Howdy partners,
What are footsies and how does one get better at them? When I first started Street Fighter (wow, its been damn near a year) I heard the term footsies, but had only a very basic and abstract version of what the term actually meant. It's an abstraction with many different meanings in a way, and kind of hard to pin down with short definition, but recently, as Jeffrey Lebowski aka 'the dude' once said "New shit has come to light".
Street Fighter is like a game of paper, rock, scissors. We've heard this a lot, and most of the time this can be applied to the wake up game. You have to ask yourself often "What should I do now that I'm knocked down?" and, conversely, "What do I do now that I've knocked him down." Now combine this with "Simon" that old memory game that starts out really simple and then mindfucks you by level 3. If someone knocks you down, and then goes for a throw, you have to log that into memory banks, you then prepare for it next time, he either goes for a throw again, or he goes into a block string, or does nothing (there really is a plethora of options) and it becomes about remembering what your opponent did before and reacting to it or learning his pattern of lights and sounds if you will. If you played the memory game right your defense holds up and your opponent will either adjust to the game of 'Simon' or he will continue to fail.
Now take this school of thought and apply it to ground game. I'm talking fireballs and normals. This is really the secret of 'getting in'. Jumping rarely works. We've all discovered this yet some of us just can't stop doing it. It's because it's kind of a high risk/high reward maneuver that pays off on a lot of lower level players. It's also a very lazy way to play the game. Alex Valle talks about thinking of the stage as a soccer game. You have to push your opponent into his goal (the corner) and he is trying to do the same to you. Well, how do you do this? It's not easy! It's a lot easier to jump in on someone who doesn't anti-air well, but against someone who does you really have to be creative. I've really begun to ask myself 'what buttons does this guy like to press and from what ranges'. For instance, you are fighting Ken as Ryu. This Ken likes to use f.mk to c.mk. If you notice that happening you can answer back with a counter poke. For Ryu c.mp will stuff f.mk and c.lk will stuff Ken's c.mk more often than not. If you can predict what the Ken player is doing based on his pattern (essentially you are playing simon here again) you can use the proper counter poke to push him back. So, you really have to watch what pokes your opponent is using. Now to go a level beyond this, you can bait your opponent into using the pokes you want him to use and punish them. If you are two steps ahead, you are going to win.
Maj has some sick articles under the strategy section of shoryuken.com entitled "footsies 101". It's a highly recommended read that goes far more in depth on footsies than I do here.
So here is my gameplan... I'm going to play a month without using special moves. I'm going to master my normals as Ryu. I'm not only going to master them, but I'm going to master baiting people with them and I'm going to master what normal beats out what. I'm not going to care about winning and losing. Winning and losing to me will be something like this...I win if I land my poke or successfully bait something, and I lose if I do neither. SHGLBMX (top socal blanka and super cool guy) told me that is what he did to improve at the footsies game. This month I go back out to socal on a work trip, but the following month I will starting this venture. I'll see you all when I get back!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Some updates
Happy New Year!
I've been really binging on SF lately, more so than the usual. I stayed home for the holidays and had plenty of time on my hands to get down and dirty in training mode and get some matches in online as well as offline. I've read in more than a couple of places that to really get a combo down you have to practice it 100 times on both the 1 player and 2 player side. So I've been working this idea as best as my ADHD will allow and I've now found the ability to hit a crouching jab after a solar plexus strike which leads to all kinds of focus crumple opportunities for big damage with Ryu. So, its a small addition to my arsenal, but fighting games are about baby steps. I've also been fighting consecutive matches/sessions a lot more online. I feel like I'm starting to break through that 'losing' barrier that I talked about in one of my first blogs. I'm not getting down on myself after a loss, rather I'm shaking it off rather quickly, and learning from it. This has been my biggest hurdle as of yet playing street fighter. I think if someone already has the natural ability to not get angry or demoralized after losing multiple fights then they are one step ahead of probably the majority of us, but fact of the matter is, most of us are very competitive and they have to deal with this challenge. How have I done it? I had to shed the ego a bit. It's a tough thing to admit, and even though I knew I was bad, I guess I thought that I had a better aptitude for fighting games than most people. Where I got that notion I still don't really know for sure and while I do see the sky as the limit I know that I have to take my lumps like everyone else to get there.
I fought Chris Hu's Ryu online a few hours ago. That guy is a beast. I added him to MSN after a post he made at one point. He didn't have a whole lot to say when I told him that I can BnB consistently and FADC consistently into ultra (at least on the 2 player side, haha). He even went so far as to say I sounded too confident. That may be, I don't know, but anyone that knows me knows that I've been far from confident in my playing. We had a set of 5 in which he won all of them, all rounds, but I took heart in the fact that I was hanging in there. It didn't feel like total domination to me. It was, but it wasn't. There were some rounds that I could have clutched out had it not been for him clutching them out instead. In one instance he focus dashed through a close fireball and FADC'ed me into Ultra. It was awesome, not going to lie. I really appreciate Chris taking the time out to play me and hopefully when he gets some time he wouldn't mind breaking down for me some of the things I need to work on. After that I fought SHGLBMX in a first to five. SHGL has an awesome blanka and he kind of dicks around with some other characters as well. It was a good set that he could have ultimately won all matches off had he been playing blanka the whole time. It's very laggy when we play given that we are on opposite coasts, but I felt a did well, and I felt that I played better against his blanka than I have any other time I've fought him. I even picked up a round I think, so that was nice. Dude's a beast. So, I've been trying to up the level of competition online and only fight known players, or players that just blow me away in champ mode. I never really have played champ mode much until a couple of days ago, but honestly the level of competition there is better, and I can meet people to have player matches with later, so its win/win.
