A meaty is doing a move, usually on oppenent’s wakeup, so that the very last part of it will connect, giving you a faster recovery for a move that might have a lot of recovery.
Footsie is just a term for poking and attacking with normals and not focusing on combos or special movies. A good footsie game is knowing the priority of your normal attacks and good spacing.
thanks
Hey all, anyone got any tips on how to stop panicking lol
I play an aggressive gief… my panicky style seems to work great for him… but when i try and play Rufus who im trying to learn i keep messing up all his combos because im bashing buttons like a madman haha 
Have just a couple go to combos starting out:
dive kick, cr. lp, lp tornado for getting in and its safe on block
st. hp, hp tornado for punishing missed srk’s etc.
target combo, ultra
jumping hk, (ex) snakestrike/ultra air to air
ex messiah to get out of jail free
That should get you started, but you should study the Rufus matchups/combos threads.
Invite to Game
Can someone please explain to me how to use the ‘invite to game’ option on xbox live? I’m constantly frustrated by the lack of a rematch option (I prefer to play Championship or Ranked over Player matches) and would like to be able to have a second shot at narrow defeats. Whenever I go to the ‘invite to game’ option, in the Friends list or elsewhere, it is always but always greyed out. Suggestions?
Hey everyone, long time lurker here. Love the site, lots of great info.
Anyways, I’ve been having a lot of trouble with combos lately. I think I’m trying to link attacks together, and it’s really frustrating. To be more specific, I’m playing with Bison. I’m trying to learn one of his BnB combos, which is c.jab x2, c.short, knee press.
I can combo the jabs to short fine, but when I get to the knee press it either doesn’t come out, or it does and is blocked. (training with autoblock) I can perform the c.short, knee press combo at will, but adding two c.jabs to the beginning of the combo seems to f**k everything up. I’ve performed the combo maybe once out of the bajillions of times I’ve tried.
Is there a general way for you guys to get better at combos? I’d really like to get better with Bison and SF4 as a whole, but this is really discouraging.
There’s a timing of the combo, you can’t simply rapid fire two jabs and a c.short and try the knee press, you actually have to wait until the animation if done on all the jabs, the c.short is what you actually want to cancel into the knee press. I had the same problem for a long time, go on Youtube and look up the Bison challenge trials and you can watch the video to see if you can understand the timing a little better.
Hm. Thanks for the reply. I’ll fire up SFIV and get to practicing some more!
The key is to understand the difference between a chain and a link.
Chains are essentially normals canceled into themselves. Bison’s cr.jab and cr.short can be interchangeably chained into each other just by mashing on them.
Links are moves which combo into each other by waiting until the entire animation is complete for the first move, and then hitting the opponent with the second move after the first has completed, but before the opponent has left hit stun.
Specials can only be canceled off linked attacks.
What is likely happening to you is that you are chaining all three of your crouching attacks, because you are pressing the buttons just rapid fire… the game will not allow the special to cancel off the cr.short in this case. Then, when you try to fix it, what you’re doing is probably trying to wait after the chained cr.short, but since you cannot LINK a cr.short to a knee press, the opponent recovers from hit stun and is able to block.
What you need to do is delay the cr.short after the two cr.jabs so that the short LINKS from the jabs, not chains from them (not every move can link from every other move, of course, but the frame data says that Bison’s cr.short can link from his cr.jab). The jabs can be chained or linked (because you are not canceling a special from them), whichever is easier for you. Once the cr.short is linked instead of chained, you can then cancel the knee press as you normally would. The tricky timing to this combo is learning just how much you have to delay the very last normal in your chain so that it comes out as a link instead (this is true of many characters in the game). I think Bison’s timing is fairly easy, fortunately.
Wow, you called it exactly. Were you watching me practice through my window or something? 
Thanks for the great info. I will definitely try that out when I get the chance. I’ll report back once I master it! Thanks again!
Maybe I was. :rock:
In all seriousness, though, the problem you’ve experienced is a problem most of us have already gone through at some point. The game doesn’t make the distinction between a chain and a link very clear, and when you watch movies, the pros are doing all these weird combos that don’t work for you. You’re left wondering what’s going on. When you described your problem, it was pretty clear what was happening. :wgrin:
Most people do one of these:
- start a crouching normal, (chain) (chain) (chain)… then try to do a special, and nothing happens
- start a crouching normal, (chain) (chain) (wait for normal to end), then try to do a special, but it’s blocked
The correct thing to do, as I said, is:
- start a crouching normal, (chain) (chain) … (chain), wait a split second, (link your last normal) xx (special)
Bison has no choice but to do this, but some characters actually have slightly different options. For example, Ryu’s shoryuken comes out so fast that you can actually link it off any cr.jab (cr.short too, maybe?). So, with him, you have two choices. You can either just mash on cr.jab and chain a bunch, then wait, and try to DP. This works, because cr.jab links to DP. Or, you can do the technique above, where you link the last cr.jab instead of chain it, then cancel it into DP. They look almost the same, because the delay is reasonably short.
Ken also has this BnB: cr.short, cr.jab (chained), then link a fierce DP. Alternatively, he can cr.short (link) cr.jab (cancel) DP. The former is exactly what you were trying to do above (and exactly point #2 in “what people normally do”), except these particular moves have so little startup that it actually works. It’s rare, though - maybe even exclusive to those with a super fast DP - and Bison does not have this luxury.
Thanks so much for the advice. I was practicing in training mode today and linked the c.jab with the c.short, and it worked. I can get it to work most of the time now, and I’m just trying to perfect it at this point. Thank you thank you thank you!
