Rather than bitch and complain about Honda’s shortcomings I thought it might be better to find some vids to show us how he’s supposed to be played. I FINALLY found A MATCH on youtube that wasn’t between 2 scrubs through UltraDavid’s Dhalsim Video thread.
We need our own dedicated thread for this shit.
Basics:
Honda is written (HO), ??, ??? etc. It seems like most japanese use Katakana but since Honda is a pretty common name (with that Kanji) the 2nd might be good to try.
Players I have found thus far and what I might know about them. A lot of match vids have Hiragana or Katakana names but some popular players use Kanji. I will do my best though I can BARELY speak Japanese.
Mike Ross- unless you’re retarded you know this guy is considered best Honda in America.
???AB7 - PinoAB7 he is known as a 3s Necro player. Also in 1 vid he is called “Densetsu no AB7”
???- Omitsu I don’t really know about this guy yet
??? - Kusumondo I have not found his vid yet but I heard that he plays SFIV honda too. LEGENDARY ST HONDA. (AKA sometimes as Gorilla Imo)
??? - Kakiyun appears to also play Slut so he may have moved on from Honda.
??? - Kashiimama
??? - Kamiro (or ru) I fuck these 2 characters up so somebody help me.
Imo the best Hondas on Youtube at least are probably Pino, Mike Ross and Omitsu. I couldn’t find anything else from those other guys. (In the case of Gorilla Imo I couldn’t find anything from IV but I trust that if he’s playing Honda he is rough stuff)
If anybody knows of any others please put them up. Also if I fucked up anything please let me know. (Just don’t be a dick about it, I’m trying to help.)
There aren’t many youtube vids of Hondas that win. Most of the ones in the videos on HardEdgeOfficial’s vid section jumped unnecessarily on Sagat and just ate uppercuts or roundhouse to tiger knees. Other Honda’s just attempted to spam butt splashes over and over which most people will eventually figure out.
Splashes can be beat by reversal timing DP’s from most of the shoto’s so once your opponent figures out the cheese, you’re screwed. lk and mk are -2 which is relatively safe against all but gief, and hk and ex are -3 which means reversal lp srk from ryu, any srk from akuma, and fp srk from ken are guaranteed to hit. There’s a ton of other problems with splashing as well though. Rufus’s air to air two hit normal wins EVERY time. So does ryu’s and so does bison’s against all but EX splash.
I think the way you’re dissecting Honda is the way he should be played. Don’t jump unless it’s guaranteed safe, play on the ground correctly with s.fp/s.hk out of sweep range and inch up slowly. When you have advantage in life, don’t be quick to rush in. Jumping in on Honda with meter is suicidal and getting next to Honda is also a bad idea so make them panic or fuck up.
Puyo432343 put up vids of a 1-23 TRF tourney with a really good honda that knew what he was doin. No stupid jumping and good footsies.
I didn’t have time to watch all the videos last night.
I just figured finding SOME players was a good idea. I watched maybe 4 matches so far. Good shit though PieGuy. My style is preliminary of course but I definitely think Honda has a great deal of control in the mid range. I will admit Omitsu assdrops a lot which I do see some players do, it seems like 1) you’re hoping your opponent will fuck up, and 2) you’re scrubbing out.
In the 3rd Video Pie posted that is EXACTLY what I am trying to do. Honda player kept him at mid range, got a couple beefy hits and then got OUT of a range where he could be swept or crossed up. Then the Honda has Ken cornered with a huge life lead, if Ken throws a fireball, Honda will simply jump over it, get in range and then JHP to win, if Ken Jumps (which he did) he will get tagged 100%
Can anybody read or decipher who that Honda is from Pieguy’s videos? I can’t follow the commentary cause it’s french and I can’t read the player names.
Mariodood: I only really see justin playing Abel even on his channel. If I find stuff from him I will add it.
That is from Canada. Honda wins tourney. its been posted in honda thread.
dude that one against the Boxer was SWEET. Screw what gootecks said about USA, JAPANESE ARE FAR FAR AHEAD and WAY BETTER than all of USA (cept in mvc 2).
The vids aren’t really helpful cause they’re all against claw. You can’t really abuse splashes like that against shotos or sagat cause one mistake against claw, you lose 200 hp. You make one mistake against sagat, good bye 600 hp.
Those videos have been out for 3 months. I watched them all and nothing was worth noting really. That Honda jumped way too much and most of the sagats and shotos in that batch didnt’ know wtf to do against honda. Again, if somebody with a fireball is JUMPING in on honda with meter, they’re doing it wrong. Also, anybody who tries to focus attack against Honda when there’s a possibility he has charge, is also doing it wrong.
I had the misfortune of taking on a Zangief today. I only won 1 of 3 matches. Though I got close every match I lose (3:2), I KNEW this guy wasn’t a good player, it was just so brainless. Any Gief worth his salt would’ve definitely destroyed me. He would mash 3k all the time and standing roundhouse. If he got a knockdown he would try to crossup and tick throw. He mostly caught me with random Ultra, but just seeing how that incredibly stupid lariat over and over tactic… and seeing it work made me really question my playing Honda.
I did learn that standing mk is a pretty decent poke though, and low short can sometimes get people off you. Low short, stand mp both pretty good. I also found out that SA from correct distance will hit the lariat (about shoto sweep range away) and the the Ultra WILL NOT even if it is on reaction. (It kind of went into the lariat and stopped… I haven’t seen anything like that) If you can predict Gief will attempt a grab you can ultra him for free if it whiffs. (I got him with ultra by neutral jumping, land ultra as he was stuck in piledriver whiff animation)
Jump fierce can also hit his Lariat clean, so it’s useful.
I will keep with him until at least the console release comes out (2/12), but if I start liking another character more I might be done with him. Ever since Mike Ross told me about Rey Mysterio’s infinite I’ve been thinking “BOOYAKA BOOYAKA 619” lol.
For those match-ups however does he have the tools to win and you just need to play smarter or is he screwed from start to finish… Say like Vega Vs Hibiki in CvS2 screwed?
The japanese place honda vs sagat at 3-7. It’s still winnable but you usually have to had baited an ultra by excessive headbutting. The biggest issue with the sagat match-up is that high tigers are very difficult for honda to jump over and sagat’s s.rh beats or trades with most of honda’s jump-ins. Also, tiger knee beats all headbutts once the invincibility has worn off. Another thing that really sucks, that I still don’t have an understanding of, is sagat’s tiger uppercuts can hit honda out of buttsplash recovery. The problem is, honda’s butt splashes leave him at -2 or -3 and tiger uppercuts come out in 5 frames. Maybe somebody will eventually figure out reversal mechanics.
This video pleased me greatly as well. Keep the quality Honda videos coming. They are good to watch during those “maybe I should just give in and pick someone else” moments.
really good stuff. That honda is awesome with his spacing, and he spends so much time just sitting there. Sagat can’t bait anything unsafe, it’s so manly.