Basically i only really play street fighter with a friend of mine and i my best characters have been offensive ones like Ken and Cammy. However recently I went back to pure fundamentals and played a lot more defensive based and footsie based with Ryu and I’ve really been enjoying a defensive ‘frustrate’ your opponent style. Now my friend in very uninspiring and not really original and usually just copies what I do bit with his own twists to it. I found from playing online a character that I found super frustrating was Balrog.
I just couldnt get round the big boxer, great anti airs, awesome normals and pokes and just good spacing and footsies. I had the feeling that all they did was sit their waiting holding down-back and just waiting for me to attack and then reacting and KOing me. Now i would love to be able to play like that just patiëntly attacking and just frustrating the hell out of fireball/attack heavy players. The only thing I have ATM is I’ve never really ever played a charge character now I hear Balrog isn’t too bad when it comes to his specials and stuff that he has more difficult links with his normals etc, but is Balrog a good character for what I want also any tips and tricks welcome, I have a lot of trouble ATM with evil ryus sweep, if I focus I get insta jabbed out of it and it’s so fast it’s like they can just sit their mashing it and if u jump in u get a crouching fierce, very annoying indeed…
The stickies has everything you need to get started with him, so just look around and learn. E.Ryu’s sweep is -11 on block. So If you’re within cr.mp range you can punish with that into a combo, or do cr.lk into headbutt etc…
Yea ive really been enjoying him its been a lot of fun for my first charge character. Ive gotten most things down like his bnb and headbutt combo into ultra etc. Im just running into problematiek now with very turtle heavy players like the e.ryu i play litteraly Sita there throwing fireballs, if i jump in i get crouching fierce if i try walk in i get swept or jabbed so thanks alot for that frame data on that im definately gonna try it out. 2 questions, how do you manage to land his overhead rush, it just seems so slow its like everything beats it and second how do you guys stay mobile and move around while keeping a charge? I usually just try move about throwing normals and then once i get close ill start chrging… But i dunno TAP is also nice to have chargés when moving about i feel.
I have a question, what can you do against shotos that just keep getting close to balrog with their jabs and then jumping and crossing me up with a jumping short and combo its pretty annoying when u have someone that is continuously jumping around u to keep the charge, block everything and its pretty safe too cos i cant anti air him with crouching fierce coa hes too close , any tips?
Again check out the stickies. They’re out of date, but most Balrog information is pretty stale, there’s not a lot of “new” information.
Evil Ryu is throwing fireballs, there’s space in between, you walk forward, you don’t jump (cuz then you’d get Anti-aired). You can jump mid-screen at certain distances, but in general you shouldn’t jump where he can cr.hp, DP or kara-DP you. You’re goal is to push him to the corner where he can’t throw fireballs safely anymore since you can hp.hb on reaction to any fireball he throws for big damage. That strat works against Ryu and Guile as well. There’s a lot more in the neutral game, but that should get you pretty far.
Use overhead rush out of a cancel (e.g. cr.lk or cr.mp). But it’s REALLY bad, always have meter to make it safe, or be ok with gambling the match off of an overhead that may not get you the win. Its generally not worth it without meter to make it safe.
Also if you have trouble with “keeping” someone out and they’re jabbing you to death, you’re being too passive. The only person with a jab like Balrog is Sakura, everyone elses jab for the most part is no where near as good. Be more aggressive, jab more, use it as a defensive tool so you can maintain your spacing.
st/cl.mp is really good for hoppers, cl.hp works really well too, but often trades. You can also fadc backdash and mash backdash too (but this is punishable).
yeah im now on day 4 of Balrog learning loads of stuff everyday. Im getting close to 100% with his bnb into Ultra which is nice my Only problem now is getting all hits to connect in the corner i feel like im doing it too fast as i hit with the first 1-2 uppers and then dash under him where as if i delay the ult and let him get lower i manage to hit him. But yeah this character has just been so much fun and its even more fun when people rage at you and call you Cheap lol.
Today i started trying out the Gootecks shimmy im getting good at the moving back and hitting with cr.M just need to get used to the cancel into ex upper.
But yeah ive player against most of the characters now and the matchups i find tough are generally against the top tier characters like Seth and also grapplers can be a bit of a pain especially Gief but i guess its a learning experience.
The way you juggle ultra in the corner is character specific. PPKKK works on most of the cast (honda is tricky in the corner). Again, This is all in the stickies.