THE COMPLETE X-MEN VERSUS STREET FIGHTER COMBO FAQ Vers. 4.0 (Updated Feb '99) _______ _______ _______ _____ __________ _____ ____ |"Y88888b. /d88888P |Y888888b. /88888b|Y888888888b|Y8888b. |Y888b `. "Y88888b./d88888P | Y8888888b.|888888b Y888888888b Y88888b. Y888b `. "Y88888d88888P \ Y88888888b8888888b Y8888b___/\ Y888888b,X888b `. "Y88888888P __\ Y8888b"Y8888Y8888b Y88888888b\ Y############b `. "8888888. /888b Y####b "Y## Y####b Y########b\ Y###X"Y######b / d########b.\Y#### Y####b "Y Y####b Y####b__/_\ Y###b "Y#####b / d###########b.---'\ Y####b\/ \ Y####b Y#########b Y###b\ "Y####b / d#####P "Y#####b. \ Y####b \ Y####b Y#####P"""/____/ \/_____/ / d#####P `. "Y#####b. \ Y####b \/_____//_______--' / d#####P `. 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Street Fighter part). The X-Men portion of the Title Art was taken from Rich Joseph's X-Men: Children of the Atom FAQ v8.0 . The Street Fighter portion was designed by myself based on the Alpha Series logo. ============================================================================== This FAQ is copyright James Chen, 1996-1999. Any use, quoting, paraphrasing, copying, and distributing of this FAQ can only be done so for free. DO NOT SELL THIS FAQ OR USE THIS FAQ IN ANY WAY TO EARN MONEY. It is a free publication availble to whomever wants to use it. If any part of this FAQ is copied, quoted, or paraphrased for your own personal use, please give credit to where credit is due. ============================================================================== This FAQ is now viewable on the World Wide Web. If you are unable to view the FAQ properly due to margin troubles or otherwise, you can now view the FAQ at: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/6645 There, you should be able to view the FAQ properly without margin problems. ============================================================================== ******************************************* * VERY IMPORTANT NOTE... PLEASE READ: * ******************************************* For clearest reading of this FAQ, it is best viewed with a type-writer font (example: Courier) with top/bottom margins at 1.0 inches or smaller and left/right margins at 1.0 inches or smaller with a font size at 10 point or smaller (try different combinations of fonts, sizes, and margins to see if you can find a format that looks the most clear). You can tell if the margins and font sizes are right if the Title Page fits on exactly one page. Below this is a margin tester to see if your set-up is right: ______________________________________________________________________________ If the above and below lines fit on one line, you're doin' fine! ______________________________________________________________________________ Once again, a summary: Font: Typewriter-type, like Courier Top/Bottom Margins: 1.0 inches Left/Right Margins: 1.0 inches Font size: 10 point If you are unable to find a way to view this FAQ properly by changing the margins and changing the font sizes, please e-mail me and I will see what I can do to help you out. Hopefully, you'll be able to fix the FAQ so that it looks all right. Once again, though, the FAQ is also viewable on the World Wide Web now and there, all the margins should work out properly. So if you are unable to effectively adjust these margins, go to this web address for better viewing: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/6645 Also, some people may not be familiar with the terminology I use for this FAQ. In this FAQ, I use the terms Jab, Strong, Fierce, Short, Forward, Roundhouse for the six attack buttons in my combo descriptions. Some people are more familiar with an a, b, c and x, y, z (or even A, B, C and a, b, c) notation for button notation. Also, others are used to a Weak/Soft Punch, Medium/Medium Punch, Strong/Hard Punch and Weak/Soft Kick, Medium/Medium Kick, and Strong/Hard Kick notation. Still others end up using a number system, using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 to represent the buttons. Thus, if you use a notation other than the one I have used, I recommend that you use the Replace function of your Word Processor to replace the terms I use with the terms you are more familiar with. Please do note that some of the margins and spacing of the combos may be altered in strange ways if you do this. Here is a diagram of which buttons are which if you are unfamiliar with my terminology: () () () PUNCHES Jab Strong Fierce () () () KICKS Short Forward Roundhouse ============================================================================== INTRODUCTION TO THE COMBO FAQ I Ask Kindly That You Take The Time To Read This Introductory Section. X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is a relatively old game now. It's been out in the arcades for a while now and already released on two major home system platforms: X-Men Vs. Street Fighter EX for the PlayStation, and X-Men Vs. Street Fighter for the Saturn. However, despite it's age (two other games in this series of Marvel Fighting Games have already been released: Marvel Vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Vs. Capcom), it is still one of the more widely played fighting games out there. Plus, for those of you out there who love the combos in this game, you still continue to practice everyday, whether it be in your local arcade or at home on your favorite home system. And for that reason, I felt it necessary to update my Combo FAQ one final time, to accommodate all of the new things that I have found in this game, particularly the new combos, which are now more twisted and longer than ever. Before you go delving into this FAQ right away, please take the time to read the following notes I have provided here on this title page. They provide some insight as to what angle I am coming from when writing and creating this Combo FAQ. It also provides some information that you will need to know before charging full speed ahead into this Combo FAQ. So please, take the time to read the following paragraphs. I thank you for taking the time and patience for reading them. ============================================================================== The Love For Combos - An Editorial From The Creator Of This FAQ I love Combos and X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is full of them. It is full of HUGE combo varieties like no other Fighting Game EVER created. That is what makes this game so unique: the ability to create and perform difficult, wacky, or just plain ugly combos unlike any other game in existence. However, because of this factor, because of this ability to do huge combos, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is also, in my opinion, one of the WORST challenging games ever created. There are three reasons for this: 1) The long, Infinite Combos or high damage combos are infuriating to be hit by. Getting nailed by one Crouching Short Kick and then getting Infinited is hardly a satisfying way to die. 2) A nice, difficult 20-hit Combo, that takes a great amount of skill to perform, does no damage in comparison to, say, a simple Throw into Super Combo. Thus, the skill level of the Combo does not necessarily reflect the damage. 3) For the most part, the less skill used in playing this game, the more effective your strategy seems to be. The best Sabretooth players simply jump over and over again, providing no enjoyment to play against. Remorseless Storm players will fly off the screen and float slowly down, running away the whole fight. Chun Li players intent on winning will turtle the whole match, banking solely on her very simple Crouching Short chained into Crouching Forward canceled into her Super Combo to do damage. These types of strategies make the game no fun to play. It is for those three main reasons that I do not condone X-Men Vs. Street Fighter as a quality challenging game. So why, you ask, did I make a whole FAQ dedicated to a game I think is terrible as a challenger? Because of the Combos. The Combos are way too much fun and are very difficult to pull off. Doing them is reminiscent of playing a musical instrument... you continue practicing until you get it right, flawlessly. And when you finally do get it right, it feels good. The combos I come up with and perform over and over again aren't even practical in Versus Play! Most of the combos I enjoy doing most are what I call "Exhibition Combos." These are combos that are simply cool to watch or fun to perform. Most of them have absolutely no practicality at all in 2-Player battles, since a lot of the Exhibition Combos simply are too difficult to pull off to be worth trying in battle or too easily escapable using Rolls or Tech Hits. However, these Exhibition combos are JUST FUN TO DO. It's for this reason I made this Combo FAQ. It is for this reason I think X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is a great game. Figuring out the combos and doing them until you can do them in your sleep is what this game is all about to me. In the immortal words of David Dial, "X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is the best puzzle game Capcom has ever made." That is exactly right. I treat this almost as a puzzle game, using the limited set of moves each character has to continually come up with a new, cooler combo than the last one I made up. And they keep coming up. Every time I play it, I find myself topping the last combo I made. That is why I have taken the time to create this Combo FAQ. I want to help the players out there who enjoy the same love for combos that I do enjoy this game the way it should be enjoyed. And so, I present to you: The X-Men Vs. Street Fighter Combo FAQ. Read on, I hope you enjoy it!! ============================================================================== X-Men Vs. Street Fighter Game History (Important Must-Read Version Information) Because it has been out for quite a while now and has been on so many different platforms, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter has gone through a few different versions since its original release in the arcades. Here, is a list of the versions, where they apply, and the changes that have occurred between them (most of the information is taken from David Dial's Web Site). * * * Version 1.0: First release found only in arcades. Not very many Version 1.0 X-Men Vs. Street Fighters can be found nowadays, though some arcades still have them. * * * Version 2.0 This is the main version found in the arcades. If you have X-Men Vs. Street Fighter in your arcade, you most likely have a Version 2.0. The changes made from Version 1.0 to Version 2.0 are: - Ryu/Akuma's Hopping Kick was given a slower recovery time (eliminating the Hop Kick Infinite). - Sabretooth's Jumping Infinite is now a bit more difficult to time. - Dhalsim is no longer able to do a Yoga Drill the instant he leaves the floor. He actually has to jump a small distance before the Drill will come out. * * * Version 3.0 A few rare people will have Version 3.0 in their arcades. This updated version was released very late in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter's arcade existence, so very few people will find it in the arcades. However, the Sega Saturn version of X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is a faithful replica of the arcade's Version 3.0. Capcom released this version, it seemed, in a vain attempt to remove all the Infinites they knew of. If this was the case, they obviously did not know that many Infinites because they only managed to remove 4 out of over 50 Infinite combos. The changes made from Version 2.0 to 3.0 (or, the only ones I've caught so far) are: - Cyclops's Jumping Fierce now causes enemies to drop STRAIGHT down when used as an Air Combo Finisher, eliminating his standard corner Jumping Infinite. - Storm's Lightning Attack no longer causes enemies to fall on their backs, so she cannot hit enemies with all three hits one at a time (separately), thus eliminating her Lightning Attack Infinite. - Storm's Jumping Fierce, when used as an Air Combo Finisher, knocks people in more of a downward arc rather than an outward arc, making her repeating Fierce-Roundhouse Air Combo not possible anymore (though an equally effective alternate combo exists). - Wolverine's Drill Claw no longer is an Air Combo Finisher, so it doesn't start the Flying Screen. This, however, failed to eliminate Wolverine's Infinite Combo. - Juggernaut's Jumping Fierce and Roundhouse both cause the enemy to drop STRAIGHT down quickly when used as Air Combo Finishers, eliminating his Infinite Combo. - Magneto can no longer throw the enemy upwards with his kick throws, preventing him from Air Throwing the enemy upwards and then Hyper Graving them on their way down. - Chun Li's recovery period from her SenRetsuKyaku is no longer invincible (she can be hit during her delay, whereas before, everything would go right through her). - Dhalsim's Drills all now have a half second delay before they come out after you hit the button. This delay was enough to eliminate his Drill Infinite Combo. - Dhalsim's Teleport Recovery is no longer vulnerable at the end, preventing all of the Dhalsim-only Combos from occurring. * * * X-Men Vs. Street Fighter EX This version only exists on the Sony PlayStation. In order to compensate for the lack of ability to switch characters in the middle of a fight, Capcom created this version with an extra element not existing in any other version: the ability to cancel Special Moves into Super Combos and to cancel Supers into more Supers, thus making it reminiscent of Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha. However, in my opinion, this new feature did very little to add to the combos, and, in actuality, make for very boring combos (like Juggernaut's Headcrush, Headcrush, Headcrush combo). The basic engine is based off of Version 3.0, as all the same changes to Version 3.0 occurred in this version as well. All combos that work on Version 3.0 work on this one as well. * * * The Final Word This Combo FAQ has now been changed to reflect Version 3.0 since most people who will play at home will encounter Version 3.0's restrictions. However, all the Version 2.0 combos that were in my Combo FAQ before will still be listed in a separate section, so that those who still play in the arcade can still use those combos. I will NOT list any unique combos for the PlayStation version for two main reasons: 1) The unique combos found in the PlayStation version are rather boring and pointless, since canceling Specials and Supers into Super Combos is a rather brainless thing, in my opinion. Not much imagination is needed for these combos and most people will be able to find these on their own. 2) I do not own the PlayStation version (nor do I want to) so I have not experimented with the new combos much. I have played it, and discovered that nothing new and interesting was possible. So once again, this FAQ will be changed to mainly reflect Version 3.0 since both home versions are based off this version, and the Saturn version is an absolutely near-perfect duplication of the arcade's Version 3.0 (come to think of it, it pretty much IS arcade perfect!). Also, all Version 3.0 combos WORK on every other version, so the combos listed here can be applicable to any version you might encounter. ============================================================================== And Finally... I have put a lot of effort into writing this FAQ and creating this Web Page. A lot of spare time was spent doing this when I had a lot of other school work I needed to do (doing this was much more fun, though... :-). I have put this on the Web for anyone to able to refer to and to use for absolutely free. Thus, I ask very kindly of you: If you decide to use anything from this FAQ, whether it be the Combo Notations for your own FAQ (like a Critical Blow FAQ out there did) or using any combos I have (a Web Site I found out there cut and pasted my Title Logo and my Infinite Combos onto his site with no mention of where he got them from), PLEASE remember to at least give me credit as a source of where you obtained your information. I have received many e-mails from people asking very