One Crit Wonders!

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Well, let’s get the basics out of the way. You throw by pressing f or b and both light attack buttons. You break throws the same way, but you can also break them when holding d/b or d/f (which will result in a crouching light kick if you aren’t being thrown). Focus Attack is done by pressing both medium attack buttons. This has a lot of uses that I’ll cover below. Pressing both hard attack buttons performs a taunt, which do not change any kind of stats like they do in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. There is dashing. There is no air blocking. There are no super jumps, with the exclusion of C.Viper, who has super jumps (and super jump cancels as well, which allow her to cancel her ground pound into other specials, just like it is used in 3rd Strike).

There are two meters at the bottom of the screen now. The big straight one that looks like a super meter is a super meter. It is filled by doing special moves, blocking, hitting, or having your attacks blocked, just like in Super Street Fighter II Turbo (ST). It’s split into 4 sections, which are referred to as ’stocks’. There are 3 ways to use your super meter. The first two are simple:

You can use your character’s super move, which requires all 4 stocks. Supers are usually done the same way they always were, which is by doing a special move motion twice, then pressing a button. For example, Ryu’s super move is a super fireball, and you perform it by doing two qcf motions and hitting a punch button, just like in ST. Super canceling from SF3 is still in the game, which is when you cancel a special move into a super. For example, Ryu can cancel a normal fireball into his super fireball by doing qcf+P, qcf+P. The first fireball motion also serves as the first motion for the super.

The 2nd way is by performing EX moves, which are from the Street Fighter III games. They only use 1 stock, and are powered-up versions of a character’s special moves. These are done by performing a special move motion and pressing two punches/two kicks. For example, Ryu can throw an EX fireball by doing a qcf and pressing LP+MP or MP+HP or even LP+HP at the same time, just like in SF3. The 3rd way to use super meter involves the new Focus Attack feature, which I’ll get to later.

Now onto the other meter. It’s the small circular one on the edge of the super meter, and it’s called the ultra gauge. Ultras are kind of the ‘ultimate’ or ‘level 3′ supers of SF4. Unlike the super meter, the ultra gauge only fills when you take damage either directly or by using the Focus Attack or an armor move to absorb damage. When the meter fills halfway, it will turn red and you can perform an ultra. The catch is that as you get even more ultra meter (and take damage), the gauge will continue to fill, and the more ultra meter you have when it hits, the more damage it will do. To perform an ultra, you have to do a special motion twice and press all 3 punch/kick buttons. For example, Ryu’s ultra is a ultra fireball (surprise), and you do it by doing qcf twice and LP+MP+HP. Unlike the super meter, the ultra meter resets every round and does not carry over. Use it or lose it. One other thing to note is that ultras can only be done by themselves, i.e., you can’t cancel into them from normal attacks like you can a special or super. You CAN still combo them (in many ways), but it can’t just be canceled from a normal attack or something.

- Dandy J