The Basic Fighting Game FAQ by James Rex ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents 1. Introduction 2. Basic Training Attacking Special Moves Blocking Throwing Combos 3. Advanced Training Preperation Time Execution Time Recovery Time Advanced Throwing 4. Misc. Training 5. Top Ten Fighting Games (play wise) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction O.K. If you have played a lot of fighting games, and you are sick of losing, stick around. For all of you "masters", I suggest that you study this because everyone who wants to win is going to use this against you. Now that that's over with, this FAQ is designed for all the little guys out there that really want to win a game once and a while against anybody! This will explain the basic stuff, like blocking and combos, as well as recovery time and general strategy. I am writing this to show that, with a little bit of work and creativity, a begginer can win over a good player. And to show why my friends cannot block or throw or do anything on purpose. 2. Basic Training With all fighting games, the general strategy is to knock them out, cause them to fall out of the ring, or kill them. Your opponent, as well as you have a life bar in the top part of the screen. The more you get hit, the more your bar goes down. If your bar is empty, then you're knocked out. If you are pushed out of the ring, then you lose no matter how much life you have. Most fights consist of 2 out of three rounds. Attacking The only way to drain your opponents life bar is to use martial arts. Usually you have a set of buttons near you controller. Each of these buttons, when pressed, will let your guy attack. Each button is a different strenght or attack. Street Fighter 2 has 6 six buttons, 3 different punches and 3 different kicks. Mortal Kombat has a High Punch, a High Kick, A Low Punch, and a Low Kick, as well as a Block and a Run button. The buttons are usually marked, so newbies have an idea of what they are doing. These attacks change slightly when you are ducking, jumping and so on. This is part of the strategy, where knowing whether to do a standing uppercut or a ducking uppercut is crucial. Knowing one character is more important for begginers than trying out several. The more fights you have being one character, the more you know about that character. Some games have all the characters have the same normal moves like Mortal Kombat and Virtua Fighter 2, but the different speeds and power of the moves varies. Would you expect a stronger guy, like Jeffery in Virtua Fighter 2, to hit as hard as Lion, also from Virtua Fighter 2? All fighting games have a certain logic to them. A roundhouse kick will hit jumping players. A low roundhouse kick will knock them down. This logic cam be use in every fighting game. Usually a normal move will do the same thing in any game. Doing a uppercut, for example, will knock anybody out of a jump, whether it is Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat, or Street Fighter. Some uppercuts, though might not work as good on one game than another. Special Moves Special moves are a SERIES of buttons pressed in a order to cause your fighter to do a move they specialize in, whether it is a diving side kick or a magical fireball. If the buttons are not pressed in that order then you will do a normal move. Special moves vary between fighting games. The magical fireballs in one game may be a rolling somersalt in another game, but the button presses are the same. Also each game may have different button presses for the same move. Hitting down, down and forward, forward + punch in a continous motion will cause Ryu to do a fireball, but in Mortal Kombat, hitting forward, forward + High Punch will cause Liu Kang to do a fireball, too. Usually newbies have the hardest time trying to do special moves. Only practice and asking someone how to do them is the only way to learn them. Most of the games do have similar motions for each guy. Nearly half of the fighters in Street Fighter have the same charging back for 2 seconds, then pressing foward and punch. If you can't figure out a special move, try the ones you already know. You might suprize yourself. Blocking This is a move where you cancel out an attack by blocking it. Remember the common sense thing I told you about in the beggining? It applies here, too. A high block will not cancel out a low attack, and a low block will not cancel out a jumping attack. This is essential to your strategy. If there were no blocking in fighting games, then it would be a button pushing contest. Newbies usually don't block so intermediate and good players usually wipe them out but the more advanced players will block, making it harder to hit your opponent. In case you are wondering, "If you can cancel out a attack, then can't you block all the attacks," don't worry. Some moves are very hard to see coming and therefore hard to block. People who block all the time are called turtles, because they like to stay in their defense. The next section, throwing, will tell you how to counter turtlers. The best thing you can do with blocking is to use it when you see a opponent strike, blocking it at the last minute. That way you are free to move around and attack and defend at a moment's notice. Also, blocking at the last minute leads your opponent to think your vunerable. Throwing A throw is where you grab your opponent and procede to do a attack while they are vunerable. There is nothing that your opponent can do to stop this sequence of moves once it is started. The throw usually knocks your opponent far enough so you cannot repeatedly throw them. The throw is better than your normal attacks in the way that it cannot be blocked at anytime. That means if your opponent is turtling, you can throw them, because they were probably expecting an attack. Unfortuately, throwing requires you to get extremely close to an opponent, close enough for them to throw you. If you are fighting a non-turtling player, you can stop your opponent by attacking him with normal moves before he gets too close. There are two kinds of throws. The first kind is the throw, where you toss your opponent to the ground. This only hits once and you toss them pretty far. The second type of throw is the