I'm writing this because I was playing Super Smash Bros. Project M with a friend and I told him to stop doing "unsafe" moves. He is great at Super Smash Bros., but he is naturally good at video games and doesn't always know why he is good at them.
Safe and Unsafe moves are somewhat of a complex idea but the core of the idea lies in the animation frames. Essentially, a safe attack is one that the opponent will be very unlikely to punish if you throw it out. An unsafe attack is when you are extremely likely to be punished for using the attack if you throw it out.
When people say an attack is "Safe" and "unsafe," it usually means that if you and your opponent are in a completely neutral state then a safe attack will probably not be punished but an unsafe move is likely to leave you vulnerable. A safe move will usually have really short startup frames and really short recovery frames. The light punch in Street Fighter and most other fighting games is a safe attack. It starts up really quickly, and ends really quickly.
Block and Whiff are also important when it comes to whether a move is safe and unsafe. When you connect an attack, your opponent will go into hitstun. During hitstun, they aren't able to do anything. However, if an attack is blocked the opponent goes into blockstun or guardstun. Blockstun and guardstun are the same thing as hitstun only they keep the opponent in the block or guard animation for a moment. Blockstun is usually much shorter than hitstun. So, when an attack with a long animation is blocked, the opponent will usually be out of blockstun before the recovery frames are over and the opponent will have a chance to attack back, usually for much more damage than whatever damage you were about to do with your original attack. Newer players (especially me when I first started playing) have trouble understanding this concept. Fighting games involve both offense and defense and when you throw out moves that are unsafe on block, you are leaving your defense completely open for a second.
When you whiff an attack, it goes through the entire animation of the attack. Therefore, if it is an attack that has a long animation, the attack can be punished. Crouching heavy kicks are really good attacks in Street Fighter 4, but if they whiff, they can usually be punished by a crouching heavy kick or something much more damaging. In Smash Bros Melee, Smash attacks and charging attacks are usually very unsafe on whiff.
However, sometimes moves that are unsafe on block can be safe(r) from a certain distance. Blockstun usually includes pushback where a character receives some momentum from the attack that they blocked. If the pushback moves the character far enough away, they won't be able to punish with an attack. Many powerful attacks are unsafe up close, but relatively safe from far away.
Unsafe moves can be made safer through mix-ups and set-ups too. I'll probably write another article on these two concepts but they are important to touch upon briefly now. If you put your opponent in a situation where they have multiple things to defend against, this is a mix-up. Sometimes unsafe attacks can be made safer in mix-ups because the opponent is more likely to attempt to defend one of the attacks you threw out. For example: in Street Fighter, Ryu can throw out a fireball and the opponent is likely to jump over it. Ryu can then throw out the Shoryuken, which is really unsafe, and the opponent will likely get hit by it. This mix-up could also be considered a set-up because it forces the opponent into a situation where they are likely to get hit for pretty big damage. This is just one example of how an unsafe attack can be used effectively.
Realize that no attack is really safe in fighting games. At any point in time, if you press a button, there is a chance that your opponent pressed a button a few frames before you did and you might get hit because their attack comes out faster than yours. There is a time and place for unsafe attacks too. Unsafe attacks are just not a great idea when you and your opponent are in a neutral state.
To figure out if a move is safe or unsafe, it helps to know the frame data of the move, but it is not necessary. If you throw out an attack and then hold block but the opponent still punishes you for it, you can be pretty sure the move was unsafe. Throw that attack out less if this happens. Trial and error can still be the best teacher in fighting games.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Beginner to Intermediate Fighting Game Mechanics - Frames, Links, Juggles, and Combos
Together with Cancels, Links and Juggles make up the usual parts of Combos in most fighting games. Briefly, I would like to explain something I should have explained in the cancels article:
In fighting games, timing is important. Time in fighting games is measured mainly by animation frames or "frames" for short. Frames are the tiny pieces of animation that build up the motions that you see on screen when you play games. You can look at this like how a cartoon works. Cartoons are thousands of drawings placed quickly after each other to make it look like things are moving. Modern fighting games are animated in 60 frames per second. Most fighting game animations take less than a second to take place. Sometimes characters are invulnerable during parts of the animation also for as little as 1/12th of a second. Humans can't count in these divisions of time so it is helpful to understand how many animation frames things to take to occur. Measuring attacks and actions in frames solves part of this problem. If you know how long an animation or part of an animation takes place, you can mathematically solve how to react to an attack. Frames could take up an entire other article but beginners only need to know so much about them.
