[E-sports dail-E] – Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, Ver 2012 changes part 1

Welcome to another edition of [e-Sports Dail-e]! Some big changes on the way today, so let’s get right down to it! These Street Fighter changes are a bit wordy, so that’s all we’re going to be focusing on today.

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Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, Ver. 2012 changes

As previously reported on Gamezone, Capcom is working on a balance patch for SSF4AE, which they are tenetively titling ver. 2012. The developer’s blog has recently been updated to reflect some of these upcoming changes – thanks to Shoryuken.com for the translation! Beware, these read a little bit technical (talking frame data, and damage numbers), but here is a handy guide to reading the jargon presented here.

Ryu
Increased the vertical hitbox on U2 for better anti-air/full animation.
Can combo full U2 after counter hit Shakunetsu Hadoken. So if c.mk gets absorbed by a FA, Ryu can do EX Fireball, FADC U2 for 500 damage. If Ryu is close range he can hit EX Fireball -> U2 without FADC.
The “brake” frame on air Tatsu decreased by 3 frames, if used on this frame the trajectory will change.
Solar plexus 40+60 for 100 total damage.
If he hits S.RH counter hit on a crouching opponent he can combo sweep after it.

Chun-Li
Head stomps will come out on DF, not just D. They note that DB won’t work though.
Kintekishu (B+MK) +3 advantage on counter hit, easier to hit confirm into the second hit.
Sweep 150 stun.
Kikoken startup 9F, easier to use as AA/use in combos.
They are fixing the bug where characters fell out of the U1 juggle in AE.
Ken
Target combo hits easier on crouching opponents, can also delay the inputs.
EX Shoryuken damage 80+30+30+50, 190 total.

Honda
Jab headbutt gets its upper body invincibility back.
Strong headbutt loses it, so it works the same as Jab Headbutt did in AE.

Blanka
Each ball gets an extra 10 in damage, so Jab 110, Strong 120, Fierce 130, EX 120.
For Fierce and EX Ball, if it hits on the second frame (same frame where FA cancel is possible), it causes blow-back damage. Will be easier to follow-up EX Ball with additional hits if FADC’d.
Charged Rock Crusher gives Blanka a 5 frame advantage, so he can do Rock Crusher, C.MK, FP Ball as a combo.

Zangief
Jab SPD 150 stun.
EX Backfist damage 90+50 for a total of 140. Stun 100+50 for a total of 150.
Adjusted the hitbox on c.jab, so that it hits more easily off a jump-in against characters it formerly didn’t. Hurtbox for c.roundhouse reduced in height, making it easier to pass under certain attacks.

Guile
Balance adjustments centered around the changes made to him from Super to AE.
The frames in which Guile could be counter-hit after Sonic Boom have been eliminated? (Not 100% sure)
Air throws 3F startup.
Spinning backfist 100 damage.
Can’t be thrown out of upside down kick from the 6th frame until the last active frame.

Dhalsim
Yoga Inferno damage 75 x 2, 60 x 3 for a total of 330 damage.
EX Yoga Blast damage 90 + 50. First hit gets 20 more damage, second hit 20 less, so if Sim only gets the first hit he gets the better damage.
S.jab active for 4F. But other frame info unaltered.
Hurtbox on Yoga Blast reduced.
Can follow up Yoga Blast with additional moves for combo.

Balrog
Headbutt damage fixed back to Super, strong 120, Fierce 140, EX 150.
U2 damage 399.
Hit properties on Dash Overhead changed so that it can combo into c.strong on all characters.
Close stand fierce hitbox extended downwards so that it hits crouching characters that it used to whiff on.

Sagat
Angry Scar Tiger Uppercut damage increased: LP, MP, and EX get +10

C Viper
-MP Thunder Knuckle 120 -> 110 damage
-EX Thunder Knuckle startup reduced to 25f, but +2 recovery
-EX Seismo 120 -> 100 damage
-U1 -> 441 damage
-U1 hitbox improved so it’s easier to hit fully after air burnkick and HP Thunder Knuckle
-U2 damage increased to 410

Vega
-cr.HK damage increased to 110, same as Super.
-+1 more frame of hitstun on the opponent after cosmic heel, making it -3 at worst.
-Sky High Claw causes blowback when it hits a grounded opponent (same words as the blanka ball change)
-U1 hitbox after it hits on the way up increased drastically so that it doesn’t unexpectedly miss.
-U2 startup changed to 8f.

