Here's a video that Cigarbob recorded of some casual play in the Street Fighter HD Remix beta. You can see me play starting at 3:15. I play Ryu here and demonstrate the use of the fake fireball several times (it has other uses too, but this is just a sample).

I forgo several crossup oppertunities in this vid, partly because we were distracted with talking partly because CigarBob has crazy reversal abilities. In later matches I went for the crossups more, but whatever. At some point I did a crazy dragon punch vs his sweep and declared the maneuver "old-school only."
Enjoy.
--Sirlin

The fine folks at GameCyte did cut a second part of my interview after all. This one touches on the more abstract concepts of balancing games. Topics include symmetric vs. asymmetric games, hardcore vs casual balance, and depth vs. fairness.

Maybe I should have a weekly show or something?

--Sirlin

The fine folks at GameCyte interviewed me about Street Fighter HD Remix and a bit about my background. I discuss how difficult it was winning over hearts and minds on this project, but now we're going strong, I think.

GameCyte also asked a lot of questions about game balancing in general, what it actually means, how it's done, and how it differs in different types of games. Those didn't make it into the final cut, but maybe they'll create a part 2 out of all the footage. In any case, enjoy!
--Sirlin

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Guile is a solid mid-tier character in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (ST), but it takes quite a bit of player-skill for him to fulfill that potential. As a mid-tier character, he’s eligible for a few upgrades, especially in his bad matchups. More than that, he’s eligible for some fun.

Crazy New Flash Kick
Guile’s roundhouse flash kick goes straight up very high in ST, and has no use I’m aware of. I’ve never seen a good US or Japanese Guile player use it in a real match, so it’s a ripe place for some new spice. Instead of traveling straight up, it now travels very far forward and diagonally up just a bit.

Guile players salivate at this newfound range, but it comes with a price. Great flash kicks come with great recovery. If blocked, it’s the most vulnerable move in the game. A fierce Dragon Punch is pretty vulnerable if you block it too, but Guile’s roundhouse flash kick leaves him pushed right up against you so that it’s very easy to time a combo as he recovers.

The new flash kick means you can’t jump straight up and down at mid-range versus him anymore. He can use it as an escape if you try to cross him up. He can use it to trade or even clean hit Dhalsim’s Yoga Fire and Sagat’s Low Tiger at mid-range. He can use it easily hit Vega’s slide, while his old flash kicks often missed in that situation.

Vega was a very bad match for Guile before, and a lot of it had to do with how hard it is to counter Vega’s slide. It’s good news that he now has a better answer. Sagat was a very tough mach as well, though not so much anymore due to Sagat’s slightly worse fireball recovery. The change in Sagat’s fireball recovery combined with Guile’s new roundhouse flash kick might give Guile the advantage now, but that remains to be seen. Guile’s worst match was probably versus Dhalsim, so his ability to do *something* at mid-range now combined with Dhalsim’s inability to low punch cleanly under Sonic Booms brings this match from near-hopeless to near-fair. Blanka is still a tough match for Guile. You can’t win ‘em all.

Upside-Down Kick
The upside down kick (hold toward or away + roundhouse while close) always looked like an overhead attack…and now it finally is. The opponent now must block this move high. In addition, you can now also activate it from any range by holding toward + roundhouse (it still has really long range). This kick had 15 frames of startup in ST, which would make it the fastest (and longest range) overhead in the game. I slowed it down to 20 frame startup which puts 2 frames slower than the slowest overhead in the game (Fei Long’s).

Guile is such a defensive character that it’s a breath of fresh air to have a new offensive option. The opponent really should be able to block this overhead most of the time, but Guile can tack it on after making the opponent block a Sonic Boom almost any time he wants, as long as he’s willing to lose his charge. (You have to be pretty close to get the overhead to come out when you’re holding back, remember.)

I also had to monkey with the hitbox below Guile during this move. After the first pass, we realized that he could cleanly upside down kick over Sagat’s Low Tiger Shots every single time on reaction. It was a bit too crazy for me, so now those Low Tigers will hit Guile in this situation. There’s still a very tiny window where Guile can go over the Tiger Shot cleanly, but it’s impractical to do in a real match. Also note that even though Guile appears to be off the ground during this move, he can still be thrown. I didn’t change that; it was true in ST also.