kindly whether or not they could use parts of my FAQ or refer to it or use a similar format etc. etc. I will gladly give consent to everyone out there who asks and who gives me credit as a source. I'm not conceited or anything and I don't have some deranged desire to hog all credit, it's just polite, that's all. Thank you once again for taking the time to read this title page and thank you for taking interest in my Combo FAQ. I hope you find what I've provided here very useful in your efforts to become master of your arcade, or just a master of Combos! ============================================================================== Table of Contents: - Title Page - What's new in this version - Intro - The Basic Components to the Combos - Multi-Hit Moves - Special Moves/Super Combos - Special Move Cancellation (Buffering) - The Magic Series (Chain Combos) - Basic Rules - Rules for ground Magic Series - Rules for Jumping Magic Series - Rules for Super Jumping Magic Series - Links - Combo Classifications - Regular Combos - Dashing Combos - Jump-In Combos - Juggling Combos - Off The Ground Combos and Rolling - Flying Screen Combos - Air Combos - Set-Ups - Launchers - Super Jumping - Regular Jumping - Air Combo Finishers - Tips On How To Perform - The Reaction Problem - The Timing Problem - The Fireball Problem - The Confusion Problem - Character Switching Combos - Combo Combinations - Jumping Combos Into Dashing Combos - Two Air Combos In One - Sweep Into OTG Combos - Advanced Techniques - Throw Combos - Throws As Combo Starters - Air Throw Combos - Bouncing Throw Combos - Launch Height - Cancel Delaying - The Deteriorating Flying Screen - Manual Super Jumping Combos - Comboability - Body Types - Comboability Specifics - Character Specifics - Magic Series Legend - List of Launchers Legend - Special Move Codes Legend - Detailed Information Legend - List Of Combos Legend - Characters List - THE X-MEN - Cyclops - Storm - Wolverine - Gambit - Rogue - Sabretooth - Juggernaut - Magneto - THE STREET FIGHTERS - Ryu - Ken - Chun Li - Charlie - Dhalsim - Zangief - Cammy - Bison - Akuma - Extra Things That Need Mention - Noteworthy Anti-Dhalsim Combos - Team-Up Super Combo Combos - The Police Van - Auto-Block Combos - The Team-Up Glitch Super Combos - Closing/Special Thanks - Closing Remarks - Special Thanks WHAT'S NEW IN THIS VERSION (4.0) - OVERALL REORGANIZATION OF THE FAQ!!!! - New Title page with new information, including an editorial personally written explaining my views on X-Men Vs. Street Fighter as a pre Combo Game as opposed to a two-player Fighting Game. Also added important Version information. - New pages added, with a lot of new and revised information in each section: - Advanced Techniques (Throw Combos, Launch Height, Cancel Delaying, The Deteriorating Flying Screen, and Manual Super Jumping Combos) - Comboability (Body Types and Comboability Specifics) - Links section added to Combo Components page - Revision of Air Combo Finishers rule - Names of Special Moves corrected to match actual names provided in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Street Fighter Alpha 3. Most names changed to reflect the names provided in Kao Megura's Street Fighter Alpha 3 FAQ. - New revision of Combo Listings: Added Practice Combos, Insane Combos, and Version 2.0 Combos section. Old and defective combos taken out, new ones added in for every character. Infinite Combos taken out again. - Infinite Combos now handled by David Dial's Web Site. (3.0) - Disclaimer added before intro of FAQ. PLEASE READ... - Extra information added in the Air Throw Combos section. - New section entitled 'Bouncing Throw Combos' added to Combo Combinations. - Extra 'terminology' section regarding size added. - NEW COMBOS FOR EVERYONE!!! MANY MORE NEW AND LONGER AND TOUGHER COMBOS THAN BEFORE!!! - ALL THE INFINITES (THAT I KNOW OF) HAVE BEEN ADDED INTO THE FAQ. And some of you will be surprised to see that very FEW characters DON'T have Infinites. - New "Noteworthy Anti-Dhalsim Combos" section added. (2.1) - Rogue's Expert Combo corrected. - Thanks Section revised... I forgot to do that in version 2.0! - Tons of spelling errors fixed... forgot to SpellCheck version 2.0... ^_^ (2.0) - Web Address stuff added. - Information regarding Regular Jumping Air Combos completely modified. Incorrect information was given in the last version. Air Combo Finishers found for Regular Jumping Combos. - Added information regarding Super Combo activation: only 2P and 2K actually required to activate Super Combos but 3P and 3K will still be listed. - Added new Combo Notation (DJ. for Double Jumping). - Added rough comparison lists for height, width, and weight. - Added lines to final warning about combos. - Added new combos, altered new combos, and deleted some dumb combos... more details: - Added information about Cyclops's normals moves, as well as a TON of new combos - Added a few new combos for Storm and altered Storm's Expert Combo. - Added one combo for Wolverine's Expert Section. - Added a few new combos for Gambit, including an Expert Combo. Also figured out, with the help of many e-mails, how to do his Staff Strike. - Added new combos for Rogue, including an Expert Combo. - Added new combos for Sabretooth and altered an old Expert Combo. - Added combos for Juggernaut and added new information regarding getting more hits from the Juggernaut Headcrush. - Added a few new combos for Magneto. - Added new Ryu combos, including a weak Expert Combo. Also added in new information regarding Ryu's Regular Jumping moves as well as the fact that the Air Hurricane Kick is an Air Combo Finisher. - Added a few new Ken Combos as well as information regarding his Regular Jumping moves. - Added Chun Li combos, including a few similar Expert Combos. Also added information regarding her Regular Jumping moves. - Added a few extra combos for Charlie. Corrected his Ground Magic Series from ZigZag to Stronger. Also added some info regarding his normal moves and changed joystick motions for his Super Combos. - Changed Dhalsim's Strikes from None to both Roundhouses. A few combos added. - Added tons of new combos for Zangief, as well as added a few new ways to land RBGs, SPDs, and FABs. - Added a few new combos for Bison and altered some old ones. - Added "Comboability" section, which comes before the Extra Things That Need Mention section. Describes how well a character is COMBOABLE, rather than how well they can DO combos. - Changed Appendix into Extra Things That Need Mention section, and placed it before the Special Thanks/Closing section. - Added "Launch Height" section to Extra Things That Need Mention. (1.0) - Everything is new! This FAQ hasn't existed before now. :-) ============================================================================== ============================================================================== ********* * INTRO * ********* Well, Capcom has finally done it: after hiding Akuma in X-Men: Children of the Atom, people have long wondered how those from the Street Fighter world would fare against those from the Marvel Fighting Games world. Well, Capcom lets us answer that question with their third and latest installment to the combo-filled Marvel Fighting Games series. Ever wondered what it would be like being able to do a 12+ hit combo with Chun Li? Or how about a 20+ hit combo with Cammy? Well, wonder no more because Capcom has finally given the pleasure of doing long-winded and flashy combos to your favorite characters from the Street Fighter world. X-Men vs. Street Fighter gives you the opportunity to do some of the strangest combos ever seen. And to help you get to the point where you can whip out these 20 hitters in your sleep, I present to you my Combo FAQ. Hopefully, this FAQ will help you pull off those wild and crazy combos that will dazzle spectators, give you an adrenaline rush, and, most importantly, frustrate and destroy your opponents. Hopefully, this FAQ will help you produce large numbers on the "Combometer" (this is what I call the hit-counter that appears on the side of the screen that tells you how big your combo is... pronounced com-BOM-uh-ter). Please note that the first half of the FAQ deals with the system of combos in the game. It is VERY technical and explains everything in great detail to help those who desire a deeper understanding of how and why everything works. However, for those of you who just want the combos, feel free to jump right to the middle, where all those crazy combos are listed. Note: Remember, this is a FAQ dedicated to helping you DO COMBOS. This FAQ will not help explain how everything works or give you details on moves or tell you game system details like how the super meter works. It may be a good idea to pick two characters to start with, learn their moves, and THEN try and learn the combos. This FAQ assumes that you already know a lot of the basic structures and systems of the game, like how the super meter works or how character switching works or that there even IS character switching. If you are very unfamiliar with this game, it may be more productive to learn the game to a small extent before utilizing this FAQ. Also, for those of you who are already familiar with the Marvel Super Heroes combo FAQ that I had written before, you may only need to browse through most of the technical information. Most of the technical aspects of the combos in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter are similar to those in Marvel Super Heroes. Thus, a lot very similar information is provided in this FAQ that was provided in the Marvel FAQ. And now... without further ado... ============================================================================== ************************************** * THE BASIC COMPONENTS TO THE COMBOS * ************************************** There are many different kinds of combos in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter. However, all of the combos are made up of different combo rules and different techniques and systems. This section lists the basic components of every combo for the game. Understanding the very basics behind every combo is a key factor in learning how to do combos effectively. * * * -=Multi-Hit Moves=- What better way to do a combo than to just hit a button that makes your character perform a move that hits more than once? Some examples are Sabretooth's Standing Fierce, Ryu's Toward + Strong, and Magneto's Standing Roundhouse, all which hit twice, for an easy 2-hit Combo. They don't require much skill and they don't look at all impressive, but they count as combos anyhow. * * * -=Special Moves/Super Combos=- Not much harder to do are the Special Moves and Super Combos that automatically get you a higher number of hits. These can be more impressive, however... especially the Super Combos. Examples of automatically multi-hitting Special Moves are Ken's Dragon Punch, Storm's Typhoon, Dhalsim's Yoga Flame, Wolverine's Berserker Barrage, Rogue's Rushing Punches, and Juggernaut's Earthquake. Examples of multi-hitting Super Combos are Akuma's Tenma GouZanKuu, Cammy's Spin Drive Smasher, Charlie's Sonic Break, Chun Li's SenRetsuKyaku, Bison's Psycho Crusher, and Gambit's Royal Flush. These all get you some-what impressive looking combos but aren't out of the ordinary. * * * -=Special Move Cancellation (Buffering)=- X-Men Vs. Street Fighter still retains the daddy of all combo systems: Buffering. The method of allowing you to cancel normal moves with special moves is still possible to this day and is still one of the most effective methods of creating a combo. The whole principle behind this combo method is to hit the enemy with a normal move and then cancel the normal move's animation (and, thus, their delay) with a special move so that the special move hits faster than the opponent can recover from the first hit. When I say Special Move, that includes Special Moves, Super Combos, Character Switches, and even Team-Up Super Combos. X-Men Vs. Street Fighter gives the player MUCH more freedom of normal move cancellation compared to Classic Street Fighter II. In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, you now have the freedom to cancel ALL normal moves (grounded, jumping, super jumping) at ANY point in its animation whether it hits the enemy or not (in Street Fighter, you could only cancel CERTAIN moves in only CERTAIN frames of animation only if they actually made CONTACT with the enemy)! This goes for ALL normal moves including Cyclops's Low Fierce Optic Bullet, Juggernaut's Toward + Fierce, and and Chun Li's Offensive Roundhouse Somersault Kick. This allows for a great freedom of combos. But as with anything, there are always exceptions to the rules. In this game, the only exceptions to the Special-Move Cancellation rule are the Overheads: the moves that are done on the ground and must be blocked standing up. The Overheads in this game are are Ryu's Toward + Strong, Ken's Toward + Forward, and Charlie's Toward + Forward. * * * -=The Magic Series (Chain Combos)=- In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, the Magic Series system still rules the game, as it did in the two earlier Marvel Fighting Games. Basically, the Magic Series is a system in which the fighters are allowed to cancel one normal move into another different normal move. For each character, there is a specific "rule" that their Magic Series follows and each of these rules can be different for when they are on the ground, Jumping, or Super Jumping. Basic Rules: Some basic rules about Magic Series: You have to actually make contact with the enemy before the next move can be chained. For example, with Cyclops, you can Chain the Jab button into the Roundhouse button. However, you have to make sure the Jab Punch actually hits the enemy (whether they block it or not) or it cannot be Chained... in other words, if you whiff a Jab punch, you cannot Chain it into the Roundhouse. Also, if the move you start with hits, you can Chain into the next move at ANY further point in that moves animation. For example, if you perform Ryu's Standing Fierce, you can Chain that into a Low Roundhouse immediately when the Fierce hits, or you can wait a while before you chain into the Roundhouse. Any point after the move makes contact is Chainable. If a Magic Series is more than two buttons long, you can skip any of the middle buttons and jump straight to later buttons in the series. However, you can never go backwards in a series. For example, Wolverine's Ground Magic Series is Jab -> Short -> Strong -> Forward -> Fierce -> Roundhouse. However, he can choose to just do a Jab -> Strong -> Forward -> Roundhouse, skipping Short and Fierce all together. However, he cannot do a Jab -> Strong -> Fierce, and then back to a Forward. You can only progress forward in the series. Rules for ground Magic Series: When performing a Magic Series while on the ground, you can cancel the appropriate normal move with a Standing, Crouching, or any other specialty normal move so long as the button you press still follows the Magic Series. For example, Chun Li can Chain her Standing Short into a Standing Roundhouse OR a Low Roundhouse. She can also Chain it into her Offensive Crouch Roundhouse Flip Kick... any of three is possible. Also, she could have started the Chain with a Standing OR Crouching Short. Any version of any button works AS LONG AS IT FOLLOWS THE SERIES. However, again, the Overheads are exceptions to this rule as Overheads cannot be Chained INTO anything. You can Chain a move into an Overhead, but not an Overhead into another move. Rules for Jumping Magic Series: Basically the same as Ground Magic Series. Just like the Ground Magic Series, you can do any version of a button that you want. For example, you can do a Short Drill with Dhalsim and Chain it into a Jumping Fierce or into a Headroll (which is done by holding Down and pressing Fierce). Rules for Super Jumping Magic Series: Like the Ground Magic Series and the Regular Jumping Magic Series, the Super Jumping Magic Series allows you to do any version of a button. For example, with Zangief, you can do a Super Jumping Jumping Jab Chained into a Super Jumping Fierce, a Super Jumping Toward + Fierce, OR a Super Jumping Down + Fierce. * * * -=Links=- A Link is not a special form of combo. Whereas Chain Combos, Buffering, etc. are all special forms of comboing, Links are about as natural as you can get. Basically, a Link is when you combo two moves in a row using no special methods. Usually, a Link occurs if the first move ends fast enough so that a second move, which typically comes out really quickly, can hit the enemy before he/she finishes recovering from the first hit, thus registering the two hits as a Combo. For example, Bison's Crouching Forward Kick ends just early enough so that another quick move, such as Standing Jab, can catch the enemy before they recover from the Crouching Forward. Chun Li can do something similar with a Link from Standing Forward into a Crouching Jab. One last example shows that Charlie can Link a Standing Jab into a Crouching Short. You can't chain the Jab into a Short, but you can Link it for a two hit Combo. This can also occur during Air Combos (see Air Combos section in Combo Classifications). Some characters have Jumping attacks that end fast enough so that you can Link two attacks into one Combo in the middle of one Air Combo. For example, Cammy can do an Air Combo where she hits the enemy with a Super Jumping Strong, and then LINK a Super Jumping Jab afterwards for two comboing hits. She is NOT going backwards in her Super Jumping Magic Series because she is LINKING the two moves, not Chaining them. Finally, it must be noted that Links are perhaps one of the most DIFFICULT forms of Combos, mainly due to the fact the timing must be precise. If your timing is off even just a tiny bit, you'll miss the combo. Press the button a tiny bit too early, and your second move won't come out (because you haven't finished the first move). Press it too late, and it won't combo at all (the enemy will have recovered from the first hit already). Learning the timing of Links simply takes practice. ============================================================================== ************************* * COMBO CLASSIFICATIONS * ************************* Now, with all of the basic components to combos, you can do many different things with them. This section here lists all of the different types of combos possible using the basic components. Throughout this section, I will classify combos in the terms of locations. For example, in the Dashing Combos section, I will say that it is a Ground-to-Ground combo, meaning that these combos are done when you are on the ground attacking an enemy on the ground. The first location applies to you and the second applies to your opponent. * * * -=Regular Combos (Anywhere to Anywhere)=- The first type of combo possible, of course, is a normal combo using any of the four, basic components. A good example of this is a basic Magic Series Combo with Ryu: Crouching Short -> Crouching Forward -> Crouching Roundhouse. Another example is a basic Special Move Cancellation Combo with Gambit: Standing Roundhouse canceled by a Cajun Slash. Another example yet is doing a Jumping Fierce canceled by an aerial Cannon Drill with Cammy. These regular combos work everywhere including while jumping, like with the Cammy example. * * * -=Dashing Combos (Ground to Ground)=- There is no better way to initiate ground combos than by Dashing in this game. By doing a Dash before your first move, you can add more hits than if you did the combo without the Dash. This works because, when you Dash, your first attack will carry some left-over momentum from the Dash and, thus, your first hit won't push you away from the enemy as far as a non-dashing version of the attack would. For example, when Chun Li fights against Ken, she can do a Dashing Standing Short -> Standing Roundhouse Magic Series against him. However, if you do the exact same combo without Dashing, your Short kick will actually push you too far away so that the Standing Roundhouse, which has little horizontal hitting range, will completely miss your opponent. The extra Dash inserted at the beginning allows Chun Li to put in more hits for her Ground Magic Series so that she will not slide too far from the enemy from the initial hits, making the last move/moves whiff. Thus, when someone like Wolverine leaves himself open for a combo after missing with the Tornado Claw, it is much better to start a combo off by Dashing at him and comboing him than to just start it from standing next to him. Remember that it is key that you do not attack too fast with your first attack. The point of Dashing in is also to make sure you're as close to the enemy as possible so you can sneak in the most hits. In order to ensure that you are close to the enemy and hit them with all your moves, you must do the attack a little AFTER you start Dashing. For example, say you are Wolverine and you want to do a Dashing Combo against Juggernaut and want to hit him with a full Jab -> Short -> Strong -> Forward -> Roundhouse Magic Series. If you Dash at him but hit Jab too early in your Dash, you'll stop your Dash too soon and you wonÕt be as close to Juggernaut as you would have wanted to be, thus giving you the chance of missing with your last hit. However, if you Dash and attack a little later after your Dash starts, this will make sure you are closer to Juggernaut, giving you a better chance of landing all five hits. Needless to say that this is highly dependent on the distance between you and your enemy. If you are already next to each other, only a short pause is needed. If you are a screen away from the enemy, you can't get close enough with a Dash no matter what. * * * -=Jump-In Combos (Air to Ground)=- This type of combo is the use of the Magic Series to give yourself more hits when initiating a combo from Jumping. For example, if you are using Cammy and you Jump in at Magneto, you can do a Jumping Roundhouse, land, and do a Crouch Short -> Crouch Roundhouse combo. However, utilizing a Jump-In Combo allows you to perform a Jumping Jab -> Jumping Short -> Jumping Strong -> Jumping Fierce when you jump in at Magneto and all four attacks will come out before you land! Plus, you can still tack on the two hits from the ground afterwards. This is a VERY VERY VERY important technique to learn for this game for characters like Wolverine and Cammy. It allows you to trick other players into getting hit by combos. For example, if you are Gambit, you can attack with a Jumping Fierce from the air, which hits VERY far below it. If the enemy stands up and blocks it, they tend to fear that you are going to attack with a move that hits low when you land, like a Low Short for example. Thus, they tend to Crouch block after blocking the initial hit. Thus, if you learn to Chain Gambit's Jumping Fierce into a Jumping Roundhouse and they duck in the middle of those two attacks, they will get hit by your Roundhouse since it cannot be blocked while Crouching. Thus, you can continue on for a nice, nasty combo. As said before, Wolverine and Cammy are also good at this and even characters like Ryu can occasionally fool people into taking hits really well with this technique. An important thing to know to do these combos more effectively, however, is that in order to add many hits from normal jumping at the enemy, it is better to start the first hit VERY HIGH on your Jump Arc. For example, in the previous Cammy Vs. Magneto example, you have to hit the Jab Button right when Cammy starts on her way down from her Jump. If you wait too late to hit the Jab Button, there won't be enough time for her to get in all four hits before she lands. Also, it is important to note that the smaller attacks, such as Jab and Short, permit more hits. Using the Cammy example again, she can get in four hits ONLY if she uses Jab and Short for the first two. If she tries a Jumping Strong -> Jumping Forward -> Jumping Fierce -> Jumping Roundhouse, the Fierce or Roundhouse will miss because the previous two moves come out slower than the Jab and Short, preventing her from getting all four hits in. So, in the long run, it is debatable which is better: doing four hits with weaker attacks or two hits with stronger attacks. For example: Wolverine can Jump against Sabretooth with a Jumping Jab -> Jumping Short -> Jumping Strong -> Jumping Forward. However, he can opt for a Jumping Fierce -> Jumping Roundhouse instead. Which is better? To put it simply: for more hits and a more impressive looking combo and to confuse the enemy more, do the four hits from the weaker attacks. For more damage, do the two hits with the stronger attacks. I will leave it at that. * * * -=Juggling Combos (Ground to Air)=- Juggling is basically any combo that keeps your opponent in the air while you are on the ground hitting them. This can come in MANY forms. For example, If the enemy jumps backwards in the corner, Wolverine can catch them out of the air with a Low Strong and chain that into a Standing Forward into a Standing Fierce, all which will combo while the enemy is still in the air and you are still on the ground. All three hits will connect and "bounce" the enemy in the air a little. Another example is after Dhalsim performs the Yoga Noogie against you while you are in the corner. After he releases you and you fly from his hands, he can do a Yoga Inferno and nail you before you hit the ground, thus Juggling you out of the air. You can also Juggle the enemy with a Jumping attack. For example, after you perform a Berserker Barrage X against an enemy with Wolverine in the corner, you can Jump after the enemy and hit them with a Jumping Jab before they land. This is considered juggling but do take note that if you chain that Jumping Jab into a Jumping Roundhouse, you're heading into Air Combo territory. There are many forms of Juggling Combos. This isn't the most useful type of Combo, however. It is almost exclusively used most effectively for Air Combo set-ups after OTG Combos and for Flying Screen Combos (see the next two sections for more details). * * * -=Off The Ground Combos and Rolling (Anywhere to Ground)=- The Off the Ground Combo (OTG Combo) breaks the rule of combos that says: "A combo is a series of hits that the opponent can do nothing about once the first hit makes contact." You can actually prevent yourself from being OTG Comboed if you are aware of them (in MOST cases... see section entitled "Flying Screen Combos" for exceptions). So what is an OTG Combo? This is a combo where you knock the enemy onto the ground with a Knock-Down move (any move that makes the enemy fall down onto the floor so that they end up lying on the ground) and then combo them off the floor while they are still lying there. The basic way it works is this: when an enemy is lying on the ground, they can be hit by moves that hit low enough (sweeps, downward punches, etc.). When hit by these moves, regardless of WHAT they are, the person hit will fly off the ground only a SMALL distance and then land quickly again, rolling backwards a bit before getting back up on their feet. During the time JUST after they are hit before they start rolling backwards, they cannot block anything because they are stuck in reeling animation. Thus, you can actually hit them in that period of time with any move that will reach them. A good example of this is with Gambit. If you sweep someone with Gambit, the enemy hits the ground. You can OTG Combo them, however, if you cancel the Low Roundhouse into a Strong Cajun Slash. The Strong Cajun slash will leap up, knock the enemy off of the floor with the first downward swing, and then Juggle the enemy in the air with the next two hits. So even though you knocked the enemy down, you can still combo them afterwards. Other examples of how this can be very useful is with Cammy. If you perform a Spin Drive Smasher and hit someone when they are in the corner, they will hit the floor after the Super Combo is finished, and you'll be right next to where they land. Cammy has recovered already and can Low Short the enemy off the floor and Chain that into a Standing Roundhouse, which will knock the enemy upwards, setting them up for an Air Combo (see section entitled "Air Combos" to see how that works). So even though the enemy gets knocked down, you can still combo them further. But there is one catch: even though you can hit them off of the floor after you knock them over, the enemy is not doomed for certain. Remember that in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, you can Roll the instant you hit the floor after being hit by a move that knocks you down (with one exception... see "Flying Screen Combos" section for more details). So, in the previous Gambit example, after you sweep the enemy with the Low Roundhouse, if the enemy is ready for it or reacts quickly enough, he can Roll the instant he hits the ground and avoid the Cajun Slash. Anytime you can OTG an enemy, they can Roll away before the OTG hits. One thing you should take note of regarding OTG Combos: the window you have to OTG the enemy off the floor varies depending on the move you used to knock the enemy down. Moves like Cammy's Spin Drive Smasher give you VERY little time to OTG the enemy (you basically have to hit the enemy the INSTANT they hit the floor). With Rogue, you can Low Roundhouse the enemy and instantly cancel that into her Super Rushing Punches, which will OTG the enemy and continue to bash the enemy like normal. However, if Rogue delays even just one second, the Super Combo will whiff and just fly uselessly over the enemy on the floor. However, some give you a huge amount of time to OTG the enemy, such as Akuma's Raging Demon. After the Raging Demon, Akuma can OTG the enemy even after taking about one or two steps. Although these cases exist, most Knock-Downs only give you a small amount of time to OTG the enemy. Technically speaking, there is no such thing as an OTG "Combo" because OTG combos are mainly Juggling Combos initiated by hitting the enemy off the ground. After you knock the enemy off the ground, you can try to combo them in the air for as long as possible but this, then, has become a Juggling Combo. So Juggling Combos and OTG Combos go hand in hand. Without Juggling Combos, OTG Combos would be useless. The reason why OTG Combos are so good is because they usually allow the player to create longer combos. You can add many hits into a combo sequence if you add in a good OTG section. However, the bad part about OTG Combos is that the enemy can Roll away and completely avoid the rest of the combo. If they do NOT Roll, however, the combo will keep going and your Combometer will still rise. So even though the combos are escapable, they will still continue the Combometer going if they do NOT Roll away. There is one major limitation to OTG combos. It is NOT possible to do 2 OTGs in one combo. After being knocked off the ground once, you can no longer be hit off the floor again until you land and are able to block. Thus, if you do a combo that knocks the enemy down, OTGs them off the floor, and knocks them down again, you will no longer be able to OTG them again because the game only allows one OTG per combo (and of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but these exceptions usually arise from "glitch-like" circumstances, so they are very rare and, for now, not worth mentioning). * * * -=Flying Screen Combos=- The "Flying Screen" is the term I use to define the event where the screen scrolls VERY quickly after a character is struck by a certain move in certain situations. The view of the game follows the person who was hit and the person who initiated the hit is scrolled off the screen in a hurry. Once the screen stops moving, the person who was hit will just lie there and the other player will hop into the screen from the side. So what are some examples of moves that cause the Flying Screen? Wolverine's Fierce version of the Berserker Barrage is one. If you hit the enemy with the maximum number of hits of this move, the person getting hit will fly really quickly to the side while Wolverine disappears from view as the screen scrolls to follow the flying body. Another example of this is Ken's ShinRyuKen. After it finishes hitting the enemy, the enemy is hurled with