Newsgroups: rec.games.video
From: rich@grebyn.com (Richard Lawrence)
Subject: Complete Chun Li Strategy Guide: SNES SFII
Message-ID: <1993Jan1.091240.23839@grebyn.com>
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 09:12:40 GMT
Lines: 697

This is a long posting. If you are interested, you will want to save it
to a file for viewing ( "s <filename>" in most readers).

The following is my complete strategy guide to playing Chun Li on SNES
SFII. Hope it helps some of you out. Email addresses are at the bottom
if you have comments.


       The Indispensable Chun Li Strategy Guide for the SNES
         or: How To Beat Level 7 Without Having a Hernia

  This guide is the "intellectual property" (yeah, right, there's an 
oxymoron - intellectual video game discussion) of myself. You are free 
to distribute it, copy it, revere it, throw it away, but you can't 
quote it without my permission. 'Course, I would always GIVE the
permission, but that's besides the point.

  Version 1.0 of this guide is being released as of 12/92 upon an 
unsuspecting world, to help out those poor unfortunate souls who are 
having trouble tromping the computer.

Why Chun Li?

  It is my opinion that Chun Li is the strongest champion in the SNES 
version of Street Fighter II. There are several reasons for this. 

  *  Great range on offensive moves - because of her jumping ability,
     particular the "bounce off a wall" move, Chun Li can strike over a
     great range offensively. Ken and Ryu have great offensive attacks,
     but have to use vulnerable special moves to get around quickly.

  *  Extremely fast - helps on both offense and defense, she can block
     quickly when in trouble and turn it into an attack instantly when 
     the opportunity arises.

  *  Easy controls - no "move here, here, and here" for an attack. The
     most difficult move she has is the Whirlwind Kick, and as we'll
     see later, you don't even need that to be deadly.

  Using Chun Li and a Capcom joystick (see next section) I can 
consistently finish the game without loosing a battle. I've come 
*very* close several times to completing an entire game without being 
hit.
  I will be releasing guides for the other characters, but Chun Li is 
my favorite so she gets the lead role.

                          A Word on Joysticks

  If you are playing SFII with the default SNES control pad, you are
a) insane and b) must have little bitty hands. My advice to ANYBODY
looking to get enjoyment out of this game is loose the pad instantly.
There are several full sized joysticks out there. I have looked at the
CH Joystick, the Capcom Fighter Power Stick, and the ASCII products,
and a few others. I decided on the Capcom product, but that doesn't
necessarily mean it is the best for you. It had the layout I wanted,
lots of features, and a good feel. Some may be afraid of its plastic
construction, but believe me, I have tortured mine extensively and
it's holding up well so far.
  The big priority in a SFII joystick is the configuration of the
button repeat functions. The CH stick looses here with no repeat at
all; I recommend you avoid any such stick. You need to be able to 
assign various auto-repeat speeds to individual buttons. Not important
to SFII but important to shooters is the ability to have a button 
continuously fire; the Capcom does all of the above.


                        Description of Moves
  Here is a brief summary of moves described in the manual, and what 
they are good for.

Shoulder Throw: <push towards opponent and hit "L">. Crucial against 
Ken and Ryu. Note that Chun Li does *not* need to be touching the 
character to perform a shoulder throw - she can be a little ways away. 
Shoulder throws also work in mid-air, where they are almost 
indefensible. Not safe to use against E. Honda.

Head Stomp: <push down and any kick key>. This move is important 
because with it you can hit other characters even when they are 
"invincible". Examples: Blanka when he is electric, Bison/Honda when 
in a torpedo, Dhalsim when he is stretching (you can hit any part of a 
stretching Dhalsim with the head stomp and hurt him!). Keep the head 
stomp in mind as your counter to any special attacks that involve the 
opposing character directly. These special attacks generally commit 
the character to a course of action that he must stick with for a few 
seconds. For example, when Blanka turns on electricity, he has no 
control over what happens until he comes out of it. This is the 
perfect opportunity to do a flying leap and come down with a head 
stomp. His electricity will not hurt you, and you'll damage him 
without giving him any chance to block.

