But this time it's the good one! 

I got a Fightpad today and well,  I had to get use to this controller. Since the launch of SFIV I used the standard, or maybe not so standard, Dualshock 3 for the PS3. So that's two months of getting use to that controller. Now I had to get use to this one. It was a hard time but after losing 700 BP I eventually got use to it and got all of those points back. I also think I got rid of my bad habit of always jumping in because since I was fumbling I played more cautiously and jumped less and less. 

Ok I started playing Noby Noby Boy again today to see if we reached Mars or are even close yet. Turns out we are not. After the little fairy told me that Mars was still pretty far away I decided to see, if the game is measuring actual distance, how far we would have to travel. It turns out that that the distance between Earth and Mars in meters is about 57,936,384,000m away...as of this writing we currently have Girl at a length of 1,323,304,827m. Get to stretching people!!!

OK I admit it, I use throws a lot and from my experience there seems to be a pattern with just about every single person I've played against. After I throw an opponent they will attempt to throw me within the next two moves they do. I'm finding this kind of hilarious because whenever they go for the "revenge throw" I always picture them saying "Oh OK, you threw me well guess what!?" I've seen very few people to use the throw but every single time I do it, it's almost as if they just remembered you can throw in the game. This seems to be the only move that has this reaction, I've never seen anybody try to revenge shoryuken or hadoken somebody after they've been hit by one which is surprising seeing as how may people use shoto characters. I'm not exactly sure why it's like this. Possibly because the throw is so infamous in being a "cheap" move to most people? Which causes a "fight fire with fire" reaction. I don't know but I just find it funny.

Street Fighter IV is an amazing game, it could be the game to bring back the fighting game genre back to it's former glory. But for me it's possibly one of the worst kind of games, not because it sucks because, again, it's an amazing game, but because it's also hard to get a handle on. Especially online, it doesn't matter whether or not you know how to do combos or all of the characters special moves because without knowing when to do those combos or special moves it's all useless. To me the split between the mind games and the actual fighting in a game like SFIV is something like 60/40. Figuring out ways to make openings in your opponent by faking him out or predicting what they'll do is what separates the good players from the bad. In the same vein, switching up your style so your opponent can't figure you out is also something essential to being good. These kinds of things you cant really learn from the single player or some mode in the game. The only thing you can do is play. Play as many matches online or with your friends and if you lose learn why and bring that into you next match.

So while I learn why I'm losing all the time I want to suggest something to those that feel like blaming the game or the person that decided to pick Ken. Think about what just happened, did your opponent just spam an attack? Then think about how you can get around it. Did he turtle? Think about how to get him out of his shell. Was he able to constantly pull combos and just dominate you? Think about how he was able to open you up to attacks and maybe you'll fair better next time. These are the kind of things that can't be taught.

So what makes SFIV the worst kind game? It's so good but so very frustrating.