Hmmmn…
My Big Bear play is still in its infancy. However, I’ll just list the discoveries that I’ve made so hopefully they might be useful enough for you to add them to your own Bear strategies.
Big Bear’s normals do the most damage of all the characters in FFS. He is also one of the harder characters to dizzy alongside Krauser and Ryo.
Normal attacks.
Weak attacks.
Bear’s low A, standing B, and low B are quick attacks with decent reach to warrant using often. His jumping B has a long attacking frame(it stays out for a long time) and has decent air-to-ground priority.
Strong attacks.
Bear’s low C is similar to his low A in terms of reach; it also combos into his super drop kick(the first 2 charge levels only IIRC) for what would be considered Bear’s b+b combo.
His standing D is quick, damaging, long-reaching and due the fact that Bear is airborne during it, will beat most low-hitting kicks. It can even avoid projectiles that travel low to the ground! His jumping D has good reach as does his slightly slower low D.
Special Moves.
IMO Bear’s special moves aren’t incredibly effective and have limited applications. Let’s see…
Giant bomb.
This is invincible to high and mid-level attacks, so you can use this to pass projectiles with those properties. Although this move has startup, you can use it to avoid and counter other moves which have a delay before they hit (e.g Billy’s vaulting/drop attack, Cheng’s belly attacks). The A giant bomb can be used as a setup for his command special throw (i.e blocked giant bomb-> bear bomber). The A version reaches the shoulder ram part quicker and travels a small distance, while the C version has more startup and travels farther.
Super drop kick.
This requires charging; the longer you hold the button, the more damage you can inflict and the farther you can travel. The super drop kick has 4 levels you can charge to.
Charge times:
Level 1: 5 seconds - 13 points damage.
Level 2: 12 seconds - 33 points damage.
Level 3: 20 seconds - 53 points damage.
Level 4: 40 seconds - 73 points damage.
The super drop kick can pass over low-travelling projectiles such as Krauser’s low blitz ball, Terry’s power wave, Geese’s A reppuken etc. You can also go into a bear bomber after a close, blocked super drop kick.
Bear Bomber.
This is quite a useful command throw; it has the biggest range of all throws in the game and does good damage. The command (forward,back,down,up + C) is quite tricky at first. I perform the command in one fluid motion rather than quickly inputing each individual command. From the forward direction, I go to back, then roll from down to up. Once mastered, you can incorporate this into your normal poking attacks by just walking within range and grabbing. I sometimes like to follow a landed bomber with a A or C giant bomb as the opponent is waking up. This can lead into a mind game: The opponent might try a wake up attack(i.e Terry might use a rising tackle or Geese might use his B knockdown blow). If you use the A version of the giant bomb, you will stop short of the opponent’s potential counter and be in position to punish them. The bear bomber can be used to grab moves which might be otherwise safe with other characters when blocked (e.g Terry’s crack shoot, Andy’s zan ei ken, Krauser’s leg tomahawk etc.). Finally, as with most command throws, you can use the now tradional method of ticking by using blocked(or hit) weak normal attack-> bear bomber or jumping weak attack(jumping B is ideal)-> bear bomber.
Desperation Move.
The super breath isn’t very useful IMO. Avoid overuse of this move as it’s very easy for the opponent to punish by plane-switching-> walk behind Bear-> plane attack-> combo. Decent block damage though and it stays out for a long time.