Lightning leg: <push any kick key repeatedly - you should let the 
joystick do this for you>. Note that there is a big difference in the 
different lightning legs. The best is the medium ("A" button). The 
Roundhouse lightning leg ("R" button) kicks very high and can be 
countered with a properly timed punch, but it does the most damage and 
has some specialized uses. The light lightning leg is the slowest 
repeating and can actually be countered by waiting for the first hit 
and timing a return punch. Stay away from it; it's useless.

Whirlwind kick: <push down 2 seconds, then up and a kick key>. I 
consider this move almost useless. You gain a second of 
invulnerability when you are inverted, but it's easy to block and wait 
for Chun Li to spin around at the far end of the kick, then throw her 
as she is coming out of it. Also, this move can be difficult to 
perform unless you set it up by "charging". Charging is when you begin 
the movement of an attack when you are still moving from a previous 
attack. For instance, let's say you jump straight up. Immediately 
after hitting up, you can pull down and hold the stick, then when you 
land you can push up and a kick and you will "instantly" launch into a 
whirlwind kick, because you were charging it as you came down from 
your previous jump. Charging is important in the lightning leg kicks, 
but stay away from the Whirlwind unless you want to show off. 

  There are several moves I rely on consistently in my strategies. 
They are described here so you will be familiar with them in the text 
afterwards.

The straight up Roundhouse: Simply push up on the stick and press 
Roundhouse kick ("R" for default configuration). Chun Li will leap 
straight up in the air and do a sort of circular roundhouse. This kick 
has amazing range, both left to right and vertically. Note that you 
can time this kick so the roundhouse starts anywhere from when you 
first jump up to when you are almost touching the ground after coming 
down again. This kick is *very dangerous* to opponents, since it has 
wider range than just about any other kick, and you are more or less 
impervious if you time it correctly.

The pre-charge lightning leg: From a standing position, push diagonal 
up on the stick and Chun Li will do a spinning forward move through 
the air. At the halfway point, press and hold a repeating kick key. 
The kick key can be anything from a roundhouse to a light kick. Chun 
Li will do a kick in mid-air (so if your opponent jumped at the same 
time he will likely be hit) and when she lands will instantly launch 
into a lightning leg. 
   Variant: The head stomp/lightning leg: Push diagonal up to jump, 
then immediately push DOWN on the stick, then push and hold a 
repeating kick key. Chun Li will jump up, go into a head stomp as soon 
as you hit the kick, and upon landing launch into a lightning leg 
right away. The beauty of this attack is that most of the time she 
will end up facing the opponent with the lightning leg, *even if you 
mistimed the kick and jumped over the opponent*. In other words, if 
you land on the wrong side with this kick, most of the time you'll be 
covered anyway! Try it, I'm not kidding. 

The wall bounce: Jump up and diagonally so as to hit the edge of
the screen. While you are in the air, before you actually hit the 
edge, pull the stick up and diagonally in the opposite direction of 
the initial jump. You will hit the edge, and instead of falling 
straight down you'll start a new jump in the opposite direction. You 
can do this even when standing right next to a wall/edge of the 
screen. It's an important move because it's the longest leap you can 
make, giving you a great range of attack when you are near the edge of 
the screen. Use it to get out of trouble if you get cornered. Vega can 
also do this move; watch out for it.


Ok, now that we've got the moves down (practice them on level 0 until 
you are comfortable with them), let's look at the stages/characters. 
The following are loosely organized from easiest to hardest. They are
all based on Level 7 play. The computer will vary it's techniques on
other levels; you're on your own (but they are much easier).


1) Bonus stages: For both the brick pile and the destruction of the car, 
the weapon of choice is the Roundhouse lightning leg. Have the button 
held down when the screen first appears, even before you get the 
"start". This way as soon as the round starts you'll launch into a 
lightning leg that destroys the first section. When you see Chun Li 
start kicking, let go of the key (she'll continue the lightning kick, 
don't worry) and wait for her to finish the kick. For the bricks, just 
do a diagonal forward jump and when in the air, hit and hold the 
roundhouse lightning kick again. You'll get one quick hit from the 
air, then you should land on top of the first level (not the very top) 
of the pile and start pounding away. Just stand there holding the key. 
If you didn't waste any time, you can get 27 seconds out of the bricks.