Super
Guile’s super move fails to connect correctly all the time in ST. It took about four tries to fix this, but it finally works as it seems like it always should have. The super move consists of two consecutive flash kicks, and the second one has a bit more range now. All the hits also knock down and juggle now, and I even had to do some subtlety about changing how fast the enemy falls when he’s hit by this move. You won’t notice that, but without it, the super would miss air juggle hits on certain characters only. Vega was one of those characters, but now Vega gets juggled like everyone else.

In equally big news, there’s now an optional new motion to perform the super. You can still do the old motion, but the new one is hell of a lot more practical: charge down/back, then down, down/forward, forward, up/forward. In other words, charge down/back, then do the old Tiger Knee motion + kick. Ironically, I removed all other Tiger Knee motions, but it seemed appropriate here considering how complicated the old motion was. (The old motion could be performed charge db, df, ub OR charge db, df, db, any up.)

You might ask, “Won’t I get the super to come out accidentally?” I have never had this happen even once, so I don’t think so. You might also worry that Guile can now easily combo into this super. For the most part, comboing normal moves into supers is not practical in ST (yes, I know you can do it). We could have made it very easy for everyone to combo normals into supers, but the lack of this feature is, in my opinion, one of the nice and defining qualities of the SF2 series. It’s not about poking with safe attacks and comboing into a super. Supers are, for the most part, an additional move in your arsenal rather than a combo ender.

So doesn’t Guile break this rule by easily comboing low strong into super with his new motion? You’d think so, but some deep mysterious property of ST’s engine saves us. I cannot figure why this is true, but you cannot combo normal attacks into Guile’s super using this new motion. If you try, you will always get a flash kick instead. Even more deeply mysterious is that if you try to combo a normal move into super using the old, difficult motion, you CAN. This really should be true, but somehow it is. So combing into super is no easier or more difficult than it ever was for Guile. We may never know why.

Things That Didn’t Change
One of the most common requests from players was to change around the commands of Guile’s standing kicks. In ST (and HD Remix), the kicks are:

• Back + short = knee (advances Guile while charging)
• Back + medium kick = backward sobat (Guile jumps slightly off the ground and moves back while kicking)
• Back + roundhouse = lunging kick (Guiles moves forward a bit while charging and kicks)

The common request is to find some way to make back + short into Old Guile’s rapid fire kicks. This would allow Guile to rapidly standing short to stop incoming slides while keeping his charge. I admit, this would be useful against Blanka, and Blanka is a bad match for Guile, but we can’t fix everything. The new roundhouse flash kick hits the other slides anyway.

More to the point though, no one could ever agree on which move Guile should lose of the above three. The knee is incredibly useful and basic to his gameplay, so that needs to stay for sure. The back sobat is not used much by most players, but the experts find it indispensable because of a few important, specific things it counters (Dhalsim’s drill at a certain range is one, and there are others). And Guile players were not willing to lose the back + roundhouse lunge kick either. Rather than assign the knee to back + jab + short (strange for a normal move), I just left all those kicks as-is.

I hope Guile players won’t complain about that, because with a huge new flash kick, a long range overhead kick, and an easier, better super, Guile players should thank their lucky stars.

–Sirlin

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

T.Hawk has been one of the hardest characters to balance (along with Fei Long and Honda). On the one hand, he has an extremely damaging command throw, a great Dragon Punch-type move, and an aerial dive. These moves could conspire to make him terrifying, so I understand why the original SF2 developers were so careful to keep him check. Hit the jump to get the full story…

Now that we have the benefit of 14 years of SSF2T history to look at, we know that they kept him a little too much in check (he’s considered a bottom tier character), but their decisions at the time are certainly understandable.

The thing that makes him especially hard to balance now is his all-or-nothing game plan. The “nothing” part happens when you spend the entire round trying to get in on your opponent and never do. I’d like to explain the “all” part for the uninitiated though. His devastating sequence is:

Safe jump jab -> low jab -> button-up command throw -> repeat.

