Street Fighter HD Remix: Dee Jay

In the early years of Super Street Fighter 2 Turobo (ST),  most people rated Dee Jay bottom tier, or close to that. Over the years though, both the US and Japanese players discovered that Dee Jay wasn't so bad after all, and that he's perhaps around the middle of the pack. His cross-up medium kick is deadly. His ducking medium kick has extremely high priority and it knocks down. His "max out" projectile is solid, his slide is useful, and his up kicks are decent at anti-air and are pretty damaging.

Only two moves are different for HD Remix Dee Jay: his machine gun upper (charge down, up + punch, then mash punches) and his dread kicks (charge back, forward + kick).

Machine Gun Upper

In ST, this move requires a very precise timing of mashing punches to get all the hits: fast, but not too fast or it won’t work! Two or possibly three people in the United States can actually do this, so I figured it was time to bring machine gun uppers to the people. Now it’s very easy to mash out all the hits on this.

To compensate, the machine gun upper does much less dizzy and damage overall. Cross-up medium kick, low jab x 2, MGU is an easy, good combo though. It does a bit less damage than the slightly harder crossup medium kick, low jab x 2, stand strong, dread kicks combo.

The machine gun upper has a new property, too: it can destroy fireballs! Dee Jay’s best matches are against characters without fireballs, so this is a clever way to help him in matches where he needs help, but not affect matches where he’s already good. Some things you should know about this are that startup of the move cannot destroy fireballs (only the parts that can actually hit) and that every single hit of the move can destroy fireballs.

Most importantly though, you can charge down/back, then go to up/back + punch to perform the MGU while still retaining your charge for a max out projectile. That means when the opponent throws a fireball, you can cancel it with the MGU, then throw back your own projectile faster than you otherwise could have. On paper, this sounds strong, but in practice it’s actually quite a bit of work Dee Jay’s part to eke out a small advantage.

Also, it matters a lot which part of the MGU destroys the fireball. If you see the fireball coming, then destroy it with the MGU, you’re still going to have to go through with the rest of the MGU before you can throw your own max out. It’s a lot more effective if you guess the fireball and do your MGU early so that the very end of it destroys the fireball. That way, you can throw your max out immediately after. But if you’re doing the MGU that early, the opponent can counter by doing nothing or jumping in or throwing a delayed fireball. It’s an interesting guessing game, but during playtest, it was never really dominating.

Dread Kicks

In ST, the time between the two hits of this move is so big that even if you hit with the first hit, the second one hardly ever connects. You can even get dragon punched between these two kicks. In HD Remix, the second kick comes out faster so that it almost always combos. To compensate, each hit does less damage. You can think of it somewhat like Bison’s scissor kick in that it’s a pressure move that does two ticks of block damage.

In ST, the short version of the dread kicks (which hits only once) can go over low attacks. In HD Remix, the medium and roundhouse dread kicks have this same property. This is probably Dee Jay’s biggest upgrade as it makes it pretty scary to try to sweep him or slide at him. Dee Jay already had good pokes, so adding an anti-sweep move is nothing to scoff at. Note to the curious: the medium and roundhouse Dread Kicks do not go over Sagat’s low fireballs, sorry.

Conclusion

Dee Jay gained a few tricks, but stayed close to his roots. For 14 years, he was secretly a very solid character and these upgrades should keep him secretly solid in HD Remix.

--Sirlin

Street Fighter HD Remix: Cammy

Cammy is considered one of the five worst characters in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (ST) along with Zangief, Blanka, Fei Long, and T.Hawk. It only took a few changes in SF HD Remix to give her a big boost.

Control Motions

Cammy’s hooligan throw motion is one of the most frustrating commands in ST. Not only does it end in up/forward which results in accidental jumping sometimes, but it also closely overlaps the spinning backfist command.

New Commands:

• Hooligan Throw: quarter circle forward + punch
• Spinning Backfist: quarter circle back + punch

After you do the command for hooligan throw, remember to hold a direction on the joystick and press kick when you’re close to the opponent (and still in the air) to actually throw them.

