A barcade opened up in my city and it’s the first arcade we’ve had in decades. As a result, it is getting good traffic. They don’t have all the fighting games you would like to see, but they do have SSF2 (no turbo), MK 2, Samurai Shodown 2 and Virtua Fighter 2 - Really not bad at all, all things considered. They have an MvC2 cab but it stopped working right before they opened so VF2 was the sub. Of course, nobody every plays it. I’m pretty sure no one is playing SamSho either (my personal fav in the joint) because it’s in a 4-slot and barely noticeable.
I’ve always enjoyed playing the Street Fighter series, ever since I was a kid, but even though I’m 31 I might as well be an '08er. It was actually Tatsunoko vs Capcom that fostered my modern obsession with the genre. I’ve always recognized the purity of the SF2, but it never appealed to my more modern sensibilities and there was never a scene that I was involved in. So I don’t really know anything about the nitty-gritty of the game. Of all the SF2’s, Super Turbo is the one I have the most experience with, so I’m not certain the differences to be aware of between Super Vanilla and ST, besides speed.
Still, I played some random games with folks and felt I held my own okay. But I knew they were just people that didn’t have the same amount of experience with the genre. As soon as someone stepped up who really knew what they were doing I was steamrolled. I plan on practicing at the arcade itself by playing folks, but I’m wondering what I should be doing on my computer at home to prepare. The game got its hooks in me and I’m starting to really dig it now that there is potential for a real local scene to develop.
If you play a shoto or Guile those are safe bets. It’s easier to use them in SSF2 due to how sluggish the speed is, you have much more time to react to what your opponent does. In general SSF2 is a beta of ST, with much less stuff to do so the characters are not as interesting, but it’s still SF2 so the basics apply. Dunno about tiers but I think Ryu, Sagat and Guile were strong? Who do you use?
The most important skills to develop in SF2 are the basics, which are the hardest things to learn. Don’t concern you so much with combo execution (though good reversal rate is a good thing to learn execution wise) and learn the ranges of your attacks well. Learn what beats what, sort out your antiairs for each situation. Also learn the ranges of the attacks of the major characters you fight against so you can get in and out of them at will and punish them. Whoever has the strongest fundamentals is the player with the advantage in SF2. Maybe this is a good game to strenghten this aspect since the slower speed makes it easier than something faster like ST or HF.
depends who you use. i remember seeing daigo super matvhes, but thats the only match vids ive watched of that version.
i dont know any tricks in that game like st, but sagat and ryu are good. try to find vids of mike watson and japan matches. i dont know any modern scenes for it, but theres those casuals who like that version of sf2 the most cause it was the last on snes/gen.
honestly theres no reason to focus so so much on this game. get into st and just play s at the barcade or tell them to put in st. play ss2 also while youre at it. try to make friends playing there, maybe a scene will happen but probably not.
Thanks for the replies, guys! Good stuff. I play Ryu and Cammy but Cammy might be too fragile for my skill level. Will definitely consider Sagat. I’m not aiming to be “the greatest,” I just want to be solid. I also think getting better at this game would really help my fundamentals in other fighters.
One thing I noticed is that Balrog hits like a truck!
Makes you realize how ghetto the scene was back then. Having to bootleg tournament footage like this on VHS tapes and get them in the mail just to see what happened at a tournament. No streaming, no direct feed from console/cabinet.