The Purple Tux
With just enough education to perform.Friday, August 31, 2001
One thing I realized I forgot to mention in yesterday's installment is how to cancel a hyper combo into another hyper combo. Obviously, this requires at least 2 levels of meter, and works better with 3. The principle is the same as canceling a normal move into a special move (commonly referred to as a two-in-one), a normal into a hyper combo, and a special to a hyper. Once your first character activates a hyper, you can input the command for your next character's hyper. After your second character, you can call in your third character's hyper, but that's it, you cannot call your first character back in. Of course, this requires strategy as well. Some hypers cancel better into certain hypers under particular situations. For example, if the opponent is on the other side of the screen and you catch him with Cyclops' Hyper Optic Blast, it'd be foolish to call in Ken and his Shinryuken (straight up Dragon Punch). Also, you must know when to cancel in the next character's hyper to maximize damage. For example, if Cable is your current character. and you hit your opponent with his Hyper Viper Beam, keep your eye on the combo hit counter. It'd be a waste to call in Iron Man's Proton Cannon when Cable's HVB only did about 3 hits. However, also realize that if you wait too long, you will not be able to cancel the hyper combo. So you must practice and see which hypers cancel into which best, and practice the timing. These combos are extremely demoralizing if landed, especially with teams like Gambit, Cable, Iron Man, and you do something ridiculous like 90 hit combos. I know they hurt Steven's feelings. Also, by pressing both assist buttons simultaneously when at level 3 or higher, you can perform a group hyper combo. Each character performs the hyper corresponding to the assist type, so choose the assist type wisely if you like doing group hyper combos. Personally, I believe group hypers are rather weak and canceling is more effective. However, group hypers are great to chip opponents to death and win with some measure of style!
Now, as I mentioned yesterday, here is my breakdown of my own "A" team (sorry for the Mr. T reference guys).
Spiral (Projectile Assist)
Cammy (Anti Air Assist)
Sentinel (Ground Assist)
First off, the assist types are important. Spiral's projectile assist sends her 6 Dancing Sword blades flying horizontally, great for taking up a little space and for doing 6 hits worth of chipping damage. Cammy performs her Cannon Spike, an important anti air assist (henceforth, AAA) for Spiral and Sentinel, who don't really have any useful AA attacks. Sentinel's Sentinel Force ("Deploy!") is crucial to my style of fighting for several reasons. First of all, it's a fairly strong move. Three projectiles fly at the opponent, and if the first one hits, chances are the other two will hit. Secondly, it's fairly safe for Sentinel. He can be off the screen while his Sentinel Force is heading towards the enemy. Thirdly, Sentinel has super armor. This means that he can take one single hit and still call his Sentinel Force out, unlike most other characters, who, if hit once, will leave the screen.
The order of my team is key as well. Spiral goes first because she is a "battery" (character used mainly to build hyper combo meter). However, she is also a top-tier character in terms of holding her own in a fight. Her standing fierce has great range and can hit people laying flat on the ground. Her Dancing Sword attacks add lots of chipping damage and, when combined with non-stop Sentinel assists and frequent dashing and teleporting, keep opponents on the defensive. Spiral's teleport is definitely one of the top two teleports in the game, since it's so hard to spot coming, and the opponent has no clue where Spiral will reappear. Spiral's natural state is above average defense, but she has hypers that, for a limited time, grant her a power boost or a speed boost. She's a well-balanced, tricky character. She has a level 3 hyper combo, the Metamorphose, which, similar to Shuma Gorath's Chaos Dimension, cannot be blocked (but opponents can still try to run away, so a corner trap would be called for before activating the Metamorphose). Her other hyper, the Stampede Sword, has a slow start up, which makes it unwieldy, but does decent chipping damage. Spiral's main weaknesses are the lack of a good anti air attack and some hard to use hyper combos. But overall, her normal and special attacks are better than average and fit my style of play perfectly.