For the car, after the first section is blown away, jump on top of the 
car, run across it, fall to the ground on the other side and walk up 
close. Then just hold down the roundhouse lightning leg again. You 
should be able to finish the round with 22 seconds to spare.


2) Chun Li vs. Zangief: Zangief is a pushover. Believe it or not, you 
can completely eradicate this sucker with *one move*, the straight up 
Roundhouse. When the round starts, wait for Zangief to walk towards 
you (he will always take the offensive) and jump straight up in the 
air. If he jumps in response, immediately hit the roundhouse key and 
you'll nail him in the air (your range is better than his). If he 
doesn't jump, wait until you are on the downward part of your jump, 
then hit the roundhouse key. Normally you'll kick him in the face with 
this move. You'll have to practice the timing of the downward 
movement, but trust me, you can do play the entire round with perfect 
scores with just this one move. The timing is tricky if he does an 
upward kick as you are coming down, though.

When you land, just repeat the above process again. You might have to 
wait for him to walk towards you a little bit so he'll be in range for 
the kick.

Just about the only thing Zangief can do about this is block as you do 
the roundhouse. If this happens, either jump straight up again 
immediately and repeat the roundhouse (eventually he will miss a 
block), or land, pull down and hit roundhouse. You'll kick sideways 
with both legs, balanced on a hand, and usually this happens too fast 
for him to move from his previous block to the new position. After you 
hit him once with this, go back to the straight up and down jumps with 
the roundhouse in the air.

Against Human Zangief's: You'll still tear this guy apart, even if a 
really good human player is in control of Zangief. Keep in mind that 
your straight up roundhouse kick has better range than his spinning 
clothesline, which you'll find human opponents rely on a lot. Your 
only fear is mistiming the straight up roundhouse: if you don't get 
the kick in, you'll land on your feet directly in front of him, and 
that's bad news. Never tangle with Zangief in close range, even if 
you're not going to use my tactic (it's a tick, and other players 
might insist that you not use it). If you make an agreement not to use 
the straight up roundhouse, use your jumping ability to jump in, hit, 
and jump out, and if he backs you up bounce off a wall to keep from 
being cornered.


3) Chun Li vs. Ryu: Yeah, that's right, as a computer opponent I 
consider Ryu totally worthless. Let me give you a template to beat 
level 7 Ryu every time:

  a) Before the round even begins, have your stick pointed towards Ryu 
so you'll be walking towards him. As the round starts, take one or two 
steps and then press "L" for a shoulder throw. *Computer Ryu starts 
99.9% of the rounds by walking towards you, and will subsequently fall 
for this throw every time*.

  b) After the shoulder throw, do a pre-charge lightning leg towards 
Ryu (jump up and diagonally towards him, hold down the Roundhouse 
button as you jump). You'll land and promptly start pounding him, as 
soon as he stands up from the throw. Even if he blocks you'll be 
hurting him. As the kicks hit him, he will move slowly farther away 
from you. Let go of the kick key after the first two hits, and wait 
for the lightning leg to expire. 

  c) if you've followed the above, Ryu will be up against the far 
right wall right now. You have two choices. You can repeat step (b) 
above, but if you do, you'll loose the chance for a perfect round, 
because as you land with the lightning kick revved Ryu will strong 
punch and hit you, although you will hit him after that. The other 
choice is to jump towards him, and immediately pull down and hold a 
repeating kick key. You'll head stomp him 1-2 times, then bounce off 
the wall and backwards.

Here's a generalization: after being hit with a repeat attack such as 
the lighting leg, 95% of the time the first thing that any character 
with a distance weapon (Ken, Ryu, Dhalsim, Guile) will do is fire that 
weapon. In the above scenario, this would happen between (b) and (c), 
but as Ryu is throwing his fireball, you'll be leaping through the air 
and preparing a head stomp. This same tactic works well for all of 
these characters, but especially Dhalsim. The key is, after a 
successful lightning leg, jump TOWARDS the opponent to avoid his 
subsequent distance attack, and have an offensive move prepared.

