Sunday, July 20, 2008

Super Turbo and I

After a long set with friends JMS and ehonda, I have to reassess my skill-set in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. I have improved in some areas, and gotten worse in others.

Let me put myself down before I state how I have come further in improvement -

My execution has gotten far worse than I remember. I used to be able to DP on reaction; reversal DPs were my weapons of mass destruction. Part of this is probably because I don't practice anymore - not having a ps2 or anyway to train stick techniques hurts my game I think. I am also branching out in playing other games, which makes it hard for me to keep track of what gameplay nuances I need to keep in mind.

My gameplan is highly habitual. I find myself not thinking and getting punished for dumb, repeated attack strings that just don't work. Hurricane Kick on block is not safe, yet I continue to do it, for reasons beyond my cerebellum. I need to break habits and play smarter, not harder.

I let my super go at very bad moments. My philosophy: I get super meter so fast I can afford to lose it and gain it again in the same round. The people I am playing, however, are very good and deserve better than that. I was only able to get a clean confirm on my Shinkuu Hadouken ONCE in my 5 hour session today. The other whiffs were blocked, for substantial chip damage, but I can do better.

What has improved:

I understand the game better. Matchups are clearer and I know what to do in situations that once puzzled me. In matches where I have no idea what to do, I am able to formulate my own attack plan and perfomr reasonably.

I am less tense in matches. I don't choke in close matches and I keep a level head the entire game. I tend to play safe in this mindset and frustrate players that way.

I have a very good tick throw/Overhead/fireball/DP trap that my friends are still trying to guess. It could be better, but it is pretty good right now.

I can detect when people are going to use super combos and either runaway or counter.

I now know exactly what people mean when they say "Jab Strong Fierce Short Forward Roundhouse." I always knew what they represented, but it used to take me a few seconds to translate them to lp mp hp etc.


So I am frustrated that I got better by getting worse, but I assume no learning is without its plateaus. I hope to get better in the coming weeks and report my progress with footage and response.