great speed away from Ken's flaming column but the view follows the person being hurled, not Ken. Ken, on the other hand, scrolls off the screen only to hop back in after the hurled body lands on the ground. Also, all official "Air Combo Finishers" will cause the Flying Screen to be initiated (see the section entitled "Air Combos" for more details). When the Flying Screen is activated, certain conventions are completely disabled for a brief moment. For example, normally, a person who is knocked to the floor can perform a Roll to escape any further punishment, as explained above. However, when the Flying Screen is initiated, the enemy who was struck and flying through the air CANNOT Roll upon landing. The restrictions, though, are more prevalent against the person who did the attacking. After a Flying Screen is activated, the player that was doing the attacking can no longer perform ANY special moves, whether they are special moves or super combos. They can also no longer Super Jump. These limitations go away as soon as the person being hit is finally able to block again. Although these limitations would seem really limiting to the person trying to perform the combo, it can actually help him/her. If you are too close to the corner of the playing field (one of the two edges of the playing field), there is no where for the person who is hit to fly away! Thus, after getting sent into the Flying Screen, they will just hug the corner wall going up, and then down and hit the floor. So essentially, if you hit the enemy while you are in the corner and they are sent into the Flying Screen and you can recover quickly enough, you can add extra hits AFTER or BEFORE they land! And they can't Roll away from any attacks you hit them off the floor with! Here's an example of how to take advantage of the Flying Screen: if you're Wolverine and you do a Berserker Barrage X against someone in the corner, the enemy will be sent into the Flying Screen but he won't fly away from you because you're both in the corner, so the enemy has nowhere to go. The enemy will merely fly up against the wall and then fall back down. Wolverine recovers very quickly after the Berserker Barrage X so by the time the enemy is on their way down from the air, Wolverine is free to move again. Thus, he can actually Jump up, meet the falling body and hit it with a Regular Jumping Air Combo (see "Air Combos" section for more details). Many more examples of this exist, so the Flying Screen is definitely a good way to keep a combo going even after it seemingly ended. * * * -=Air Combos (Air to Air)=- Once again, the Air Combos are still the most "special" kind of combo, as the words "Air Combo" still appear at the side of the screen when you perform them (On Japanese versions, the words "Aerial Rave" will appear). However, Air Combos are not that easy to perform for beginners, as there are a lot of technicalities involved. They are difficult to get used to at first, but if you practice long enough, Air Combos will soon become extremely simple and easy and, like most combo aficionados, you'll be able to do them in your sleep. The actual definition that I give Air Combos is: "A series of hits you perform on an airborne enemy while you yourself are airborne." For example, if you juggle an enemy in the air while remaining on the ground, it is not considered an Air Combo. If you jump at an enemy and hit the ground-based enemy with two hits from a Jumping Magic Series, you do not get an Air Combo message. It only counts as an Air Combo if both characters are in the air. **NOTE: This section is VERY long and it might get confusing after a while. To help make things clearer, here is an "outline" of what will be discussed. First of all, I will describe the three different ways to set up an Air Combo: Launchers, Super Jumping at the enemy, and Regular Jumping at the enemy. Then, I will define what I call the Air Combo Finishers. Then, I will go into a section on tips on how to perform Air Combos, since a lot of people tend to have problems performing them correctly. -Set-Ups- Set-Up #1) Launchers --- In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, there are many moves that, when striking the opponent while they stand on the floor, will knock them off of their feet so that they are no longer on the ground. There are three kinds of these moves: 1) Launchers: these will knock the opponent off the ground and up into the air at relatively high heights; 2) Strikes: these moves will knock the enemy off their feet but not in an upwards direction so thatthey can't be used for an Air Combo set-up. Most of the time, they knock the enemy straight across the screen; 3) Knock-Downs: These are your basic sweep attacks... ones that drop the enemy to the floor, like most Crouching Roundhouse Kicks. Obviously, since these do not knock the opponent upwards, these cannot be used as Air Combo set-ups on their own. The Launchers are by far the most useful for Air Combos because they knock the opponent right into the range for an Air Combo Launchers will knock the enemy straight up into the air regardless of whether the enemy is hit out of the air or off of the ground right into range of your typical Air Combo. When the opponent is knocked upwards into the air by a Launcher, he or she becomes stuck in what I call "reel flight." This essentially means that they cannot block, move, or do anything during this time that they are being knocked upwards into the air, making them vulnerable to any attacks you may throw out on them. This reel flight lasts up until right after they begin falling back down. However, after that point, they can block everything again. So remember, it is always preferable to hit the enemy while they are still going UPWARDS in their reel flight. By the time they start falling back down, your Air Combo can be blocked. To use a Launcher successfully, you must hit the enemy with it and then cancel your Launcher with a Super Jump to follow the reeling enemy into the air for a combo. Thankfully, Capcom made it so that you do not have to do the complete Down, Up motion required to Super Jump after hitting the enemy with a Launcher. You merely have to hit any of the three Up directions to send your character Super Jumping after the enemy that was launched by your move. So after you hit the enemy with Launcher, immediately hold any of the three Up directions upon contact to make your character Super Jump and then start your Air Combo. Remember one important thing: you can ONLY cancel your Launcher with a Super Jump if it HITS the enemy. If they block your Launcher or you whiff with it, you cannot cancel it with a Super Jump. All moves Capcom has designated "officially" as a Launchers in this game are accompanied by a large, blue "energy circle" or "hit spark" when the Launcher hits the enemy. However, Capcom is really not very strict on counting what are or are not Launchers. A few moves that aren't counted as Launchers (shown by the lack of the accompanying big blue circular spark) can still be used as Launchers and can still be canceled into a Super Jump by pushing Up. These moves will still be counted as Launchers even though Capcom didn't give them the accompanying big blue circular spark. Set-Up #2) Super Jumping --- In this second set-up for Air Combos, you can actually Super Jump after an enemy who is already airborne and start comboing them right there and then without setting them up with a Launcher. This, however, is not as carefully set-up and the same combos that you used after Launchers may not connect with every hit as the enemy is not always in such perfect positioning. The enemy can be Flying, Super Jumping, or Regular Jumping... it doesn't matter. You can just Super Jump after them and start Air Comboing them. This is a good strategy against players who Super Jump constantly and attack from the air without regard to their own safety. Set-Up #3) Regular Jumping --- The best time to do this one is when your opponent Regular Jumps at you. You can regular Jump up at them and try to hit them first with your Air Combo. This is basically the same as the second method, except you're just regular Jumping and not Super Jumping. -Air Combo Finishers- The most noteworthy thing about Air Combos (Jumping or Super Jumping) is the presence of "Air Combo Finishers." Basically, an Air Combo Finisher is any move that, when done in an Air Combo, initiates the Flying Screen. For example: for every character, the Roundhouse button is an Air Combo Finisher... in other words, if you end an Air Combo with the Roundhouse button, the Roundhouse attack will initiate the Flying Screen, and the view will follow the person who is being hit. However, even though Roundhouse is an Air Combo Finisher for every character, it won't ALWAYS cause the Flying Screen when done in an Air Combo. For an Air Combo Finisher to actually activate the Flying Screen, two conditions MUST BOTH BE MET: 1) The Air Combo Finisher must be AT LEAST the third hit of the combo it is used in; 2) The Air Combo Finisher must be AT LEAST the second hit of the Air Combo it is used in. Sound confusing? Well, it is. Let me try to explain more clearly by giving you two examples of when these conditions are not met, thus resulting in the absence of proper Air Combo Finishers. Example 1: If you Launch an enemy using a three hit Dashing Combo that ends with a Launcher and Super Jump with an immediate Roundhouse, the Roundhouse will not cause the Flying Screen even though it satisfies condition number 1 (the Roundhouse is the fourth hit in the combo). The reason it fails to be an Air Combo Finisher is because it does not satisfy condition number 2. The Roundhouse is only the FIRST hit of the Air Combo, not the second or beyond. Example 2: If you Super Jump at an enemy who is currently in the middle of his/her own Super Jump and hit him/her with a Jab Chained into Roundhouse, that Roundhouse will not cause the Flying Screen (and thus not be an Air Combo Finisher) even though, this time, the second condition is met (it is at least the second hit of an Air Combo). This is because it does not satisfy the first condition. That Roundhouse is only the second hit of the whole entire combo (Jab was the first hit, Roundhouse was the second). So, once again, in order for an Air Combo Finisher to actually BE an Air Combo finisher, both aforementioned conditions MUST BE MET. Roundhouse is not the only Air Combo Finisher. For the majority of characters, Fierce is ALSO an Air Combo Finisher (however, there are some cases where the character does NOT have a Fierce Air Combo Finisher, like Cammy. Her Fierce does not end the combo nor does it initiate the Flying Screen). Some Special Moves also act as Air Combo Finishers. Rogue's Rushing Punches and Ryu's HaDouKen (Fireball) are also Air Combo Finishers, initiating the Flying Screen and knocking the enemy away with great speed. Most special moves, however, are NOT Air Combo Finishers. Ken's Air ShouRyuKen (Dragon Punch), for example, does not initiate the Flying Screen nor does it knock the enemy down with great speed. In fact, it doesn't knock the enemy down at all. After they are knocked upwards, the enemy can block on their way down just like normal. Generally, the rule for an Air Combo is to try and end it with a Special Move in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter. Not all of them are Air Combo Finishers, but in general, they do the most damage. Cammy, for example, does a MUCH larger amount of damage if she uses the Cannon Drill in an Air Combo compared to just using normal moves. Some special cases allow you to actually hit the enemy AGAIN after the initial Air Combo and Flying Screen initiation. For example, if you end an Air Combo with Ryu's Super Jumping Up + Roundhouse (hold Up on the controller and hit Roundhouse), it will knock the enemy slightly outwards. Since you are in the corner, the enemy will fly a bit up and then start falling down, right past Ryu again. Thus, in this time, Ryu can land MORE hits on the enemy while they are both on their way down. If he hits them with anything that ends with another Air Combo Finisher (whether it be a Chain combo into another Up + Roundhouse or just Up + Roundhouse by itself), the Flying Screen will be maintained and the enemy will still hit the floor afterwards, unable to Roll or block. HOWEVER, if Ryu does NOT hit the enemy with an Air Combo Finisher and stops at a Jab, Short, Strong, or Forward, the enemy will recover afterwards and can block on their way down again. At that point, the Flying Screen will have ended, so you and the enemy can once again do Special Moves, Super Jumping, etc. Also, if a Jumping Fierce that is an Air Combo Finisher can chain into the Roundhouse that is also an Air Combo Finisher fast enough for the Roundhouse to hit the enemy before they fly away, the Flying Screen will still be preserved. For example, with Wolverine, Fierce and Roundhouse are both Air Combo Finishers. However, if you're in the corner, you can actually Launch the enemy up into the air and do an Air Combo that ends with Fierce chained into Roundhouse. Since they are both Air Combo Finishers, the Roundhouse will not cancel out the Flying Screen initiated by the Fierce. There is a LOT of inconsistency between characters these days concerning Air Combos. A lot of characters have different timing problems, different height adjustments, different Magic Series... in fact, some characters are better off not ever performing an Air Combo!! Therefore, in the "Character Specifics" half on the FAQ, I am going to include a paragraph entitled "Details About the Air Combos" for each character, as each character has their own problems and their own advantages. Thus, a lot of detail for each specific character won't be gone into here about Air Combos. Check the paragraph of your favorite character for in depth tips on how their Air Combo behaves. -Tips On How To Perform Air Combos- By now a lot of you won't need this section. You guys have already practiced your Air Combos to the point where you can do them in your sleep. Well, this section is still here for one main reason now: to help all you players who purchased this game for a home system recently without any previous experience doing Air Combos from games like Marvel Super Heroes. So this section is dedicated directly at you players out there who bought this game for a home system and want to make the most out of it... so that you too can get those nice, long Air Combos. 1) The Reaction Problem: When it comes to using Launchers for Air Combos, one problem may occur: the enemy blocks your attack. When you go for Air Combos, your opponent may not be so nice as to let you hit them with your Launcher every time. In fact, they will probably block more than half of your Launchers. Thus, half the time you will find that your Air Combo attempts must be aborted. However, sometimes you WILL get a miracle Launcher to connect and the enemy is knocked high into the air. However, since you were so used to having the enemy block it, you reacted too late to them actually getting hit, Super Jumped too slowly, and your Air Combo failed. There is a simple solution to this problem: ***never believe your opponent is going to block your Launcher.*** In fact, this is the Fundamental Theorem of Combos: "Never believe your opponent is going to block your combo for it is always easier to react to them blocking it and abort the combo mid-way than it is to react to them getting hit and continuing the combo after you notice them getting hit." After you hit the enemy with your Launcher, hold Up for the Super Jump anyhow. If the enemy is hit, you'll go into your Air Combo. If they block it, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. Your move can't get canceled by a Super Jump since it was blocked. So merely let go of the controller and start blocking if you notice the enemy blocked your move. You can react quicker to the fact that the opponent BLOCKED your Launcher than to the fact that they got hit by it so always believe you're Launcher is going to hit. 2) The Timing Problem: A more elementary problem is merely getting off all the hits in the air. Some people have trouble, at first, timing the hits so that they will all connect. I've seen many people attack too late and fly past their enemy, attack too slowly so their combo just stops connecting, or hit their buttons too sporadically and only get 2 hits instead of potentially 5 or 6. The two most likely problems are 1) You aren't timing the buttons rhythmically. 