Offline I went to my first local gathering last night for casuals. It was really cool! I took a friend who is brand new into fighting games and we sat around on couches talking stick mods and watching fights for a few hours. It was nice to get my first real taste of fighting some of the local competition outside of the odd match here or there at a tournament. I beat a couple of people, and lost to a couple of people, but it was interesting getting advice while I was playing and it's just another rung in the ladder as far as experience playing in front of people as well as just meeting people to play with regularly. Everyone that I have met from the fighting game community thus far has been personable and willing to help. Only a little arrogance here and there, sometimes people take that approach when they are very good at something and someone is seeking out the free knowledge that they had to earn the hard way.
I'm in a quandry for SSFIV...do I stick with Ryu or move on? I actually really like Ryu, but it would nice to be a little more mobile. Time will tell eh? I read an interview with Kokujin and he said he kind of just picks his character based on how they feel. I might try that approach.
Until next time, keep at it.
I've been really binging on SF lately, more so than the usual. I stayed home for the holidays and had plenty of time on my hands to get down and dirty in training mode and get some matches in online as well as offline. I've read in more than a couple of places that to really get a combo down you have to practice it 100 times on both the 1 player and 2 player side. So I've been working this idea as best as my ADHD will allow and I've now found the ability to hit a crouching jab after a solar plexus strike which leads to all kinds of focus crumple opportunities for big damage with Ryu. So, its a small addition to my arsenal, but fighting games are about baby steps. I've also been fighting consecutive matches/sessions a lot more online. I feel like I'm starting to break through that 'losing' barrier that I talked about in one of my first blogs. I'm not getting down on myself after a loss, rather I'm shaking it off rather quickly, and learning from it. This has been my biggest hurdle as of yet playing street fighter. I think if someone already has the natural ability to not get angry or demoralized after losing multiple fights then they are one step ahead of probably the majority of us, but fact of the matter is, most of us are very competitive and they have to deal with this challenge. How have I done it? I had to shed the ego a bit. It's a tough thing to admit, and even though I knew I was bad, I guess I thought that I had a better aptitude for fighting games than most people. Where I got that notion I still don't really know for sure and while I do see the sky as the limit I know that I have to take my lumps like everyone else to get there.
I fought Chris Hu's Ryu online a few hours ago. That guy is a beast. I added him to MSN after a post he made at one point. He didn't have a whole lot to say when I told him that I can BnB consistently and FADC consistently into ultra (at least on the 2 player side, haha). He even went so far as to say I sounded too confident. That may be, I don't know, but anyone that knows me knows that I've been far from confident in my playing. We had a set of 5 in which he won all of them, all rounds, but I took heart in the fact that I was hanging in there. It didn't feel like total domination to me. It was, but it wasn't. There were some rounds that I could have clutched out had it not been for him clutching them out instead. In one instance he focus dashed through a close fireball and FADC'ed me into Ultra. It was awesome, not going to lie. I really appreciate Chris taking the time out to play me and hopefully when he gets some time he wouldn't mind breaking down for me some of the things I need to work on. After that I fought SHGLBMX in a first to five. SHGL has an awesome blanka and he kind of dicks around with some other characters as well. It was a good set that he could have ultimately won all matches off had he been playing blanka the whole time. It's very laggy when we play given that we are on opposite coasts, but I felt a did well, and I felt that I played better against his blanka than I have any other time I've fought him. I even picked up a round I think, so that was nice. Dude's a beast. So, I've been trying to up the level of competition online and only fight known players, or players that just blow me away in champ mode. I never really have played champ mode much until a couple of days ago, but honestly the level of competition there is better, and I can meet people to have player matches with later, so its win/win.
Offline I went to my first local gathering last night for casuals. It was really cool! I took a friend who is brand new into fighting games and we sat around on couches talking stick mods and watching fights for a few hours. It was nice to get my first real taste of fighting some of the local competition outside of the odd match here or there at a tournament. I beat a couple of people, and lost to a couple of people, but it was interesting getting advice while I was playing and it's just another rung in the ladder as far as experience playing in front of people as well as just meeting people to play with regularly. Everyone that I have met from the fighting game community thus far has been personable and willing to help. Only a little arrogance here and there, sometimes people take that approach when they are very good at something and someone is seeking out the free knowledge that they had to earn the hard way.
I'm in a quandry for SSFIV...do I stick with Ryu or move on? I actually really like Ryu, but it would nice to be a little more mobile. Time will tell eh? I read an interview with Kokujin and he said he kind of just picks his character based on how they feel. I might try that approach.
Until next time, keep at it.
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