Seriously the two characters special moves and gameplay types are so fucking similar. For christ sake they both have some hilarious charge attacks that involve flying across the screen and hitting opponents with the bulk of their whole bodies. Both also have a tapping attack albeit different with Blanka sending electricity and E Honda sending hundreds of slaps.
They both even get vertical versions of their charge attacks.
So whats the point of someone who prefers charge characters choosing one over the other? As someone who’s a Blanka mainer I cannot get why anyone would prefer Honda over Blanka. Blanka’s specials are not only faster and do more damage (especially his rolling attack if timed correctly) but Blanka’s movements from walking across the stage to jump attacks are just plain faster in general. Not to mention the priorities he gets with his SP and jump attacks.
All Honda comes off is as a slower version of Blanka with a similar moveset with subtle differences (such as Honda’s own vertical charge attack ending with Blanka dropping on his opponents after flying up the ceoling and still being able to hurt his opponents as he slams on the ground). There doesn’t seem enough to warrant Honda over Blanka aside from the subtle moveset.
Even Honda’s Thousand Hands Slap (the most different attack from Blanka and arguably his best IMO) is too limited to make up for his slowness and IIRC later versions of SF2 took away the ability to move while performing it (which made Honda such an unstoppable tank in the game). Without the ability to move you may as well just describe the Thousand Hand Slap as Chun Li’s Lightning Kicks executed with hands instead.
Can any long time vet give a basic explanation of how these two chargers are so different? Really aside from speed and their button tapping specials and subtle differences with their moves these guys are almost like mirror matches, even more than Ryu and Ken!
Honda has a command grab and godlike air normals, plus hands has more combo opportunities. Blanka’s got more shenanigans, Honda is “lamer”. They are similar, but Blanka is generally an aggressive character, while Honda is more patient and reactive.
One has a lot of hair and the other one not so much.
They share some similarities, but at a competitive level, their differences start to make itself very clear. Blanka is much more reliant on his overwhelming speed and mixup potential to land solid damage. Honda is primarily played to be a defensive character with solid defensive option, alongside having a good ground game, especially with his jab x hundred hand slap. Blanka isn’t really suited to hold down-back and play the lame duck due to his slightly less effective anti-air options in certain situations, and prefers to land knockdowns and go on the offensive.
Does Honda have more health and better priority? I notice attacks that would knock out Blanka Ball don’t knock Honda in his flying headbut. In fact I notice a lot of moves that would hurt in unblocked don’t hurt Honda at all in his flying headbut. To the point it even cancels out other specials like Spinning Bird Kick, not just Blanka Ball.
ITs not just the headbut, I notice with normals even if the other character strikes faster Honda’s attacks come out on top.
I heard though Honda can be just as fast as Blanka if not more. But playing as him is so stiff even just moving across the room feels so heavy nevermind executing combos that I find him as you stated a defensive at the core. Yet he gets a reputation for his incredible speed when played offensively that at times can even outmatch Chun Li’s and Vegas speed when he goes all out. Just hearsay but I just cannot believe Honda is one of the faster (among the fastest some players told me) in the whole game.
All of these factor’s vary from game to game. Which game are you referring to? There are games where blanka is awful and others where he is top tier. Characters throughout different games vary tremendously.
Headbutt has terrible priority. Well-timed st.lp can stuff it clean, along with a variety of other good moves. Spinning bird kick (non ex version) is a pretty useless move outside of combos. Blanka ball is useful for moment and occasional footsies depending on the match, but otherwise, you’ll want to focus on comparing both character’s normal attacks.
Honda doesn’t really have speed, but he makes up for it with cr.jab x HHs, which is a core tool he uses in the ground game. His cr.jab is incredibly fast and outprioritizes quite a lot of attacks. You can pretty much just throw it out there and either land a combo, build meter, push your opponent away, and do chip. It’s a wonder tool.
Blanka attacks in different ways. He relies much more on basic pokes and overwhelming your opponent with mixups if you land the knockdown.