• SRK Plays Final SSF4 Build, Spills Guts

    Wouldn't it be nice if someone who cared about what SRK wants to know could spend some time with Super Street Fighter 4's final build, and then tell us what he saw? Wish granted, apparently. Joey "MrWizard" Cuellar got to spend most of yesterday playing the retail build, and he got permission to talk to the press about it! Good thing he chose Shoryuken.com as his preferred press outlet! I got the chance to talk with Joey for a couple of hours last night about all the changes he saw to the old characters, and see how some of the new ones were shaping up. If you want to read his brutally honest opinions, you need only click the "read more" button.

    Joey started off by noting that changes to old characters are pretty minimal. He said that all characters seem to hit lv2 focus faster, other than Seth, so that makes Focus Attacking universally faster unles you are naked. He then did a character by character breakdown for me. Here are my notes from what he said. (Note that U1 and U2 are refering to Ultras 1 and 2 respectively)

    Quote Originally Posted by MrWizard
    Ryu - Ryu's medium and hard dragon punches hit twice now. Damage is down on it, but if you FADC, you only get one hit from it, so damage is down even farther. Trades to ultra from DP are gone, and most trades into ultra from SF4 are gone, but not all. Puts you in a floaty state, and you cant combo afterwards.

    Ken - He is not looking good. They didnt give him much. He cannot FADC to Ultra2 normally. He didnt get crazy kicks from previous SF games. They slightly improved his fireball.

    Chun li - She got 'infinitely better'. U2 combos easily all day. The upkicks target combo goes into U2, as well as EX legs anywhere on the screen. Its very dangerous. U2 gets all 20 hits every time, if it whiffs for a while and you get hit by the very end of it, you still take the full damage.

    Guile - He seems to have been given nothing. Sonic Hurricane, his U2 is not good. Super into U2 is the only known combo into it. Down+Taunt puts on glasses, but doesnt give him any buffs or advantages.

    Zangief - Very similar. He could lariat trade into U2 in earlier builds, but he cannot anymore. Rufus and tall characters can block his lariat low and punish with a crouching RH.

    Rose - She can juggle off soul reflect into air throw or U1 or ex fireball. U2 is very good. Can corner juggle into orbs. Each orb can hit once before it dissipates, including on block. They do about 20% damage each on full ultra. Wiz noted that he needs to check what happens when projectiles hit them. When the orbs activate, there is a delay before you can do special moves again, including throw. They delay felt like 3-4 seconds. Orbs cross up very easy. Rose seemed powerful.

    Blanka - Seemed the same, new ultra isnt that great, can get thrown out of it.

    Honda - Noticed no changes, cant jump on reaction to U2.

    Dhalsim - He seemed the same. U2 hit box is prttty small. Super hard to hit.

    Balrog - U2 jumpable on reaction to activation. His U2 is bad, it has terrible range. Seemed too hard to land to be worth giving up U1.

    Vega - Seemed the same. His Claw stays on a lot longer now, though. Ex dive off the wall doesnt go through opponent anymore.

    Sagat - He does marginal less damage overall. Scar-uppercut does double damage, nothing more. If you do scar move, you cant do it again until you uppercut, but you can store the powered up state the entire round if you want. forward + RH still juggle state.

    Bison - J.Strong into U2 works. Its not a charge motion so its very handy. U2 is a blockable stomp attack, and it can crossup! It hits hard, too! No known nerfs.

    Rufus - Ex messiah kick is not as good, but still good. A few frames less on invincibility, and less damage. EX snake strike damage is way down. U2 doesnt seem to combo well. U2 is good anticrossup or antiair, but thats about it. Has to work for wins now

    Fuerte - Fuertes normals are all faster now. U2 is extremely good.

    Viper - No notable changes. She can U2 off EX seismo if you are fast. The recovery from U2 is ok. Rumors of mp thunder nerf are untrue or reversed, if its slower its only a frame or two.

    Abel - He has a faster c.hk. U2 cant combo but its fast and has armor if you hold the button, it looks to be very good.