2) You're doing nothing wrong (I'll explain). When you do Air Combos, it is VERY important that you do NOT HIT THE BUTTONS LOTS OF TIMES until you see the move hit and then switch buttons and hit that button LOTS of times until it hits. You also cannot hit the buttons really quickly and expect the whole combo to finish itself just 'cause you hit the right buttons, like you can with a UMK3 "Dial-A-Combo" or a Tekken "Typing Combo". The best way to do Air Combos is to develop a nice, steady rhythmic timing for each button so that you only hit each button once. If you develop this timing, you can do Air Combos with your eyes closed... seriously. The rhythms may be different for each character, however. For example, Sabretooth has a VERY easy timing and is BY FAR one of the easiest to do. His timing is VERY fast and very steady. However, Chun Li's is bizarrely slow, and very delayed so that the timing is a LOT slower than Sabretooth. Experiment with your character. The X-Men generally use quicker rhythms while the Street Fighters generally use slower rhythms. Warning, though: donÕt do it TOO fast... you can potentially do it SO fast that you skip moves. Learn a good consistent timing. The other problem is that you're doing nothing wrong. Some characters have moves that simply aim in the wrong direction. For example, Cammy's Jumping Forward Kick aims up and canÕt hit anything next to her. So if you get into the air and do a Jab, Short, Strong, Forward Air Combo, the Forward will most likely miss and the Air Combo will fail. So skip the Forward button altogether to get a simpler, easier Air Combo. Of course, against very large opponents like Juggernaut, you can hit them even with those high aiming moves. If there are any moves that are recommended to skip, I will mention that in the "Details about the Air Combos" section for each character in the "Character Specifics" half of this FAQ. 3) The Fireball Problem: This problem occurs for only characters will Air Fireballs and Crouching Launchers (Ryu, Cyclops, and Magneto). A lot of the times after you Launch the enemy into the air, you go up for the Jab hit and instead comes out a Jab Fireball, be it a HaDouKen, Optic Blast or EM Disrupter. This occurs because when you go from a Crouching Launcher to Forward Flip, the controller passes from Down to Down/Forward to Forward to Forward Flip. The Fireball code is in there and so when you hit Jab, the Fireball comes out instead. To fix this problem, this is what I do: hit Up on the controller EARLY. As SOON as I hit the button that is my Launcher, I immediately hold Up. Thus, by the time I hit Jab, the Fireball won't come out. That prevents the Fireball from coming out and you can proceed with your Air Combo. Another solution is merely to just be more careful when going to Up. Do it more carefully and don't sweep it around the front, doing the Fireball motion. Some characters will have this problem more seriously than other. It really is a minor problem and doesn't happen that often. Being careful is really the best advice I can give if you have this problem. 4) The Confusion Problem: Lastly, another problem that can occur once in a while is just pure confusion. Sometimes I launch the enemy and jump after them and forget which buttons I should try and use. In the above Cammy example, you might forget to skip Forward until it's too late and thus, you either pause too long because of your realization that you shouldn't hit Forward and whiff the Fierce Punch, or actually hit Forward and miss the enemy all together, missing the rest of the combo. A good way to solve this is to, with each character you use, keep it set in your mind which combo you want to do and what moves you are planning to use before you go up for it. That way, you can do the whole combo with great ease and control and not have to remember things at the last minute. I basically have each character's Air Combo dead set into my mind now so that it's completely second nature to me for which buttons to hit in an Air Combo... so much so that if I want to change it, I have a hard time changing. * * * -=Character Switching Combos=- This form of combo isn't flashy, isn't awesome, isn't anything but EXTREMELY practical. The reason that they are so practical is because, after switching characters, your new character has a fairly significant delay upon entering the screen... so significant that the majority of the time, the enemy can Super Combo you before you recover. This can get VERY frustrating and cause you to wonder, "When the heck am I supposed to change characters?!?" Well, one answer is Character Switching Combos. The best Character Switching Combo is a very simple thing: Sweep into Character Switch. The Character Switch acts just like a Special Move so you can cancel your normal move into a Character Switch just like you could cancel it into a Gene Splice. Thus, if you sweep the enemy and character switch, the new character entering the screen will actually fly in and OTG the enemy off the ground!! This will cause them to roll away, giving you PLENTY of time to end you entering delay. Also, if the enemy ROLLS after being swept, their Roll is long enough so that most characters cannot hit you after they Roll (some still might be able to... Chun Li can Roll after being swept and still recover in time to SenRetsuKyaku your teammate who just jumped in... but most characters can't get you in time). By the time their roll is over, your character is safe and sound and ready to move. There are other possibilities to this. For example, when the enemy is getting hit by Sabretooth's Birdie Bullet Spray, Sabretooth recovers before the Spray is finished. In that time, you can Switch Characters and your new character will hit the enemy at the end of the Bullet Spray in a combo, and your character that entered the screen will be safe and sound. Experiment around and find new ways to enter your characters in so that they won't get a Super Combo in their face every time. ============================================================================== ********************** * COMBO COMBINATIONS * ********************** Here's the meaty part: the ability to combine ALL of those different Combo Classifications in one combo. It is possible to put nearly every classification into one combo. An example: With Wolverine, do a Jumping Jab into a Jumping Short into a Jumping Strong. Land and dash with a Jab into a Short into a Crouching Strong into a Standing Roundhouse. Super Jump after them with a Jab into a Short into a Strong into a Strong into a Strong into a Forward canceled by an upwards aimed Drill Claw, followed by an immediate Roundhouse. Then, as the enemy falls down past your hovering body, hit them with another Roundhouse. Hit the enemy Off The Ground with a Crouching Short into a Crouching Strong into a Standing Roundhouse. YES, this is all one combo (and a relatively easy one at that!). In it, we have a Jump-In Combo, a Dashing Combo, and Air Combo, a Special Move cancellation, a Flying Screen Combo, an OTG Combo, a Juggle Combo... and the Magic Series is used everywhere in there. It's all actually possible and you can eventually do it flawlessly, hopefully, with enough practice. * * * -=Jumping Combos Into Dashing Combos=- There is ONE essential combination of Combo Classifications that deserves a LOT of attention and that is what this section will concentrate on: the Jump-In Combos into the Dashing Combos. As in MSH, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter gives you the possibility of hitting the enemy from a Jump-In, land and Dash with a move fast enough so that it all connects into one combo. If you do not learn this technique, it will be difficult to perform the larger and more impressive combos. So here are some tips on how to perform a Jump-In to Dashing Combo since it is such an important part of combos since it helps do the maximum potential damage in one combo. Jump-In to Dashing Combos is 100% timing and nothing else. In order to perform this correctly, you must 1) do however many hits from the air you were planning to do; 2) land with a Dash; 3) attack quickly enough before your opponent recovers from the hits from the air. To start off, make sure you know EXACTLY how many hits you're planning to do from the air. Jump at the enemy and start attacking the enemy. After you hit the last move you plan on doing from the air, you must enter the Dash code by tapping Towards on the joystick twice quickly. However, you must start to do the motion BEFORE you land from the air. So, in other words, after your last hit from the air, start dashing right away. However, you ALSO have to FINISH the code RIGHT when you land. Thus, you must hit the first Towards on the joystick while not yet landed but hit the second Towards on the joystick RIGHT when you have landed. THEN, you must hit the first button in your Dashing Combo quickly enough so that the enemy does not have time to recover from the Jumping attacks. Thus, it is logical to try to finish your Jump-In Combo with a Fierce or Roundhouse as those moves make the enemy reel the longest, giving you MORE time to connect a Dashing attack when you land. Also, it is logical to START your Dashing Combo with a Jab or Short, since those moves come out the quickest. This gives you the most lee-way for timing errors between the Jump-in and the Dash. This just takes practice. Once you practice enough, it gets REALLY easy to do and you'll never do a combo without it ever again. Just practice it and don't give up because it is VERY important to learn this technique. Another thing: there is an alternate way of doing the Jump-in to Dashing Combos. Since you can Dash by pressing all three Punches, you CAN also do a Jump-in to Dashing Combo simply by pressing the three Punches RIGHT when you land and going for your combo VERY quickly after Dashing. Seeing as how I prefer to use the Double Tap method personally, I can't offer any tips on doing it this way. Experiment with both methods and see which suits you the most. * * * -=Two Air Combos In One=- This is a really bizarre form of combo in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter that some people may not realize is possible. It requires two separate Air Combos... one normal Jumping Air Combo and one last Super Jumping Air Combo. The enemy must be in the air when you start this and there are two ways to do this combo. Basically, this is how it works: during a regular fight, this situation comes up a lot... the situation where you jump at your enemy and he jumps at you as well. Well, the "Two Air Combos in One" Combo Combination is just the thing you need to do a nice, damaging combo. If you Regular Jump at the enemy and they just happen to be Jumping at you as well, you can start hitting them on your way down from your Jump. When you land, they will be finishing their reel in the air. In that time, you can do one of two things: a) you can land and quickly throw out a Launcher attack if the enemy is low enough and knock them right back up for an Air Combo. Then, of course, you Super Jump and do your basic Air Combo; b) you can actually Super Jump the instant you land and continue hitting them on your way up if you're fast enough and if the enemy is too high up in the air for the Launcher to reach them. An example: say you're Cammy and the enemy jumps at you. You can jump at them and once you reach the height of your Jump Arc, you can start a Regular Jumping Air Combo with a Jab chained into Short chained into Strong chained into Forward Kick. You'll land and the enemy will have just been hit by your Forward Kick, and bounce a tiny bit in the air in their hit reel. Right when you land, hit Roundhouse and Cammy will kick upwards with her Launcher and catch the enemy before he/she recovers. Super Jump up with your favorite Air Combo. Thus, you connect the two Air Combos together in one. Not the greatest nor most exciting Combo combination and definitely not the most useful, but they can be used against people who jump a lot. Also, one last alternate way to use the Regular Jumping Air Combo: after hitting the enemy with the Regular Jump moves, you can land and walk under the enemywhile they are reeling in the air. They'll be able to block by this point, but they will usually be blocking the wrong way, since they are not expecting you to walk under them. Thus, if you throw out a Launcher after walking under them, they usually get nailed by it so you can get an Air Combo out this way as well. * * * -=Sweep Into OTG Combos=- In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, sweeps are really useful against inexperienced players who have not become accustomed to Rolling. That is because there are a LOT of natural Off The Ground moves in this game. For example, Cyclops's new Hook Kick move can OTG enemies off the floor with the second hit. Thus, Low Roundhouse canceled into the Hook Kick will be a two-hit combo. Another example is with Gambit: his Strong Cajun Slash is a natural and perfect OTG move. Thus, Low Roundhouse into the Strong Cajun Slash is an easy 4 hit Combo. Worse yet, for a LOT of the characters, a sweep can be comboed into a Super Combo, which can be highly devastating to the person on the receiving end since it is so damaging and so easy to do. For example, Chun Li can do a Low Roundhouse into the KikoShou Super. Rogue can do a Low Roundhouse into the Super Rushing Punches. Ryu can do a Low Roundhouse into a ShinKuu TatsuMakiSenPuuKyaku Super. And all of these combos hurt a great deal for a relatively easy combo. So if you are playing this game, you must, I repeat, MUST train yourself to react to sweeps very quickly. In a lot of those cases, a Roll can mean the difference between life and death. If you can train yourself so that you can react to sweeps at a moments notice, you should be able to escape this type of combo. No Sweep Combo canNOT be Rolled away from. All sweep combos can be escaped with a Roll. So listen to my advice: TRAIN YOURSELF INTO REACTING TO SWEEPS. You'll thank me for it. * * * Of course, there are a ton of Combo combinations that are possible. All you need to do is find them and work at them. If you examine the combos in the Character Specifics section carefully, you'll find a lot of different forms of combinations. So keep working on the combos and remember there are more combinations that just the few listed above. Good luck! ============================================================================== *********************** * Advanced Techniques * *********************** In this section, we will discuss some really advanced skills in doing combos. This section will cover the techniques needed to create the really long and crazy combos, such as the ones found under the "Insane Combos" for each character. In fact, a lot of these advanced techniques and advanced concepts even break a lot of the rules I have already established! Throughout this FAQ I have said things like, "Once the Flying Screen has been activated, YOU CANNOT DO SPECIAL MOVES ANYMORE," or stuff like "You are only allowed ONE OTG PER COMBO!!" Well, all of that isn't necessarily true. Of course, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is just a game, simply a game that people have programmed, and so there will be exceptions and there will be glitches and there will be things that happen that cannot be explained. Well, this section will cover a lot of the Advanced Techniques that can cause these anomalies and when they occur. This is where a lot of the variety, inventiveness, and creativity come from. Read on and you'll see what I mean... * * * -=Throw Combos=- If you hate Throws and are a player who generally dislikes Throws, then you'd better start getting used to them. In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Throws have the