to land a quick throw.
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Ryu’s Hurricane Kick loses cleanly to Guile’s Flash Kick when it’s not directly over top of Guile. The tables turn when Ryu is directly over Guile.
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Ryu’s Hurricane Kick loses cleanly to Guile’s nj.HP if it connects with Ryu’s head.
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Ryu’s Dragon Punch can lose cleanly to Guile’s Flash Kick during the later stages of its ascension and all frames beyond, but not the earlier stages of its ascension. However take notice of your opponent when dealing with Dragon Punches because some opponents are fast enough with executing these to where it may not be a good idea to even try to counter whiffs with anything but booms.
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Ryu’s overhead is slow enough to where, unless it’s extremely well timed, a reversal is not necessary to counter it on wake-up. However try for the reversal (Super) anyway because if the overhead connects, then it can link through a c.FK into a devastating super combo from a good player.
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If you want to talk about the ULTIMATE Mortal Kombat Walk, Ryu’s air Hurricane Kick is it!! Every time I see an opponent use it to transport themselves across the screen without setting it up first, that’s just a free throw waiting to happen. I don’t know why I’m apparently one of very few Guile players on XBL who recognizes and exploits this unique opportunity, but I’m just throwing it out there that this is the case.
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Be aware that Ryu now has a fake fireball!! Intermediate players and below just get in trouble with it, but Advanced and Expert players can make you whiff a LOT of moves! There’s no way to get around this other than the famous Do Nothing attack.
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Don’t be afraid to unleash the fury of the Do Nothing attack when fighting Ryu. Guile and Ryu will both play such that each is trying to 1-up the other, so hesitations should be a staple in your fight against Ryu. He may have a fake Fireball move, but Guile’s entire experience in the SF2 series centers around patience, mind games, fake outs, and calculated hesitations. Guile is not handicapped in this matchup, but the much ballyhooed versatility in his character design has to truly shine in your game in order to win this.
Decent Ryu players tend to know their character is better than yours, so a great way to tell what kind of Ryu you’re fighting against involves looking at their starting move (for the record, your starting move as Guile should be to wait and see!): If Ryu jumps backwards, or crouches and waits, then you may be fighting an advanced to expert level Ryu because of what I discussed earlier. But let him throw 2 or 3 fireballs and block all of them at between three quarters to a half screen away. Then for the next one neutral jump over it. If you see Ryu walk two steps forward then walk backwards, then you know you WOULD have been in for trouble had you done what a noob would have done and jumped at Ryu. Remember. Guile automatically does NOT have the frame advantage if Ryu is waiting for him to fuck up!! Intermediate level Ryus will let off fireballs (neutralize and kick) and Hurricane Kicks (Flash Kick) more often than not as their first move. Noobs don’t count because nothing they do will really work.
vs. Ken: I’m going to stop at Ken because I have a long pre-Thanksgiving Day day ahead of me tomorrow. Ken, much like his character description, is a pompous asshole and the generally much sloppier execution of all his moves compared to Ryu really underscores this. Ken still shares a lot of similarities with his classmate, but the two have grown significantly different over the years, sortof to Ken’s disadvantage IMO.
I think one of the key aspects of Ryu that makes him leaps and bounds a better fighter than Ken is that all Ryu’s most useful moves are single-hit knockdown. Implicit in that is the fact that it they connect, they will always deal the maximum damage possible under the circumstances and leave Ryu in a good position for set Guile up on wake. Many of Ken’s most useful moves are multi-hit, with some being non-knockdown. Rarely will Ken score maximum possible damage from any move but possibly his Fierce Dragon Punch. He can’t score maximum possible damage from his Hurricane Kick. Back in the days of the Sega Genesis (SF2T: Special Champion Edition) it was possible at least against the CPU opponent to trap a fighter in Ken’s Hurricane Kick on wake and score a 6-hit dizzy for mega damage, but that seems not to be the case in HDR.
