I’ve had that question asked to me a couple times by friends. Some of them who are just starting to learn the game, and one who just really doesn’t get why I use the Hawkster. The latter guy knows my history of finding a main. It was…a long search. Kinda mained Bison in SF4, didn’t give much attention to the game. In Super, I got much more serious. Picked up Cody for a bit. Then I got my fightstick, started to use Dhalsim. And then I started to just bobble around a lot. And finally T. Hawk stuck on me.
I’m not sure exactly why Hawk has stuck with me more than any other character (except maybe Sim). Maybe its the fact that I’m using a character who doesn’t seem to be loved by the public. I don’t blame them, Hawk isn’t horribly exciting. Much of what he can do seems to be done better my many others. But I seem to feel that there’s a certain charm to the big man. Sure, a lot of fights are uphill battles, especially when the opposing character has any ability to zone, but that makes victory all the sweeter.
I can’t give the excuse of “he fits my style”, my style is zoning. Maybe its just the fact that Hawk is a grappler, that’s why I use him. He’s not perfect, but there’s something I find accessible in his character. I dunno.
What’s everyone else’s reasons for being drawn to the way of the Hawk?
Personally I use T.Hawk because I hate the feeling of dropping a combo. You practice it a million times and then in a real match you drop it and get SRK’ed. So therefore I use a throw character that can just do a command grab and get the same amount of damage without worry. Plus it’s unblockable.
:woot:
I’ve always hated Zangeif’s character design and Hakan having to constantly keep oiled up only left me with one choice for a dedicated grappler character. Although, if Hugo is in the AE update I’ll be switching to him.
T. Hawk is simple. No offense but he lacks those little pokey safe strings and instead relies on the heavy hits and I myself find that to be a lot less strenuous to think about when I have to fight someone. A hit comboed into tomahawk buster, bam, big damage. Throw range is incredibly huge as well (biggest? even for his fierce punch Mexican typhoon). Since he’s a minority it’s also fun to use him because you know there’s not too many people using the big guy. Raging Slash all the way. Hope Capcom makes it hit more consistently though, that’d be ballin’.
The thread isn’t totally strategy related, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. Some people, especially Humpski, have injected a little strategy/mechanics into their answers, even though the the OP didn’t specifically ask for that. And hell, even the “What does the T stand for” thread got the guy that actually named T. Hawk to reply, which was pretty awesome.
Maybe this is just proof that we need a “T. Hawk Social Thread” like some of the other characters have.
To stay on topic, I’ve always been a fan of the grappler playstyle. I’ll be a Zangief main until the day I die, but T. Hawk is a close second. I like moves that look like they hurt. If you look at any live matchup videos (even high level stuff like EVO), the crowd always goes crazy whenever a grappler lands his Ultra. And that’s awesome.
I like the dichotomy of having a “gentle giant” type character with moves that look like they’d kill someone. I especially like the looks of his SPD and his Ultra 2. And especially, especially his SPD. The face plant maneuver is just too good.
I like mind games and grapplers usually have pretty a good mind game/mixup/okizeme gameset that I’m attracted to. I like fighting for a knockdown for a good portion of the match and then it finally happens and it’s like Christmas. I’m looking at you, Guile.
I like playing footsies. This is the one area where T. Hawk really outshines Zangief, IMO. Although Zangief does have some pretty mean option selects that I can only wish T. Hawk had.
I like making Indian jokes while playing against my Indian friends. I live in Oklahoma so there’s no shortage of Indians.
T hawk is the best character ever made in anything ever. he’s a 7 foot tall native american guy, he would probably weigh like 600 lbs. if he was a real person. for some reason, he can fly. he summons an eagle when he wins, even if he’s indoors in a crumbling laboratory, or even on a continent where there are no eagles, like africa or southeast asia. t hawk is amazing. did i mention that HE CAN FLY?
in terms of gameplay, i LOVE the fact that he is a grappler with an uppercut. a lot of people who don’t know the matchup try to neutral or back jump to avoid a command grab, and I always uppercut them. uppercuts are so clutch. i love his ambiguous crossup splash after jab typhoon. if you land that, you get splash, st. mp, DP for over 300 damage. that’s sooo much damage! in a 3 hit combo! it’s soo easy! I FUCKING LOVE CONDOR DIVE!!! so what if it’s hella unsafe on block? you can neutral jump, and as soon as you see a fireball, focus attack, or a slow normal, you can punish that shit with condor dive. it’s like an air-to-ground uppercut! so sick… and really, because T hawk is kinda like Zangief, BUT HE CAN FLY!!!
EDIT: oh, and EX condor spire is okay too… i guess
for the simple reason that, when you sit down next to somebody and you pick t.hawk, 7 out of 10 times you can just hear the other person shit their pants. hawk seems to be one of the most frightening characters in the game to most people.
but then when people know the matchup they smile at you as if they’ve got your number… only to get dunked with lp spd from max range into safe jump mixup into stun. then who is smiling?
Wow it’s like I am really on /v/.
0/10 Joe, try not being so obvious next time.
Hit those showers, freshen up, come back tomorrow and try again with a brand new start, ok?
I’ll be here, I promise.
I use T.Hawk first off cause I am native and a Canadian, as there is no Canadian representation on the roster I settle for a Native(even if people keep reminding me he is mexican)
I adore how his uppercut shuts down neutral jump games when Im waking up, and come on ticking into a command grab is priceless. I cant tell you how many times I have done that and had my friends respond with a very loud and very upset WTF.
Oh ya lets not forget his links are simple as hell, I mean come on I cannot be the only person who noticed it takes legit effort to actually drop a link on the big guy.
And finally what is with the spam posts complaining the thread is a waste? It isnt exactly like your complaints about it were all that constructive either.
I’ve always been partial to grapplers. In SSFIV, my ability to link is pretty bad. I’ve certainly been working on it, but link intensive characters have not worked out for me in the past. T. Hawk has some awesome pokes (but doesn’t necessarily have to link them) and is a grappler, so I suppose that it makes sense that’d I’d main him.
Also, there ain’t nothing quite like watching the opponent’s health bar drop to zero after landing U1.
It was difficult for me to main a character in SSF2T. Then I was like " I should start practicing with a character that a lot of people don’t see a lot of" and thats how I ended up maining T. Hawk. Even though he’s not a good character, I do like the challenge of learning how to play as the mexican/native american fighter.
