Super Street Fighter II Turbo - Ryu vs Akuma x 5 - Epic Finish

This is a raw feed of 5 straight matches in continuous real time. It has not been edited or spliced in any way. The only interruption is the reloading of the save file after each battle. Do excuse the glitching effect that kicks in twice in the clip - the emulator doesn't like it when I load a game where the scene changes too drastically.

There are 2 reasons for doing this - first it shows how dangerous and wickedly powerful Shin Akuma can be in ways that might not be evident in my previous video posts.
I am virtually at the peak of my playing form here and still get my ass kicked a couple times or barely scrape out a victory in a few other rounds.

Second, it shows some of his attack patterns and what can be done to counter them.

PATTERNS

Akuma is a bit different from the other opponents in the game (who are all ridiculously overpowered and cheap in their own way) in that, while he certainly does have patterns of attack, he controls them rather than let them control him. Put another way, he will interrupt himself in the middle of a pattern if threatened or when things are not going his way. He often goes into "freestyle mode", dancing back and forth like a boxer waiting for you to make the first move/mistake. Akuma's unpredictability is a major reason why he's so fiendishly difficult.

The AI in this game is also designed to fully abuse its superhuman reflexes - it can outright walk up to you and attack you without losing the ability to instantly block (or better yet, counter) any defensive moves you spring. It can also give the appearance that the AI can read your mind and instantly counter any move you make in general. If that isnt enough, the computer circumvents certain rules of the game. For instance, Akuma can block or throw you out of perfectly executed combos. He can also initiate a throw or DP after jumping in on you, BEFORE he actually lands. Finally, he has dominating priority on all his attacks. If you do the exact same move at the same time as him, his will hit you...and thats it. If you have better position or timing, then at best you will trade hits, which favors him anyway, because he does more damage than you.

With all these advantages, it's easy to find yourself in situations where you're damned if you do and damned if you dont. Nonetheless, he is still only a computer--a 1994 computer. And here are some of his weaknesses.

1. One of his pet plays when he's far away from you (more than half-screen) is to jump back, then jump forward while dishing out his twin air fireballs. Anticipate this by moving underneath him and hitting up, or time a fireball or blanka-ball type move while he's in the air firing. You might get hit by one or both projectiles and trade hits, but the damage should be in your favor.

2. If you dodge the fireballs and there's still half-screen or greater distance between you and Akuma when he lands, 50-60% of the time he will fire a red hadouken. The recovery time on this is long, so you can safely jump over and tag him.

3. Again, if there's more than a half-screen distance between you, after he tosses a blue fireball, he will follow it up with a red one.

4. If he closes the distance, he will often jump in on top of you. Counter with your best anti-air move, but do it fast. If he catches you off guard, block!

5. If he walks up to you and you're not sure what he's going to do, block low to avoid getting swept or worse. One of his favorite (and so-cheap-it's-guaranteed-to-have-you-chu­ck-something-at-the-screen) things to do is to just walk up and throw you. Unfortunately, there's very little you can do to prevent that. Best bet is to not let him get too close. Try to get away from him i.e. teleport or backflip or keep him away from you with keep-out tactics (low crouching kicks, long ranged or fast tick type moves). You can also take to the air and use jumping punches/kicks to keep him out but there is a chance he can exploit that.

6. Whenever he teleports, take it as a free chance to nail him. Use a move that busts out quickly, has a large timeframe of attack (like Ryu's standing roundhouse), and does decent damage. If he reappears far from you, sweep him. As if I need to mention - timing is critical here. He will only be vulnerable for a split second as he comes out of the ashura warp. It is even trickier to hit him after he appears right behind you because you have to compensate for the lag of your character changing orientation. Practicing the timing is the only thing you can do.

In general, regardless of who you use, you should play a defensive game against Akuma. Try to maintain at least a half-screen's distance from him at all times and attack in a hit-and-run fashion. Don't throw fireballs at him (unless it's delayless like a sonic boom) from less than half-screen away, unless he's lying on the floor. Also, jumping in at him while he's not preoccupied from a fireball delay is a very bad idea.

• Category

  Gaming

[Kuriku Shot]

And... the ability to do combos, defense breaks, special moves doesn't require skills?

[killerecho]

Not always, all three hits have to land and even then the damage varies.

[Jeguebauer1]

Arcade Emulator?

[BillGAlbrecht]

Nice series. But Akuma did win the fight by virtue of getting the final hit first.

[SuperShadowMario101]

Akuma's grunts actually sound normal!

[M7zaiPI]

What emulator that you use.....

This is one of my favorite games......

[cryptexify]

i disagree. i played super turbo on lvl 3 difficulty (it has 8) and i couldn't get past dee jay (the first fight) because of the pressure he was doing. lk, walk a bit, lk, walk a bit, lk, etc. if i keep blocking, he throws. if i try to dp, he blocks and gets a free combo. if i jump, he anticipates it and hits me before i'm in mid-air. this was nothing like exciting.

these fights weren't exciting.

[Tweeter911]

Eyes glued to my screen for the entire thing. BEST FINISH EVER. This was as exciting as watching EVO finals, intense crazy SF play!