If you've followed the above scenario, then after the head stomp in 
step (c) Ryu is probably heavily damaged and you are a little ways 
from him on the left after bouncing off the wall. He will almost 
certainly fire a fireball. Just jump straight up in the air, and watch 
it go by. Repeat as necessary. _Eventually_ he will tire of this and 
come walking towards you again. When this happens, just repeat from 
step (a). You'll kill him with the first throw or so.

Human Ryu's: Any human player worth a damn is only going to fall for 
the opening shoulder throw once or twice, and after that he'll vary 
his opening attack. In this scenario, start the round by moving AWAY 
from Ryu. If he fireballs, try to jump straight up, but don't worry 
about if you can't, just let the block happen. Then look to the 
section below for responses to typical Ryu/Ken attacks.

Response to the Hurricane Kick: If Ken or Ryu goes into a Hurricane 
kick, if you are close (1 body width) from it, go into a block right 
away. Let it hit you a couple of times, then as he is settling to the 
ground, push forward and hit "L" to shoulder throw him. Note: the 
computer opponent will follow a hurricane kick with a Dragon Punch. 
Keep the block through the Dragon Punch, then catch him on the way 
down from the punch with a throw. *After a throw you should always go 
on the offensive*. Do a pre-charge lightning leg kick after a throw.

If you are a few steps away when Ken/Ryu starts the Hurricane kick, 
wait until he is about 1 body width away and then hit "L" for a fierce 
punch. It's kind of funny actually, but Chun Li's hand in this 
configuration ends up in a very delicate location on Ken or Ryu, and 
there's no defense for them once they are committed to the Hurricane. 
Try it yourself. The best range on this is achieved if you push the
stick towards the opponent right as you hit "L".

Response to the Dragon Punch: See above. Block backwards, but stay in 
the area. Wait for him to start to come down, then push forwards and 
"L" to throw him. Go on the offensive from there. Computer Ken/Ryu's
will almost always do more than one Dragon Punch in a row. It takes a 
*long* time for them to recover from a Dragon Punch. If you are less 
than three body widths away when they do a Dragon Punch, you will have 
time to walk up, wait for him to start coming down, and Shoulder Throw.

Response to the Fireball: Simple, either jump straight up (preferred) 
or block. The dangerous ones are the slow fireballs. Crafty human 
opponents will try to lure you into jumping straight up with a slow 
fireball, then walk towards you while you are in the air. If this 
happens, try to roundhouse right before you touch down again. It gets 
them every time. To make the timing on this less crucial, stay AWAY 
from a human Ken or Ryu on the screen. Remember to back out of being 
cornered by using the bounce off the wall trick.

Response to a jumping Ryu/Ken: A favorite trick of the computer is to 
have Ryu/Ken jump around, and a lot of human players do this too. If 
the computer player is jumping back and forth, just ignore it - 
eventually he will fire a fireball instead of jumping. If he starts 
jumping towards you (or a human player does), watch the distance that 
he jumps. Place yourself at the position you think he will land with 
his next jump. When he is about halfway through this jump, do a 
standing roundhouse (just hit the "R" key). Your standing roundhouse 
has longer range than the flying roundhouse that Ken or Ryu is 
probably attempting. You'll hit him as he's coming down and bounce him 
backwards.

Special note: it is dangerous to try to jump diagonally away from Ken 
or Ryu, because their fireballs travel at about the same speed as your 
jump, and you may come down right in the middle of one. Jump straight 
up and down when needed. You *can* do the diagonal jump, but it 
requires precise timing. Don't tackle it until you are comfortable 
with beating these guys.


4) Chun Li vs. Ken: First, read the above section, especially the 
responses to attacks. Keep in mind that Ken and Ryu are *the same 
character*. The only difference between playing the two of them on 
level 7 SNES is the opening - Ryu will always start by moving towards 
you (making him easy to throw). 