Just the ability to do Cammy’s hooligan throw reliably makes her easier to win with. It’s a really good move (though most characters can just jab her out of it). Cancelling low forward into Hooligan Throw is now easy and pretty effective. You can catch beginners all day with this throw, and it’s still very effective against experts when you hooligan throw just as they commit to doing a move. Use your good low medium kick to poke and when the opponent pokes back, do your hooligan throw.

Spinning Backfist

Here’s some trivia about the spinning backfist. The very first change I made in all of SF HD Remix was allowing Cammy’s spinning backfist to go through fireballs. All three versions can now do this and she even has lower body invulnerability during this, but her head is completely vulnerable the whole time, so you can smack her with high moves if you know she is going to spinning backfist. Her regular full body vulnerability returns, of course, by the time she lands from her hop.

The spinning backfist now has a much bigger hitbox on the second hit. After several experiments, this was the most effective way to make sure that the move no longer failed to get the built-in two hits. If you hit the opponent with the first hit of this move, it’s now extremely likely that the second hit will also hit and knock down.

If you’re blocking fireballs at full screen and you try to spinning backfist through them, a good Ryu will probably hit you out of it on reaction. What’ more effective though, is when you predict that a fireball is coming and your backfist a little early. In this case, you’ll be safe and often hit Ryu’s hands and knock him down. Another good use of this move is when you’re rushing the opponent down with cannon drills (see below), you can mix in the occasional hooligan throw or jab spinning backfist, using the lower body invulnerability to your advantage.

Cannon Drill

Cammy’s biggest change is that her cannon drills are now much more safe on block. (Trivia: this is the second change I attempted to make in the game, only weeks later did I finally figure out how to do this one.) In ST, cannon drills could be safe on block only from a very particular distance. Now there is much more leeway so with a little knowledge of ranges and which strength to use, you can make this move safe on block every time. Note that as before, it’s very vulnerable at the top so jumping straight up and attacking as you come down is a counter.

The safe cannon drill lets Cammy really put the pressure on. From the right range, she can do pressure strings such as cannon drill, cannon drill, low forward (for spacing), cannon drill, low short, low forward, cannon drill, cannon drill, etc. And as soon as they hesitate, Hooligan Throw.

Former Evolution world champion Tokido said that Cammy worried him the most of any character. “Too easy” he said. When I asked what he suggested I do, he thought for a while and then said that increasing recovery on cannon drill would make her terrible again, so “maybe it’s ok to have an easy character after all.” A closer look at the move shows that you can actually dragon punch it during several points in that pressure sequence, but it is admittedly hard to hit otherwise. As a result, I lowered the priority in the front of the short version of the cannon drill. The short version is the one you can do repeatedly because after you do it, you’re in a pretty good position to do it again. If you commit to doing just this move, the opponent should now be able to hit you out with the right move.

Cannon Spike: Safe Attack into Safe Attack?

Cammy stayed in the state I described above for a long time. There has been no question that she’s good, it’s just been a question of whether she’s second tier or has creeped into the top. After playing her quite a bit, two things started to bother me, and they both had the same solution. One is that she’s just incredibly good against Zangief and T.Hawk. She can cannon spike anytime she’s within range and force them to block or get hit by her invulnerable move, then she’s completely safe afterwards. It’s abusive, and she doesn’t even need that against them considering her low forward alone is very good against them.

The other problem is that she started to feel a lot like ST Balrog in that she can keep up the pressure (in her case with safe-on-block cannon drills), then do a safe-on-block, invulnerable cannon spike at any time. That is the exact same sequence that was deemed “too good” for Balrog, but now she had it. (In ST, Balrog can do safe low rush punches, then immediately follow with an invulnerable, safe-on-block buffalo headbutt).
I felt uncomfortable with this, so now the cannon spike is not completely safe on block. It still bounces her back, but if she does it from too close, T.Hawk is able to counter with an immediate stand roundhouse and Zangief is able to counter with low roundhouse. She can still currently get away with a safe Cannon Spike when she does it from a bit farther though, so we’ll have to keep an eye on this.

Jumping Strong Punch

Cammy was very good against Dhalsim in ST because of one move: jump strong. Dhalsim really had no answer to this move at all. What was a bad match before became a horrendous match in HD Remix. To address this I reduced the size of her hitbox on jumping strong (only towards/away, the straight up version remains the same). The change is microscopic. I think the impact on the game in general is negligible except that tiny change allows Dhalsim's slide to hit her jump strong (well not the jump straight up version, but the jumping toward/away versions). This makes that match a lot closer to even, especially considering Cammy upgrades like spinning backfist going through fireballs.