    Guy - Feels slow. Has cool chain combos into super. EX spin kick is vertical. EX shoulder is his best move, super fast.

    Cammy - Cannon drill 'got a little better'. Uppercut damage nerfed pretty hard. U2 is terrible. U2 can be broken by using breaker.

    Fei - Changes not apparent. Counter ultra can be broken by a breaker.

    Gouken - No known nerfs. U2 still blockable, but backthrow into 5 hits of it into wallbounce into more fun works.

    Sakura - Her crossup j.mk is back. Very good crossup. Makes her feel more like sakura again. U2 is the best choice. Its two ultras in one, okay damage, easy to combo, can aim it up or forward. EX hurricane to ultra is simple as hell.

    Dan - Dan is secretly way better now, he got what he needed. Uppercut fadc U2 is strong. His fireball goes 60% of the screen now. The rest seems untouched, but this is 'all he needed' to be a contender.

    Akuma - no known nerfs. Many of the nerfs from earlier builds were reverted. Infinite is gone, but you can still combo after s.hk. Jab cannot link to HK anymore, so you cant loop it. Lv2 focus into new ultra wiffs, but works from Lv3 focus. EX airfireball into U2 works.

    Gen - Only nerfs found so far, no chain combos, no mk .kick to hands at all. ex wall dive lost some invincibility.

    Seth - Everything is the same, except his focus attack takes longer to hit lv2 now. Its not very good. U2 can combo anywhere you could combo stomps and does good damage.

    Juri - Kara throw is good with HP. Wiz could only find a 5 hit Custom Combo in U1 mode without FADC. U1 mode is really long in duration. EX wheelkick seems nearly instant startup. Hitpoints seemed close to Ibuki's, but it was hard to tell.

    T.Hawk - Hawkdive is his armor breaker. Hawk Upper cannot be FADCed at all, ever, at any point. U2 is bad, very very hard to hit. Feels slower than Zangief but stronger. His normals are very good.

    Adon - He seems very weak. Both ultras are hard to use. Jaguar Tooth and Jaguar Kick are both unsafe on block. Air Jag-kick might be safe. EX jag kick is safe. Has a very good overhead though, one of the best.

    Deejay - He seems decent. Nothing too bad, nothing too good. Reminds you of ST in that way.

    Cody - He can only FADC tornado on first hit and the tornado wont come out. He cannot combo ultra after it. Has 3 levels of charge on his Zonk Knuckle, and its really really good and annoying. He says BINGO everytime he does it. You can combo into Zonk. HK ruffian is good.

    Dudley - Not much to add to JWong's video, but he is probably #1 in the game.

    Makoto - EX grab has 1 hit of armor! Outside of this, nothing to add to JWong's video.

    Ibuki - Slide does not go under fireballs, air knife doesnt cancel out fireballs.

    Hakan - Seems OK at first. Looks like hellboy red and is kinda fat. Has spiky hair. Has a 360 move where he puts you in his arms and sqeezes you out with oil slicked body. you fly across the screen at a 45 degree angle. He can slide along the ground face first and hit punch during for a followup (only when oiled up). Has an air grab where he belly flops. DP+K puts on more oil.
    He takes out both hands and dumps oil on himself and it looks funny. He then glows white. When he has oil, he is 200% better. putting oil on takes half a second, and its duration based. EX oil lasts a long time. In non-oil mode, he is like gief. When he is in Oil Mode, he can chain everything, like c.lk x4 into mp. Moves in oil mode have more range, including 360. Front and backdash are better in oil mode too. All of his pokes have neutral and toward versions. Has a 'trap' ultra, where he lays down, and if you step on him, he grabs you. You cannot touch him at all, even if not attacking. You slip on his stomach like its ice. Then he 69s you as you slide along the ground and you fly out his buttocks.

    The 2nd ultra is comedy as well. 720 motion, throws you up in the air and you board the OIL COASTER. You ride him going around his body till you are ejected into a wall at the end.

    His super is double fireball with kick. Its a leaping grab thats crouchable, like Alex DDT he leaps at you.
    That is all for now, remember this is just a obvious list of first day observances and not the complete change list.