The best opening move against Ken is defensive; start by backing away 
from him. It's very likely that he will launch into a Hurricane Kick. 
Let it come, keep the block by pulling away. He will follow the 
Hurricane with a Dragon Punch. Again, let it happen, but after he 
starts to come down, push forward and hit "L" to throw him. You've 
just performed step (a) from the Ryu text - just follow that template 
and you'll be all right. 

Ken is more fond of the Hurricane kick than Ryu, and also jumps more. 
Read the "Responses to xxx" section in Ryu above - all of the 
responses are the same for either Ken or Ryu.

If you want to gamble against the computer, open the round with a 
fierce punch. If Ken is doing a Hurricane Kick you'll nail him. Most 
of the time otherwise he'll be jumping away and there will be no 
effect, but there's the chance that he will throw a fireball, in which 
case you will be nailed yourself.


5) Chun Li vs. Dhalsim: The template for Dhalsim is very close to what 
you do for Ryu/Ken, except for the opening - here goes:

   a) First move of the round should be a diagonal jump towards 
Dhalsim. After you've started this, Dhalsim will do one of several 
things - he'll Yoga Fire, he'll jump straight up, or he'll do a 
stretch attack. Any way you slice it, the attack of choice is to hit 
the "A" button after you start the jump and hold it. You'll either 
hit him in the air if he jumps straight up, or you'll hit him as you 
come down in the other cases. Then you'll launch into a lightning leg 
that will throw him backwards.

   b) after you throw him backwards from the attack in (a), basically 
repeat the same move, jump diagonally up and towards him, come down 
with a lightning leg revved. You can use the roundhouse if you want, 
Dhalsim doesn't seem able to counter it as others can. 

   c) after step (b), Dhalsim will be up against a wall (the right 
one). It is usually safe to just keep performing step (b), but there's 
a chance he'll counter it. If you are after a perfect round, diagonal 
jump towards him (quickly, after he comes out from under your 
lightning leg) and head stomp him, then bounce off the wall. After 
that, you can go defensive for the round and wait for him to come to 
you. I usually prefer just finishing him off in the beginning, though.


6) Chun Li vs. E. Honda: Honda is not really THAT hard, he's just got 
a few special considerations compared to the other players.

The basic template for Honda is to just flying leap towards him and 
rev a lightning kick as you come in. Just like you would against other 
characters. As with the other characters, this attack is less 
effective when Honda is backed up against a wall - jump in and head 
stomp him, then jump away. Keep the following in mind. 

  a) Always use a regular lightning leg against Honda (the "A" key). 
He has the timing to counter both others.

  b) if Honda blocks while you are in the air (he will cross his hands 
in front of his face), IMMEDIATELY let go of the lightning leg key and 
pull the stick diagonally backwards from him. When you land, you will 
still do a short lightning leg attack (from the previous revving). 
After this kick finishes, Honda will jump towards you. If you followed 
my instructions the timing will be perfect to jump right out from 
underneath him, *keep the stick held diagonally backwards from him*. 
You'll want to jump away from him to get some maneuvering room.

  c) If Honda is doing a Hundred Hand Slap, you have to be just 
outside the range of his hand when you jump in and lightning leg him. 
This is a safe attack when properly executed (you won't get hit) but 
if you are two far away when you jump in, you'll land in the range of 
his hands rather then in his body, and the hands will hit you.

  d) Unless you are *sure* that Honda has just been stunned, DO NOT
ATTEMPT to Shoulder Throw him. He is unbelievably fast with the Bear 
Hug. If you get caught in a bear hug, start pounding all the buttons 
and swirling the joystick around (basically, spaz out). This will 
break you out of it faster.

  e) If he torpedoes (Head Butt), jump straight up and come down with a 
head stomp. Nails him every time.

  f) Again, never stand close to Honda. He will start the Hand Slap 
and pound you. Jump in with a lightning leg revved and jump out. That 
basic sequence will beat him 90% of the time with nothing else.

Human players with Honda are usually much easier to beat than the 
computer. Keep in mind that you have much faster jumping, your head 
stomp is great against him, and your airborne Roundhouse has good 
range against him. Most of the stuff above will work fine against a 
human opponent.