That’s a lot of jargon, so let’s sort it out. I covered the concept of safe jumps in the advanced section of my SSF2T tutorial videos. The idea is that you jump at your knocked-down opponent as he gets up. You time your jump so that you land just a couple frames after the opponent is completely standing up. If the opponent chooses to do a reversal attack (such as Ryu’s Dragon Punch or Guile’s Flash Kick) then it actually won’t hit you. Those reversal attacks have a few frames at the beginning where you can’t hit them, but they can’t hit you either. So your jumping jab will pass through the opponent, then you’ll land (and block), then their reversal attack will start to hit—but you’ll be safe. Yes it’s hard to time this, but experts can do it.

If the opponent tries to do a reversal attack in this situation, you’ll just land, block it, and then be able to retaliate with a command throw. If the opponent decides to block, then your jab will touch him, forcing him to block. If blocks the jumping jab, he will be forced to block your subsequent ducking jab. At this point, you can perform the 360 on the joystick, then release a punch button. In Street Fighter, releasing a button (as opposed to pressing it) does count for doing a special move, but it does not cause you to do a normal move. So after the opponent blocks your low jab, if he does a move that makes him unthrowable (such as a Dragon Punch), then your throw will fail. In ST, T.Hawk does not have a throw whiff animation, so usually if you miss a throw, you get a normal punch instead. But if you tried to do the command throw by releasing a punch button (rather than pressing it) you don’t even get a punch if you fail to throw—you just get nothing, and you can block.

So after the opponent blocks your low jab, he will either get thrown or you will safely block his reversal attack (and then throw him anyway). At this point, you can safe jump jab to repeat the entire sequence if you are in the corner.

The bottom line is that although this loop is very difficult to execute properly, if you land it and you can execute it, you basically win. It also means there is a “perfect T.Hawk algorithm” once you get in the right situation. No real strategy is involved, it’s just a very difficult test of your ability to execute precisely. You could say that T.Hawk “needs” something this powerful, because even with it, he’s still bottom tier. But when we buff him up, it’s probably a bad idea to let him keep this. Because getting in is easier now (safe Hawk Dive), the reward should not be so great, and more importantly, the strategy should not be completely replaced by a dexterity test once you do get in.

Now check out my current change log for T.Hawk, starting AFTER the last T.Hawk article:

• Hawk Dive no longer knocks down. The reward for hitting was simply too great, allowing for crossup splash (fierce), stand short, command throw.
• Hawk Dive now falls slower after hit/block so that on block, T.Hawk does not recover before the opponent anymore.
• Hawk Dive now falls even slower after hit/block to prevent Hawk Dive -> low short or forward combo that was possible at a very certain height/distance. Difficult to perform, but too powerful.
• After command throw and super, T.Hawk now bounces farther away, and falls slower during the bounce. This prevents safe jump jab in the corner after a command throw, but still barely allows walk up low jab after a command throw (remember, the victim can hit your low jab with a reversal, but not the safe jump jab).
• Hawk Dive damage reduced.
• Hawk Dive startup time increased 4 frames.
• Alternate Hawk Dive added. New dive has incredibly fast startup, knocks down on hit, but is unsafe on block against many characters. Purpose is to allow T.Hawk to deal block damage to defensive characters such as Guile and also to give him back his knockdown dive if he’s willing to do the unsafe version.
• Both hits of low roundhouse given the ability to deal block damage (mostly to help vs. Honda).
• Change reverted: block damage removed on low roundhouse.
• Change reverted: Alternate Hawk Dive removed, the ultra fast startup wasn’t quite game-breaking in tests, but I can imagine it would be once released into the wild.
• Change reverted: Hawk Dive’s startup time reduced 4 frames, now matching original game.
• Change reverted: Hawk Dive’s damage set back to original game’s, entirely because block damage turns out to be linked to hit damage. Reducing the damage in an earlier change had the unintended effect of reducing the block damage also, so change reverted because he needs a way to deal some blocked damage.
• Throw whiff added when T.Hawk attempts the command throw, but fails to connect. Acts similarly to Zangief’s whiff throw.