Conclusion

The invulnerable, always-safe-on-block cannon spike was nice with Cammy, but she’s a more versatile, fair character having a safe-on-block cannon drill instead. I think it’s a fair trade, and she’s still a strong character. The cannon spike is still often safe, so she didn’t even trade that much away. Cammy can now go toe-to-toe in previously very difficult matches against Ken, Ryu, and Sagat (spinning backfist!) and her easier hooligan throw and safe cannon drill allow her to pressure and deal good block damage to the non-fireball characters, too.

–Sirlin

Street Fighter HD Remix: Dhalsim

Dhalsim is squarely in the top tier of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (ST) and he’s pretty universally accepted as one of the top 2 characters in that game, along with Balrog (the boxer).

He can keep away, he can go on offense, and he’s got an answer for pretty much everything. On top of all that, he’s also pretty good at keeping some characters in a throw loop of repeated noogies. His throw range is so long that he can hit some characters just outside of their throw range, then noogie them. Considering all the things Dhalsim is great at, he doesn’t need this throw abuse to win.

Shorter Range Noogie

Dhalsim’s noogie (his hold with the medium punch button) now has shorter range. He can still attempt a throw trap, but only from close enough that the opponent can reverse it. The range on his fierce throw is unchanged (still far!) so he can still “cheap” into a fierce throw. Remember that the fierce throw tosses the opponent away so that Dhalsim cannot repeat the trap very easily.

New Control Motions

Dhalsim’s yoga fire was--and still is--qcf+p. The yoga flame command is a bit too similar in ST, though. The half-circle-forward sometimes comes out accidentally if you’re not careful when trying to yoga fire. To correct this, later Street Fighter games changed the command to half-circle-back + punch. To be consistent, that means the upward yoga flame is half-circle-back + kick, and the super is hcb x 2 + punch.

To encourage people to actually try to use the upward yoga flame, I set the motion to qcb+k, and it really did feel much better. But then I painted myself into a corner. Shouldn’t yoga flame be qcb+p and the super be qcb x 2 + p, to be consistent? It borders on violating the scared to make yoga flame not a half circle, but that upward yoga flame sure feels good on qcb…and qcb+p feels pretty good for the regular yoga flame. It’s tough weighing the history of the series with what’s practical today, but I chose to shorten both versions of yoga flame to the qcb command.

I tried the super with a qcb x 2 + p command also, but the shorter time to perform the motion gave Dhalsim too good of a damaging anti-air attack. It’s now half-circle-back x 2 + punch.

The teleport was always a really frustrating move to do. It required you either do a dragon punch or reverse dragon punch motion, then press 3 kick or 3 punch buttons. We lessened the requirement to just 2 kick or 2 punch buttons (though you can press all 3 if you like) and the timing window on the dragon punch command is more lenient and not random. That teleport only had 3 frames of recovery in the original game, but no one noticed how good it was because it was just too hard to perform. Now that it’s easier, it has 9 frames recovery. It’s not longer, but more frames at the end are vulnerable. It’s still a nice escape though.

Command Summary:

• Yoga Fire: qcf+p
• Yoga Flame: qcb+p
• Upward Yoga Flame: qcb+k
• Teleport: Dragon Punch or reverse Dragon Punch + pp or kkSuper: hcb x 2 + p

Super

Dhalsim’s super does a LOT of damage in ST. About 60% of a lifebar. I reduced the damage to around 50%, to go along with Balrog’s reduction (also to about 50%) and Chun Li’s reduction.

My point is that while Dhalsim’s super does a bit less damage, it’s not a nerf to him specifically, just a general attempt to get supers down to 50%, which is still a whole lot of damage.

Dhalsim’s super is also ridiculously invulnerable in ST. Even if you jump over the flame part, you can’t hit his head, and even if you jump behind him, you can’t throw him during most of the super. Both of those have changed. If you get on the other side of him, you can throw him, and if you manage to get over that huge super flame, you can kick him in the head. Also the amount of super meter he gains from doing both types of yoga flames is slightly reduced.

