So what I'm looking for is any kind of tips or how to videos. I heard that SSF4 is where you turn to learn the ins and outs of fighting games, because to be honest I don't even know where to begin, and any help would be appreciated. I have good friends who love these games and I want to learn enough to at least feel like I'm a threat instead of a button thrashing moron like I am as of now. I see that there is an official beginners thread, and Ill definitely start there but other than that where can I go to learn the ins and outs. Is there a website where that community thrives? Are there how-to videos on youtube you can recommend? I mean anything would help. Thanks ahead of time guys.

http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Super_Street_Fighter_IV

Seems pretty good.

But there's no air dash in SSF4!

Really what you need to do is pick a character (just go with who you like the look of) and only stick to them, just play practice mode for ages and mix it up with some arcade every now and then. Once you've got there moves down and a decent feel for them look up some more advanced stuff.

I think most of the videos online are for people who already play it a lot. 
I firstly suggest you play the single-player arcade mode a couple times with different characters. Also read the paper manual, cos they don't explain what Focus Attacks or EX Moves are in-game.
 
If you've not played a lot of fighting games before, then fuck being good at it and just enjoy playing the game.

You might want to check out some tutorial videos on youtube. Just type in the game and you'll see a bunch of them. Just know it's a commitment to get good at fighting games.

@8bit_Archer: Start out in training mode for a few characters, see who you like, as you progress through them you'll notice some *very* strictly timed combos (1 frame links). The main thing you need to do is learn a punish combo of some sort (something to do damage when they mess up) and then work on just playing matches. Its a combination of mind game and muscle memory(needed for harder/longer/more damaging combos). I found learning to defend is really the key for me, so playing matches and learning to defend cross ups, tech throws etc is a big part of the game. After you've learned a bit how to defend, then you can start learning combos that are usually harder to use on punishes. Harder combos sometimes end in different moves that put you in better position, do more damage, or start out with ambiguous looking openers. All that stuff comes with a lot of practice.

My advice would be to forget about characters completely for the time being just try to get a firm grip on all the games systems and how the game is played through the shoryuken wiki and then youtube anything you dont understand or ask on here.

UltraChen TV's First Attack is a good youtube show teaching fundamentals to beginners. There's different episodes each dedicated to specific concepts.

What Petiew said. The Vesper Arcade tutorials are the most comprehensive and well produced ones I know of.

When you've familiarized yourself with the game's mechanics, the site below does is a good place for strategies for individual characters. It goes over the strengths and weakness of each move in depth, and it has videos featuring each character.

And, no matter who you play as, get used to blocking. Blocking effectively is extremely helpful in being competitive against other newcomers.

http://iplaywinner.com/superstreetfighter4

Why support a genre that doesn't care about you? I say avoid it and hope the fighting game genre tanks.

Thanks everyone for the help, Ill definitely check in on all of the mentioned links/tutorials/wikis!

@egg: Its not so much that I want to support "a genre that doesn't care" about me. I only want to join my friends in a game that they really love and have fun in!

@8bit_Archer: That's interesting that you would say ssf4 is a game where you would learn the ins and outs of fighting games, because I wouldn't say that that would be necessarily true.

SFxT just had a huge rebalance and would be the perfect time to jump in and learn the game. ssf4 on the other hand, has such a high barrier to entry, especially if you want to play online. People have been playing the game for so long it's really hard to jump in if you have not been keeping up.

However with that being said if you are really dead set on sf4 it's a really great game.

The thing that will immediately promote you from novice to beginner is an understanding of blocking and defense. To understand why you got hit, and what you could have done to prevent it. Don't worry about combos, offense, anything like that... When you absolutely can identify an overhead from a low and immediately be ready with the appropriate block, you're now playing fighting games. When you can identify the pattern in a mixup and know which direction to block, you've nailed one of the fundamentals.

The second part is understanding startup, active, and recovery. How long it takes most moves to be active and useful from input, how long they are active and how long you are stuck in the animation before you get control back. Even without counting frames, this is how you can figure out what moves are safe in what situations. Add in blockstun (essentially, the recovery time for blocking specific moves) and a growing knowledge of hitboxes on moves, and you're set. When you know the perfect time to counter attack after blocking that long mixup, now you understand how to punish.

That's really all they are, is blocking and punishing. After that, it's just a lot of playing and learning how characters work, and developing creativity.

@egg said:

Why support a genre that doesn't care about you? I say avoid it and hope the fighting game genre tanks.

Fighting games will always be around, whether you like it or not.

@egg said:

Why support a genre that doesn't care about you? I say avoid it and hope the fighting game genre tanks.

...what?

So every game/genre that doesn't give you a university course in how to play the game competitively deserves to tank?

Like any game, you get better by playing. In the case of fighting games and RTS (which are probably the most complex genres) additional information is a great help to understand all the underlying mechanics, but yeah, you still improve the most by playing and experiencing.

@Sooty said:

Like any game, you get better by playing.

I disagree that this applies to fighting genre. In fighting games, unlike most other games, playing and learning how to play (or getting better) are mutually exclusive activities. That is what I find stupid about the fighting genre.

@egg said:

@Sooty said:

Like any game, you get better by playing.

I disagree that this applies to fighting genre. In fighting games, playing and learning how to play are mutually exclusive activities. That is what I find stupid about the fighting genre.

I don't agree with that at all. Sure, actual studying outside of playing the game is necessary if you want to become competitive (learning combos, specific match-ups, frame data...), but anyone can definitely improve basic things such as blocking or footsies and intuitively pick up on elements that will improve their neutral game or movement just by playing a lot.

This. Fighting game theory and fighting game practice are two completely different things. I personally think the only way to improve is to find people you can actually sit down and play with, not just going online and hoping for the best. Someone can sit for hours on eventhubs or shoryuken or the like and read up on tons of stuff, but until they sit down with a controller, it won't go anywhere. Find a friend who is of fairly even skill level, and just starting duking it out. Refer to a more-skilled friend or the internet for tips, but just go for it.

I like SRK, but their posts are either 1 or 10 in terms of their intensity. Like they're either giving you the very basics of the game, OR they're throwing out insane jargon. There's very little middle ground.

@8bit_archer: Honestly? Better than online videos is this one simple piece of advice: learn how to block. That simple thing will put you head and shoulders above the most basic online players. And get ready to lose a LOT: I have a decent online record BECAUSE of ten hour sessions getting my ass absolutely RUINED by my roommates...there's gotta be a better way to phrase that...

Yes i agree

Are these games any good? I havent play'd Street fighter in forever. Since it was on Super Nintendo.