As you can see, that was a lot of experimenting, and it didn’t all go well. You might argue that T.Hawk is even worse now than the original game because the deadly throw loop has been removed (can’t safe jump jab after a command throw and also addition of throw whiff prevents completely safe attempts at the command throw). But the flipside is that T.Hawk doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing anymore. He can mostly get in with the new dive, so getting in doesn’t need to lead to instant checkmate. He does have trouble against defensive characters like Guile and Honda, but I’ve managed to find at least some effective strategies in those matches, so hopefully he won’t be too bad off there. In other matches, he’s more well-rounded. His gameplay is more “interactive” now and less based on perfectly executing a throw loop, so this makes fighting him more fun. And when all is said and done, I hope players will find him more effective than he was in ST, just not game-breakingly so.

Although it took more tries with T.Hawk than any other character, I think he finally settled down into a reasonably balanced state (though maybe there is still another chapter left in his book...). Every time T.Hawk wins a match by a lot or loses a match by a lot, I already know people will lean over to me and say “you think that’s reasonably balanced, eh?” Time will tell!

–Sirlin

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

A lot of time has passed since I wrote the first parts of this series about the balance changes in Street Fighter: HD Remix (remember, I wrote them many weeks before they were posted). Some things have changed since then, so here are the updates.

Ryu
No change. He still just has the fake fireball, and it’s great. It tricks people like Honda into jumping at the wrong times and Zangief into doing lariat at the wrong times. He can also use it to pressure with stuff like low roundhouse, cancel into fake fireball, walk up throw.

Ken
I have a “watch list” of things that might be too good. (hit the jump to read more!)

Things are usually on this list because I think they might have some use I’m just not aware of yet, so I want to keep an eye how players use them. Ken’s new long-distance roundhouse Hurricane Kick was one of these things. Despite the worries of many players, this move was actually fine in all the usual uses of trying to hit someone who’s kind of far away. The problem is that after Ken’s knee bash mixup, he can threaten to do low medium kick (from either side of you!) into the new roundhouse Hurricane Kick. The Hurricane Kick starts with a hit on the way up that connects versus ducking opponents (unlike Ryu’s). In the SF2 series, if you get hit by a special move, you automatically stand up, so that means the rest of the Hurricane Kick will hit you too. Because the move travels farther and faster now, it’s better able to get all the hits in that situation and very, very often ends up dizzying the opponent. It’s too much reward for something you can do reliably after a knee bash mixup.

Roundhouse version of Hurricane Kick dizzy power is now cut in half.

Also, Ken’s knee bash throw now has just slightly less range. It makes no difference when Ken goes for his something like jump jab into knee bash, but it does give him some reason to attempt other throws when the opponent is at the edge of his throw range.

Balrog
I said that if I woke up one more night in cold sweats over the damage on Balrog’s super, then I’d change it. I did and I did. It now only does about 50% of your life, instead of even more, as it used to. It’s still incredibly good. I sleep better now.

Cammy
No change since the last update. Although one famous Cammy player thinks her Cannon Spike recovery shouldn’t have been made worse, most players are asking why it’s not being nerfed even more than it already is. In her current state, she can Cannon Drill (safe on block), then as long as she did the spacing right, Cannon Spike (also safe on block). It’s very strong. The Cannon Spike is only unsafe when done from close. The jury is still out on whether to keep this, considering the new Cannon Drill gives her a lot of power to apply pressure.

Sagat
No change since last update. He seems about right, and a lot more fun.

Blanka
Since the last update, I made his jab and strong horizontal rolls travel slightly shorter. Also, they now have the same sound effects and rotation (meaning the visual effect) that the fierce roll has. This makes whiffed roll into bite a little better of a tactic.