Finally, Dhalsim’s super can now be done as a reversal attack, fixing a bug from ST.

New Upflame

I have played the Dhalsim vs. Vega match (as Vega) in many, many tournaments, usually versus two-time US National Champion Jason Cole. It is my theory that Vega wins “most of this match,” but that he loses very badly to a throw loop. Cole has proven in many tournaments that he can reliably kill me with just that, even though I do just fine during the “actual fighting” part of the match. Incidentally, I was the only player to defeat Japanese player Gian in a tournament match at Evolution 2005 (he won the singles ST tournament), and I used Vega vs. his Dhalsim. He should have done more noogies.

Even though Vega just might have one of his repeatable abuses toned down, I worry that Dhalsim will suffer a lot in this particular match without his abusive noogie trap. To help him out a little, the upward yoga flame now actually detaches and travels diagonally upward. The short version is almost the same as ST, but the roundhouse version’s flame travels really high up. I know it sounds wonky, but it actually looks really natural (which I chalk up to luck!) Hopefully this will help Dhalsim hit those pesky off-the-wall Vegas.

So where does this leave us? Easier control motions (including easier teleport), but toned down noogie throw trap. Toned down super, but new bigger upflame to help in one of his problem matches. Though Dhalsim has more competition than ever, he’s still a solid character able to keep out, go on offense, and even still go for some cheap throws…just not repeated, nearly irreversible ones.

--Sirlin

Street Fighter HD Remix: Chun Li

Chun Li is notable in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (ST) for how few bad matches she has. She doesn’t really dominate her opponents, but she doesn’t get dominated either. Old Sagat is usually seen as her hardest match, but expert Chun Lis learned how to get by even in that match. The lack of bad matches is why Chun Li is usually ranked near the top of the 2nd tier, or even in the top tier by a few players.

Early in development, many players considered Chun Li the benchmark character and hoped that other characters could be as well-rounded and solid as her. The first version of HD Remix Chun Li had exactly one change, which was the complete change-list suggested by US Chun Li player NKI:

• Remove d/f + medium kick backflip move.

That move has no useful purpose and usually just gets you killed. Sure it could be improved, but the natural improvement would be make it travel farther away, which would just make her better at running away. By removing it, Chun Li players can now do low forward at will without worrying about this move coming out.

Players Wanted More

My one-change Chun Li did not go over very well. All these other characters got interesting toys, why does Chun Li get nothing, players said. Also, Chun Li has some kind of mindless abuseable stuff, why should she keep that if other characters don’t? Couldn't we give her an interesting new tool while taking out some of her mindless stuff? Good points.

Lighting Legs

The next change was to make her lightning legs easier to do, in an effort to make all mashing-moves easier to do. Low forward -> lighting Legs, for example, is very easy now and stand fierce -> lighting legs is practical. This made her stand fierce so deadly that I really had to reduce the damage and dizzy from the lighting legs. The priority of the lighting legs (the best priority move in the entire game that is not invulnerable) is also barely, barely worse so that maybe Balrog or Bison could hit her during that move (though not very reliably). That said, if you whiff a dragon punch or something, she can now punish with stand fierce -> lighting legs, even if you do not have super powers.

Spinning Bird Kick

Players clearly wanted something new for her. Remember that my original mission was to make the game more accessible, improve tournament balance, and to add fun wherever it wouldn't ruin tournament balance. I tried to give her something new that would be kind of interesting, but not actually help that much because she’s already so good. That’s where the new spinning bird kick came in. It now has a parabolic arc, similar to Sakura’s spinning kick in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and 3, except higher. It juggles, does fairly good dizzy, and can go over fireballs if timed right, but it was mostly a trickshot move. Let’s come back to it in a bit.

Stored Super

In ST, Chun Li can “store” her super by doing charge back, forward, back, then hold forward as long as she wants….then press punch to super. Whether she should keep this was very controversial throughout development. On the one hand, it’s pretty mindless when you can walk at the opponent and mash on strong to get a good priority strong punch, or a throw if they are throwable….while simultaneously threatening to super them with just a single button press on kick. The super has an almost-always guaranteed followup of up kicks. Super + up kicks does 80% damage. Yes, you read that right--80%. Something has to give here, especially with the overall goal of brining supers down to 50% or less. But on the other hand, stored super is fun and everyone seems to want it.

