SSF4 Arcade Edition Changes, Notes and Impressions

By Cinderkin — December 16, 2010
Tags: characters daigo-umehara news ssf4-ae super-street-fighter-iv-arcade-edition

Now that Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition has been officially released, character changes and updates have flooded in. Daigo Umehara even had a few things to say. Check it out.

There will be more updates to this story as info comes in. So keep checking back, and don't be a Jimmy!

Source: http://www.eventhubs.com & http://www.famitsu.com

Daigo Umehara's Impressions of SSF4 AE

• Fireball characters are considerably weaker in this version.

• He thinks Yun will be really good, though Zangief will be a tough matchup for him. Hasn't played much Yang, but thinks that his Genei Jin (Super) will be a big difference between the two characters.

• Even though Fei Long lost the invincibility on his Hard Kick Chicken Wing, with better normal moves and all the tools he still has available (Rekka, Tenshin, etc.), and Chun-Li, Honda, and Balrog getting nerfs, he says that Fei Long is probably the strongest of the old characters in Arcade Edition.

• Daigo feels Yun, Yang and Fei Long will be top class in SSF4 AE. After these people he ranked Zangief, Balrog and C. Viper next.

• He thinks Ken will be stronger than Ryu and Akuma, though they're still upper tier.

• Balrog will be a tough matchup for both Yun and Yang, since they don't have a punish for Dash Straight, and he has his Crouching Hard Punch.

• Makoto is stronger than he thought she would be.

• With the nerfs, he puts Guile at upper-mid tier, and he'll probably keep him around as a secondary character.

• He really seems to fear the Zangief matchup with Yun.

• With the EX Green Hand changes, Sagat will have a favorable matchup against Zangief. Puts Sagat at the bottom of the upper tier.

• Many of Daigo's impression revolve around if said characters can beat Zangief.

• Apparently, Dhalsim's Standing Light Kick is slower.

Cammy

• Hard Kick Cannon Strike from right above the opponent's head into Close Standing Medium Punch combos.

• Hard Kick Spiral Arrow doesn't connect with both hits as often as before.

E. Honda

• Ultra 2 has improved range, longer than a regular throw, but less than a Hard Punch Oicho Throw.

• Hundred Hand Slap seems to be slower, but the frame advantage on block seems to be unchanged.

• EX Headbutt's ranged was nerfed. Distance seemed shorter than a Medium Punch Headbutt now. On block it was punishable by Yang's Ultra 1.

• His Target Combo is the same.

• Jumping Medium Punch traded with Dan's Crouching Hard Punch, lost to Chun-Li's Flip and Cody's Back + Medium Punch attack. It usually lost to Rufus' Crouching Medium Punch and Yang's Dragon Kicks. These results could of course change depending on spacing and timing.

Ibuki

• After a Neck Breaker, the spacing seems to be further away than before. Some things don't cross up like they used to anymore.

• Back + Medium Punch may have been nerfed.

• Close Standing Light Punch into Close Standing Medium Kick seems easier. Close Standing Medium Kick is a frame faster in AE.

• Kunai recovery time is the same.

Vega

• EX Rolling Crystal Flash into Standing Hard Kick, sometimes only the first hit of Standing Hard Kick connects, not sure why.

• Confirmed there's more recovery time for Cosmic Heel (Down-Toward + Hard Kick, Launcher) on block, can be be punished by Shoryukens and grabs.

• Vega can punish a blocked Hard Punch Beast Roll from Blanka with his Crouching Hard Kick slide.

Blanka

• ChocoBlanka feels most of his changes are minor.

• When a Hard Punch Beast Roll is blocked, the distance Blanka bounces away is REALLY short. Medium Punch Beast Roll is also shorter, as reported. It's easier to be punished now. Beast Rolls aren't as mindless as they were before, but they're still useful.

• Light Punch Beast Rolls bounce away on block seems to be the same as before. The EX version seems unchanged as well.

• EX Rainbow Ball's distance is about 2/3rd of what it used to be, but it also changed so that he bounces a little bit back as well. You could get punished from escaping with this now, depending on the character you're up against.

• Blanka's Beast Slide (Down-Toward + Hard Punch) had its blockstun increased, so that you can use the tip more easily.

• Range on Blanka's hop forward seems to be increased. Choco said she's very happy about this.

• Standing Medium Kick comes out faster.

• Crouching Medium Kick seems to have better priority, again Choco is happy about this.