Some readers have complained that maybe Blanka is too weak, but in practice we have the opposite problem. In the original ST, he was good against Vega, Zangief, T.Hawk, and Cammy. He still is. He used to have big, big trouble vs Ryu and Sagat, but now he can roll without getting hit back by a fireball. Also, Sagat’s arms stick out farther after fireballs (same as ST New Sagat’s arms), so jumping over them and kicking Sagat is more realistic now. Basically, Blanka’s bad matches aren’t as bad anymore and his good matches are still good. His good matches are also more relevant now, because it actually matters if you can beat T.Hawk, Zangief, and Cammy now (they are much more viable characters).

If possible, we will try to make him take more damage than usual if he gets hit out of his horizontal roll (though not as extreme as in SF2: World Warrior). This would be a fair trade for his roll being safer on block. I know it sounds strange to tone Blanka down in any way because you’re used to him being so bad, but consider how few bad matches he has anymore. Blanka’s a new man now.

T.Hawk
Oh, T.Hawk. There’s too much to say here, so I’ll have to write a whole separate article on him. He’s been tough to get right.

–Sirlin

Here's an interview Brandon Sheffield from gamasutra did with me at Capcom's Digital day last month. It's about the various hard decisions I've encountered along the way in making Street Fighter: HD Remix. There's some pretty hardcore details in there so maybe it's not quite for the general audience, ha. Oh, and for the record, I would never say the word "maths."

--Sirlin

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Fei Long is usually considered one of the five worst characters in the original Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, but he’s still pretty deadly if he can get close to the opponent and get his offense going. The trouble is, it’s very hard for him to ever get close enough to most characters to get it going. Also, his Flying Kicks move (aka Dragon Kicks, aka “Chicken Wing”) is just too hard for most players (including myself) to physically execute. Unlike the other Tiger Knee-like moves, the Flying Kicks required you to start with *back* on the stick, then go down/back, down, down/forward, forward, up/forward + kick.

Fei Long, Version 1
In HD Remix, Fei Long, along with Akuma, have the notorious distinction of each being the best character in the game and the worst character in the game at various points throughout development. The changelist for HD Remix, version 1 was:

• Flying Kick move changed to qcf+k (easy!)
• Flying Kick with short button can go through fireballs during startup.

The control change immediately made him fun, and being able to do short Flying Kicks over fireballs easily seemed like just what he needed. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast was just too powerful relative to this. Fei Long seemed like the worst character, or close to it.

Fei Long, Version 2
Then came a ridiculous number of buffs. I was going to make Fei Long viable, damn it!

• All three version of Flying Kicks can go through fireballs at startup.
• All Rekka punches (qcf+p) travel farther.
• Super travels much farther, which also makes it safer on block because last hit doesn’t whiff so much

And this ease of use stuff:

• Flame Kick input window is bigger (easier) and not random
• Medium and roundhouse Flame Kicks always knock down and can juggle.
• Input window for second and third Rekka punches longer and not random.

Expert players who played this version said Fei Long was unquestionably #1. His Flying Kicks were too good at locking opponents down. Like in ST, they can combo in standing fierce, then all three Rekka punches. Ouch! His super became the best in the game and you could even juggle with a Flame Kick afterwards for a total of 90% damage. (Oops!) Also, you could get about 3 supers per round if you tried. You could also juggle Flame Kicks after Flying Kicks due to…well some technical stuff we won’t go into right now. And to top it all off, Fei Long could pretty much ignore fireballs and do the new qcf+k command to go through them on reaction, every time.

Incidentally, a lot of people requested that he be able to cancel his ducking medium kick into Rekka punches, but that is really the last thing he needs, as I hope you can see by now. Giving him that would be similar to SF3:3rd Strike Chun Li’s ducking medium kick into super. She can stick it out constantly and if it happens to hit, bam, super. In Fei Long’s case, he wouldn’t even need super meter to deal huge damage off his 3-Rekka series. What we need to do at this point is turn the knobs DOWN on Fei Long.

Fei Long, Version 3 (a.k.a version 20)
This is really more like Fei Long version 20 than version 3, but I’m compressing the story for readability. He’s now settled down into seemingly fair state.