potential to be one of the most powerful weapons in the game, giving many characters free combos that amount to HUGE levels of damage, with nothing you can do to stop them. The Throws in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter are particularly lethal because, after thrown, your open game for anything. Certain throws, like Cyclops' Fierce Throw or Dhalsim's Strong Throw, allow them to hit your character even before they fall onto the floor after being thrown! Thus, Cyclops can catch you out of the air before you land with a Standing Strong, which is a Launcher, and go up for a nasty Air Combo! Dhalsim can meet your falling body with a Yoga Inferno for mass damage. Sabretooth can Air Throw you and then do a Berserker Claw X and catch your body out of the air, and have the Super Combo hit all four times, dishing out tons of damage to your character (get used to trying to Tech Hit out of Throws when they're expected, like Sabretooth's Air Throw Air Combo). That's why Throws are good (or bad, I should say) in terms of a two-player Fighting Game weapon. However, in terms of being a useful combo tool, Throws can be a blessing, allowing you to make the longest combos you've ever seen! Once you understand how Throws can be used in combos, the combos you can come up with can be crazier than anything you've ever imagined. So what is it that makes Throws so good? Well, they are versatile. They do set-up combos very well, allowing you to easily Juggle or OTG an enemy after being Thrown. They are a useful way to make combos last longer: a well-placed Air Throw in the middle of an Air Combo can easily extend a combo in length, especially if the character has no way to end an Air Combo that allows him/her to tack on more hits afterwards! Even a well-placed Ground Throw during a corner Juggle can give rise to a whole new section of the combo, extending it to high numbers on the Combometer you didn't think you could reach previously! Throws can allow you to really pack it on! But the thing that makes Throws single-handedly the MOST significant and powerful combo tool is this: Throws reset all restrictions. If you manage to get a Throw to combo (actually add to the Combometer), any restriction that was there before (the "Only One OTG" Restriction, the "No More Special Moves or Super Jumps After a Flying Screen" Restriction, etc.) is GONE. They may be slightly "modified," but they are gone. This allows you to make combos continue on for LONG periods of time, even after, say, a Flying Screen is initiated. Before, it was believed once the Flying Screen was activated, your combo would come to an end VERY SOON, unless you had an Infinite Combo. Thanks to Throws, this isn't true at all. In terms of eliminating the restrictions, Throws definitely erase the Flying Screen restriction completely. The OTG restriction is a little different. Although, they allow you to get more than one OTG in a combo, each OTG opportunity after the very first opportunity seems to have less time for you to actually hit them off of the floor. For example, after a Fierce Throw from Cammy, she can easily do a Dashing Crouching Short to OTG the enemy off the floor. However, if Cammy does a combo which has an OTG early on and then puts a Fierce Throw in the middle of the combo after the OTG, a Dashing Crouching Short will not be quick enough to hit the enemy off the ground!! She only has enough time to hit the enemy with an immediate non-Dashing Crouching Short. So after the first OTG opportunity, the time you have to hit the enemy off the floor seems to decrease. However, if Throws reset all these restrictions, wouldn't that mean Throws pretty much can create Infinite Combos? Couldn't Sabretooth get you in the corner and do an Air Throw, Relaunch, Air Throw, Relaunch, Air Throw, and on and on and on?!? Well, even though Throws reset all the other restrictions, that doesn't mean Throws have their own restriction: in a combo, you are only allowed TWO THROWS. After the second Throw, you are no longer allowed to Throw the enemy until the enemy is at a point where they are able to walk and block again. This applies even if you do NOT actually combo a Throw... if the Throw does NOT add to the Combometer, the rule still applies. For example, if Sabretooth goes up for the Air Throw combo and doesn't have the Throw added into the Combometer, he is still only allowed one more Throw. If he Relaunches the enemy and then gets ANOTHER Air Throw in that doesn't combo, he still is not allowed to Throw the enemy anymore even though neither Throw comboed!! The only time in which he is finally allowed to Throw again is when the enemy has reached a point where they are once again able to stand on the floor and have the option of Blocking. This is Capcom's safety mechanism for preventing Infinites with Throws (nice thought, Capcom, but you guys obviously didn't think hard enough to eliminate all those other disgusting Infinites in the game!!!). There are three different ways you can use Throws in combos in this game. The three different types of ways you can use Throws are: 1) Throws as Combo Starters; 2) Air Throw Combos; and 3) Bouncing Throw Combos. -Throws As Combo Starters- There are many cases in which, after Throwing someone, your character has recovered and is ready to move before the enemy has a chance to move again. To repeat the previous example, if Dhalsim performs the Yoga Noogie on you while he has you trapped in the corner, the last hit of the Yoga Noogie knocks you very high up into the air and makes you land on the floor. HOWEVER, Dhalsim recovers before you hit the floor so, before you can block or Roll, he can do a Yoga Inferno and nail you OUT of the air. More examples: If Juggernaut throws you with Fierce from ANYWHERE, he can Juggernaut Headcrush you before you land every time. With Cyclops, if he grabs you with the Leg Tackle and he lands you in the corner, he can punch you out of the air before you land with his Standing Strong, a Launcher, and then go into an Air Combo on that includes the Guidable Optic Beam Super... or worse yet, go into an Infinite Combo!! Other Throws do not let you recover as quickly, but you still have enough time to easily OTG the enemy if you Throw them into the corner. For example, Ryu can Fierce Throw you onto the ground into the corner and then Crouching Short you off the ground for an OTG. He can then Chain the Short into a Crouching Fierce for an Air Combo. Chun Li can also Fierce Throw you into the corner and OTG you with a Crouching Short and Buffer that into a SenRetsuKyaku. Of course, you can Roll away from these types of Throw Combos (except for Gambit's Strong and Fierce Throw from some odd reason... he gets to OTG you for free). Thus, against people who Turtle and don't know how to Roll, Throws as Combo Starters are definitely the way to go. -Air Throw Combos- There are a lot of Jumping Attacks in this game that recover pretty quickly. Usually, after using these types of moves in the middle of an Air Combo, you recover from your move before the enemy recovers from their reel. If that is the case and you are next to the enemy when this happens, you can try Air Throwing the enemy before they recover. If you catch them with the Throw in the middle of their reel, it will add to the Combometer and award you with a hit, even though it is a Throw. But there IS a catch: the timing is VERY difficult to do in most cases and the positioning is pretty touchy. For example, Sabretooth can do a Low Fierce (which is a Launcher) and Super Jump and do a Super Jumping Jab into a Super Jumping Short into a Super Jumping Strong... and then combo in an Air Throw afterwards! However, if the enemy doesn't end up at just the right height and at just the right distance, it won't combo. In fact, you might not even be in proper position for the Throw if you time the Super Jumping Magic Series poorly. However, if you do end up at just the right position relative to your opponent, Throwing them is relatively simple. Most of the time, however, you actually end up Throwing them, but not in a combo (your Throw was a tad bit too slow and they recovered from their reel already... but since they are still in range for your Air Throw, you catch them anyhow). Of course, that's good enough, but it's more impressive to land it in a combo if you are playing with the mind-set of going for combos with high numbers in the Combometer. Comboing the Throw shows you have great timing and skills to combo the Throws, making the whole thing an official combo! However, if you are just going for damage (say, against another player), it is more preferable to NOT combo the Throw. If you don't combo the Throw, the game basically thinks the combo is a brand new combo, so the Throw does full damage, whereas if it adds to the Combometer, it will do much less damage because it is later in the combo, when moves generally do much less than normal damage. I prefer having it add to the Combometer, of course, since I play the game specifically for the combos, and not the damage. When you first start trying to put Air Throws into a combo, a good tip is to use a button that is the same or earlier in your Magic Series so that you won't accidentally do a Chained move. In other words, if you want to Throw after a Super Jumping Forward Kick, it is best to try Air Throwing with the Forward or Strong button. If you try with a Fierce or Roundhouse, you could easily end up Chaining into those moves instead. For example, in the above Sabretooth combo, you can try to Throw with Fierce, but any SLIGHT mistiming will make you Chain from the Strong into the Fierce, since that's his Magic Series. Thus, trying to Throw with the Strong button is much better because you cannot Chain from Strong into Strong, giving you a better chance to land the Throw rather than coming out with the next move in the Super Jumping Magic Series. However, after you start learning the general timing of Air Throw combos, this isn't necessary... just good timing is good enough. Keep practicing until you start getting a general idea of what the timing of the Throw is and eventually, you'll be able to easily do things like Super Jumping Jab, Fierce Air Throw with Sabretooth, even though the Fierce is later in the Magic Series. -Bouncing Throw Combos- In general, it is impossible to put a Ground Throw in the middle of a combo. Any of the normal throws (holding towards on the controller and hitting a button) cannot grab an enemy out of a ground reel. This also includes the ground Spinning Pile Driver with Zangief and the Leg Tackle with Cyclops. If it were possible to throw people out of their reels, Zangief should be able to combo a Crouching Short canceled into a Spinning Pile Driver, and have it connect... but it doesn't. Instead, Zangief will just whiff his Spinning Pile Driver. So obviously, Ground Throws cannot be used against a Standing Opponent. But I'm claiming there's a way to put Ground Throws in the middle of a combo!! So how does this work? Well, there are certain moves in the game that, when they hit the enemy out of the air, cause the enemy to bounce off the floor after being struck. Since they bounce on the floor, the computer actually registers the enemy as being on the ground the instant they hit the floor. After they hit the floor, they bounce off of it very quickly and are in the air again and are finally able to block, free to defend against whatever hits are coming at them. However, since the enemy was technically touching the floor and still in a hit reel, they are fair game to be Thrown! Thus, if you can find a way to hit the enemy to the ground so that they bounce on the floor and you are close enough to Throw them, you can actually Throw them and have it register on the Combometer, since they couldn't do anything about it. For example, if Cyclops does a Gene Splice to an enemy, the last hit (the little Optic Bullet he fires straight up) will hit the enemy and cause them to slam into the ground and bounce off very quickly. Thus, if you hit the enemy with a Gene Splice, don't hit any extra buttons (to produce as few hits as possible), the last shot will hit the enemy and you'll land pretty quickly. The INSTANT the enemy hits the floor, you can hit Towards + Fierce and Throw them and have it count on the Combometer. The Bouncing Throw Combos are extremely difficult to time properly so that it adds to the Combometer. Sometimes, you are just HALF A SECOND too slow and you'll still land the Throw, but it won't count on the Combometer. To get theThrow to actually Combo will take a lot of precise timing and good practice. Since Ground Throws are extremely difficult to put into a combo and proper set-ups for them don't come around very often, it is easily said that these types of Throw Combos are easily the least practical. To this day, I only know of about five that can actually be set up and have the Throw actually combo. A lot of combos out there can get the enemy to be Thrown, but I have yet to get it to add to the Combometer. Excuse me for repeating myself, but again, this is easily the least practical of all the Throw Combo types, due to difficulty and rarity, but if you CAN find a place to use it, the results are very, very lethal. Take a look at Cammy's Insane Combo #2 to see what I mean. * * * -=Launch Height=- One important factor about X-Men Vs. Street Fighter that I felt needed mention was the concept of "Launch Height." If you read thoroughly through the combos that I have listed for some characters, you'll see that sometimes I tell you to do a five hit Air Combo after a Launch, yet sometimes I tell you to just do 3 hits after a Launch. For example, one Gambit combo (Intermediate Combo #3) says to Launch the enemy and do a Super Jumping Jab into Short into Strong into Forward into Fierce, while another combo (Intermediate Combo #5) says to Launch them and hit them with only a Jab into a Short into a Strong into a Fierce, skipping the Forward Kick. Why am I making you skip the Forward in some cases and telling you to put it in in other cases? Why not just go for all five hits in both cases? The answer is Launch Height. The height at which the enemy is hit when he/she is Launched can actually make a difference in how many hits you can preform on him/her. Let's take a look at the Gambit examples. Gambit's Crouching Fierce, his Launcher, knocks the enemy very high up. If he Launches an enemy when the enemy is standing on the ground, as in Intermediate Combo #3, the enemy will fly up a certain fixed distance. Gambit Super Jumps up and ends up at the same height as his enemy and then proceeds to hit them with all five hits. However, if you look at Intermediate Combo #5, Gambit OTGs the enemy off of the floor with the Crouch Short, which bounces the enemy into the air a bit. Then, Gambit hits the enemy out of the air with his Crouching Fierce while the enemy is a little bit off the ground. The enemy will then fly up the same fixed amount of distance he flew up before in the previous combo, but since he's already slightly airborne, the max height at which he reaches will be slightly HIGHER than the previous example. Thus, when Gambit Super Jumps, the best he can do is reach a height slightly BELOW the enemy, and thus, he cannot land all five of the hits before he starts falling back down to a height too low for the more hits to connect. Thus, in this combo, it is better to leave out a move, in this case Super Jumping Forward, to have the Air Combo Finisher, the Super Jumping Fierce, connect. The Launch Height seems to simply be a hindrance, causing certain combos to fail. That isn't the case. In a LOT of situations, the Launch Height can actually be HELPFUL. Let's look at Cyclops. If he Launches the enemy while the enemy is standing on the ground and he goes up for a five hit Air Combo that goes Super Jumping Jab into Short into Strong into Forward into Fierce, the Fierce will miss! Cyclops zooms past the enemy and the enemy is too low for the Fierce to connect. However, if Cyclops Launches the enemy out of the AIR, the enemy will be slightly higher up. This allows Cyclops to do those five hits in the Air Combo very easily! The added height