Tier lists are entertaining and all, but I thought it’d be more meaningful and interesting to see who SRK Gouken users are most proficient with besides Gouken, and which match-ups they’d prefer to use Gouken.
Here’s how it works. Choose your best character besides Gouken. Then, go through the character list and list off whether you’d prefer to go into that match-up (against someone around your skill level) with Gouken or your other character. You can add as much or as little additional info as you want. (The more info, the higher the chance someone else might see something in a match up that you didn’t, and might be able to help you out.)
Here’s mine:
First, I initially mained Sagat, then Zangief for my first few 150 hours or so Vanilla. The last however many hundreds of hours were primarily Gouken, who was simply more fun. I’m still nowhere near as comfortable with Gouken in Super due to his changes, but I’m finally getting relatively confident with him again. Despite putting in a good chunk of time with Cody, Hakan and Dudley, **Blanka **is definitely my strongest character in Super, and I’ve played primarily with him since getting C to Shining C. I’d say Gouken is probably my second strongest.
Abel - Blanka (slightly prefer)
Adon - Blanka
Akuma - Blanka (strongly prefer)
Balrog - Gouken (dislike both match-ups)
Blanka - Gouken
C. Viper - Blanka
Cammy - Blanka (slightly prefer)
Chun Li - Gouken
Cody - Blanka (slightly prefer)
Dan - Gouken
Dee Jay - Blanka
Dhalsim - Gouken (slightly prefer)
Dudley - Blanka
E. Honda - Gouken
El Fuerte - Blanka (strongly prefer)
Fei Long - Blanka
Gen - Blanka
Gouken - Blanka (slightly prefer)
Guile - Gouken (dislike fighting Guile, period)
Guy - Blanka
Hakan - Blanka (slightly prefer)
Ibuki - Blanka
Juri - Blanka (slightly prefer)
Ken - Gouken (strongly prefer)
M. Bison - Blanka
Makoto - Blanka
Rose - Gouken (strongly prefer)
Rufus - Blanka
Ryu - Blanka
Sagat - Blanka (slightly prefer)
Sakura - Blanka
Seth - Blanka (slightly prefer)
T. Hawk - Gouken (slightly prefer)
Vega - Blanka
Zangief - Gouken (slightly prefer)
Some of the choices are Blanka just because I have an easier time with him on wake up in those matches, or I feel I’m at an advantage or disadvantage in both, but I’d default to Blanka since I’ve been playing him the most. Others, like Balrog, it’s a pain playing as Blanka, but I don’t think my Gouken’s very likely to do much better, although the losses I do get feel more like my errors as opposed to the match-up. FWIW, almost always U2 with Blanka and U1 with Gouken.
Not sure how close that list would line-up with tiers or other people’s experience, but I’d be happy to hear thoughts/feedback, and I’d definitely like to see other people’s lists.