U2 is handy for a few matchups (Rufus, Fuerte, I like it for Zangief and Hawk too, but it’s probably crutch-leaning on my part) but U1 gives Hakan a damage and offensive threat he just doesn’t have otherwise. When you’re playing a character who has to slave for openings against good opposition like Hakan does, you want to be able to milk it for everything it’s worth, and you just can’t do that with Hakan’s U2- save it for the matchups where you absolutely positively need it to break pressure in a match going south and you know your opponent is eventually going to have to go airborne to keep the offense going (and doesn’t have any dirty ways to stop themselves from landing on it like Dhalsim or Shotos)
If there’s anything you can do against Rufus Dive-Kick pressure if you’re dry besides a lot of blocking and being ready to throw break at a moment’s notice or having a full Super bar, I haven’t found it. Hakan’s AA normals all have the problem of either needing Oil to really work or being too slow to work against good dive pressure, nor does it give you enough time to jump-back SP on reaction like I usually do against harder targets to AA. EX Slide doesn’t get you far enough away to get free if you don’t hit and the timing on landing it as a counter-attack is… hard, especially online. If you’re oily and not stuck in the corner, I’ve been using B+FP with some success, but you have to spot Rufus jumping right away or else it’ll come out too late to swat him. (That said, if you’re Oily you could probably just Focus the dive then Crisco to turn the pressure around for a second or settle for nulling Rufus’ momentum, but I’m still trying to get a feel for how safe FAs are for a lubed-up Hakan compared to everyone else and what he can and can’t get away with.)
(I think reaper’s right about Rufus’ cr.FP. I’ve focused it on reaction from near it’s max range and been able to dash out of it and land an Oil Slide- I wouldn’t think landing a F+SP would be that much harder. Rufus has a lot of things that can give Hakan trouble, but the Hamfist isn’t one of them unless for some reason you’re prone to doing silly things at ranges where Hakan can’t hurt anybody and are too slow to react to such a sluggish and obvious attack.)
I would strongly advice to use u1 even against other grappler it is the best 720 in the game with the most range and oild best damage and hakan have trix to land it that makes him dangerous close so the enemy doesn’t pressur you at all
It is the way to go… u2 idea nice but reduce hakans offense to much
Indeed, U1 does seem to be the best choice (barring vs. Fuerte… For me, anyway.)
During footsies, I especially like buffering 720 during s.mk (which moves forward), and stepping forward > 720. After done once to a Ryu, he was hesitant to play footsies with me again.
I still don’t really see any huge advantage with U1. Yes it’s a high damage Ultra, but there are no guaranteed setups for it, except after focus (which U2 also works after).
It -is- a far better offensive ultra though, and if you want to be able to do big damage offensively, it’s surely the way to go. Hakan has a decent dash too, so even stuff like dash into ultra can be scary if used right.
I guess that’s how you have to look at them. With U1 you have to be tricky, but if you can get in there and score it, you get a huge payoff. The opponent should be extra scared of letting you get in close when you have U1. U2 on the other hand, is a great defensive ultra, shuts down a lot of the opponent’s offense, protects against crossups, and really limits how they can attack you.
My friends play a pretty good Cody and I’ve fooled around with him as well. A good Cody doesn’t HAVE to jump at all(not saying he won’t). If Cody really wants to play Crouching Convict Hidden Tornado, oil up and do your best to get in there(Most folks will LET you oil up, if we’re talking about stereotypical turtle). Your medium punch - jumping, crouching, or standing has GREAT range if he’s just jabbing.
I’m gonna disagree with you about his air options being ‘great’. Hakans medium punch or air grab should beat anything he can throw, if not, use light punch(air, crouch, standing) or forward light punch(standing) to stuff whatever he’s doing
SPD seems to be more of a “reversal grab”, though you can jump behind your opponent or SPD on wakeup. I’d recommend Ex + oiled spd if you plan on using it offensively
Last notes: if he’s turtling don’t let him get knife(at all costs) all his criminal uppers(tornado) have very poor start up if he’s just doing randomly, except ex(even if you trade that’s better than nothing, right?), without meter he has bad wake-up options(if he has meter ex-zonk punch is his wakeup) so you can bring back prison memories of dropping the soap
Half the problem with the U2 is that many of the targets you want to use it on have ways of making it pointless. I’d LOVE to use U2 in the Akuma matchup since it basically would tell him to stop bouncing around like a hellfire-powered retard and get oily with me but the same reason why Akuma has a S-tier air game is the same reason U2 won’t work on him- he’s got, like, five different ways to change his air momentum that can turn U2 into guesswork. A lot of the better air games have shades of that- the other Shotos can use their HK to a similar degree, Dhalsim can air-teleport out of your trap, etc. The only reason I even like it for Rufus is because it’s the answer to so many OTHER problems in that matchup too (Goodbye Jesus Kicks)
I know I probably should use U1 on grapplers, but I get really tired of them trying to get around my better oily pokes with empty jumps or crossover dives, and U2 is a braindead solution for both Zangief straight-up empty jumping once in and Hawk trying for one too many cross-up dives that I’m tired of missing advantage on by Coward Crouching or Sliding away from it. I’m just lazy and 95% of the time it works- Round 1 I get damage, Round 2-on they keep their asses on the ground and in my poking game.