Bison
-Scissors stun changed to 100/50 (150 total) on all strengths
-First hit causes 1f extra hitstun, so if you FADC the first hit you can have +5 advantage at best.

Dan
• Dan got a ton of changes.
• Pushback from his close standing Standing Hard Kick has been shortened.
• Close Medium Punch now starts up in 5 frames. This was 6 in Arcade Edition.
• Crouching Hard Kick now starts up in 10 frames. This was 11 in Arcade Edition.
• The combo cl.HK, cl.MP, cr.MP xx EX Dankukyaku is now possible.
• Reduced the height limit on Air EX Dankukyaku (Dan Kicks), a.k.a., how high you needed to be before you could do it.
• Hard Kick Dankukyaku now deals 130 damage instead of 120.
• Dan’s Jumping and Crouching Taunt build meter now. 70 on hit, 30 on block.
• Dan’s Super Hissho Buraiken has been altered so that it’s harder for characters to have hits whiff against them. However, the blog notes this buff won’t work if you activate from too far away.

Rufus
• MK Messiah Kick on hit can be followed up by LK continuation.
• Since you couldn’t use it as an AA in original AE, Big Bang Typhoon as an AA will hit a maximum of 10 times, for 236 damage.

Gen
•(KKK stance) crouching HP’s damage on counter-hit has been corrected to 1.25x the regular amount. (TL note: previously it wasn’t? What was it in AE?)
•(KKK stance) crouching HK now has 5 active frames (up from 3).
•If the last hit of medium/heavy Gekirou (dragon kick) came out, Gen gets a bonus +10 to super meter.
•The final hit of heavy Gekirou will put your opponent in untechable knockdown state. So use it as an opportunity to okizeme/apply pressure on wake-up.
•EX Snake Strikes’ properties will now differ depending on which buttons you activate it with (light+medium, light+heavy, or medium+heavy). The distance Gen travels during this move, and the number of hits vary.
Also, from 1st frame all the way till the end of active frames, EX Snake Strikes are now projectile-invincible.
•All versions of Snake Strikes will have 4 extra hit/blockstun as long as you don’t end with the final strike.
So if you FADC Snake Strike before the final hit it’s +6 on hit, +2 on block.
•(PPP/Mantis style) U2′s start-up is now 7-frame on start-up, down from 9 frames.

Sakura
•Only thing the developers have changed here was EX Hurricane Kick.
Many Sakura players were unhappy that when you do
Crouching LK -> crouching LP -> crouching HP -> EX Hurricane,
on certain characters the last hit would not connect. They’ve rectified this so it now works on all characters.

Fei Long
•Rekka block stun adjusted, after second blocked rekka, most people delay the third one for counter hits. You can now punish delayed third rekka hits accordingly. After blocked 2nd hit of Rekka, Light version 8f, Medium version 10f, Heavy version 12f
•(loose translation of this) Flame kick: Light 120 down to 110, Medium 140 down to 120, Heavy 160 down to 150, EX 200 down to 190. Flame kick FADC on block is 1f less on advantage, making it.. ????
•F+MK buffed up from 60 to 70
•MK Chickenwing nerfed from 30+30+50 (110 total) down to 35+35+30 (100 total)

Abel
•Cr.HP is back to how it was in Super.
•TT Damage up +10: LP 160 MP 180 HP 200
•Breathless : from startup till active, hit invulnerable. (LOL. People will start trolling with U2, again.)
•Second Low Hit Stun improved,
So when you do 2nd Low FADC, you’ll be at +9 at most.
Meaning that, you can do 2nd Low FADC Cr.HP U1.