Here’s the actual change list:

• Flying Kick move changed to qcf+k (easy!)
• Flying Kick with short button can go through fireballs during startup.
• Flying Kicks have 5 additional frames of recovery. This prevents you from comboing if you hit, and it also prevents you from trapping people by doing the move repeatedly.
• Flying Kicks have worse priority air-to-air during the first hit, so it’s easier to counter them with a jumping attack if you predict them.
• All version of Flame Kicks always knock down and can juggle. They *can* still juggle after you juggle with Flying Kicks, so have fun, combo-maniacs.
• Flame Kick input window is bigger (easier) and not random
• Rekka punch input window is bigger (easier) and not random
• Rekka punches travel a little farther, but not as far as in Version 2
• Super travels farther and faster (by a lot) but not as much as Version 2
• Super is now vulnerable at Fei Long’s head during 4th and 5th hits
• Super meter gains reduced on Flame Kicks and Flying Kicks
• Super knocks the opponent down too quickly for a Flame Kick to combo after

The farther reach on Rekka punches allows Fei Long to actually deal some block damage vs a defensive Honda. It also makes it a little easier to pressure a defensive Guile who mostly just sits there and does low forward and the occasional sonic boom. (Both of those matches are still hard for Fei Long though).

The Flying Kicks are easy to perform now, and still have many uses, but they cannot really be abused like they could in some situations before. The recovery time at the end prevents you from constantly looping Flying Kicks -> Fierce -> Flying Kicks, etc. I don’t want to give the impression this move is weak though. It still has 14 frames of invulnerable startup, it still juggles and travels in a useful arc, and it’s still an overhead attack (must be blocked high).

The short Flying Kick going through fireballs is a help, but not a total solution. The opponent can still back up and sweep you if he predicts this move, especially with extra recovery. But it’s at least one option to get around fireballs, rather than practically no option, as he had before. I think it was a real mistake when I let all three versions of this move go through fireballs on startup, because even if it were somehow fair, it goes too far in negating the power of projectiles in Super Turbo. It just felt wrong.

The super move is very useful and a key move for Fei Long now. To balance that out, he can no longer get so many per round and if the opponent does predict it and jump over you, he has at least some hope of hitting you back (for example, with Ken’s new longer-reaching Hurricane Kick from behind!).

Fei Long is much more fun now, partly because executing all his moves is easier, and partly because he’s generally juiced up. Longer reaching Rekkas and a longer reaching super give him even more offense, while the new short Flying Kick gives him a mild new way to get in.

--Sirlin

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Sagat—well actually “Old Sagat”—is one of the best characters in ST. He’s even soft-banned in Japan, meaning there’s a tacit agreement not to play him, even though you are technically allowed. He might not be as strong of a character as Balrog or Dhalsim overall, but the problem is that there are several matches where he just dominates. His Tiger Shots (fireballs) are so powerful that many characters spend the entire game trying to get around them. I think everyone knows that this nerf is coming.

Tiger Shots

Sagat now has fireball recovery that’s better than New Sagat and worse than Old Sagat. In ST, the difference in recovery times was about 12 frames between Old and New (huge), and Remixed Sagat’s recovery is about 4 frames wore than the terror that was Old Sagat. It’s still very good, but not as abuseable. It’s similar to Ryu’s fireball recovery.

Various Boosts

In exchange for this loss, Sagat has several new bonuses. First, he is based on ST’s New Sagat, so he now is able to soften throws and he has a super move (with the reversal bug fixed, even). Furthermore, the super travels farther than in ST, and it does more damage, and it always knocks down on hit. It’s now a viable tool. [Clarification: it does LESS damage than in ST if you are point-blank in the corner. Less than 50% in that case. It does MORE damage than ST in practical gameplay situations.] He also has ST New Sagat’s ability to crossup with medium kick. This gives him a way to apply some up-close pressure.

Remixed Sagat has Old Sagat’s fierce Tiger Uppercut, meaning it hits only once for good damage rather than juggling five times for low damage. The five hit juggle can be fun, but one-hit version is just more effective in most situations. As with all Dragon Punch motions, the Tiger Uppercut has a more lenient (non-random) input timing window.