from Launching the enemy is actually a helpful thing, so the extra height gained from, say, OTGing an enemy into a Launcher would benefit Cyclops greatly. So what can you do when you Launch someone off the ground? Does this mean that when you Launch someone from the ground, it's hopeless to land that Fierce at the end of Cyclops' Air Combo? Is there any way you can fix the low Launch Height problem? The answer is yes. You can simulate a higher Launch Height by Super Jumping half a second later AFTER Launching the enemy. After you Launch the enemy, there is a small window after the Launcher hits that you can press Up and Super Jump. Normally, you would Super Jump the instant the Launcher hits. However, you can actually wait after the Launcher hits for half a second, and THEN hit Up to Jump a bit later. This allows the enemy to fly up slightly higher than before, resulting in a simulated higher Launch Height. So if you use this tactic with Cyclops, landing that Fierce at the end of the Air Combo is a cinch. At first, the tactic doesn't seem all that important. But as you do more and more Air Combos, you'll learn that this technique is a MUST LEARN for creating long and potent Air Combos. For example, if you look at Cammy's Intermediate Combo #7, that Air Combo is by FAR much easier to do if you let the enemy fly up in their Reel Arc higher than normal. If you do not use the delayed Super Jump technique, it'll be a LOT harder to pull off all seven hits of the Air Combo, and impossible to pull off any hits that ARE possible after the initial seven hits. Zangief's Insane Combo is impossible without the use of this technique. In other words, as you play the game more and more and learn more and more Air Combos, you'll learn this technique is integral for many combos, such as adjusting the height of enemies for Air Throw Combos, or for corner Air Combos with multiple Air Combo Finishers. * * * -=Cancel Delaying=- Cancel Delaying... ugh... what a lousy title for this section, but I couldn't think of a better way to put it. Basically, this section teaches you how to control your cancel timing. By "cancel," I am referring to either Chain Combos or Buffering. If you recall, you are allowed to Chain one move into a later move in the Magic Series at ANY point after the first one connects. Also, you can Buffer a Special Move from a normal move at ANY POINT during the normal move's animation. Thus, is both cases, you do NOT have to cancel the first move into the second move the instant it connects. You can cancel it LATER. So what's the use of this? Well, it is most useful during Air Combos. In order for certain Air Combos to work, you will have to learn how to change the timing of your attacks for it to connect in full. For example, let's take a look at Gambit's Expert Combo #3. It says that, after you Launch the enemy, to do a Super Jumping Jab into a Super Jumping Forward into a Super Jumping Roundhouse. Then, you are supposed to do a Super Jumping Fierce before you land and hit the enemy off of the ground for an OTG. However, if you try to do this combo by Chaining the Jab, Forward, Roundhouse sequence as fast as possible, you'll find that you hit the enemy with the Roundhouse right when you reach the height of your Jump. By the time you are low enough to hit the enemy with a Super Jumping Fierce, it's too late: your enemy is practically already standing up by the time you land. So how does the combo work? Basically, you have to learn how to put small delays between all the hits of your Air Combo for it to work. Super Jump after the Launched enemy and hit Jab as late in your Jump as possible. Then, slowly Chain the Jab into a Forward. Then, once again, wait half a second before canceling the Forward into the Roundhouse. Now you'll notice, if you time the whole thing right, Gambit is well past the height of his Jump once the Roundhouse connects. If fact, he is already starting his downward flight from the Jump. Thus, you'll have no trouble at all landing the Crouch Fierce on the enemy who is lying on the ground. Gambit is already on his way down when the enemy gets floored by the Super Jumping Roundhouse so the enemy has barely touched the ground when Gambit hits him with the Jumping Fierce. Another example of Cancel Delaying is Ken's Expert Combo #1. At the very end, Ken OTGs the enemy off the ground with a Crouch Short. Then, you are supposed to Juggle the opponent in the corner by canceling the Short into a Crouching Strong into a Standing Forward Kick that hits twice into a Standing Fierce into a Standing Roundhouse. You'll notice, however, that if you cancel the Crouch Strong into the Standing Forward Kick as quickly as possible, the Crouch Strong will have bounced the enemy so high that the Standing Forward kick will miss! However, if you delay the Standing Forward kick just a FRACTION of a second, you can get the Standing Forward Kick to hit once (the enemy lands on the end of the kick). However, we want the Standing Forward Kick to hit TWICE, not once. So you can even delay the kick just a little bit LONGER, allowing Ken to combo the Crouch Strong into BOTH HITS of the Standing Forward Kick (however, if you wait TOO long, it'll no longer be a combo, as the enemy will have ended their reel and be able to block the Standing Forward, so timing is key). Also note that in order to combo the Standing Fierce after the Standing Forward, we again have to delay the Standing Fierce for half a second, or it'll go under the enemy because the Standing Forward pushed the enemy too high up. One last example of Cancel Delaying is with Akuma. If you Launch the enemy up with Crouch Fierce and try to do a Super Jumping Jab into Super Jumping Short into Super Jumping Forward Buffered into a ZanKuu HaDouKen, you'll notice that the Air Fireball will completely miss the enemy because the enemy is too high up in the air. However, if you delay the Air Fireball for half a second, you can easily connect the ZanKuu HaDouKen into the combo and nail the enemy out of the air. Learning how to adjust the timing of your attacks can become the difference between pulling a combo off and failing the combo miserably. Learn this technique after you have mastered normal Air Combos, and you'll see how controlling the timing of your canceling can benefit your combos greatly. * * * -=The Deteriorating Flying Screen=- Most of the rules of X-Men Vs. Street Fighter are very consistent. I've managed to pinpoint most of the rules and figure them out fairly accurately, in my opinion. However, this is one occurrence in the game that has remained a mystery and an inconsistency for me. What I am talking about is the Deterioration of the Flying Screen. During some combos, more often than not an Infinite Combo, the Flying Screen restriction will simply just disappear completely randomly! This usually happens during Air Combos in the corner where, after the Flying Screen is initiated from the Air Combo, the character doing the combo lands and continues the combo from the ground. During the combo, the Flying Screen restrictions just disappear at a random moment and Special Moves, Super Combos, and Super Jumps are all legal again. The reason this happens is not known to me. It just happens during certain combos, and there really isn't any reason I can find for it happening. Let's look at a few combos where the Deterioration of the Flying Screen occurs: Take a look at Dhalsim's Expert Combo #1. Dhalsim does an Air Combo that ends with Super Jumping Roundhouse, which initiates the Flying Screen. Dhalsim then lands and jumps up with a Jumping Short into Forward into Roundhouse (the Roundhouse maintains the Flying Screen). After landing, Dhalsim is then supposed to do a Crouching Short (a slide attack). Now, at this point, the Flying Screen restrictions are supposed to still be standing. However, SOMETIMES, the Flying Screen seems to just... disappear! Thus, after the Short Slide, Dhalsim can Buffer it into the Yoga Inferno. I have done this combo before, but oddly enough, the Yoga Inferno comes out VERY rarely. I cannot find a reason why the Flying Screen restrictions go away and sometimes they don't. Another example: Cyclops' Insane Combo #1 (actually, this happens with almost EVERY, what David Dial calls, "Bobbing" Infinite Combos, but we'll use Cyclops' as the example). Cyclops knocks the enemy to the floor with the Air Combo ending with a Super Jumping Fierce into Super Jumping Roundhouse Chain, and adds another Super Jumping Roundhouse before he lands. The Fierce activates the Flying Screen restrictions and the two Roundhouses maintain it. Then, Cyclops lands and OTGs the enemy off the ground with a Crouching Short and Juggles the enemy by Chaining the Crouching Short into the Crouching Strong. After that, Cyclops Links in a Standing Jab and Chains that into a Crouching Strong, and repeats that two-hit sequence over and over again, for an Infinite Combo. Now sometimes, you can repeat this sequence forever, and the enemy will eventually die. Sometimes, in the process of going from Standing Jab into Crouching Strong, you do the code for the Optic Sweep and that move comes out instead of a Crouching Strong (which, of course, SHOULDN'T happen because of the Flying Screen Restrictions). Sometimes, you are doing the Infinite easily and then Cyclops starts getting pushed out of the corner and eventually, you cannot continue the Infinite because Cyclops slides too far out! In the last two cases, the Flying Screen "Deteriorated." So what's the significance of this? Well, knowing that the Flying Screen sometimes deteriorates, you can take advantage of it by going into combos that weren't possible before the restrictions disappear! For example, once you detect the Flying Screen has Deteriorated in the above Cyclops combo, Cyclops can, instead of Chaining the Standing Jab into a Crouching Strong for the Infinite, Chain the Jab into a STANDING Strong, which will Launch the enemy. Since the Flying Screen has Deteriorated, Cyclops can then Super Jump again and go for an Air Combo once again. Or, rather than going for an Air Combo, he can Chain the Standing Jab into both Standing Roundhouse kicks (by hitting Roundhouse twice) and Buffer the second kick into the Mega Optic Blast, which wasn't possible before because of the Flying Screen restrictions!!! Thus, if you can detect the Flying Screen Deterioration, you can create a combo that has much more happen at the end that normal after a Flying Screen. So how can you notice if the Flying Screen deteriorates? In the above Dhalsim example, there is no way to tell, so there's no way you will know for sure if the Yoga Inferno will come out or not. But for the Cyclops combo (as well as all Bobbing Infinite Combos), there is a sign that the Flying Screen has Deteriorated. If you notice, when you are doing corner Juggle combos (combos where, after you land from an Air Combo Flying Screen, you start Juggling the enemy in the corner with a Chain of normal moves) after a Flying Screen, your character does NOT get pushed out. Your character, without holding any direction on the controller, will pretty much remain right where he/she is standing until the sequence of normal moves ends. However, if you try the same sequence of moves BEFORE a Flying Screen is activated, you'll notice that your character DOES in fact get pushed OUTWARDS, away from the corner. Thus, if you are doing your Bobbing Infinite in the corner and you notice your character, for no discernible reason, starts sliding away from the corner with each hit, you know the Flying Screen has Deteriorated. If your reflexes are fast enough, you can take advantage of this and go into an Air Combo or Buffer into a Super or something. But they must be QUICK, because you don't have much leeway after the Flying Screen Deteriorates, because your character is pushed out rather quickly. Unfortunately, there is no accurate way to predict when the Flying Screen decides to Deteriorate!! During the Cyclops Infinite, I've had it happen RIGHT away, I've had it happen after a few repeats of the Bobbing Chain Combo, I've had it happen after MANY repeats, and I've had it where it NEVER happened (the enemy just gets comboed forever until they die). Because I have no clue as to why the Flying Screen Deterioration happens, I have no way of predicting when it will happen. You just have to be quick to notice that it DID happen, and react properly. The Flying Screen Deterioration, in all honesty, is not something of great concern. It occurs SO very rarely and there are only about three or four combos I know of that can actually take advantage of it. I will continue to experiment with the Deterioration of the Flying Screen, but I doubt I will ever come up with a logical explanation for its occurrences. But if by some off-chance, I do find out why it happens, I will be sure to update the FAQ one last time. Until then, Flying Screen Deterioration is simply a novelty, and not something you can really take advantage of. * * * -=Manual Super Jumping Combos=- Only Launchers can be canceled into a Super Jump by simply holding any of the three Up positions. Oddly enough, however, you CAN cancel almost EVERY normal move into a Super Jump MANUALLY by doing the full Down, Up motion. If you hit the enemy with a normal move, such as Ryu's Crouching Forward Kick, you can actually time the Down, Up motion so that Ryu will cancel his Crouching Forward Kick into a Super Jump (or hit all three kicks, which is actually easier). You have to have hit Up half a second AFTER the move connects. If you hit it RIGHT when it connects, it won't cancel. After it connects, you can cancel it into a Super Jump at any point of its animation. Note, though, that it cannot be canceled into a Super Jump if it is blocked. This, however, isn't a particularly useful trick for combos, though in some VERY rare cases, it can be applied. However, for now, it is virtually worthless except to use as a set-up to Zangief's Infinite Combo (see Zangief's Expert Combo #2) and to do a very interesting and fun Wolverine Combo (Expert Combo #3). ============================================================================== ******************************************* * IMPORTANT SECTION TO READ: COMBOABILITY * ******************************************* One of the things that makes X-Men Vs. Street Fighter more interesting than most combo-fest games is the fact that all the combos DON'T work on every character, causing you to improvise and change up combos depending on which character you're fighting against (this is one of the arguments that Virtua Fighter players use as a reason why Virtua Fighter is such a great combo game as well as versus game). However, when you're just trying out combos to see if you can do them or not, this can be a small problem, because you might be frustrated that you can't land a combo on someone and it turns out it's not your fault: it just doesn't work on that character. Thus, this page dictates some of the differences between the characters based on what I have found (so they are in no way claiming to be precisely accurate, so I could be wrong about a few things). * * * -=Body Types=- In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, like all Marvel Fighting Games, it is important to realize the different body types that exist. There are three different aspects of body types that you need to take notice of when considering whether or not your combo will work on a specific character: Height, Width, and Weight. Height determines how many hits you can get in from a Jump-In Combo, and can also affect some Air Combos. Width determines how many hits you can get in for a Dashing Combo usually. Weight only affects mostly Juggling and Air Combos. Here are very rough lists of general comparisons between characters: Height (From Tallest to Shortest): - Juggernaut - Sabretooth/Magneto/Zangief - Gambit/Rogue/Cyclops/Storm - Charlie/Dhalsim/Bison - Ryu/Ken/Akuma - Cammy/Chun Li - Wolverine Width (From Widest to Thinnest): - Juggernaut - Sabretooth/Zangief - Magneto/Gambit/Rogue - Cyclops/Storm/Charlie/Bison - Ryu/Ken/Akuma/Dhalsim - Cammy/Chun Li/Wolverine Weight (From Heaviest to