Whining, bitching, and comparing dick-sizes aside, all that means for Guile is that he can no longer expect to fight Ken in a fashion similar to the way he fights Ryu. Ken seems to have far less options than Ryu in various scenarios, and I’ve come across far fewer play styles for Ken than Ryu, so here we go…
…Ken’s FP Dragon Punch is like a different move from his other two Dragon Punches, so I’ll discuss it separately. A good Ken player will rarely use this because, at least against Guile, its major asset is also it’s most major liability - it’s got a range of somewhere around half-screen! If Guile is anywhere but up close or at full screen away from Ken, just seeing the flaming fist rise above the clouds is a sweet bellow from Ken for a backbreaker, and Guile should never hesitate to deliver on Ken’s wishes! This move is extremely easy for Ken to whiff in general, so that just makes it even sweeter when fighting people who insist on spamming it. Guile may have some issues with turning around to grab Ken if the move crosses Guile up, but the majority of the time the backbreaker will land and everyone will be happy it did! On the minus side, if all 3 hits score for the Dragon Punch, it counts for one hell of a lot of damage. Ken’s 5-hit Fierce cross-up DP combo is not a cool thing to get hit with as it can grab well past 50% damage! Also, the FP Dragon Punch does have an excellent use as a long distance anti-air if Guile is in the air a half screen away. Just be aware of its positives and negatives.
Ken’s JP and SP Dragon Punches are literally and figuratively more down to earth, and hence present a challenge far more noteworthy to be aware of. I’ve come across people like watchout y0 who can successfully crush any attempt I make to punish a whiffed Dragon Punch with another Dragon Punch, and they can do it repeatedly and reliably on seemingly 5 frames notice. If you run across someone like this, then it’s best to switch gears on them. This is so not only for obvious reasons, but also because these split second input counters are a large part of their game, so they’ll almost always be expecting something that won’t happen. Guile can use this to his advantage (These are the mind games you should be playing as Guile).
Ken’s standing Hurricane Kick is a non-factor to the extent that it’s not used as part of a set-up for something else, like that annoying knee bash hold of his. The Hurricane Kick is a multi-hit non-knockdown move, so if you get hit by it once you still have the opportunity to counter it with a c.FP uppercut depending on the intensity the opponent used. But be sure to either counter it or run from it because it can set Guile up for some trying times if left un-checked! Guile has many moves that will counter Ken’s Hurricane Kick, but obviously the Sonic Boom is NOT one of them.
Some Ken players like to use Ken’s air Hurricane as a strong anti-air attack the same way Ryu can use his. It works well enough for Ken that its something Guile should be aware of. I have not stumbled across any of Guile’s air normals that can consistently beat it when used for this purpose, but I have scored a couple lucky Backbreakers when I enter the air in an attempt to meet Ken and he instead breaks out the Hurricane. If used for transport, then the j. Hurricane just becomes the same Ultimate Mortal Kombat Walk opportunity I mentioned with Ryu. Worth mentioning though is the fact that I’ve run into a couple Ken players who have successfully been able to use Ken’s air Hurricane on descension to set up Ken’s devastating tick-hold loop cross up. It facilitates this because it can leave Guile crossed up with a SHIT TON of block stun frames for Ken to just walk right up and knee bash away. Wash, rinse, repeat. REVERSAL REVERSAL REVERSAL!! if you are unfortunate enough to get caught up in this mess. It’s widely regarded as the third most dangerous hold loop in the game behind Balrog’s and Dhalsim’s. I guess Blanka’s would be fourth with Honda’s being fifth, but I digress.
I have seen no one effectively use any of Ken’s Crazy Kicks to the extent that they are not included in combos or canceled into Ken’s overhead. You already know what to do about overheads (Flash Kick or Reversal Super) so I’d say consider these moves all nonfactors. Besides that, Ken does not need them to win, and that’s probably why no one really uses them.
Ken still has the old fireball from back in WW tymes, and nothing’s changed about it. It’s pretty slow and leaves Ken wide open to all sorts of punishment from Guile. The half screen kick that Guile can do against Ryu still works to great effect against Ken when he throws a fireball, but again watch out for those split second Dragon Punch counters. I’m often shocked at how fast some people can land a Dragon Punch with Ken.
The two most prolific and effective Ken play styles I’ve run into thus far are the knee bash tick-hold crossup loop Ken (the guy who’s always looking to set up that nonsense) and what I like to call Counter Ken (the guy ready to counter any attack with a JP Dragon Punch. The Bait and Switch Ken (where Ken plays distance and attempts to lure Guile in to a Dragon Punch or throw) isn’t really as effective with Ken (at least not against me) as it is with Ryu, because Ken’s fireball is just too slow and his recovery time is too great to maintain this attack pattern reliably throughout the entire match. Plus Ryu’s Bait and Switch pattern can and often does also include his Hurricane Kick, and that’s not possible with Ken with any respectable degree of success.
Happy Thanksgiving folks. I await your thoughts on my thoughts!!
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