Tiger Knee

Finally, his Tiger Knee is now performed with a Dragon Punch motion, it always knocks down on hit, and (as a result of that) it can juggle for three hits. Usually this means if he hits with Tiger Knee, he can do one more because either the first or second knee will get 2 hits. This is good damage and it pushes the opponent back into the corner. Note that the Tiger Knee’s damage is now reduced, but that’s only because it can juggle. Although the knee doesn’t have any better frame stats or hitboxes than before, several people have said “Wow, is that higher priority now?” when they play against it. I think the ability to walk forward and do it because of the Dragon Punch command, coupled with the usefulness of scoring a knock-down even on a glancing blow makes it a much more useful tool. And no, you can’t juggle with a super after a tiger knee.

Normal Move Cancels

Old Sagat could cancel his stand short, stand forward, and stand strong into special moves, while ST’s New Sagat could not cancel any of those. (Well, he could only cancel the first hit of stand short and stand forward, not the second hits.) Remixed Sagat cannot cancel the second hit of standing forward because that was only used for combos anyway, and the ability to juggle with tiger knees is good enough already! He also cannot cancel the second hit of standing short, which is a somewhat controversial decision. In ST, this is mainly used in the following strategy:

Tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger, stand short because enemy got near, cancel into tiger, tiger, tiger.

If the enemy gets near, he deserves his chance at Sagat without having to block a very far stand short cancelled into another Tiger Shot. Remixed Sagat can, however, cancel his standing strong into special moves. This is mainly useful against Dhalsim and Balrog, which is fine, and Zangief.

I’ve been told several times that playing against my Remixed Sagat is actually fun, so something must be going right. I think this is because standing in place and doing nothing but Tiger Shots isn’t so effective. It’s better to mix in Tiger Knees, crossups, supers, and even jump ins, so it feels like more is going on when you fight Sagat now.

Despite his slightly slower fireball recovery, Sagat still seems very strong, just not dominating like before. Plus, more characters now have more options against fireballs, such as Cammy’s Spinning Backfist, Blanka’s faster “rainbow roll,” and a few other things I’ll mention in future articles. Sagat managed to go to one of the most boring characters (to me) to one of the characters I now have the most fun playing.

–Sirlin

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.
Balrog is generally considered to be tied for the best character in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (ST). Pretty much everyone ranks Balrog and Dhalsim as top, with some Americans adding in Old Sagat, some Japanese adding in Vega, and a few people claiming Chun Li. But there’s not much debate about Balrog (or Dhalsim) being top.
The knee-jerk reaction is to nerf, nerf, nerf (that’s internet-speak for “reducing the power level” of something). I said in my first article that we would leave the top characters top, so it’s been quite a test of willpower to follow my own advice and avoid bringing down the hammer on Balrog.

Before you read the actual nerfs, I’d like you to consider what might have happened. By far the most common suggestion for Balrog was to reduce his overall damage by about 20%. Almost everyone who said anything about Balrog said this. But reducing the overall damage of a character by 20% is mostly just another way of making him 20% worse, and does nothing to remove the tactics we’d like to tone down. So the good news for Balrog players is that he still does a whole lot of damage and is not a 20% worse Balrog.

Throw Loops

After Balrog’s headbutt hold, he can do a mixup where he either walks under the opponent (to get on the other side) or not walk under and say on the same side. He can threaten to do a low roundhouse from either side, resulting in a knockdown. This part is fine. He can also do a low forward or low strong and then attempt another throw, resulting in a loop. This part is too abuseable.

As with Ken, it was a tough decision, but I think it’s more fun if Balrog gets to keep his mixup, yet loses the power of a repeatable loop. His low strong, throw, low strong, throw sequence could be done from literally so far away that some characters cannot counter throw. The change is that Balrog’s throw range is now shorter, and the first hit of the hold does less damage. The walk-under tricks still work, as do the throw tricks after whiffing a short dashing punch, but if you want to attempt a throw loop, you a) have to be close enough that your opponent might counterthrow and b) deal less damage when you successfully do it. Balrog’s relentless offense is so good that a slightly worse throw game should leave him plenty powerful.

