My addiction to SSFIV shows no signs of dying down or stopping any time soon, and I’m glad to have a game to be properly into again. Last night I spent a couple of hours working through the Challenge mode, which is pretty central to learning how to play SSFIV as a newcomer (which is still how I consider myself).
Challenge Mode drops your character into the training area with a Dan to let loose on (poor Dan, he gets a rough ride!). Rather than being a free-for-all like the normal training mode, you’re given a set ‘something’ to do on each level. It starts easy, just giving you the basic specials, supers and ultras, but it soon ramps up the difficulty with the combos it asks you to perform. I had real problems doing some of them ’til I took a step back and read a bit more online. The trick comes in being able to differentiate between cancelling and linking.
Cancelling has been in nearly every 1-on-1 fighter since Street Fighter II, and it’s basically just interrupting the animation of one move with another (usually more powerful) one. An easy example is with one of the Shotos (Ryu/Ken/Akuma etc) where an uppercut can easily be transformed into a fireball or dragon punch. Linking is something which I have no idea about really, I couldn’t tell you how long it’s been in Vs fighters, but my first real experience of trying to learn it has been with SSFIV. Linking is continuing a combo, but perhaps counter-intuitively for some people as it’s not about mashing the buttons as fast as you can to link moves together. Rather, you have to wait for the animation of the first move to end before inputting the second. It’s *really* tricky to get the hang of at first, but very satisfying when it works.
The problem I’m finding now is that playing on a pad is starting to get really difficult. For the most part it’s fine, but some of the stuff is just so awkward to do with only one thumb being used for the buttons. EX cancelling is a big part in higher-level combos and means being able to hit MP+MK at the same time, double tapping forward and then continuing with the next moves. This would be SO much easier with a few fingers working the buttons. What it all boils down to is the fact that I’m thinking about getting a stick.
I was very careful with my choice of words there, as ‘getting’ may not be the same as ‘buying’. Common sense tells me I should suck it up and buy one of the nice SF4 sticks on the market, which use decent Sanwa parts in them and are very well-built, but the part of me that loves starting all together too many projects wants another shot at building my own stick again. From what I understand, it’s more in vogue at the moment to take a shop-bought stick and to customise it with better parts and in some cases, artwork, but I remember my first and only crack at building my own stick a few years ago and I’d really like anything go at it. My first effort was very basic from a design point-of-view (think box built out of MDF), but it worked brilliantly. I’m just not sure I’ll have the time to do it now though, nor the patience. Hmmmmm, choices, choices…. For now, here’s two of the beauties I’m considering.
SF IV Fightstick TE
This one's more expensive but awesome.