Firstly, I should apologise in advance to anyone finding this entry when searching for the words in the title, as you
aren’t really going to learn anything here. This is more about my getting stuck in head-first into a revitalised love affair with my new favourite game.
Capcom released Super Street Fighter IV to a drooling, clamouring fanbase this last Friday, and I was among those desperate to get my grubby mitts on the re-incarnation of the current generation’s darling of the fighting scene. I was one of the people wondering why on Earth they didn’t just release it as DLC over Live/PSN, but after playing it for hours and hours over the Bank Holiday weekend, I can see why. It’ more than just a lick of paint on the old game, it’s a total overhaul and a completely justifiable purchase for anyone who bought the original.
First up, the most noticeable change is the addition of a whole raft of new characters. We’ve got characters like Ibuki, Makoto and Dudley making a reappearance from the SF3 series, Guy, Cody and Adon from the Alpha/Zero series, and a couple of completely original characters; Juri, a Korean (a first for a Capcom fighter) Taekwondo fighter, and Hakan, a hilarious Turkish oil wrestler. Put those in with the roster from vanilla SF4 along with some others and you’ve got a lot (35!) of characters to learn. Or should that be re-learn?
The biggest obvious change for the exisiting fighters is the addition of a second Ultra move, selectable at the character choice screen, just like in the good old days of SF3:3S. Some are great, some are rubbish, c’est la vie. But spend more than a couple of hours with the game and experienced players will notice the re-balancing of the of the game. The characters who were seemingly hard-done by the first time out have been bolstered (Guile), and some who were just too powerful for their own good (Ryu, Sagat) have been nerfed a bit. It means a bit of re-learning for a lot of people, but it’s for the best.
I’ll admit that I didn’t get into the original SF4 as much as I’d have liked to, but I’m completely hooked now with Super. I’ve spent a lot of time in ranked battles on Live and learned a lot – not to mention having my arse handed to me more times than I care to mention. It’s frightening how good some people are, even with less than a week of practise with the new guys. But between bouts of rage and swearing, I’m sticking to it and completely addicted. It’s digital Crack. To get better I’m going to have to invest time in learning the kind of nuances the people at SRK and iplaywinner go nuts for.
That brings us nicely to the title of the post, all of which will be instantly familiar for anyone who’s into it. FADC stands for Focus Attack Dash Cancelling, which without wanting to bore the pants off you is when you charge a Focus Attack (parries most single hit moves and allows a retaliation with crumple hit) and dash out of it. It’s great for letting you chain together combos, or baiting someone into thinking you’re charging and they can nip in for a free throw. Plinking is a new one to me and one I don’t expect to be able to use any time soon. It involves hitting two punch buttons almost simultaneously to change 1-frame chaining opportunities to 2-frames…. yeah, I know, it didn’t make much sense to me either until I watched a ten minute youtube video on it.
As usual with my quasi-reviews on here, I have to insist you buy this game. Anyone with even half an interest in fighting games owes it to themself, there’s nothing out there at the moment that even comes close. For a smidgen over 20 quid online with a free t-shirt, there’s really no reason not to buy it. Utterly awesome.