Ryu's fake fireball

[deadfrog]

With all the hype surrounding SFHD, I had a question about Ryu’s fake fireball in the Alpha series, where it originated.

Execution (difficulty) issues aside, was it at all useful in A2 or A3?

I feel like its sluggish recovery combined with the ability to air-block a real fireball anyway sort of minces its usefulness, but I wanted to check with knowledgeable and experienced players since I don’t know those games at all!

This last part isn’t anything I couldn’t have thought up for myself but it was still interesting to see it in writing. From this GameFAQs article:

Many North American players are puzzled by this move. When playing
someone else at the arcade reaching over and hitting the start button seems
to be a dead give away that you’re using this move. Of course that is true
because of the way North American machines are set up, but in Japan, arcade
machines have two screens and are back to back, so the opponent can never
see your hand movements. In that type of setting the Hadou no Kamae can fake
the opponent. Tricking them into blocking or committing to an attack.

[Sabin]

yeah its more useful on a h2h setup since you cant see them press start across the cabinet…on US style its actually not so good, and tht makes the move not so great. but that being said its far better in sthd than it was in the alpha games since you can actually add it to your offensive pressure, whereas in alpha you only use it as a fake mostly and you dont get great initiative.

[Xenozip]

Yeah, you really only see people using it in SFA3 to try and bait out VC’s against people who like to blow through fireballs on semi-anticipation.

[J.D]

at your opponent watching your controls
its just something we all have done

I remember and OG in the arcade here used to actually make a fake fake fireball by actually going for start but pressing the jab button with his left thumb

shit was funny

[deadfrog]

^ ^ ^
Man that is some next-level mindgames right there. :lol:
That’s definitely top tier metagaming, hahah.

Thanks for the answers, guys!

[CI581]

I use this move on my friend when playing HD Remix all the time.

[Dao]

fake fireball is great in hd remix should be in more its a useful zoning tool,

[RagingStormX]

Its useful even in american set up, reach for the start button and press it or whiff it while hitting jab with your thumb.

Also in A2 you cant block the intial start up of a fireball in some cases,