I cant play SFIV anymore. I rarely win and my life is in shambles outside of gaming. My friends yesterday told me that they figured by now I would of either committed suicide or gone on a shooting rampage, or desperately rape young girls. I come on here to see I have been negged by a mysterious person on a simple post, their reason for negging me, to say hello.
SFIV is the least of my woes, but it still sucks that I cannot win despite being in G-2D and spending mass time in the training mode. I have not seen my parents or siblings in years and I am really tired, I have not had a day off in over two months, but I cant take a day off because I need the money and work is the only place I feel semi-good at and to keep my mind off other things. My friends have all left me basically because it is my fault that they cannot get laid in their eyes, then I come to play SFIV only to get my ass handed to me for several hours at a time and receive harsh messages and receive neg rep on XBL for actually winning a match.
So when I come here everyday to post something, only to find a neg rep and a rude comment or somebody just putting Hi or something stupid, it really irks me since I am just here to have fun but apparently, others have fun by swinging their small internet dicks around, treating me like shit because I joined in 2009 despite lurking for a year prior.
So, just treat people nice on here please. I wish I could give out positive rep to people, to make myself feel better on SRK at least, and promote good will towards other new posters. I was getting ready to buy a premium membership so I could positive rep good or funny posts but then I found out I cant rep people because I am in the red, just another blow to something I looked forward to doing.
I’m inviting any novices reading this to check out a FAQ I wrote. It’s quite long, but it’s extremely thorough and answers alot of the questions that are being asked here.
The idea is that it’s meant to book. When you finish reading it you’ll be clear on most of the nuances of the game.
How do I get alternate music to play in multiplayer? I’m sick of the same damn tracks! If that music is 1player only, that is the worst thing ever.
I just just SF4 today… the game plays fine but the cut anime scenes freeze in the middle like it is trying to buffer or something.
I have never had any issues with my 360 before this. All the rest of my games play fine. I tried to search to see if anyone else is having this issue but no luck there. Any suggestions? Should I take the disc back and exchange it?
Somewhere I read something like, you can’t cancel a move if it’s been cancelled into, or something like that…
Like, say with Rufus, you normally can cancel c.lp into EX messiah kick
Can I do c.lp xx c.lp xx EX Messiah Kick ?
Does it count only if the move has been cancelled into ITSELF, or just if it’s been cancelled into, period?
I mean, could I do c.lp xx st.lp xx c.lp xx EX Messiah Kick ?
For this matter, do crouching lp and standing lp count as different moves?
Also, if I linked c.lp > c.lp instead, could I do c.lp > c.lp xx EX Kick? (the punches linked instead of cancelled, then CANCEL the last punch into the kick)
And last, is there any visual cue or some way to know if a move’s been linked instead of cancelled?
Thanks!
Take it easy man, it’s just a game. Some people take it too seriously, just be above them and don’t give a fucking damn about what other people say if you win, if you lose, or about what you post or don’t in a public forum.
I’m quite new to this forum and I’ve learned how some people treats new users, that must make them feel better. Personally, I couldn’t care less. I don’t even know what’s to be neg-repped, not even know where to see that. I’m here to talk about a game I have fun with, everything else is really out of place.
So go and have fun, find true friends that care about you, and please don’t take it too seriously and fuck people who do. You just gotta be better than that and you really should not deal with dumbasses over the internet, and much less in real life.
…was it in post 1315 on this very page? 
No.
IIRC you can cancel into a special move after a target combo such as Ken’s s.MP xx s.HP xx dp.HP
…but that’s a special case. All other times you can’t cancel into a special from a normal you’ve cancelled into.
No.
Yes.
Yes! That’s the only way to get the cancel to work. :lovin:
If a move is cancelled then the recovery frames never happen, so the character is going to go from hitting their opponent and then immediately be in the startup of the special move.
If the move has been linked then you’ll see the character retract their arm/leg before starting the special move.
It all happens quickly though so you’ve got to be looking for it to see it really.
It was explained a few Posts up.
Same exact thing as the Ken and Bison example above.
You are right that you have to do a Link, then into a Cancel.
Cannot do a Chain into Cancel.
(Chain is mean to cancel a Normal into another Normal.)
(Cancel is mean to cancel a Normal into a Special.)
-> mean Chain.
c.LP -> c.LP xx EX Messiah Kick; no work.
If a Move has been Chained prior to doing a Cancel, it will not work.
Prior to a Cancel, the Move has to been Linked.
c.LP -> s.LP -> c.LP xx EX Messiah Kick; no work.
c.LP -> s.LP, c.LP xx EX Messiah Kick; yes work.
Crouching and Standing do not count as different, they still are Normals. (Is that what you meant?)
So have to Link the Normal before doing Cancel into Special.
c.LP, c.LP xx EX Messiah Kick; yes work.
But get this.
There is only one time that a Chain will Cancel into Special.
(Target Combos? But that is another thing.)
This one time is when you do Jump-ins.
Example, doing with Sakura, because I do not know Rufus stuff:
j.HP -> c.HP xx EX Shunpukyaku or Hadoken; yes work.
Only the first Jump-in move Chained into Ground Move, then Cancel to Special will do.
If Chain something else after the Ground Normal, then cannot Cancel to Special.
You can do as many Chains as you want, but whatever before the Special, has to be Link.
j.HP -> c.LK -> c.LP xx Hadoken; no work.
j.HP -> c.LK -> c.LP, c.MP xx Hadoken; yes work.
j.HP -> c.LK, c.LK xx MP Shouoken; yes work.