My proposal was to slightly reduce the damage so that it’s similar damage to other supers in HD Remix, to add invulnerability at the start so it can go through fireballs more easily, and to remove the storing property. If I made the game for myself, this would have been my decision. But players seemed generally unhappy and disappointed with this. The final version lets her keep her stored super, does not add any invulnerability over what she had in ST, but greatly reduces the damage of the super and limits up kicks to just 1-hit. (The up kicks seem to miss entirely on some characters, too.) In practice, her super ends up doing about half the 80% from ST, but all the storing tricks are left intact.

When I explained the debate to former Evolution champion Tokido, from Japan, he responded, “I understand the balance idea here, but I think if you remove stored super…Japanese players will not like. I think you should leave it, but reduce damage, as you did.” Thanks Tokido!

Neckbreaker Loop

Chun Li players are probably pretty sad at this point. There’s more bad news, then some good news. Many players complained that her neckbreaker kick (d/f + roundhouse) should be on the list of abuseable, repeatable moves. This is the move where Chun Li flips up (over fireballs if she wants) then comes down with an attack that knocks down. If she does it again as the victim stands up, it can be a cross-up versus several characters. It’s basically impossible to tell whether you should block left or right if you are one of these unlucky characters, and Chun Li can alter her spacing by a few pixels to kind of trap you in this repeated knockdown thing. She really does not need this to win, so many players requested that this be removed. It’s an incredibly long story what went on with this move in development, so I’ll just cut to the end. It now travels slightly less distance forward which means it can never cross-up. It’s still useful to go over fireballs and to pressure stand strong / throw afterwards, if the opponent blocks. It still knocks down on hit.

Spinning Bird Kick, Revisited

And now for some better news. After the decision to let Chun Li keep her stored super but greatly reduce her damage, I thought she needed an upgrade to stay competitive. That’s when I greatly improved the new arcing spinning bird kick. It travels much faster and has much less recover than it did in the earlier versions. You can try to cross-up with it. You can go over fireballs with it and safely attack with it from the right range. If the opponent is far away and tries to sweep as you land, it’s extremely hard for them to hit you. Even if you do get hit, you cannot be combo’d because you flip up if you get hit (you get hit out of the air). If you try the move from too close, it’s very easy for the opponent to stop it because Chun Li is completely vulnerable underneath, but if you do it from the right range, it’s a pretty solid attack.

Several players also requested that she be able to do her aerial spinning bird kick after her pogo attack, like in SF2: Hyper Fighting. They weren’t asking for any practical reason, they just had fun doing that back then, and so did I. So the aerial version can now be done with a flash kick motion as well as a sonic boom motion while in the air.

It turns out that this does have some interesting uses. If you are on the ground and charge down, the go up, then hesistate a moment, then press kick, you can do the aerial version (which travels horizontally, not in an arc) very low to the ground. You can even choose whether to do this move toward the opponent, mostly in place, or away from the opponent depending on which way you jumped. I’ve been able to use this move in many tricky situations to go over sweeps, to escape attacks, bait dragon punches, and so on.

I saw a few requests to change the command for her pogo move from down+medium kick while in the air to any of the three down positions. I made change this and loved it because it made doing the pogo (and then aerial Spinning Bird Kick!) much easier. All the actual Chun Li players booed and sent me nasty letters though. They need her aerial down/back + medium kick to be her crossup attack still, they said. So be it.

I should have made a secret Chun Li just for me, huh? (Mine would have had no stored super, higher damage super, more invulnerable super, and pogo can be down with any of the three down positions of the joystick). Chun Li is a case where I was very conscious of feedback from actual Chun Li players, rather than my own whims, so I hope that turns out well for everyone.

Conclusion

The bad:

• Lighting Legs less damage and dizzy
• Super less damage
• Neckbreaker no longer crosses up

The good:

• Lighting Legs easier to do
• New arcing Spinning Bird Kick is fairly useful
• New motion or aerial Spinning Bird Kick leads to some tricks

Chun Li’s fireballs, awesome normal attacks, and damaging throw are just as good as ever. She even got to keep her stored super. With some of her mindlessness decreased and some new tricks added, I hope she’ll remain competitive while being even a little more interesting than before.