Lightest): - Juggernaut - Zangief/Sabretooth - Magneto - Gambit/Rogue - Cyclops/Storm - Charlie/Dhalsim/Bison - Ryu/Ken/Akuma/Wolverine - Cammy/Chun Li During the combo listings, I will refer to "bigger" or "lighter" or other such character descriptions. This is a chart of which characters fall under the appropriate description: "bigger" or "larger" or "heavier" - Sabretooth - Juggernaut - Zangief "smaller" or "lighter" - Cammy - Chun Li - Wolverine All other characters are generically called "normal". AND ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING: remember that on some characters, you can get more hits than on other characters (like, for example, you can land many more hits against Juggernaut than you can against Cammy). The combos I am listing will work on the majority of the characters but I will not list the EXACT details on where you can add more hits or where you might want to take some out. All three categories of height, width, and weight will cause the need to alter some of the combos I've listed depending on whom you are comboing. So please beware that some combos I've listed MAY NOT WORK against certain characters, but will work on the majority of the characters. Experiment on your own to figure out where you can insert moves or where you might need to take out some moves. * * * -=Comboability Specifics=- In this section, I will go through each character one by one and describe their ability to BE comboed, which will mostly include information regarding problems with trying to combo each character. -Cyclops- Cyclops is probably the most "average" body build. He has a good height to be effectively Jump-In comboed and his body weight is just right so that almost every combo works on him. Cyclops, to me, is the IDEAL character to do combos against: good height, good width, good weight. I think almost every combo in the game works on him because of his "averageness." Basically, if you are playing the game just to do combos (with a Saturn or PlayStation Training Mode at home), pick Cyclops as your target the majority of the time. There are almost NO problems that arise from using Cyclops as your intended victim. -Storm- Storm is basically identical to Cyclops in every way shape or form, except that she might be just a tad bit lighter in weight. Thus, certain things may knock her into the air higher than normal. For example, if Juggernaut throws Storm into the corner, he may have to delay longer against her before doing the Headcrush than if he throws, say, Cyclops into the corner. But other than that, Storm is another good character to combo. -Wolverine- Needless to say, Wolverine is absolutely the most difficult character to combo in the game. He is WAY too short so Jump-In combos basically don't work against him. In general, it is literally impossible to land a lot of Jump-In hits on Wolverine. Surprisingly, though, his small stature does not affect his weight that much. Cyclops doesn't have much trouble pulling off his 11 hit Air Combo (see Cyclops' section to see which combo I mean) on Wolverine in the corner because Wolverine falls down at a normal rate. In fact, Wolverine is slightly LIGHTER than most characters, making it particularly EASY to land Air Combos against Wolverine. So in a way, his lighter weight helps out. -Gambit- Cyclops still counts as being more of a "light-weight" character. Cyclops borders on the heavy-light characters section, probably barely leaning in the Light characters department. Gambit is the complete opposite... he IS heavier than Cyclops, but barely. So he does count as a Heavy character, but he too is pretty much on the border. Also, he's taller and thicker than Cyclops by a bit, making him more easily comboed. Gambit is basically the second most ideal target when doing combos. -Rogue- Rogue would seem to be an ideal target, as mentioned in the last version of this FAQ. However, after repeated playing, Rogue turns out to be the WEIRDEST target in the game. There is definitely SOMETHING wrong with her build (especially when reeling in the air after getting hit), allowing her to get hit by things that DO NOT WORK ON ANYONE ELSE!!! For example, she's the only character Magneto can do a Standing Strong canceled into a Hyper Grav against in the corner and have it COMBO! Rogue is the only character Bison can connect the repeated Flying Short into Flying Forward sequence against (see Bison's Insane Combo). So while Rogue is a good character to do combos against (most of them work on her), she can be a very DECEPTIVE character to do combos against. Stuff can work on her that don't normally work on others, so in order to test new combos, do them ON SOMEONE ELSE< lest you find that your awesome new combo only works on her, and are disappointed because you can't do it to anyone else. -Sabretooth and Zangief- Sabretooth and Zangief's height and width help make comboing them a joy because you can land many more hits against him. For example, Cammy can get in four jump attacks against them rather than just three. Wolverine can dash and do many more than just 4 hits to Launch them up. Wolverine can get in 5 or 6 hits ending with the Roundhouse Kick before going into the air for the Air Combo. The only problem of these two is their weight. They ARE heavier than almost everyone else, making certain combos that require careful Juggling or certain height and weight issues fail against them. However, they are in NO way even close to being as problematic as Juggernaut in this area, so Sabretooth and Zangief can still be a good combo target (which is good, because I like beating up on a helpless Sabretooth...). -Juggernaut- Juggernaut is the tallest and widest character, as well as the heaviest in the game. Needless to say, his height and width allows you to land more hits on him once a combo gets going. However, two problems arise from comboing Juggernaut: 1) The fact that Juggernaut doesn't reel with initial hits makes him a very poor combo target. For example, with Cammy, you could do a Jumping Jab, Short, Strong, Fierce Jump-In combo against Juggernaut. However, Juggernaut won't actually start reeling until the third hit! And worse yet, the combo meter won't start counting until that hit! So you lose a hit off your combo total. Plus, he could be doing a move so that when you try to combo him with nice Jabs and Shorts for added hits, you'll get nailed by his move in the middle of your combo and get nothing out of it. Thus, against Juggernaut, it is ALWAYS a much better idea to go for hard hits over number of hits. With Cammy, go for Jumping Fierce into Jumping Roundhouse. Same with Cyclops or Wolverine. Same with whomever can pull it off. That way, your first hit will actually make him reel. When Dashing at Juggernaut, though, you have no choice but to try and combo him as fast as you can as even Fierces and Roundhouses won't make Juggernaut reel. This lack of reeling makes Juggernaut a very poor target for combos, although once you do get him reeling, you can nail him with a lot of hits. 2) Another problem is his weight. He is the heaviest character by far and that will cause a lot of combos to NOT work on him at all. This will cause problems in certain situations as he is heavier than everyone else by far. However, his HUGE size is still an advantage. Cammy and Chun Li's repeated Air Chaining Combos (see their Insane Combos) don't work on anyone else, simply because very few characters are as big of a target as Juggernaut. Thus, a LOT of combos are designed specifically against him, as he allows for some really dexterous Air Combos! -Magneto- Magneto is a VERY good target. Not only is he a good weight and a good width, he is taller than the majority of the characters... even Zangief!! Cammy can actually land four hits on Magneto from a Jump-In combo. Magneto is by far the best combo target if you want to do a combo required on a larger character (see Cammy's Expert Combo #2 for an example). -Ryu, Ken, and Akuma- Ryu, Ken, and Akuma have the exact same body types. They are relatively light without being extremely small. Their small stature does cause some problems in terms of Jump-Ins and Dashing combos, however, they are still the most desired combo target for combos that need characters to be LIGHTER than Cyclops. A good example of this is Cammy's Insane Combo #2. The lightness of Ryu, Ken, and Akuma allow Cammy to recover RIGHT when they are bouncing off the floor from the S.Fierce, allowing Cammy to Throw them, adding to the Combometer. Heavier characters will bounce earlier, and Cammy cannot combo the Throw. One thing I would like to mention though: Ryu, Ken, and Akuma never officially land after their ShouRyuKens until they can block. If they miss their uppercuts, they will actually be counted as SLIGHTLY airborne after landing during their delay. Thus, if you try a dashing combo on them, the first hit will hit them SLIGHTLY out of the air and then they will land and block EVERYTHING afterwards. Super Combos like the Spin Dive Smasher, which was designed to hit people off the floor, won't even work on a missed Dragon Punch well. Instead, it is always better to go for a Launcher straight into an Air Combo. Oddly enough, however, Zangief can still grab them out of their delay. So after their Dragon Punches, they are on the ground, but for some reason, bounce off upon being hit. -Chun Li and Cammy- Chun Li and Cammy are short, making them hard to Jump-In Combo. They're thin, making them not good targets for Dashing Combos. However, their weight is what makes them obnoxious to combo. Chun Li and Cammy and the two lightest characters by a MILE in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter. Some Air Combo Finishers knock them SO high up into the air that a lot of the repeated Air Combo Finisher Combos don't work on them. Also, some Air Combos simply punch them too high up, preventing them from getting hit by moves late in the Air Combo that other characters always get hit by. The light weight can be taken advantage of, though, for certain characters. Cammy can only do a Super Jumping Jab into Short into Strong, Link into Jab into Short into Strong, Link into a Double Jumping Jab into Short into Strong into Roundhouse against Chun Li and Cammy. Their light weight pushes them up higher during Air Combos than other characters, giving some characters a better chance of comboing them. -Charlie and Bison- Charlie and Bison are probably really good targets for combos. They both are relatively taller than the other Street Fighters and are very decently weighted. I have not used them as targets often, though, so I can't be too sure. However, I can't see any reason why they would cause problems. They are probably the closest thing to a Cyclops build out of the Street Fighters. -Dhalsim- Dhalsim would normally be a good target for combos, as he usually is in past Street Fighter games. However, one thing about Dhalsim makes him an annoying character to combo: his Teleport Recovery. When hit into the air, Dhalsim recovers not by just being able to block, but by Teleporting in place, and then being able to block. This causes a lot of delayed Air Combos and such to fail miserably. Thus, landing Air Throws and such on Dhalsim is VERY difficult because you need PRECISE timing to have it keep going. Most characters, you can Air Throw them without adding to the Combometer, but continue with the combo ANYHOW just to practice. This doesn't work on Dhalsim: either you make the Throw add to the Combometer, or the combo ends right then and there. Then again, this can also be implemented as a way of practicing your Air Throws in a combo, ensuring you that you ARE comboing them. If you don't combo them, Dhalsim will disappear, preventing further unwarranted damage, allowing him to last longer as a practice dummy. However, waiting for him to come back and land again may be annoying after a while. Also, since Dhalsim's Teleport Recovery problem has been fixed, Dhalsim is the IDEAL combo escapist, since you can't even punish him for his Teleport Recovery anymore in Version 3.0. ============================================================================== *********************** * CHARACTER SPECIFICS * *********************** For each character, I will give specific information. In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, the different characters all have different problems, conveniences, and "feel". So for each character, I will give as much info as possible. Here is a list of each of the categories I will go through. -=Magic Series=- a) Ground Magic Series b) Jumping Magic Series c) Super Jumping Magic Series For these three categories, here are the different series that will be listed and what their rule is: - ZigZag - The Series that incorporates all six buttons: Jab -> Short -> Strong -> Forward -> Fierce -> Roundhouse - Stronger - The series that lets you go to any stronger attack. Jab/Short -> Strong/Forward -> Fierce/Roundhouse - Weak Start - Start on Jab or Short and end with any of the other 4 attacks. Jab/Short -> Strong/Forward/Fierce/Roundhouse - None - No Magic Series available for specified situation. * * * -=List of Launchers=- d) Launchers: This is the list of all the character's Launchers. e) Strikes: These moves are the moves that will knock the enemy off their feet, but not high enough for Air Combos. They also do not knock the enemy to the floor so it is also not an OTG Combo set-up. These moves should be avoided if you are going for a nice, long Chain Combo, in most cases. f) Knock-Downs: All the normal moves the character has that can knock the enemy down onto the ground. These can possibly set-up for OTG Combos. * * * -=Special Move Codes Section=- g) Special Move names and motions: I will list these mainly so you can recognize which moves I am referring to since I do not have official names for all of the moves. h) Super Combo names and motions: Same as the Special Moves section. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- ---------- Legend for the codes on performing the Special Moves: (**note: these codes are all for when character faces right.**) FB: Fireball Motion (D, DF, F) | \ --o + Button o o RFB: Reverse Fireball Motion (D, DB, B) | / o-- + Button o o DP: Dragon Punch Motion (F, D, DF) --o | \ + Button o o RDP: Reverse Dragon Punch Motion (B, D, DB) o-- | / + Button o o YF: Yoga Flame Motion (B, DB, D, DF, F) o-- / | \ --o + Button o o o *Note: I call it the Yoga Flame Motion based on Street Fighter II Classic even though nowadays, Yoga Flame is done with a Reverse Yoga Flame motion. RYF: Reverse Yoga Flame Motion (F, DF, D, DB, B) --o \ | / o-- + Button o o o BP: Banishing Punch Motion (F, DF, D) --o \ | + Button o o *Note: I call it the Banishing Punch motion based on Zangief's move from Super Street Fighter II Turbo even though nowadays, it is done with a Dragon Punch motion. SF: Air Soul Fist Motion (U, UF, F) o o + Button | / --o *Note: In case you're wondering, I call it the Soul Fist Motion because Morrigan of DarkStalkers fame was one of the first characters to ever use this code. SPD: Spinning Pile Driver Motion (360 degree spin on the controller) *Note: The code for the Spinning Pile Driver is not really a full 360 degree circle on the controller. It has always been merely 5/8 of the circle. However, it doesn't matter where you start the 5/8 nor where you end, as long as you complete a full 5/8 of a circle. Most people start it from walking forward or backwards and just do a full 360 motion because it's easier to do and makes it more certain to come out. o o-- / | \ --o / + Button o o o OR o --o \ | / o-- \ + Button o o o OR RK: Razor Kick Motion (Charge D, U) | (charge), o + Button o | *Note: When charging for this code, you can charge at ANY of the three down positions and when you press up to activate the move, you can go to ANY of the three up positions. SB: Sonic Boom Motion (Charge B, F) o-- (charge), --o + Button *Note: When charging for this code, you can charge at ANY of the three back positions and when you press up to activate the move, you can go to ANY of the three toward positions. + Punch: Do the motion with any punch button + Kick: Do the motion with any kick button