An attack is always composed of 3 stages regarding frames. There is the startup, active, and recovery. The startup is how many frames it takes until the attack begins the active frames. The active frames are the frames in which the attack can hurt the opponent. The recovery frames are how long it takes for the attack animation to end. After the recovery frames, the character can perform another action unless they are canceled.When it comes to attacks, the startup and recovery frames are generally the most important. When an attack is called "slow," "fast," or "safe" and "unsafe" they are referring the the frames, and it is usually referring to either the startup or recovery. Active frames are also important, but for different reasons outside of this article.
Links are the when you perform an attack after the entire animation of one attack ends, but before the opponent is able to react again. To explain why this happens, I need to explain another important mechanic of fighting games. When you connect an attack with the opponent in fighting games, they go into an animation of being hit for a moment. During this animation, the opponent cannot attack or block. Sometimes it looks like they have been hurt or the stumble a bit or sometimes they just flinch. This is called hitstun. When hitstun lasts longer than the full animation of your attack, you can perform another attack before the opponent even has the option to react. So another way to look at links is an attack that hits the opponent during hitstun but is not a cancel. The window that links can be performed can be as little as 1frame to as much as 7 frames or longer (although longer would be pretty rare.) Also, for beginners, don't be intimidated by things like "4 frame links." As you play more fighting games, you'll learn that 4 frames feels like forever and that 1 frame links and 2 frame links are the only really difficult ones. Even then, 1 frame links are not that difficult to pull off. The difficulty is doing it consistently and that only requires practice.
Juggles are when you performan attack that puts the opponent in the air or keeps the opponent in the air and you are able to follow up with more attacks. Juggle combos are done when the attacking character is on the ground for most of the combo. When the opponent is in this state, it is called juggle state. During juggle state, the opponent can be hit by another attack that puts them in juggle state sometimes. In many games, you only have the option of juggling the opponent for a few attacks, in other games (usually older ones) you can actually keep the opponent in juggle state until they are Knocked Out. Juggles can also happen from bouncing the opponent off of the ground in some games. While the opponent is in juggle state, the attacks that can hit that can be either links or cancels. Sometimes, you have a fairly wide window to follow up with attacks while the opponent is in juggle state. It is important to note that juggle state is a specific state that only exists in certain games. People might get juggle combos confused with aerial combos, but they are two different things.
Combos are when you perform a series of attacks or hit the opponent multiple times before they are out of hitstun. How someone does this is by using cancels, links, and juggles. The purpose of fighting games (and competitive multiplayer games) is to beat the opponent before they can beat you. In most fighting games, you do this by depleting the opponents life bar first. Therefore, you want to attack them and prevent them from attacking you back. The absolute best way to do this is by using combos because it completely prevents them from attacking you back or blocking. As I said before, a character cannot do anything while in hitstun. So if you keep them in hitstun while attacking them, they can only take damage. In games like Street Fighter, you can win by shooting fireballs and poking them with normal attacks. However, it is not likely that the opponent won't hit you with an attack of their own. If you combo them, you can maximize the impact of each hit you land on them. You can do more damage than what your simple pokes would have done. This is why combos are important. Combos can be composed of 2 hits up to over 100 hits in some games. Sometimes, combos can be done by inputting one attack command that happens to hit multiple times. Combos, in some games, can be done on the ground OR in the air.
For some readers, this stuff might seem completely obvious, but this is for the people that just don't understand fighting games. Feel free to ask questions if I'm not explaining things enough. I'll be writing more advanced articles in the future.
In fighting games, timing is important. Time in fighting games is measured mainly by animation frames or "frames" for short. Frames are the tiny pieces of animation that build up the motions that you see on screen when you play games. You can look at this like how a cartoon works. Cartoons are thousands of drawings placed quickly after each other to make it look like things are moving. Modern fighting games are animated in 60 frames per second. Most fighting game animations take less than a second to take place. Sometimes characters are invulnerable during parts of the animation also for as little as 1/12th of a second. Humans can't count in these divisions of time so it is helpful to understand how many animation frames things to take to occur. Measuring attacks and actions in frames solves part of this problem. If you know how long an animation or part of an animation takes place, you can mathematically solve how to react to an attack. Frames could take up an entire other article but beginners only need to know so much about them.