7) Chun Li vs. Guile: Guile has some tricks up his sleeve, but they 
can all be countered. Here's a basic template.

  a) First move of the round should be a straight up jump. Guile will 
either start walking towards you, Sonic Boom, or walk backwards. MOST 
of the time he will walk towards you, and then crouch down a few steps 
away. It may not look like it, but he is in range of your air 
Roundhouse kick when he is crouched down. You have to wait until you 
are almost touching the ground again, then hit "R". You will kick him 
in the head, sending him flying backwards.

  b) immediately jump diagonally towards him. Rev the lightning leg in
the air as you come down (you can use Roundhouse lightning legs 
against Guile). You'll come down and start pounding him...release the 
leg and wait for it to expire.

  c) Like Dhalsim, Guile will always follow a lightning leg attack
with a Sonic Boom to counter. The best thing to do to jump *straight 
up*. It's very dangerous to jump towards Guile when he Sonic Bombs, 
unlike Dhalsim/Ken/Ryu with their fireballs. The reason is that he 
will do an immediate flash kick and nail you.

General guidelines: If you can't finish him off with the opening 
template, move out into the open, but not up against the wall. Wait 
for Guile to approach you and jump straight up. If he kneels, start 
with (a) above. Avoid Booms by jumping straight up and down.

Sometimes Guile has a weird little sequence he follows when Chun Li 
jumps straight up. He'll stand just outside the range of the 
roundhouse you let loose. After you land, he'll pause a second and 
throw a fierce punch. The trick to this is to hesitate a second after 
landing, then jump straight up again and roundhouse. The sequence is a 
little tricky, but luckily you won't get damaged much even if he 
connects with his fierce.

Do *not* jump diagonally in against Guile unless he has just been 
kicked in the head or thrown back. The computer can instantly unleash 
a Flash Kick and nail you hard. There is nothing practical you can do 
against a Flash kick except avoid it. Like the Dragon Punch, it takes 
a little time for him to recover after using it, and you can use the 
opportunity to throw him.

Against Human Guile's: Guile matches up well with Chun Li, so a good 
Guile player can give you a hard time. Keep in mind that your airborne 
Roundhouse kick has a greater range than his, and your straight up in 
the air Roundhouse can be timed to extend farther than any of his 
punches. Counter Flash Kicks by leaping away if close. If you're far 
away and he Flash Kicks, try to leap towards him, catch him coming 
down and do an Air Shoulder Throw (push towards him and hit "L"). This 
does a lot of damage.

Guile's sweep has a better range than yours, so don't go toe to toe. 
Instead, leap straight up as he approaches and roundhouse. 


8) Chun Li vs. Blanka: Now, Blanka can be a problem. He's fast, he has
STRONG offensive moves, and the computer plays him pretty well. Still,
it's possible to master the moves to beat him consistently.

  Your basic pre-charge lightning kick is still an important move. In
fact, open the round with it - when you hear "Fight!", jump diagonally
towards Blanka, and come down with the lightning leg firing. I usually
use the normal, but you can also use Roundhouse. It's possible that
Blanka will jump up or towards you as his first move. If he goes up,
you should be able to hit him with your kick. If he jump towards you,
you'll have to react VERY quickly and switch to an air Shoulder Throw,
otherwise you'll be hit.

  Assuming you got him with the initial lightning leg, jump in and
pound him with another, then jump in and head stomp. At that point you
will bounce off the wall (after having head stomped him) and away.
It's more important than usual to stay clear of Blanka. He has very
good range on all of his close in attacks, more than just about
anything Chun Li has except the fierce punch/lunge.

