I blame the two worst conceived characters ever devised for that joke of a game’s existence…Yun & Yang.
They go against everything that’s good in a fighting game.
Their divekicks are impossible to punish consistently with normal anti-airs.
And one thing I learned, one of the lessons taught to me by SF2 and all the good fighters of the early to mid 90s is…
learn all your characters anti-airs…and learn the spacing and timing of your anti-airs and punish all jump ins accordingly.
These two fuckers created by I suppose mentally challenged Capcom staff members contradict that lesson, and the entire philosophy of fighters.
Because if your character doesn’t have a great anti-air reversal or a command grab…Yun & Yang can jump in on you for free coz its impossible to anti-air them with your normals.
They are sincerely, abominations on the fighting game genre.
I can’t stand them.
I don’t know whats worse.
The fact they can dive in at an acute angle that’s nearly right on the top of your character’s forehead that makes it impossible to anti-air punish or the fact their recovery is too good from the move if you block it.
Not every character can punish it either in the air or on the ground once they land.
I know my character can’t.
And that philosophy of making jump ins impossible to punish with anti-air normals led to Rufus, another fighting game abomination, and Seth’s and Cammy’s dive kicks.
Not to mention how other games got influenced by the whole “its a new fighting game so jump ins are free” philosophy.
Aka KOFXIII where anti-airs are non-existent.
In KoFXIII its pointless to dp or do anti-air reversals let alone anti-air normals.
Play KoF98.
Try to jump in recklessly like a mad man in that game against a good player.
See what happens if you try.
Then go play KoF13.
Jump around like a Mexican bean in that game and see if the reward for nutty jump ins doesn’t vastly outweigh the risk.
See the difference?
Before Yun and Yang fighting games were about footsie’ing and spacing. Punishing predictable and reckless jump ins with appropriate anti-air normals.
That’s true for every fighter Pre Y&Y.
Post Y&Y its all about jump in not giving a fuck, watch as your jump in beats their anti-air normal clean, and commence your long high damage high hit count combo as a reward for not doing the right thing which is…
To Play Cautiously!!!
The lesson that was taught to me by old school fighters is,
playing cautiously is the way to win.
Like anything else in life.
Don’t believe me?
Play Kasparov’s chess.
How did Garry Kasparov beat the computer?
Know how fuckers?
By coming up with the most defensively minded strategy to chess ever thought up. that’s how.
Every piece protects every other piece.
That’s why you can’t beat the computer at chess when the computer implements Kasparov’s strategy!!!
Its impossible!
And with good reason!
The most you can do is tie.
And the only way to do that is by mimicking the computer’s every single move.
that’s it.
You do anything else.
You lose!
When I was a kid I learned "hey, jump ins hurt. Gotta block them"
then I learned "hey, why block when I can dragon punch and punish them."
Then I finally learned "Hey, don’t dp unless I absolutely have to and have no other choice since the reversal has invincibility and does good damage, but if I fail and whiff it I am left wide open for big damage on its abysmal recovery. If I need to anti-air, i’ll use my character’s anti-air normals."
At the same time I was learning. "hey jump ins hurt. i’m gonna jump in every chance I can like a reckless retard."
Then I learned, "h…heyyyyy. Dragon punches really hurt."
Then I learned "wait, I can empty jump or bait dragon punches and punish their recovery badly."
Then I learned “hey, my opponent never dragon punches. He keeps anti-airing me with his character’s anti-air normals…maybe…just maybe I should minimize my jump ins unless i’m very sure it won’t get punished do to my timing and spacing with regards to my opponent’s actions and the ebb and flow of our footsie dance.”
That kids…is what fighting games are about.
Hell, what am I saying?
That is what LIFE is all about.
ie., not being stupid and reckless and foolish and not giving a fuck about the actions you take because the actions you take will mostly likely have negative consequences for you if you try to go down that road.
Its NOT about jumping around like a retard not giving a fuck because you have nothing to worry about due to the fact your opponent’s anti-air normals will mostly lose out to your brazenly reckless jump in attacks that have insane unpunishable hitbox/hurtboxes.
SMH.
F U Y & Y 4EVA.
THE END