An attack is always composed of 3 stages regarding frames. There is the startup, active, and recovery. The startup is how many frames it takes until the attack begins the active frames. The active frames are the frames in which the attack can hurt the opponent. The recovery frames are how long it takes for the attack animation to end. After the recovery frames, the character can perform another action unless they are canceled.When it comes to attacks, the startup and recovery frames are generally the most important. When an attack is called "slow," "fast," or "safe" and "unsafe" they are referring the the frames, and it is usually referring to either the startup or recovery. Active frames are also important, but for different reasons outside of this article.
Links are the when you perform an attack after the entire animation of one attack ends, but before the opponent is able to react again. To explain why this happens, I need to explain another important mechanic of fighting games. When you connect an attack with the opponent in fighting games, they go into an animation of being hit for a moment. During this animation, the opponent cannot attack or block. Sometimes it looks like they have been hurt or the stumble a bit or sometimes they just flinch. This is called hitstun. When hitstun lasts longer than the full animation of your attack, you can perform another attack before the opponent even has the option to react. So another way to look at links is an attack that hits the opponent during hitstun but is not a cancel. The window that links can be performed can be as little as 1frame to as much as 7 frames or longer (although longer would be pretty rare.) Also, for beginners, don't be intimidated by things like "4 frame links." As you play more fighting games, you'll learn that 4 frames feels like forever and that 1 frame links and 2 frame links are the only really difficult ones. Even then, 1 frame links are not that difficult to pull off. The difficulty is doing it consistently and that only requires practice.
Juggles are when you performan attack that puts the opponent in the air or keeps the opponent in the air and you are able to follow up with more attacks. Juggle combos are done when the attacking character is on the ground for most of the combo. When the opponent is in this state, it is called juggle state. During juggle state, the opponent can be hit by another attack that puts them in juggle state sometimes. In many games, you only have the option of juggling the opponent for a few attacks, in other games (usually older ones) you can actually keep the opponent in juggle state until they are Knocked Out. Juggles can also happen from bouncing the opponent off of the ground in some games. While the opponent is in juggle state, the attacks that can hit that can be either links or cancels. Sometimes, you have a fairly wide window to follow up with attacks while the opponent is in juggle state. It is important to note that juggle state is a specific state that only exists in certain games. People might get juggle combos confused with aerial combos, but they are two different things.
Combos are when you perform a series of attacks or hit the opponent multiple times before they are out of hitstun. How someone does this is by using cancels, links, and juggles. The purpose of fighting games (and competitive multiplayer games) is to beat the opponent before they can beat you. In most fighting games, you do this by depleting the opponents life bar first. Therefore, you want to attack them and prevent them from attacking you back. The absolute best way to do this is by using combos because it completely prevents them from attacking you back or blocking. As I said before, a character cannot do anything while in hitstun. So if you keep them in hitstun while attacking them, they can only take damage. In games like Street Fighter, you can win by shooting fireballs and poking them with normal attacks. However, it is not likely that the opponent won't hit you with an attack of their own. If you combo them, you can maximize the impact of each hit you land on them. You can do more damage than what your simple pokes would have done. This is why combos are important. Combos can be composed of 2 hits up to over 100 hits in some games. Sometimes, combos can be done by inputting one attack command that happens to hit multiple times. Combos, in some games, can be done on the ground OR in the air.
For some readers, this stuff might seem completely obvious, but this is for the people that just don't understand fighting games. Feel free to ask questions if I'm not explaining things enough. I'll be writing more advanced articles in the future.
Beginner Fighting Game Mechanics- Cancels
Im going to slowly compile information on most fighting game's advanced mechanics. this will mostly be a beginners primer to how fighting games function. there is a lot of stuff in fighting games that is not intuitive to the average game player and that's no good. these little articles should help people learn how to play better.
Cancels- canceling is inputting one command, an attack usually but other commands apply, and inputting another command to stop part or all of your characters animation from taking place.
