How to reach & deal with Akuma v1.1

Note: This guide is intended for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix only.

Akuma. The Myth. The Legend. The complete Jerk. Reaching and defeating him is a test of skill for some Street Fighter players, and there is also an Xbox 360 achievement for totalling the guy.
To reach Akuma you must reach M. Bison without losing a match. It is okay to lose a round as long as you come back and win the match. If you see the continue screen before M. Bison, you will not be able to fight Akuma. I'm no Akuma pro, but these tips certainly helped me and I hope they will help you.

Note: If anybody out there feels they have some useful tips that could benefit people in the quest to kick Akuma's butt, feel free to get in touch with me and I will allow you to edit this guide. Also, if you find this guide useful at all please do leave some feedback in the form of constructive comments and rate the guide if you can. Thanks.

Reaching Akuma is a challenge in itself. If you are a Street Fighter veteran then this is entirely possible just using pure skill and experience to make sure you don't lose and crush every challenger. My advice to inexperienced players would be to put the number of rounds to win down to 1 instead of 3, so it only takes one win to win the match. Set the difficulty to easy, unless you are completely insane and know what you are doing Easy mode is really the only way to go. Also, it is worth noting that while setting the round to 1 can make it easier for the end battle against Akuma, and get you there quicker, it also means that if you lose a round before Bison you will have to start over.

Using M. Bison, it is possible to make the challenge of getting to Akuma much easier. With M. Bison, you can effectively spam the AI with his Psycho Crusher move (Charge <-, -> + P). This is the move where M. Bison does a devastating energy drill attack where he flies horizontally at the opponent, knocks them to the ground and lands on the other side of them. If you can land this move on an opponent, as soon as you recover start pulling back in the other direction immediately and fly back towards them with the Psycho Crusher as soon as they get back on to their feet. Sometimes they will block you, or even counter, but a vast majority of the time they will get hit repeatedly by this move and you should be able to make a lot of fights much easier. If you plan on using this technique, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with Bison's overall move list, so you can be prepared for any unforseen situations.

If you did not lose a match after beating Sagat, The round will start normally and you will see M. Bison in the character box. Fear not, as soon as the round starts, Akuma will appear, the screen will go dark and a second or so later return to normal with Bison lying motionless on the floor and Akuma in his place.

Once you reach Akuma, the challenge really begins. Akuma is fast and extremely deadly, he will respond to most of your attacks with the appropriate counter and if you aren't ready for him he will knock you on your butt. One good idea is to just sit back and let Akuma come at you head-on, and watch how he attacks regularly, then once you are comfortable with that then start using specific attacks of your own and see how he reacts to them. Doing this will gain you some very useful insight into Akuma's patterns of attack and defense, allowing you, with some luck, to predict his moves and react accordingly.

For the true challenge, most Street Fighter afficionados will probably choose to take on Akuma with their favourite character, but if you just want to put Akuma down and finish him, there are some characters who have moves that flummox Akuma more than others.

Note: Once you have reached Akuma, you can relax. If you lose this match you can continue and Akuma will still be the challenger, so you can try to beat him as many times as you like.

One of the characters who can flummox Akuma quite effectively is Chun-Li. The lightening kicks attack (Mash the K button) is very effective when used properly. A strategy that can severely rock Akuma involves jumping in (forward jump towards Akuma) as soon as the round starts and landing on him with a medium kick (Strong kick). As soon as this kick hits (or before if you want to be safe) start mashing Strong Kick again and Chun-Li will go into the lightening kicks attack. After the kicks finish, be sure to block as Akuma will usually respond with a fireball, but since you will have created distince with the lightening kicks you should be at the right distance to jump straight back in and repeat the process. Even if Akuma blocks the falling kick and lightening kicks, it will still deal damage to him and will fill your Super meter.

If you manage to back Akuma up to the far side of the screen, this strategy can be supremely effective. Jump in, kick, lightening kicks, block and repeat. It may take some time to get the timing right as to when jumping in might succeed, but most of the time Akuma will not counter you with any vertical attack.