Next, Cammy. I needed a Street Fighter character on my team, since I've been playing Street Fighter II since the early '90s, whenever it came out. Although most SF characters are kind of weak (Ryu, Ken, Akuma have no range and weak agility and speed. I mean, even CYCLOPS has a double jump!!!! DUDE!! The greatest masters of Shotokan Karate oughta be able to do what a four eyed mutant freak with little or no true martial arts training can do... Sheesh.), fast characters, namely Chun Li and Cammy are still deadly. With Cammy, I feel confident, after having played with her since SSFII came out. I feel that no matter who is on my team, if I have Cammy, I have serious chance of winning. Cammy has a combo heavy hit and run kind of style. Her double jump is definitely one of her best moves. I try to take advantage of her speed and agility to avoid most combos... A simple 6 hit chain combo from Zangief can almost kill Cammy, so I try not to let stuff like that happen more than once. She has excellent hyper combos that can be easily used in chain combos. Her Spin Drive Smasher is a great ground chain combo finisher, especially while the enemy is stunned from getting smacked by Sentinel's ground assist. Scrubs tend to block low, and when they try to duck Sentinel's Sentinel Force, Cammy is there to jump kick and chain combo and hyper. Morale-crushing. Her Reverse Shaft Breaker is an anti air attack that can totally catch enemies jumping in (such as Zangief's flying body splash, which is often used to begin the aforementioned 6 hit chain combo). The Killer Bee Assault, Cammy's most devastating hyper, is similar to Spider-Man's Maximum Spider. The KBA is generally best used when enemies use a hyper with slow recovery or are baited to attack Sentinel (after calling him out for like the 15th time in a match, the other player usually gets pissed). They can't attack and block at the same time, so the KBA nails them hard. However, I have recently discovered that it is indeed possible to chain her KBA into a combo. Perform the following manuver. Do any chain combo, launch the opponent. Do a brief chain again, finishing with a ROUNDHOUSE air Cannon Drill IMMEDIATELY canceled into the KBA. A roundhouse Cannon Drill causes the opponent to bounce up long enough for the KBA start up and strike. My Cammy tends to do the most fighting in a typical match thanks to her speed and combos.
Lastly, the big bot himself, Sentinel. Best way to describe him is that he is pretty much the only POWERHOUSE in the game who fights just as well at long-range as close-range. His assist is his main asset, but when necessary, he can get his hands really, really dirty. He is so strong, that his normal punches and kicks do chipping damage when blocked. His Rocket Punch is pure power, but is surprisingly quick. His fierce punch makes him shoot a laser beam across the screen, good to keep opponents on their toes while Spiral does her projectile assist. His crouching roundhouse is a marvel... 3 hits, and can be finished with a jab Rocket Punch. Even if the crouching roundhouse is blocked, the Rocket Punch will tack on more chipping damage AND push the opponent away to prevent most retaliatory counterattacks. Sentinel's flight mode is the fastest in the game, fast enough to even avoid air hypers such as Cable's Air Hyper Viper Beam (AHVB). His stomping tactics are hard to stop because he has such great range. Regarding his hypers, his Plasma Storm starts fast and has a fast recovery time. A Rocket Punch can easily be canceled into a Hyper Sentinel Force, with an added Rocket Punch at the end for juggle damage (if fast enough, you can cancel that RP into another HSF). His air hyper, the Hard Drive, is not that damaging considering it eats up meter. Air combos should be ended with a Rocket Punch which only does slightly less damage than the Hard Drive, saving meter for better hypers. The Hard Drive however, is useful for psychic intimidation.
That's basically my team. In the next installment, I'll explain my fighting tactics as I would fight in an actual match. Keep reading, and tell me if I made any crucial errors or typos. Peace out. Class is over kids. Goodbye. Have a nice day.
Thursday, August 30, 2001
Yo. This is for those of you intimidated by my Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 skills. Here's your chance to read into my strategies and perhaps one day approach my level of skill.
The keys to victory in MvC2 are offense and controlling the space around your opponent. In a game as fast paced as MvC2, quick reflexes and impeccable timing are the ways to survive an onslaught from a skilled player. You can't rely on blind luck to win those close battles... Of course not everyone is born with fast reflexes and great timing skills, but the fact is, these traits can be learned with diligence and practice. The best way to learn this game is the same you learn how to do anything- riding a bike, playing basketball, solving a math problem, etc.- take it step by step. The most important fundamental is to learn the basic controls. Learn your quarter circles and half circles, and if you want to use Zangief, learn your 360 degree motions. Make sure you can ALWAYS execute a fireball, dragon punch, whatever special move, at will. Also, the game is based on Capcom's chain combo system. Thus, you can do a standing jab, strong (press jab again), and then fierce for a three hit chain combo. Same goes for the kicks. Some characters can chain a jab to a short kick to strong punch to forward kick to fierce to roundhouse, so try things out. Another basic is to take advantage of characters' assists. Every character has 3 different assist types (the attack that a character you are not currently controlling performs when you press the corresponding assist button), so experiment and see which type fits your fighting style. Also, the key to doing aerial raves (simply a fancy name for air combos) is to do a "launcher" move, which for most characters is an uppercut or straight-up kick (most launchers are crouching fierce or standing roundhouse, or standing strong--each character is different, so again, experiment). After launching an opponent, perform the chain combo of your choice, remembering that many characters can finish a chain combo with a special move or a hyper combo (hyper combos are