Cammy
They want to keep the status quo for Cammy. So the only change here was:
•Heavy Spiral Arrow’s hit properties are back to how they were in SSF4 console (TL note: in AE when you combo into heavy Spiral Arrow, sometimes Cammy will go under your opponent and switch… which is especially bad when you’ve successfully pushed him into the corner).

Akuma
•Demon-flip punch no longer an overhead (TL note: this was one of the few buffs in AE I think), so you can now block low for that.
•Forward throw now has 2 more recovery frames.
•As for buffs, when you cancel a teleport into U2, the damage has been increased to 421.

Rose
•Soul Spark meter gain returned to 20->30
•Soul Satellite’s startup frames from 7 to 5
•Soul Piede changed to Vanilla properties
•Close standing MK +4 on hit, making it easier to combo into crouching jab, as well as making it possible to combo into cr.mp.
•Fixed some bug with crouching mk counterhits.

T.Hawk
Minor changes that have to do with his match-ups.
•The first hit of crouching HK on block has more blockstun, by 2 frames. Opponents who try to jump away after blocking the first hit will now be caught with the second hit due to this adjustment.
Also, T.Hawk’s head-area hurtbox is projectile-invincible during this animation. So for instance, Sagat’s high Tiger Shots will no longer hit Hawk out of his crouching HK.
•(Diagonal jump) down+HP can now be performed with neutral jumps.
•Down-forward+LP on hit is now -2 frame disadvantage. Down from -5 in AE.
•Medium Tomahawk Buster is throw-invincible from start-up to the frame T.Hawk leaves the ground.
•Condor Spire’s shortcut motion has been revised, so it should be easier to activate with that now.

Gouken
One of the most altered characters, the devs say. The main changes are to his Denjin and Senku Goshoha. His Denjin can be sped up to up to twice its normal speed and powered up by over half damage by doing a 3S SA3 Ryu (spinning the stick like a loon from Ultra start-up until you let go of the attack buttons). There are three speed-ups and five damage levels, with the charge times as follows:
Level 1 – 13 frames
Level 2 – 17 frames
Level 3 – 37 frames
Level 4 – 57 frames
Level 5 – 80 frames
Each fully-charged Denjin now does 45 more damage, while charge times are now the same regardless of the amount of your ultra gauge.
As for the Senku Goshoha, LP hits further in front, MP is the same as his Super LP version and HP is the same as his Super MP version. Also, Kongoshin has a slighty larger hitbox and deals 200 stun, while cr.HP deals more hitstun and so locks the opponent in place for longer, allowing cl.MP, cr.HP, EX Senku Goshoha to hit everyone.

Seth
Only small changes here, apparently. Tanden Stream only does 340 damage now, but cr.HP, Tanden Stream does full damage. Furthermore, if the first hit connects, Seth becomes invincible for the entire animation.
Otherwise, his jumping FP now has 4 active frames and nj.MK has lower body fireball invincibility after the active frames finish. Also, the issue of cr.LP, cr.MP not hitting some characters after a successful j.HK has been partially remedied (they say ‘loosened’ or ‘eased’, rather than ‘fixed’, so it’s probably still there to some extent).

El Fuerte
They aimed to make him more fun to play without heavily affecting his overall balance. Tortilla has reverted to its Vanilla form, i.e., invincible straight after start-up), EX Quesadilla Bomb now only takes 210 frames of charge and wall-bounces, and both level 3 regular and EX Quesadilla Bombs only freeze Fuerte for 10 frames on hit.
Elsewhere, cr.LP can be chain cancelled into other jab or short moves, while st.FP, Habanero Dash, Sliding now works on everyone.

Obviously, this isn’t all of the character’s – all of the notes haven’t been released yet. Keep it locked here for further information as Capcom releases it.

EDIT: Part 2 can now be found here!

Keeping with today’s theme, we’re going to look at what I thought was an interesting match, pitting EG | Justin Wong up against MCZ Mago in Super Street Fighter 4 AE, at EVO 2011.

That’s it for today’s e-Sports Dail-e! See ya next time, true believers!
Dustin Steiner is Gamezone’s eSports Correspondent! Follow him on Twitter @SteinerDustin