Hugo needs a usable walkspeed and reduced damage on most normals in exchange for reduced recovery. St.mp doesn’t need to be 120 damage, nor does it need to have 99 frames of recovery.
thats also something i wanted to talk about…whats with the HUGE recovery on his buttons? Buttslam (C.HK) feels like your open to be hit for 3 secs and all his other things can be ultra’d if you whiff a move
The thing is though with hugo he probably has one of the biggest punishes for anytime anyone makes a mistake. He also really can’t whiff anything you have to know your spacing so well. As a comparison he has close to the same recovery as Bison’s long range pokes. Or maybe a closer one would be Adon’s Far HK. I kind of wish his dash forward had a few frames less recovery so I could fadc through slow fireballs easier. Also I wish his Hurtbox wasn’t so big in the air because he gets hit really far behind him. It’s also weird seeing him get hit in the back by fireballs due to his size.
I’d Add Poison, Chun-Li, Sakura and Sim to that list.
i honestly like hugo as he is right now, i would just improve a few things about him, like
super cancelable crouch mp
low invincible meat squasher (like it was in 3s)
faster start up on lp clap
fadcable normals besides lights
I like him as well except vs the super zoners.
I’d actually rather have faster recovery on clap and for it to have less of a hurtbox out in front BEFORE it’s active so we can actually stop fireballs relatively ok.
I’d also like St.hk to be a hard knockdown no matter what or let it hit crouching. to maybe give it more of a use than a really far aa
And St.hp to hit lower because I hate doing it on reaction to moves and getting punished because they went under it with slide or something.
I don’t think Meat Squasher needs to be better.
The EX version loses it’s armor before it actually engages the throw. you can be poked out of it.
in addition, both it and EX lariat are entirely susceptible to being thrown for the full run animation. I discovered this after several people did just that to me, even at mid range.
Hi new hugo player here What can hugo do against abels step kick into tornado throw a friend of mine literally spammed this the entire fight n it seemed to beat my 360 grab every time
Neutral jump and land on his stupid French head with a splash.
Able’s grab is throw invincible, isn’t it?
you’re not going to beat it with your grab no matter how many times you try.
just jump or backdash.
I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Hugo cannot N.Jump that Tornado throw due to the extra frames on his jump start up. It may have been online lag though so not too sure.
Meat Squasher is meant to catch hesitation and it is perfectly good for that. If Hugo doesn’t have the tools to make his opponents hesitate, then that’s another issue altogether. His buttons need to be better and his mobility needs to be better.
How to fix hugo:
- Make cr.mp special and super cancellable, slightly reduce lp clap hitstun to prevent infinite cr.mp xx lp clap but still make it possible to link lights afterward.
- Reduce the size of the hitbox behind him during his jump heavies. The problem I find is that even if I perfectly jump over slow moving projectiles (particularly lp soul spark), my only option is to empty jump because if I attempt a jump attack my hitbox becomes half a screen wide and I get pegged by the projectile.
Thats literally all I think he needs, hell, I’d happily trade being able to combo after meat squasher for those two things.
…you can already combo after meat squasher…
well depends on what you mean with buttons and mobility.
Only things i’d change is increasing the projectile immunity from hopkick. Either make it last longer or let it be immune at first frame already. the other thing would be to make cr./st.mk supercancelable…
Hugo already has the tools to make opponents hesitate, cr/st lk into lp clap teaches your opponent not to do anything, dont get too cocky though and spam lp clap all the time. Mix it up and dont cancel the lk now and then. If you do that for one round only, you can land multiple meatsquasher… but as with every grappler, dont get too grab happy, mashers are everywhere… 
Read the post again. I said I don’t mind capcom removing the ability to combo after meat squasher in return for those two.
You can’t be thrown out of jump start up frames
I still think it’s too early to call.
I think s.MP is a good when sparingly used poke like Dudley’s f+HP. In cases where you’re worried about your opponent jumping over it. s.LP or s.LK works and recovers in enough time to back breaker.
I feel the same way mowr feels about meat squasher.
EX Lariat isn’t a get in for free move. It should be throwable much like Rog’s dash punch is.
My only change is maybe clap being more effective against fireballs. And that’s about it.
The only matchups I’m feeling it’s literally unwinnable if the opponent if really good and know what’s he’s doing are:
- Rose
- Juri
- Gouken
For really hard matchups, but not impossible to win:
- Dhalsim
- Guile
- Honda
- Bison
- Sagat
- Shotos
- Poison
- Guile
- Chun Li
Everything else I’m considering 5-5 or better for Hugo.
This list makes me really happy that my previous main was Dhalsim, because then, the only bad matchups I have by playing these 2 are:
- Juri
- Gouken
- Bison
And these are all not that bad for Sim (I think they are all 4-6 for him).
So, TL,DR: Specially in current’s USFIV metagame, you’ll need an alt like Dhalsim to beat zoners.
If the meta was more like AE2012 (rushdown everywhere) you would be able to play only Hugo.