like super special moves and eat up one level of your hyper combo meter). Which brings us to our next basic tip: learning to utilize meter. When using a character like Cable or Iron Man, it's tempting to stand across the screen and do a Hyper Viper Beam or Proton Cannon and "chip" (a term that designates damage incurred when blocking special moves or hyper combos or even normal attacks from big characters like Sentinel) away at the opponent's life. Of course, if the opponent is down to his last few pixels of life, and you know he can't jump away, go for the chipping damage, but in most cases, you have to play smart and use hyper combos wisely, such as in chain combos or counter attacks when the enemy performs a move with slow recovery time or "canceling" a special move into a hyper combo (performed by inputting the command for a special move, and then inputting the command for a hyper combo at the instant the special move hits the opponent. The key is timing, so practice a lot. Know also that not each of every character's special attacks will be able to cancel into a hyper combo.) Meter can also be used for "snapback" attacks, which, when connected, send the opponent's current character into reserve and force one of his other characters to come out. The strategy for snapbacks is to use them when one of the opponent's other two characters is in need of great healing (the life bar is mostly red), so that when they come out, they will never be able to regain the red portion of their life bar. Lastly, meter can be used for counterattacks, similar to Alpha counters in the Street Fighter Alpha series. A counterattack is performed in the following way: when blocking an attack and when your character is still in his block animation, press back, diagonal down back, down + assist button to summon another character for a counter (make sure you don't summon a character who is still healing the red portion of his life bar). The back, down back, down motion has another function as well, called a "tech roll." By pressing back, down back, down + punch, your character will perform a safety roll after an attack that would otherwise knock him flat on his back (attacks such as Ken's Shoryu-reppa, Akuma's Messatsu-Gou Shoryu, or even when the opponent tags another character into the match). This roll costs no meter at all, and is extremely useful in avoiding attacks that can launch you back up for another deadly combo.
Once you've got the ability to bust out any special move at will, practice with the characters you want to use (there is a strategy as well for creating a team, but for now, pick whoever you feel comfortable with). If there's anything important that I forgot to mention, I'll add it later, or you can go to www.gamefaqs.com or www.shoryuken.com
Tomorrow, I will discuss why I OWN with Spiral (projectile assist), Cammy (anti air assist), and Sentinel (ground assist).
(Thanks for reading, I bet you're wondering why I spent so much time writing this. The truth is, a man needs to vent after opening so many cans of whooping on people like Steve "I'll Dhalsim, Zangief, and Juggernaut You To Death" Z. So you might as well humor me and keep reading this stuff.)
Wednesday, August 29, 2001
Note to reader: That which lurks in the mind of PerfectDru tends to be random. Tread carefully.
Courtesty. One must know proper time to be courteous. Courtesy is usually wise render. However, when too much courtesy is rendered to unsensible person, party can become arrogant. Simple truth, but such truths tend to be unformed in most persons' minds; is more intuitive knowledge. Admit, sometimes self feels that self is too polite to those who don't deserve respect. Query, is reader unsensible? Tends to overestimate importance when others (figuratively speaking) prostrate themselves at feet? Am sick and tired (pardon cliche) of arrogant jerks who live in own universe, blinded to reality. Encourage anyone reading this to be patient with others and seek empathy with others' emotions, in order to end ignorant arrogance, which is extremely irritating. Today's moral is over.
Is now late. Had a standard summer day. Visited library and wandered the streets for two hours. Returned home, snacked on goldfish crackers. About 5:00PM, Steven Zhao arrived at house. Engaged in 2 hours of pure Marvel Vs Capcom 2 dueling. Due to opponent's past victories against self, was forced to open can of whooping. Final tally was 22-09, and Zhao left extremely discouraged. Afterwards, showered, ate dinner with parents, and read one chapter of Taiko, by Eiji Yoshikawa (excellent book by excellent author- perhaps will discuss more tomorrow). Also called the bank to inquire about credit card fees and checking account withdrawals. Spent rest of night in front of computer listening to hardcore music (Drawing Black Lines by Project86 and Snuff The Punk by Payable On Death), emailing, and sending instant messages. However, stamina runs low. Feel urge to shut eyes and leave consciousness. Thus, day one entry ends.
Day one of blogging. Signed up for this last night and will now attempt to post at fairly regular intervals. After posting test message last night, will edit and post more meaningful message. However, doubt many people will read this. If reading this, feel free to send this link to other decent people. At moment, have nothing crucial to say, although suppose this online journal may be useful when at college so others can keep track of life, however insignificant these gestures may be.
Woke up rather late this morning (10:52AM) due to staying up late last night while surfing Web. After drinking healthy glass of milk (believe in the saying, "Milk... It does a body good."), proceeded to read first several chapters of the book of Ezekiel. Following that, engaged in daily Marvel Vs Capcom 2 training. After lounging for short time, logged on. Beginning to feel first pangs of hunger this day. Feeling should go away in hour or two. No point in consumption of foodstuffs when body does not desperately require nutrients. Psychological forms of conditioning give humans urge to consume food. In training to ignore psychological signs, will now keep self busy. In mere minutes, will log off and head to library in search of literary entertainment. If time permits, will return later this day to record more thoughts...