    Comments 59 Comments
    1. _MJ_#R's Avatar
      cody#1
    1. Duralath's Avatar
      Dudley is tops? Just as I had hoped. Hoping for more info soon!
    1. D-Proto's Avatar
      gen no chain combos!????!???????????

      O
      m
      g

      ....
      Rlly?
    1. SiLLiEMutAfuKA's Avatar
      If I read that Hakan description without watching those vids already, I wouldn't know what to think.



      Thanks Wiz.
    1. Westlo's Avatar
      I like how Seth mentions new moves for old characters and singles out Ken as one of them.. and Ken gets fuck all.
    1. Victormaru's Avatar
      Nice. I'm really diggin' all these changes so far. True balances right here. I thought Ken was going to get something new though. At least he's got faster fireballs now. It's something.
    1. Sleazoid's Avatar
      "Gen - Only nerfs found so far, no chain combos, no mk .kick to hands at all."

      hahaha my pessimistic tiger was right
    1. Smileymike101's Avatar
      Reducing the damage from FADC is bullshit.They could have just made ultras do less damage.But FADCing doing less damage means something like HP xx hado FADC sweep will make the sweep what?10 dmg?Also how did they remove the trdes into ultra?I mean i cant figure a way they could be removed without removing the juggle from them, which would make them gutter trash.
      Also reducing the damage FADC combos do, means Juri's feng shui engine will be pretty usless, as after the 5 nits you can combo before FADCing, the scaling would already be at 10%.But hey, this is what people wanted, combos to do 10%.It not like praised fighter like SF2 and SF3 have touch of death combo like every character in SF2 and Makoto ve Remy and Akuma in SF3
    1. radicaledward101's Avatar
      So no one answered the question I've been asking: How's button mapping? Does it still suck hard core?
    1. Missing Person's Avatar
      God...Dudley = tops? This will get annoying...
    1. Naked David's Avatar
      I'm alittle disappointed to hear that Balrog's U2 isn't that strong. Looking forward to some boxer vs. dudley matches!
    1. PhinnyCupcakes's Avatar
      Sooo..... this guy isn't credible... right? please tell me he's not... I don't like this list...
    1. d3v's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by Missing Person View Post
      God...Dudley = tops? This will get annoying...
      Better him than Sagat. Looks like SSFIV will be dominated by gentlemen.
    1. Darklightjg1's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by Smileymike101 View Post
      snip
      I didn't notice anything posted that said FADC itself is what makes the overall damage less. What I believe he meant was that since you can only FADC the 1st part of what is now a 2 part DP for Ryu, the damage from the DP will be less thus making the combo less by definition.
      Sagat just does less damage period.

      ... I don't like the Gen mk xx Hands nerf. That was unnecessary to take away and one of the cool things in SF4 imo. I hope Wiz simply missed something he may have gained that'll make up for it.
    1. T-Rez's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by SiLLiEMutAfuKA View Post
      If I read that Hakan description without watching those vids already, I wouldn't know what to think.



      Thanks Wiz.
      I saw the vids first and I STILL don't know what to think. LOL

      BTW, thanks Capcom for taking Ryu's bullshit trade into ultra away

      Let the river of tears begin.... NOW!!!
    1. Zaruka's Avatar
      wow really take gen bnb out and dont even give him his chains ....man i hope this guy is really wrong because this is really mess up to nerf a character you was hard to play with anyway.
    1. Zarfax's Avatar
      Seems like Rog and Gouki are gonna be strong, since alot of the other top tier char. got nerfed a little.
    1. tod's Avatar
      Dudley being top is so obvious... I mean... uppercut to ultra... we're going to miss Sagat and Ryu. :P
    1. raxzar's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by radicaledward101 View Post
      So no one answered the question I've been asking: How's button mapping? Does it still suck hard core?
      Mr Wizard not credible haha? Finally one of my mains is the top dog fuck you all Ryu and Sagats.
    1. cloudel's Avatar
      well there's a mistake with ibuki.......her slide CAN go under fireball...so re-edit that..(heres a proof http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJC0CGhQ8Ac#t=2m18s