I’ve just discovered this attack animation for Balrog, I hadn’t been using it before and applying it to my gameplay has increased my overall wins by a sizeable amount. Basically jump where you wanna jump and while in the air you hit forward+fp or backward+fp. Balrog extends his fist southpaw and does a quick downard strike. When he does the strike he gets pushed a few pixils forward or backwards from the ferocity of the attack depending on wich way you pressed on the joystick.
Pros and Cons: The attack itself has a few ups and downs but adds a new level to your Balrog. The execution is a little odd since the animation is so strange, you have to time and zone the attack very carefully. The priority is wild, when it rips out anything in the hit box gets smashed, if you space and time this correctly it will snuff a shoryuken from Ken, as well as any other dp attack out there! It works best on taller characters, better than roundhouse on shoto sized characters, and anything smaller becomes a bit of a timing hassle. The “Puff” movement it gives you was designed to put you in a favorable position and add range to the hit box. For example, if you land a knock down on Sagat, zone your fallen foe, vertival jump and F+FP him on wakeup and he rolls out of the corner and trys to bust a RAT, the “puff” move from the attack will zone you forward enough to land outside of throw or attack range. Backwards + FP is super meaty from the “puff movement.”
Uses:
-VS. Big Guys: Zangief, Sagat, Yamakazi, Raiden, ect. This is
one mean attack to use. Zone your Balrog into
"The Balrog sweet spot" land a knockdown and
just lather down the pressure. I started to
use this attack heavily on these guys.
When you zone them at about fp range, a
vertical jump with his attack will keep them
stuck in a pin down. It will snuff jumps and
and keep them in a block pattern. Don’t forget
that once these guys hit the corner to swap
back to coming down with a roundhouse, you
can get away with a few in a row especially
on those with no high priority anti air like Yam.
-Vs. Shoto Size: It works less with these guys cause the timing
gets a bit wankerd. You have to give more
time coming down from your vertical so the fist
will connect, Forward+FP dosn't work as well
but take advantage of the back version on
wakeups. One thing to do is zone into range
where it looks like a a vertical attack wouldn't
have even the slightest chance of connecting
then use forward+FP so it puffs you just into
tip of the hit box.
-Vs. Pixies: Primarily use back+fp for aerial defense
against the aerial pixies. This works less like
countering with cr.fp or buffheabut and
works more like snuffing the attack before it
happens. Since cr.FP and buffhb don't connect
on crossover or on most aerial pixies moves
this offers a better facet of gameplay. The
good thing about going vertical and back+fp
is that you don't have to sacrifice a charge.
If you beat them to the attack they will start
to try and jump earlier and execute faster, I
would get out of the air by then and connect
them with buffheadbutt on the upwards
frames of their jump (gotta be fast or ahed of
your opponent). Using this on wakeup is harsh,
the timing gets very unpredictable especially
if they start mixing up their wakeuptimes.
Back+fp is the way to go if you do use the
move.
Grooves: I only play Balrog in C groove, so I have no idea if the attack works well with short jump. If you could bust those like nothing then I would definatly consider Balrog a lot better in a groove other than C. The animation of the move, it’s range, puff movement, and priority are so good that I’m going to start praciticing my N groove Balrog to hurrrrt people.
I dunno, give it a try. I never saw the move mentioned or discussed over jumping in with roundhouse, wich was pretty much standard on my Balrog and everyone elses Balrog I ever saw played. After having found back/forward+fp I’ve improved my gameplay by a marginal amount.