So me and a friend picked up SSF4:AE a few days ago (whenever the Steam sale was on), and we’ve been having a blast. Although I’m terrible and can’t do any combos other than the most basic cancels (outside of training mode anyway), I feel as though I’m making steady progress. Anywho, I’m looking for advice on how I’m supposed to counter jumping. My friend jumps CONSTANTLY. I’ve read that jumping is supposedly bad since it so easily punished (whenever I attempt to imitate his strategy it always goes horribly awry), however I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do to punish it. He also does crossups (I think that that’s the word for jumping over me, and landing on the other side) ALL THE TIME. I mainly play charge characters so this always messes up my “charging.” I mainly play Guille and Dee Jay (I know that he’s low tier, I just really enjoy playing him). Also, any other tips on how to play against Juri (his main) would be appreciated. Thanks.
Tl;Dr: What should I be doing to counter crossups and jump ins?
Guile has a great anti-air game. One of the best. A nice simple ground AA is his flash kick/Ex Flash Kick (Chg Dn, Up + K). It can throw them into a juggle opening them up for a decent punish, but if you over use it, it’s also pretty easy to punish in return, since it has a slow recovery.
Guile can also jumping-throw, which is a fast way to teach your opponent to stay on the deck. Get into training mode, hit record, spazz around with some jumps and flips, hit playback, and practice plucking them out of the air.
As for specific matchups. Try the match-up threads.
advanced Guile
Sent a PM re: the matchup as well
Thanks for the responses guys. Hopefully I’ll be able to put an end to his irritating crossups…ugh
I did not know that he could do that. Now all I need to do is develop my reflexes until I can actually make use of the air throw…
Uh generally you want to anti-air with normals with Guile. You won’t always have charge so flash kick is generally reserved for times when you can anticipate your opponent wants to jump in and should be used sparingly. Air throw should generally be used in anticipation. Not that you can’t use it on reaction, but you shouldn’t be meeting the opponent in the air very often with Guile. Your best ground antiairs are cr. hp (the best one) and st. hp (more situational). He has several others, but I’m not a Guile main and they’re even more situational than st. hp. Seriously, your cr. hp beats most jump ins in the game. If you’re both new, chances are there’s nothing he can try that you won’t be able to beat pretty consistently. Focus less on flash kicks and air throws. They’re good tools, but a ground anti-air game is a better foundation for improvement.
This depends on your play style/opponent’s style. When I play as a charge (typically chun/tator) against a dynamic or particularly jumpy character, I’m holding down+back alot, slowing the game down, and giving me a pocketed back>forwards charge AND a down>up charge for when they jump in. This will give you 2+ special options, a forward block (no good if the crossup gets past, but appreciated if it falls short), plus whatever crouching normals go with it. Maybe mix this up with SmokeMaxX’s cr.HP suggestion to keep your friend always guessing when you’re crouched
You don’t want to be holding down-back all the time with Guile. Even though this will give you access to your special moves, it also kills your mobility and hands control of spacing to your opponent. When you’re playing, when does your friend cross up? If they’re doing it on your wake-up, then outside of specific tech, Guile’s turn-around glitch makes it difficult to punish since his FK won’t normally auto-correct.
If he’s trying to cross up while you’re just standing there, you could try to immediately dash under him in order to create some breathing room which will allow you to start up Guile’s footsies game again. Or, if you can react quickly enough, you can hit them out of the air immediately with c.HP, or jump immediately and airthrow them.
Forgive me, since it’s been a hot minute since I’ve really played SSF4 but I think Juri does fairly poorly against Guile. Guile can generally outpoke her, and Sonic Boom recovers too quickly for her to easily punish. If she tries to get in using her divekick, be prepared to Flash Kick her.
Yup Guile is a pretty tough matchup for Juri. If she doesn’t know what to do against Sonic booms and if she keeps on jumping, she’s toast.
Learn which ranges your friend likes to jump in from, and also learn which ranges Juri as a character wants to jump in from. This will make reacting with an anti-air a lot easier since if he’s not standing in a good spot to jump in on you it’s likely that he won’t.
Hope that makes sense, I still have a lot to learn about this game myself.