Hey guys im a noob to SSF4 and Gouken and was wondering if i should learn his combos first and how important are they? Also, what are his best punish combos for a noob?
Like any other character, learn his normals (which ones are safe pokes on block, which ones are good anti-air attacks, etc.). Learn how to use his special moves in isolation situationally. Of course the character’s combos should be learned as well.
One thing I would recommend is also picking up a more ‘basic’ character at the same time, like Ryu, to get a better feel of link centric combos and how to perform the FADC mechanic into an ultra – plus to get a general feel of the SSFIV game engine.
Ok, thanks! I guess i’ll learn Ryu for now and come back to Gouken soon, theres just something about and old man beating everybody that brings me to him.
Nothing wrong with playing both at the same time. Gouken definitely has one of the cooler designs in this game. If he ever gets improved in the slightest he could make vanilla Sagat look like a schoolgirl.
He’s only going to break your heart, but you’ll keep going back to him 
You’ll grow to love these types of comments^^
I agree with goathead: I think you should learn the basic fundamentals with a more basic character. The only character I’ve truly ever played with is Gouken, starting from sf4. I learned the combos first, but I’ve gotten so frustrated on not understanding and applying the little pokes and kicks that lead to a situation where you can apply a combo. It’s been about two months since I actually tried learning and practicing the basic mixups.
And I second what Yusuka said: there were times where I hated Gouken so much (cuz of horrible wakeup options and lack of pressure on offense) that I just quit for weeks, but ended up coming back. However, Gouken would probably be too imbalanced if he had a reliable shoto-like wakeup or could pressure opponents as effectively as others because his combos do lots of stun, are strong and pretty easy to execute.
^ His wake up can be sketchy as for anyone without an SRK… but he has several ways of pressuring an opponent with his offensive tool set and the beauty of it is that you can do it from anywhere on the screen.