So I've never played a Street Fighter game in my life (ok, so I rented SF2 when I was six and all hadokens were on accident). Where should I start to really learn the mechanics of the game? And what should I practice to become competitive online? To me it seems the only way is to just jump in headfirst and keep playing, but I was wondering if any of the veterans had some healthy advice to make it easier for the newbs among us.

Although I am only half-decent in SFIIHDR, all I can say is just practice practice practice. It's like playing a guitar (which I ironically just started to). I sucked pretty bad last week, but now my fingers have grown accustom to the strings and I can actually play some tunes.

How this relates to your thread you ask? It doesn't :P

Yeah, the best way to practice is to just go in and keep on trying. Personally, I try to learn the moves of one character (or more if there are some who play pretty similarly) and then once I know them down pat just experiment with situations to see whether they work in such a scenario or not. It doesn't necessarily get you to the level of a pro at that rate, but it can get you on the path to being accustomed to some of the more subtle nuances, at least.

Umm...the practice mode?  Maybe?

yeah i here ya. i see this prima guide on amazon that says it'll teach you some of the complexities of the game. can anyone comment on that?

Just play the mode that teaches you all of the combos and moves for your character. You don't need a guide (and if you do... the internet is free after your ISP).

http://operationsurvive.com/think-like-a-professional-street-fighter-4-player/



Great list of resources

I think that at first, you should test out which character(s) you like playing in the training mode. Once you've done that, I'm jump into the Trial mode and learn a few combos just to get the feel of how to perform them.

After that, I'd start by mixing it up by playing against some friends who are at the same level as you. Once you grasp the main concepts and think you're getting good, jump online, get humbled (I speak from experience here lol) and then keep on plugging :). I think that when you first get online, the most important part is playing against 'cheap players' and thinking of ways to counter them.

I dunno if that'll help but that's how I did it, and it's worked out pretty well for me. I was really, REALLY terrible when I first got the game but now I manage to win about 1 out of every 4 or 5 matches online which is a huge improvement for me lol.