To state the obvious, Street Fighter is a pretty varied game with fun characters and moves. I’m interested to hear what it was that made you choose the characters you use, if you stuck with them, and why? I’m on the lookout for another character, but I can’t decide. Maybe hearing some of your stories may help
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Ken**
Ken is my main. When I was a kid, I had World Warrior on the SNES. I used to pick Ryu since that was the default character, and it was the one who was used most on the arcade machine in a local corner shop, so I presumed it was because he was a good all rounder (which still holds true). I liked Ken and I thought his roll throw was a lot cooler than Ryu’s throw, but I tended to stick to Ryu since they were almost identical but Ryu had the white clothes.
As I moved on to later games in the series, Capcom began to seperate Ryu and Ken in terms of moves, I felt myself preferring Ken’s variations anyway. Being able to select the white clothes for Ken sealed the deal. I’ve stuck with Ken because I like the faster pace and his dragon punches are great, but I have to say that his fireballs aren’t great. I also like the fact that he has the knee bash plus all the mix ups that go with it, something that I am just lost without if I am using Ryu. I also don’t like Ryu’s knockdown hurricane kick, but it does have it’s uses.
Zangief
I actually started using Zangief because I hated him. Yeah that sounds weird, but I think we’ve all been frustrated at being SPD’ed out of nowhere. The turning point was a friend of mine had one of his friends at his house and put him online for me to play against, and his Zangief was making a mess of my Ken. I was pretty much amazed at how dominating Zangief can be once he gets in, and it’s not very often I get messed up that bad. I was impressed, so I decided to pick him up and see what I could do with Gief, and so far it’s going well.
I find against Zangief, Zangief is easier than Ken. If Zangief tries to get in to SPD, then obviously you are in range to SPD them, so it kind of reduces the risk somewhat. In addition the high defensive rating Gief has means getting SPD’ed isn’t as bad as it would have been with Ken. So yeah, I used to hate Zangief, but now I just find him plain funny. His moves, his expressions and how you can hear people getting frustrated over the mic and ragequitting make Street Fighter pretty entertaining. My favourite party piece is vs Akuma players - bait the raging demon, jump straight over it and super them as you land. Awesome.
In truth, you don’t choose your character - the character chooses you!
I actually wanted to play Dhalsim at first, he seemed unique, cool and powerful. But somehow I couldn’t get very far with him.
Then I played a bunch of random characters, and found out that for some reason, I was way better with Honda than with anyone else. So that’s why now I play Honda, even though I’ve never really chosen him.
I started out with Ken on World Warrior. I figured…hey…he’s American. Why not represent? Once I could beat the game, I started playing Chun Li because she’s fast and my rapid fire technique was most impressive in Strider, so getting Roundhouse Lightning Kicks to come out was not a problem for me. Once I beat the game with her, I think I actually started playing Ryu…not that he wasn’t identical to Ken or anything.
Then came Champion Edition and the first thing I thought was…oooh…I can be Bison now! Dictator, Claw, and Sagat were quickly added to my character roster. Guile and Blanka soon followed and I’m sure, by this point, I had also tried Honda, Dhalsim, Zangief, and Boxer. Boxer was quickly discarded for obvious reasons. Hyper Fighting brought me back to Ken and Guile little bit, but by this point, I was trying to play Sagat like no tomorrow.
When Super came out…of course I tried all of the new characters. Fei Long, as sorry as he was, was definitely my immediate favorite. Cammy soon followed. I wasn’t too into Dee Jay, though, and Hawk…definitely not. My mistake.
So, by the time ST came out, as you can guess, I was…and still am…playing everybody! I would definitely say that I’m a Ken and Guile main, though. It’s just the way it worked out.
As an aside, I look back now and realize I was missing out on so much because I didn’t understand combos until 1995. For one thing…I could’ve actually played my fellow African-rooted brothas, Dee Jay and Boxer, with some proficiency. Now…I love playing those two. They live off of their rapid-fire jab combos. Love it!
Way back on SNES my favorite was always Guile. However, I always noticed I was best at using Ken. When HDR came out I started maining Cammy to be unique, and because I was able to win some matches against great players. But lately I’ve been using Dee Jay almost exclusively, and I also started fooling around with Zangief.
Its weird because I think I’m better with Ken than Cammy, but I find myself losing to lesser players with Ken more often, and I’m somehow able to beat GOOD players with Cammy. I guess that indecisiveness led me to pick Dee Jay. lol?
When I first got the game, I didn’t have a stick for my 360. I reasoned that, playing on a pad, my execution for specials would kind of suck, so I ought to play either a character with charge moves, or a someone who could rely on normals for a lot of stuff. DeeJay was both, and I liked him so much that I kept playing him even after I got a stick.
I actually mained Shotos before I got serious with fighting games in the 90s. Then I realized how bad I was and started using cheap charge characters lol.
As I watched Afro Legends vs. Sirlin @Evo07 I completely fell in love with the cool Jamaican and couldn’t wait the release of HDR. After actually playing as him all my dreams came true and yah … since then he’s my main.
1995… I take it that was reference to a certian combo driven game?
I’ve experimented with DeeJay some, and Dhalsim, and I think personally I’m leaning toward DeeJay, but I’m not 100% sold yet. The problem for me is that he is a charge character. I sometimes miss projectile charges due to the crappy D-pad not registering the down-back motion (instead registering down only), but the other problem is I’m way too used to having my moves on demand (like with Ken) rather than constantly trying to retain charge.
Good thread, I started of with chun-li in the arcade version of world warrior and then moved on to ryu. When I got a snes for christmas around 1993/4, I started playing with all characters but soon noticed that guile best suited my ‘tactical patience’ playing style and I’ve exclusivly mained him ever since.
I’m not saying I’ve never been indecisive about what character to play, but I mean, damn. It’s not that hard to figure out.
Only you know why and how you fight, take it from there.
I used to play Ken on my MegaDrive version of SSF2, with a slice of Vega on the side. (Vega was my second only because a friends older brother SCHOOLED me with him and I wanted a bit of the action)
HDR comes out, and while waiting for my EX2 I can’t srk for shit, so I default back to Vega. Haven’t stopped since other than for a wee dabble in Guile.
Funny you say that, as I soon got sucked into the Marvel series after that, but that was the year I was introduced to two of the most legendary gaming resources out there…
Alt.games.sf2
and
The Neo*Geo Mailing List
While on that newsgroup and that mailing list, I met a bunch of the great players that we all still know and love, a good number of whom are now on here, and they led me into figuring out how and why combos work. That sealed the deal.
But, even before that, I was doing Guile’s four fierce ToD.
I started playing WW Guile in the arcades back in the day purely because his moves seemed to be the easiest to execute! After being beaten by what I thought were awesome Ryu/Ken players in my area (wow, they could do DPs on demand!) I started playing the shotos until I could kick their arses with them and only went back to Guile when I got a stick for the Xbox for playing SF Anniversary edition, because I find shoto moves are much harder when you are using a stick on your lap. There I learned Dee Jay but only made him my main after HDR came out recently. I sometimes play Blanka and Claw because they’re fun charge characters too.
I just got a Fightstick TE so plan on using non charge characters in SF4, but will stick with Dee Jay in SSF2THDR because he’s just too much fun.