--Sirlin

Street Fighter HD Remix: Zangief

Zangief is an interesting character in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (ST) in that he is considered bottom tier, yet he is scary enough that he can win. One time in Tokyo, I saw that champion Zangief player Kuni was next up to play and his opponent was Dhalsim (very hard match!). I asked Kuni if he could win. His response: “If you can thread the needle, then you can win Zangief vs. Dhalsim.” Indeed. Amazingly, even Kuni has his superior, who he refers to as his Master: Pony Zangief. Pony famously beat several Dhalsim players in quick succession in a Tokyo vs. Osaka tournament.

I’d like ordinary humans to be able to play and enjoy Zangief, not just super heroes like Kuni and Pony. This first set of changes is for ordinary humans and has very little effect on the experts.

Easier Control Motions

• Spinning Piledrive is now half circle back, forward + punch or half circle forward, back + punch.
• Super is now half circle back x 2, forward + punch or half circle forward x 2, back + punch.
• Green Hand is now quarter circle forward + punch (rather than the clunky forward, d/f, down + punch command from ST)
• Running Grab (and Double Suplex) is now half circle back + kick or half circle forward + kick.
• Kick lariat now has alternate command of jab + short (KKK still works)
• Punch lariat has alternate command of strong + forward or fierce + roundhouse (PPP still works)
• That’s a lot to digest, so let’s go over each one.

SPD Command

The SPD (Spinning Piledrive) command has a lot of footnotes. First of all, many players complained that doing an SPD after a ducking short was harder with the new motion than it was in ST, which defeats the entire purpose of having an “easier” motion. In response to this, you no longer need to even do the first forward or back input. You can hold d/f and then go down, d/b, back, forward + punch. Also, that last input can be substituted for any up command (u/b, u, or u/f) and it still works.

For old curmudgeons, the original 360 command (which actually only requires 270 degrees, fyi) is still there too.

All this stuff makes the SPD command significantly easier, but it really doesn’t seem to affect balance much at all. Expert Zangiefs could SPD with amazing precision anyway, and they still can. Now the common man can do it too. I actually would have liked it a bit more if we made you do one extra input on the SPD if you skip that first input, but the easy SPDs have worked out fine in playtesting. The real challenge is getting into a situation where you can actually land the move with Zangief anyway.

Super Command

Next up, the super. Note that original 720 command is no longer there, sorry. The new command (that can be done without jumping) is a fine replacement though! Note that the shortcut that we allow for the 360 do NOT work for the super. You must start the command with either forward or back, not with d/f. This is the one change to commands that really does affect the experts, because it makes a “walking 720” possible. That said, remember that Zangief has extremely short range on his super.

Green Hand Command

The Green Hand is a dragon punch command in later SF games, but it seems unfortunate that Zangief needs a more complex motion to do green hand than the opponent needs to do a fireball. In HD Remix, I made it a fireball command: qcf+punch. This should be a welcome chance from the old forward, d/f, down + punch command, because that command often made the green hand come out on accident when you were trying to walk up then do low jabs. Although the new command kind of barely overlaps with the SPD command, it really doesn’t overlap if you do the SPD properly.

Lariat Command

The alternate commands for the lariat are mostly for pad players. On a standard controller, it’s easier to use your thumb to hit jab+short than it is to hit 2 or 3 kick buttons. I prefer the new command on a joystick too, personally. You can still use the original PPP or KKK commands, but notice that you CANNOT use 2 punches (or 2 kicks) to lariat, as in some console versions. The PP and KK commands interfere with advanced players using the “piano method” of inputs for the SPD. If you have no idea what that means, check out my advanced tutorial video about Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

New Stuff!

So the commands are easier, but what are the real tools Zangief has to compete now?

Green Hand with Less Recovery

Green hand now has 4 frames less recovery. Earlier development versions had even less recovery, but they proved disastrous. The purpose of the green hand is to destroy fireballs, and the 4-frame faster recovery makes it a little more practical. It also allows Zangief to pressure a bit and threaten an SPD if he does the move from fairly far away. Do it too close and you’ll still get hit back though.

