Street Fighter IV Showdown: 8 Years In The Making


Street Fighter IV Showdown:

8 Years In The Making


After an eight year sabbatical I decided it was time to return to Street Fighter IV [SFIV] and bury my past, but hatred burns deep. I was a different person back then, much less responsible and in no way an ‘adult’. I distinctly remember how furious I was that day, Dale the co-creator of this site and one of my closest friends decided he was going to teach me a lesson, one I would never forget. I was whooped multiple times, in fact I lost so hard, it felt like he’d literally ripped out my entrails, whilst smiling, returning them to me in a jar thoroughly pickled. This wasn’t just me losing, this was losing multiple sessions and not even coming close to winning one round.

Evil Ryu Ultra

‘To get ‘one’s’ ass handed to’, ‘to get owned’, ‘to go up in smoke’ and ‘to get schooled’, I’m sure I can think of many more phrases that describe how I felt that day, the pooch was well and truly screwed. I consider myself a purist, I’d played a lot of Street Fighter 2 Turbo Edition, and thought I was okay, not one of the best, but I could at least hold my own and defend my honour. Had I always been this terrible at Street Fighter? Had I somehow tricked myself into thinking I was pretty good? It would be these questions that would inevitably cascade to me hanging up my controller and not playing another Street Fighter game for a further eight years.

So with the release of Street Fighter V, I felt strangely compelled to revisit the franchise that had caused me so much distress. About a month back, I decided it was a good opportunity to pick up Ultra Street Fighter IV at a reasonable price. Inevitably I re-matched Dale and he destroyed me yet again, multiple times, I could almost hear the enthusiasm wane in his speech, it was clear that I was boring him, as I was simply no match. He didn’t even relish in the opportunity to snipe or embarrass me, something I found to be deeply frustrating, like a cat losing interest in a toy mouse.

Evil Ryu kicking ass.Evil Ryu has quickly become my favourite character to practice with.

I knew I needed to get better, so at my own leisure, I casually practised against AI, now and again requesting a match with Dale, which he kindly subjected me to. It was only during this week that we fought, and I finally felt like I was a match for him. He could no longer relax as he played me and we had a couple of games which were undoubtedly close. I feel like I earn’t his respect whilst both invigorating my own new passion for the game. So here is what I believe to be our second match of the evening, I’m (gat1986) Ryu, Dale (Drlovecherry) is Ken.

I realise that I have a lot of room for improvement, but it’s a start. We both decided to go into the training room once Dale had realised I had improved with the basics, and with my reactions to timing. So I practised the art of performing Ultra’s over and over again, whilst doing so realising I didn’t even have an understanding of the control mechanics introduced by Street Fighter IV. For example Dale told me I need to use ‘all the Kicks’, my response was ‘what are you talking about?’ Once he instructed me that this was simply left trigger, I soon had a firm grasp of how to produce them, though I wasn’t consistent enough. I will practice, I will beat Dale, and it will be public knowledge once I do so. Currently I await his arrival from work, then I hope to go to town, he’ll be tired, but I’m quite sick at the moment, so that puts us both at an even pegging to compete. Also this is our first lets play video together so I hope you enjoy it and there will be more to come.


Update…

Dale came home, and after a couple of bouts, I did finally achieve the victory I desired. It was glorious at the time, I felt so euphoric, anyway it ends this little blog perfectly, so if your interested there’s a nice little youtube clip below of what I am convinced was just sheer luck.

Also to top it off, my Ryu amiibo arrived on the very day I took Dale down, call it destiny, but I don’t believe that, I think it was more of a subconscious effort. I willed it to happen. Anyway there’s a pic below, as it seems more worthy to document it within this post, rather than the amiibo confessions.

Super Smash Bros - Ryu


 

Author: Graham Taylor

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