• Choco warns she could be wrong about some of this stuff, as its only the first day she played.

Gen

• Lots of people talking about Gen's Standing Hard Punch into Standing Medium Kick into Target Combo.

Mantis Style

• Mantis Standing Hard Kick is a high move and the range seems to be similar to Mantis Crouching Hard Punch.

• Mantis Super into Crane Jumping Hard Kick connects, this could have been the case previously, though.

• Any Jumping Attack, Standing Medium Punch, Standing Hard Punch, Standing Medium Kick, Cancel into Light Dragon Kicks was tried on dizzied Ryu, and the Dragon Kicks whiffed but connected on Ibuki without a jump attack.

• Crouching Light Kick, into Crouching Medium Kick seems to be less useful than Standing Hard Punch into Standing Medium Kick, Target Combo. If you put a few Crouching Light Punches before hand, Gen's Dragon Kick will whiff.

Crane Style

• It's really easy to do a Focus Attack crumple into Crane Ultra 2.

• Something feels different with Crane's Standing Hard Kick, but it wasn't elaborated on.

Gouken

Light Punch Running Palm

• This has similar range to Crouching Light Punch, it cannot combo from a max range Crouching Light Kick or Crouching Medium Punch.

• Couldn't combo from his Fireball into a Light Punch Running Palm in corner, so it's slower than 6 frames, guessing 8 frames.

• Frame advantage might be better than Medium or Hard Punch Running Palm?

• Someone got countered out of it, with a meaty attack, so there's probably no invincibility — didn't test upper and lower body invincibility separately, though.

Close Standing Medium Punch

• Frame advantage on hit is at least +6. Can Link into Crouching Hard Punch or a sweep.

• Tried Close Standing Medium Punch 2x into sweep, but couldn't test it a lot due to facing characters like Vega, where the second hit becomes a far version.

• Frame advantage on block is probably +3.

• Close Standing Medium Punch into Crouching Hard Punch connects, but EX Running Palm sometimes won't connect from it if you do it from far away.

Neutral Jump Hard Punch, Jumping Hard Kick:

• The slamming down property feels "softer" compared to Cody and Juri's.

Back Throw

• Gray damage is probably 0 or 1, someone said you can see a pixel of gray bar if you look closely.

• Someone confirmed that back throw only counts for the combo scale, and still does 0 damage.

• Not sure if this is due to lag or change to the back throw, but there were a lot of people missing the Ultra 1 after a back throw.

Jumping Medium Punch into Air Hurricane Kick

• Due to height restriction, Air Hurricane Kick doesn't seem to come out on grounded opponents.

EX Hurricane Kick, Focus Attack Dash Cancel

• Feels like it became more solid due to the locking ability of EX Hurricane Kick.

• EX Hurricane Kick, Focus Attack Dash Chancel into Medium Punch Palm connected without crossing under.

Guy

• Close Standing Medium Kick into Far Standing Medium Punch combos.

• Close Standing Medium Punch into Medium Punch Shoulder doesn't combo, confirmed by two different players. Probably less hitstun here, someone claimed about 2 frames less on hit.

• Target Combo seems to connect easier on crouching opponents.

• Feels like Jumping Hard Kick into Close Standing Hard Kick might be easier to connect.

• The new and improved 3 frame Crouching Light Kick is really good.

Tokido's Impressions

• He feels Akuma is basically the exact same as he was in Super Street Fighter 4 — still very strong.

• Apparently Daigo's Yun has already accumulated 10,000 BP in this short amount of time.

Other Stuff

• A lot of people are talking about how strong Yang and Yun are right now.

• After someone reported that E. Honda's EX Headbutt traveled less distance, lots of other players said that person was full of crap. Such is the nature of these reports, right now.

• Guile's damage on Flashkick, Focus Attack Dash Cancel, into Sonic Hurricane is even lower now, someone called it, "pathetic." Estimated that this takes off about 100 less damage overall.

• It seems like Guile's Light Flash Kick does about 20 less damage.

• Ryu's Light Punch Shoryuken can trade into Ultra.

• Gouken's Standing Medium Punch into Crouching Hard Punch connects, but EX Running Palm sometimes won't land if you do it from too far away.

• Acqua added that: "Ibuki and Rose are totally nerfed. Sagat might have a future. Since Yun is definitely strong, strong players will notice and try hopping on the bandwagon."

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