  The preceding sequence should have him pretty damaged, but unlike
most of the other characters, Blanka is very erratic in actions from
this point on. If he starts jumping towards you, jump away, wait for
his next jump, and time a jump towards him to hit him as he is coming
*down* (you're reasonably safe with this move). Otherwise, move in
and attempt a pre-charge lightning leg again. Here's some things to
look out for:

  a) If he starts jumping straight up and down, Blanka is thinking
about a Rolling Attack. Chun Li's Head Stomp works against the Rolling
Attack, but it's hard to time it as the Rolling Attack is so much
faster than other character's moves. It's safest to just jump straight
up and avoid it, or block if you have to. Remember that if you can
punch or kick Blanka when he's in a Rolling Attack you will do more
than normal damage. If you see him suddenly crouch down when he's far
away from you, he's definitely about to unleash a rolling attack.

  b) Blanka is hard to stun, and doesn't stay that way long when you
do manage it. Don't trust a stun against him, and that means be careful
with attempts at a Shoulder Throw.

  c) Blanka is the only character that I recommend you stay away from
the straight up Roundhouse. He's got too many attacks that can counter
it.

  d) Never, ever try a Whirlwind Kick against Blanka. I don't use the
Whirlwind anyway, but Blanka will invariably time a Rolling Attack just
right when you try the Whirlwind to pound you.


8) Chun Li vs. Balrog: Balrog can do massive damage, but as an opponent
he's a moron. Basically, treat Balrog the same as Zangief, that is, he
is very susceptible to the straight up Roundhouse. Here's a typical
sequence:

   a) Start the round by jumping straight up. Balrog may rush in or
walk in trying to punch you. Either way he'll be in range as you come
down from the straight up jump, that's when to release your airborne
Roundhouse. You'll hit him in the head and he'll fly backwards.

  c) After hitting Balrog with a Roundhouse is the ONLY time it is
safe to do a flying jump into him with the lightning leg. Do so now,
use Roundhouse as the Lightning Leg. He will probably crouch down and
block.

  d) Immediately after coming out of the lightning leg Balrog will
jump diagonally towards you. Jump straight up and Roundhouse to hit
him as he comes in.

You can beat Balrog entirely by just standing in one place and doing
straight up Roundhouses, just like Zangief. The key is to jump up
when he is farther away than you are used to, because he will probably
rush in the last few steps, and you don't want to be on the ground
when that happens. Even if he is walking he will make it into range,
barely. Just takes a little practice to get the jump point right.

It's obvious that you shouldn't get backed into a corner with Balrog.
As with all the end bosses, if you let yourself get up against a wall,
you may never even have a chance to jump out before you are dead.


9) Chun Li vs. Vega: Vega requires the most precise timing of any
character to counter, but after you learn this timing you will beat
him very consistently. It's easy to get frustrated with him and think
that he's impossible to beat (I did, at first), but stay with it.

General guideline: When leaping away from Vega (you will do a lot of
this) ALWAYS combine the backwards leap with a standard kick.

General guideline #2: If you are staying on the ground, you are doing
something wrong. Start jumping, it's the only way to beat Vega.

  a) Vega starts every round (at least on level 7) with a leap away
from you. Just stand there. He'll start walking towards you after the
leap. Note that Vega is a pain to play because his move set as far as
jumps, etc. is basically the same as yours. Here's the tricky part: as
Vega is coming towards you, you want to wait until he is JUST close
enough that you would hit him with a forward leap/regular kick combo.
However, most of the time when you try this he will leap away quickly
enough that you won't hit him. I usually leap backwards if my first
attempt was unsuccessful - Vega will probably leap forwards directly
after he lands, so you want to be going backwards. Wait for another
opportunity to try again.

  c) If you hit Vega with the above leap, do NOT lightning leg him.
In fact, never Lightning leg him on just one kick. Instead, leap
towards him a second time and try another flying standard kick. If
you hit him again and he falls backwards, then you can try the
lightning leg, but be aware that you will simply have to learn when
you can and cannot use the lightning leg against Vega. You might
want to just stick with leaping back and forth at first.

  d) This is a little weird, but something to try if you can't get
the timing right on step (a) and you're just jumping back and forth
is to get hit once. Vega's behavior changes after he has either been
hit or hit you. He will start bouncing off the edge of the screen
when this has happened (just like Chun Li can) and this is a weak
point for him. When Vega jumps backwards towards the edge of the
screen, do NOT jump after him - if you do you'll be hit. Rather, wait
for him to hit the edge, and start his bounce back towards you. If you
wait until just after this bounce back towards you has started, you
will be able to jump diagonally towards him, hit a standard kick, and
hit him as he comes down.

