Crouching vs Standing Hitbox, and Footsie Game vs Balrog
Discovered this last week but forgot to post about it.
In most games characters hitboxes are wider when they are crouching than when they are standing, but this is absurdly so in street fighter 4. Or maybe it just looks like it because attacks pass through your character without hitting while you are standing.
Get Zangief vs Balrog in training mode and record Balrog him to spam his crouch roundhouse, then find the closest distance that you can stand without being hit by it. Notice Balrog’s fist is pretty much going into Zangief’s leg yet Zangief isn’t being hit. Now at the same position, go into crouch and you will get hit. Now find the closest you can crouch next to Balrog without being hit. It is both a much farther distance, and Balrog’s attack now hits in a way that makes more sense given the way the two character models touch each other.
Why is this important? If you are standing at max range of Balrog’s sweep without ever going into crouch, you can react to any attack from Balrog with a standing medium punch and hit him where if you were at the max range to not be hit from crouch the medium punch would whiff if you do it on reaction (too far to hit Balrog’s torso, the front part of the attack retracts quickly). Also, no low attack can reach you at that distance barring a low rush punch, so anything from Balrog can be reacted with a medium punch or block (for headbutt). Make sure not to touch crouch ever, because the transition from crouch to stand has an enlarged hitbox too and will have you get hit by a sweep. Rather, you can safely antagonize Balrog at this distance, harassing with standing medium punches and walking in and out of his poke range to either spd or scare him into doing a headbutt so you can spd/ultra it. A crouch would ruin the iron grip you have on his balls, and also there is no need for it since no low attacks can reach you.
Knowing you can stand that much distance closer to the opponent safely can make a huge difference in the footsie game. This trick also helps alot on Rufus and his crouching fierce punch. You can stand at max range of it and walk in and out of range of it, and press medium punch anytime you see him starting to stretch and you are walking backwards. If you are in range at that moment, you will block. If you are back out of range, you will hit him. Very safe to do this.
Also can react to Seth whiffed jumping fierce punch with a standing medium punch, which does a large amount of damage to him and doesn’t require any risky commitment on your part if the other player tries to abuse that attack.
Also something else related as a bonus vs Sagat
Sagat standing roundhouse does hit Zangief while he is crouching from pretty far away, but you can still get closer to Sagat when he does it if you are ducking then if you are standing. Close enough that if he whiffs any normals, then you can stand up and medium punch him in time to hit him. And if he resorts to tigerknees or fireballs to get you out of his face, you can lariat to trade with tigerknee or be crouching while holding downforward so that you react to the tigerknee or fireball with an ex greenhand, which will get you a knockdown. Playing footsie game with Sagat in this way will quickly make the opponent have to think about risk before tossing out attacks, and will make the match up a lot more bearable and less stupid.