For most of the development of HD Remix, the green hand also knocked down. This was originally John Choi’s suggestion of how to give Zangief a chance against Dhalsim (try to hit his limbs, knock down, then get in). It was actually very fair in that particular match, but it raised more and more questions in other matches. It flat out beat Bison because trading with Bison’s standing kicks (Bison’s main strategy in that match) leads to a virtually guaranteed win if you get a knock down. I was somewhat willing to live with that, but more and more and more problems surfaced. The knock down version of green hand was simply too strong in too many matches and lead to strange gameplay for Zangief. Rather than a throw character, he became a knock-down-with-green-hand character, then maybe throw. So green hand does NOT knock down in the final version of HD Remix (and did not in ST, either).

Faster Running Grab

Running Grab is much faster. The roundhouse version is the most significant and it travels fast. You can catch turtles off guard with it, and at some ranges it’s even guaranteed after a blocked low medium kick! The only reason this move remains fair is that it still does very little damage and leaves Zangief kind of far away.

Kick Lariat’s Invulnerable Feet

Many people requested a kick lariat that was like Hyper Fighting’s, in that it has invulnerable feet. I tried many versions of this, and it was extremely powerful in the ecosystem of this game. Many, many times during the course of development, someone claimed that something is too powerful. My usual response is to say, “Ok beat me with it, or at least make me afraid of it.” I can count on one hand the number of times anyone really did this. Graham Wolfe certainly did in this case. He told me to pick whichever character I thought could beat the HF lariat most easily. He then proceeded to absolutely destroy me by mixing up punch and kick lariat while not even really paying attention to the match. I had to counter them in different ways and guessing wrong meant knock down, then facing SPDs.

The final version works like this. The kick lariat is the same as ST except it has a different sound effect and the feet are invulnerable during the first rotation only. You can use it for some footsie tricks, but a careful opponent can still counter it by sweeping you, as long as he sweeps late, toward the end of the lariat.

Punch Lariat’s Feet Can Hit

The punch lariat has a functional change, too. In ST, both lariats have a really big attack hitbox that appears for only a few frames near the start of the move. In HD Remix, the punch lariat’s version of this hitbox extends all the way to the floor, so it can hit low attacks. Remember that only the very start of the move has this property and if you try to hit a low attack this way, you’re committing to doing an entire punch lariat, which is pretty long. This is somewhat useful at hitting Dhalsim’s low fierce and it seems theoretically good at hitting Guile’s low forward, but in practice it’s very difficult to hit Guile with it. At least it’s something though.

Anti-Vega Normals

Vega is a tough opponent here for a lot of different reasons. One reason is Vega’s off-the-wall attack is extremely difficult for Zangief to hit if Vega does it repeatedly and tries to hit at the tip of the claw. Zangief has two slight changes to deal with this. First, his jumping strong hitbox extends farther now and actually matches up with the graphics for his hand, similar to the jump strong hitbox in Street Fighter Alpha 2. In practice, it’s still pretty hard to hit wall dives with this move though.

More importantly, his low fierce has a hitbox that extends upward 2 pixels more than before. This very tiny change is barely enough to make it beat Vega’s wall dive most of the time. Considering how hard this match is in general, I’m hoping Vega will still be fine here, he’ll just have to use different strategies.

The Hop!

Last and not least is the new hop. In fact, this might be the most substantial change of all. In ST, Zangief had four different commands for this move: back+strong, toward+strong, back+fierce, and toward+fierce. All four lead to a worthless move that usually got you killed. The move now has only one command: toward+fierce, the same command as X-ism Zangief in Street Fighter Alpha 3.

The move is significantly faster, hops higher over low moves, and recovers almost instantly. Hop into SPD is a strong tactic. The hop goes over low attacks well, and you can even combo a sweep after it if you somehow manage to hit a standing opponent with it. Really though, whiffing the hop is where it’s at. This mixup between doing lariats and the new hop was strong enough that some players were worried about Zangief being too good, but considering his former bottom tier status and the improvements of other characters across the board, I think he needs this to compete. If you look for it the hop, you can stand fierce it on reaction with Ken/Ryu. Or, you can let it land and go for low forward, fireball combo (though his recovery is so short that this requires good timing on your part).

Easier commands, tricky lariats, a faster green hand, anti-Vega attacks, and deadly good hop are what you get. Zangief is quite a threat now.

--Sirlin