Akuma’s air game is not S-tier anymore. what made it S-tier was how easy he banked off of HK follow-up to demon flip that lead into HK loops. Now demon flips are more for mix-up than a game ending combo starter. Akuma is still good, but U2 definitely deters him from starting air mix-ups. Akuma’s ground game isn’t as good as an oiled Hakan, since you could riposte (oil dash + counter) the first hit of HK, or just fish for Rockets on block.
Why would U2 stop Akuma from flying around Hakan’s head? He can pretty much change the angle and decent of his jump to basically anything he wants at will. One bad guess and Hakan is going to pop U2 with no payoff coming, and all Akuma has to do is get even MORE annoying about air Hurricanes/Fireballs/Dives/Flips then usual. He might not be getting the damage and momentum payoff that he used to, but Akuma’s still the king of making people make bad AA calls and punishing them for it. I’d much, much rather have U1 here, if just because when I use it there’s much better chance of me being able to leverage it to actually do something (Most notably, take a huge chunk out of Akuma’s cripple-bad life bar)
lol. you have an ultra-centered game plan? Try beating Akuma without using any ultra. I understand there is a sort of “instinct” to use ultras when you have them, but for me, ultra use mostly comes second when trying to make a comeback due to the risk of using either on whiff.
Reliance on an ultra shows that you consistently take beatings, which further shows you’re probably not offensive enough.
I don’t even get what you’re saying here. You’re said that a Hakan centered using U2 deters Akuma from air mix-ups, I’m saying it doesn’t because he can avoid it with all the ways he has to change air momentum and that I’d rather have an ultra that actually does something in the matchup and give my offense more threat, and you reply that my gameplan is Ultra-centric and overly-defensive because… I’m not willing to base my Akuma AA game around a Defensive Ultra?
… reread that a couple times, son, and find where you goofed up.
I’m just stating plain fact- U2 does jack-all against Akuma. It’s not going to stop a decent Akuma from jumping because they know they can avoid it at will which means that picking U2 is only marginally better then not having an Ultra at all. And while you can’t count on U1 to single-handedly win this matchup for you, it gives you a chance at a 30-50% damage swing on one of the frailest characters in the game, which is too good a chance to pass up, especially when the other choice is GODDAMN USELESS in this match. Akuma’s not my least-favorite Hakan matchup in the game, if just because you only have to catch Akuma a few times to take a round and once you get a knockdown and some Oil you can start making him work for it, but it’s still one of the harder ones because Akuma is just a pain to get that first catch on.
(I might as well bring the issue at hand to a table- what DOES Hakan do to an Akuma who’s insistent on playing the air game? Nothing I’ve found is going to stop Akuma from jumping around him like a jackrabbit if he wants to without some really good prediction on what Akuma’s gonna do from the Hakan player, since air HK beats both j.MP and Air Throw, while air HK, air Hado/EX Hado, and Dive Kicks make AA Oil Slide a guessing game on where Akuma’s gonna land, and ALL of these options beat Hakan’s B+FP and unoiled FP, which are Hakan’s most-used grounded AAs alongside Oily F+FP in my experience. Is there something I’m missing here, or is the answer pretty much just “Guess right or keep blocking?”)
Hakan Spear is really useful against shotos who spam fireballs. Actually randomly used it in one match and it caught him just before he threw it out and been using it since.
NO I was saying that if you pick U1, you’re basically suggesting that you anticipate Akuma’s going to zone you to hell where you NEED to land it to win or just to stay in the game. I find that since Hakan has no particularly reliable anti-air, i If I were to pick U1, then Akuma’s just going to jump and teleport all day.
I understand Akuma CAN bait out U2. To use U2 effectively you have to use it on reaction to a sure counter, or by j.MP juggle. You have to get wise to what the different ways Akuma, Fuerte, Rufus, Viper, Vega, Bison, Ryu, Juri, Ibuki, Seth, and probably others could bait U2 out. If Akuma demon flips, then let him go. If he’s coming down on you, that is your signal to do U2.
As far as fighting Akuma goes, I’m under an impression that you like using command grabs. I’m more into pokes and combos, because I’m aware that other players are aware that Hakan has a command grab that they have good reason to fear in certain circumstances. I don’t just think “Oh grab Akuma 5 times and he’s done”. I think that is a discrediting thought to have about the Akuma player. Sure you can get easy wins on incompetent players by using them only. But good Akuma players know there are other options aside from blocking when the pressure is on.
Don’t have much Gief experience. But T. Hawk doesn’t seem to be that much of a pain, pretty even actually. I pretty much just spend the whole match outside of his range provoking him. If he starts trying to space against you with RH, slide and focus/DNCs can fuck him up. Most everybody can punish condor dive, but being able to punish with RH DDT or even super on block and slide for whiffed dives is pretty nasty. Overall it seems tough for T.Hawk to get in. Of course, he definitely has the ability to easily pressure your wake up from the air, but then again it’s Hakan. U2 can make him even afraid to do that though. Dive can be pretty useful to take advantage of a reckless oil though, so be careful.
I seriously agree about Abel. CCing wheel kick is fun though