The most common type of cancel is special canceling. This is when you input an attack and quickly input a special move to stop the recovery frames of the original attack from taking place. The most common combo that uses special canceling would be Ryu's crouching medium kick to Hadoken. The hadoken comes out before Ryu brings his foot back to neutral from the medium kick.
The second most common type of cancel is the chain cancel. Chain canceling is canceling the recovery frames of one normal into another normal move. A common example of this would be in Street Fighter, most characters can chain cancel crouching light punch, standing light punch, or crouching light kick into each other. This type of cancel plays a larger role in other games besides Street Fighter, but it is used in nearly all modern fighting games. In particular, chain canceling is key in Marvel vs Capcom Games, Blazblue, Guilty Gear, and Vampire Savior to name a few.
The other two types of canceling that are extremely common are Dash Cancels and Jump Cancels. These are used in limited ways in many fighting games, but are extremely important in some. Dash canceling is done by inputting a dash to cancel the recovery frames of an attack or sometimes to cancel some hits of a multi-hitting attack. Dash Canceling can also have a second function of catching up to an opponent after an attack that knocks them further away than usual. Jump canceling is canceling the recovery frames of an attack into a jump. This is usually done after an attack that pops the opponent into the air (an attack like this is usually called a launcher.) The jump cancel allows you to follow them into the air to perform an air combo. This aspect mainly applies to games like Marvel, BlazBlue, or Guilty Gear. Super Jump Canceling is a related mechanic that requires you to cancel the recovery frames of an attack into a super jump. Super Jumps (sometimes known as High Jumps) are typically performed by pressing down right before you press up. Super Jump canceling can sometimes be canceled before your character leaves the ground into a special move, but this would probably be for another article. Super Jump cancels are also used to continue combos where a regular jump is not adequate enough to reach the opponent.
That's it for this article. The next article will be on Links and Combos.
Cancels- canceling is inputting one command, an attack usually but other commands apply, and inputting another command to stop part or all of your characters animation from taking place.
The most common type of cancel is special canceling. This is when you input an attack and quickly input a special move to stop the recovery frames of the original attack from taking place. The most common combo that uses special canceling would be Ryu's crouching medium kick to Hadoken. The hadoken comes out before Ryu brings his foot back to neutral from the medium kick.
The second most common type of cancel is the chain cancel. Chain canceling is canceling the recovery frames of one normal into another normal move. A common example of this would be in Street Fighter, most characters can chain cancel crouching light punch, standing light punch, or crouching light kick into each other. This type of cancel plays a larger role in other games besides Street Fighter, but it is used in nearly all modern fighting games. In particular, chain canceling is key in Marvel vs Capcom Games, Blazblue, Guilty Gear, and Vampire Savior to name a few.
The other two types of canceling that are extremely common are Dash Cancels and Jump Cancels. These are used in limited ways in many fighting games, but are extremely important in some. Dash canceling is done by inputting a dash to cancel the recovery frames of an attack or sometimes to cancel some hits of a multi-hitting attack. Dash Canceling can also have a second function of catching up to an opponent after an attack that knocks them further away than usual. Jump canceling is canceling the recovery frames of an attack into a jump. This is usually done after an attack that pops the opponent into the air (an attack like this is usually called a launcher.) The jump cancel allows you to follow them into the air to perform an air combo. This aspect mainly applies to games like Marvel, BlazBlue, or Guilty Gear. Super Jump Canceling is a related mechanic that requires you to cancel the recovery frames of an attack into a super jump. Super Jumps (sometimes known as High Jumps) are typically performed by pressing down right before you press up. Super Jump canceling can sometimes be canceled before your character leaves the ground into a special move, but this would probably be for another article. Super Jump cancels are also used to continue combos where a regular jump is not adequate enough to reach the opponent.
That's it for this article. The next article will be on Links and Combos.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Fighting Games
My name is Circus and Fighting games are awesome. I'm going to be writing my thoughts on fighting games, strategy, new developements, and news regarding fighting games. One of the bigger reasons I'm doing this is because there is a lot of information spread out on the interwebs that should really be consolidated. i will try to consolidate that info for those who want to find it and become better at fighting games. Enjoy reading y'all.
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