  e) If Vega starts climbing the cage, walk to whichever side of him
has more maneuvering room, stop about 1 1/2 body width away from him
on that side, and wait. You should be prepared to a diagonal jump
away from wherever Vega is when he is on the wall. As soon as he jumps
off the wall, jump diagonally up and away from him, simultaneously
hitting a standard kick. You'll hit him as he comes down. He often
does several wall-climb attacks in a row, so be prepared for another.

  f) If you get Vega in a lightning leg, it's safest to just assume
you should jump diagonally away as soon as it is completed. Let go of
the kick button immediately after starting the lightning leg, and pull
diagonally back on the stick. You'll finish the kick and then jump
away. Vega has a variety of nasty counters after he comes out from
under a lightning leg.


10) Chun Li vs. M. Bison: The first thing to know is that the computer
basically cheats like hell when playing Bison. Don't get frustrated
about it. Bison is the only character left that despite a solid
understanding of how to beat him, can still kill me with a fair
consistency. On the other hand, I've gone double perfect rounds on
him innumerable times, so he's not invincible.

Bison is unpredictable. The only given move for ever round with him
is the very first one: you should jump straight up in the air. If he
does one of his "jump halfway across the screen" leaps at you, hit
Roundhouse. Otherwise, wait until you are coming down, he will be
walking towards you. Do a last second Roundhouse before you land to
hit him in the head.

The rest of these moves are basically reactions to various things Bison
will attempt.

  a) Against the Flaming Torpedo: Jump straight up and come down with
a head stomp. Unfortunately, the computer will bring Bison out of
almost all his Torpedoes _already_ blocking, so he'll probably block it.
It beats getting hit with it, though. You'll have better success
actually hitting him with the stomp if you try to time it so you will
hit him just as he starts coming underneath you, rather than in the
middle of his body.

  b) STAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN. If you get close to the wall,
you are toast. Once you allow Bison the beginning of a strong
combination attack, it's basically over.

  c) The air is your friend again. Do a lot of jumping. Bison is also
susceptible to the straight up Roundhouse kick, but be aware that he
will block a good number of them. You have to keep jumping straight up
again and Roundhousing in the hopes you'll catch him out of a block.
One thing that works to your advantage is that he will try a power
punch sooner or later. If you see his hand turn electric while you are
in the air, your Roundhouse *will* hit him. You should anticipate this
and as soon as you hit the kick, be leaping towards him with another
Roundhouse, which will also hit. Then decide whether to get in another
kick (lightning leg is possible) or just jump away to the middle of the
screen again.

  d) You can beat those flying kicks that Bison does by jumping straight
up and Roundhousing. As usual, you have better range than most of his
stuff.

  e) If you catch Bison in a lightning leg, let if fly and let go of
the kick button. He will probably block it successfully, but as usual
he will be knocked backwards as he blocks. He'll end up a little ways
away from you after you come out of the leg. Almost always his
response will be to leap in towards you with a flying kick. The response
is to jump straight up and Roundhouse (as above), but in the special
case of him recovering from a lightning leg, wait about a half second
before you jump straight up. Otherwise you'll miss him with the kick, and
he'll hit you.


Well, that's about it, folks. I'll be writing the other characters up
later. I may revise this document as well; send in your suggestions and
comments to the email addresses below. Have fun playing. If you are new
player to the game, don't expect it all to come at once. I guarantee you
that all of the strategies here will work, but you may need to get
comfortable with controlling Chun Li first. Also, don't expect to walk
into an arcade and be a champion. The timing is entirely different, and
the computer opponents are smarter.

Contact me:

Internet: rich@grebyn.com  rlawrenc@synoptics.com
CI$: 71101,2272
GEnie: R.LAWRENCE14

-- 
Rich Lawrence, Synoptics Systems Engineer  DOD#9630  rich@grebyn.com
     '92 Seca II "Yuri"  CI$:71101,2272  GEnie:R.LAWRENCE14
   215 years ago my government gave me certain inalienable rights.
     Since then, they've been trying to correct their mistake.


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