SF4ae newbie dilemma

S’up? Newbie here, I just got SF4ae. I decided not to post until I finished some trials. So far I got Sakura, Dudley, Akuma, and Cammy complete. Took me a couple weeks to be honest, lol. I also have various others almost done but kinda got bored or just found them down right frustrating (Cant do Guiles trial 15 for the life of me, can get it animate, just not connect). Honestly SF4ae will be my second game (eventually third) and I really only want to focus on one character. Im just wondering how would everyone go about this situation? I hate to be that guy that runs straight to top tier but I wont have time to learn multiple characters for bad match ups.

Akuma: Seems fun, how bad are his bad match ups, winnable I assume since he is way up there?
Cammy: I dont understand why she is top tier, which is because I dont understand the basics of SF yet. What makes her so good exactly?
Sakura: Was very interested but she became very boring.
Dudley: Honestly this is probably my favorite character, especially when I watch videos of him. Seems to lose because he simply just cant get in sometimes. That overhead combo starter though, is that still legit? Can people block it very easily or is as good as a mixup as it seems? <3 dudley matches, they all seem to end with a clutch comeback!

I guess Im asking who would you all pick in this situation? Barely any time to play/learn but I eventually want to start going to tournaments and try to pick up some wins.

A lot of people have all their characters’ trials completed. They’re still horrible SF players.

When it comes to picking a character, I’d say just go with the one who you want to use most. In this case it’s Dudley. If that’s so, then head on over to the Dudley forums, find out what you should be doing with the character, and just play. Play a lot while also trying to apply fundamental skills. When things go wrong, don’t jump to blaming the opponent’s character/player, rather you should consider what you yourself did wrong. In that way you’ll improve with time.

Yo! Welcome to fighting games, I hope you’re having fun, if you get the street fighter infection like so many of us have, get ready for years of practice, learning, joyful frustration, and hopefully victory.

I wrote a small guide for absolute beginners to give them hopefully a somewhat logical path of things they need to learn to grow as a player, and how they can start to apply them, check it out below:

As far as learning stuff, super quick things to keep in mind:

  1. spend 30 min a day on raw execution - practice your special motions in training mode 20-30 times each side, as well as a punish combo and hit confirm. until you can get your special moves to come out command, you will not be successful.
  2. learn best ranges of your normal moves, and work on safe attacks (moves that don’t leave you open to counter attack, like a wiffed uppercut or super slow sweep.
  3. Learn your anti-air and use it.

You work on those at first and you’ll be surprised at how many wins you can start racking up.

Good luck! As long as you are willing to be teachable, people here will be willing to help!

Get out while you still can.

Akuma is great, and none of his “bad” match ups (and I hesitate to call them bad at all) are that tough. The thing about Akuma is, although he isn’t execution heavy, you need a huge amount of knowledge to play him effectively at all, let alone at the highest level. An Akuma without their shit together is the freest thing in the world because he dies so quickly, even from small mistakes.

And Cammy’s deal is that she’s a brutal rushdown character that’s nigh impossible to keep out; a recipe for top tier. I could go into more specifics but that’s basically the long and short of it.

Can’t really comment on Dudley; don’t know enough about him.

The thing to keep in mind about AE is that the game is pretty old now, so the people who still play (for the most part) really know what they’re doing. This makes for a considerable uphill battle as opposed to picking up a game that just came out where everyone is on a more level playing field.

That being said, it’s a super fun game that is still one of, if not the most, popular title out there.

@hellbox9 thanks man. Not new to fighting games but appreciate the google doc, Ill be using it to supplement my execution practice which is where I always start now.

@KT Smith Hey man! I remember you from MK9! Smoke and that f4 lottery! lol.

Im fine with it being an uphill battle. Im really picking up SF4ae because eventually they will release a new one and I want to be on point when it drops. I doubt Im going to catch up to any high level players in the games remaining life span, thats for sure, lol. Im close to just going with Dudley but Akuma seems like a smarter choice.