grab. This move grabs your opponent where they hit you repeatedly, until they break out of it. Both players can jam their buttons to deal more damage, or get away faster, depending on who is grabbing who. Note how many throws your characters have. If you have a character that has a lot of throws of several kinds, develop a strategy to get off your throws as much as you can. Some characters have only one throw. These characters probably have stronger moves than the throw so avoid that move as much as possible. Combos Combos are several quick attacks where your opponent has no time to block. This is different than the throw where you block the first hit of the combo, you can block the rest of it. Usually, a combo is done manually. This means that you enter in all of the moves yourself. If you wanted to do a three hit fireball combo, you would have to hit with a jump kick, jab, then fireball, in rapid succession. Automatic combos are single button presses, or special moves, and you would hit with more moves than usual. Killer Instinct is a fighting game based on this principle. If you did a cartwheel (three hits normally), a jab (one hit normally), then a fireball, (one hit normally), the combo would get over 7 hits in Killer Instinct. Because the combos are the strongest attack any opponent has, they are harder to hit with. Usually the manual combos hit with a jumping in attack, where the automatic combos usually hit with a slow super move. If you've played fighting games at all, you would realize that these moves are hard to hit with. Advanced Training Timing of Moves Each move takes a certain amount of time to prepare for, execute, and recover from. In this section I tell you how to use these timimg to your advantage. Preparing time Preparation time is when your opponent is preparing to do a move. This usually signifies a drawing back of the fist, or some little visual clue. During this time before they strike, you can hit them and interupt their move, not to mention dealing damage to them as well. The perfect example is Virtua Fighter 2. If a opponent starts to spin, then you know that they are going to do a cresent kick. If you did a quick jab, then you would hit them in the middle of their move, causing them to lose their balance and making them return to standing position without having them complete their move. You only have a second to hit jab or else they will hit you first, because of your preperation time! This is where you seperate the good fighters from the losers. The less experienced player will cry that their controller is broken, when in reality, your preperation time is shorter than theirs. This formula, for the people who love math will explain why you have to hit jab quickly. Their Perperation - Your Preperation = Time to hit them in! You must remember that if you're going to hit them before they do the move then you must hit them with it. You know you can't hit an opponent with a standing jab if they're doing a ducking move. So if they do a ducking move, then you must duck and jab. Excution time This is that split second where they hit you with their attack. If you do anything other than block it, jump it, or duck it, you will get hit. Make sure you stop blocking the milisecond after you hear the thud or you will not have enough time take advantage of the final part of the move, recovery time. Recovery Time This is the time after they try to hit you with the move. They can't block during this time either. It usually it's easier to hit an opponent during this time than it is during any other time. This is the time that most turtles like to strike back. Also know that nearly all of the super moves have a long recovery time. Ryu's fireball, when jumped over, leaves him wide open. Make sure that a attack you do doesn't have a lot of preperation time. Killer Instinct is the worst game about recovery time. Every special move has a BIG recovery time, long enough to get a huge combo! If you predict a super move and prepare for it, you can anniliate your opponent if you just block the super move. If you get ready to do your most powerful attack, then you are guaranteed the hit. This formula explains the moves that are safe to attack with. Preperation time - Recovery time = When you must do the move. You can usually do a standing attack, on a recovering character. If you miss, then hope that your move doesn't have a big recovery time as well. This is the reason many people don't like fighting games. They figure that they can't block, or they're controller is broken, so they quit. Advanced Throwing There is a way to throw someone nearly any time you want. You can't do this in Killer Instinct, but other games are fine. First do a attack that will force your opponent to block high. Usually a jumping kick will do. Then throw them, since you are very close to them already. This works well in Street Fighter. Advanced players will take the hit, retaining their position. They will usually counterattack, if that happens. If they take to hit, do a combo. Misc. Training Here is a little checklist of how you should play. Opponent does | You Do --------------+------------------------------------------------------------ Jump | a high attack Super Move | Blocks then attack little attack | block big attack | block then attack backs up | go foward, because he's trying to regroup comes foward | quick attack to stop the advance throws | expect more throws; stay away combos | same as throws; try to block losing | watch for patterns you are doing; opponent will exploit them If this doesn't work then this FAQ sucks! Top Ten Fighting Games 1. Virtua Fighter 2 - It is the most balanced game in the world! 2. Street Fighter Alpha - A couple of the characters are useless but the game is still good. 3. Killer Instinct - A good game if you aren't impressed with the combos 4. Mortal Kombat 3 - A lot of unknowning button mashers 5. Tekken 2 - A wide variety of simiar fighters, easy to do super moves. 6. Super Street Fighter 2 - A game with only a few good fighters! 7. Fatal Fury Special - Many of everybody's attacks are weak. Good concept 8. Battle Arena Toh Shin Den - A sorry clone of Virtua Fighter 9. Art of Fighting - Jumping attacks that hit low? Gimme a break 10. Everything else!