The public parts of my notebook.
How to play Street Fighter: a fighting game primer for everyone - Polygon
A deep dive into the tactics and strategy underlying all fighting games.
The game-specific minutiae is less interesting. There is no general truth in Capcom’s decision that you must adjust which buttons you press for a special move if your opponent happens to be travelling over your head.
But the more generally applicable observations are fascinating.
Ryu embodies all the important elements of fighting game characters because he can put into practice every generic battle strategy. He can control space. He can reap the rewards of anticipating what his opponent will do. He can press an advantage and riposte a pressed advantage.
This pair of zingers. “Throwing a fireball means putting yourself at risk in the immediate moment (by performing an attack with a long startup period) in order to gain an advantage once it’s out.” “The Dragon Punch is basically the anti-fireball; where the fireball sacrifices the present for the future, the DP borrows against the future in favor of right now.”
And a wonderful passage about anticipation. One player carries out a series of attacks to leave his opponent only a few options, correctly predicts how the opponent will respond and then punishes him for it.
#notebook