Safe Attack, Safe Attack

Another problem with Balrog is this sequence: low rushing punch, then jab headbutt. The low rushing punch is fast, damaging, must be blocked low, and is safe on block. The command for the move leaves him charged to immediately do a Buffalo Headbutt. So not only can you not hit back the low rushing punch on block, but if you even try, you will probably get hit by the headbutt (it’s an invulnerable startup move, somewhat like a Dragon Punch). If you block the headbutt, it too is safe on block. And to make matters worse, he gets a huge amount of super meter for doing that sequence. And to make matters worse than that, he has the best super move in the game. Something has to give!
I thought for a very long time about removing the ability to charge for a headbutt right after a low rushing punch (or some method of making sure you couldn’t do those two moves right in a row). In the end, I have to say that the fun-factor of that sequence is good, and the problem is the safe-on-block jab headbutt. This feeling was corroborated when I asked multiple-time tournament champion and Balrog player Graham Wolfe what the most abuseable Balrog thing is. His answer, “Safe jab headbutt…and Daigo said so too.” (Note to Daigo: If you never really said that, I hold Graham Wolfe responsible!).

The jab headbutt now has more recovery and can be hit back on block. To keep things in line, the strong headbutt also has worse recovery (and can now go through fireballs), but the fierce headbutt is not changed. All three headbutts also generate less super meter, and the less powerful versions of the turnaround punch also generate less super meter. Note that all the rushing punches generate just as much super meter as ever though.

Super

I think about Balrog’s super a lot. It sits there taunting me, daring me to tone it down when I know that the rookie mistake would be to tone Balrog down too much. If I wake up with cold sweats about this in the middle of the night one more time, maybe I’ll tone down the damage, but for now, it’s as powerful as ever. The only two nerfs to it are: a) smaller super meter gains from turn punch and headbutt mean he can’t get his super as fast and b) the first hit of the super is now possible to Dragon Punch. If someone is going to do the best super in the game at you—and you know it’s coming—you should at least be able to Dragon Punch it.

Turn Around Punch

To be consistent with the rest of the game, this move can now be performed by pressing and releasing just two punches or two kicks, rather than three. We certainly don’t want to allow Balrog to access fierce and roundhouse while he charges turn punches though, so we’re working on a few possible solutions. I don’t want to go into it because it’s still in progress, but the bottom line is that pad players can use two buttons, the old three-button method will still work, and trying to do tricky stuff with the new two-button command won’t get you much, if anything.

In closing, Balrog remains incredibly powerful. His throw game is a bit weaker, but his throw tricks are still intact. His ability to generate super is a little worse, but the power of his super is still intact. His general ability to rush you down is also intact, as is his high damage, so I expect him to remain near the top.

–Sirlin

Here's some links to information and interviews about SF HD Remix from Capcom's Digital Day press event.

A long interview with me from Gamevideos.com (updated!)
GameSpot's interview with me.
GameTrailers's interview with me.
Another GameTrailers interview with me. (uptaded x 2!)
1up's coverage, some quotes from me.
Kotaku's thoughts.
IGN's coverage.
Gaming-Age, listing several features.
Capcom blog post by Capcom producer Rey Jimenez.
Wired interviews with Backbone studio head and with me (updated x 3!)

Looks like the cat's out of the bag that you can play the game in widescreen or not, with new gameplay or not, with new music or not, and with redrawn sprites or not. Plus 8-person tournaments, true 1080p, and a way to view the hitboxes. It's all for you!

--Sirlin

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Cammy is considered one of the five worst characters in ST (Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo) along with Zangief, Blanka, Fei Long, and T.Hawk. It’s interesting how much better she is now with so few changes, and even one nerf.

Control Motions

Cammy’s Hooligan Throw motion is one of the most frustrating in the game in ST. Not only does it end in up/forward which results in accidental jumping sometimes, but it also closely overlaps the Spinning Backfist command.

New commands:

• Hooligan Throw: quarter circle forward + punch
• Spinning Backfist: quarter circle back + punch

Just the ability to do Cammy’s Hooligan Throw reliably makes her easier to win with. It’s a really good move (but not too good because most characters can just jab her out of it). Cancelling low forward into Hooligan Throw is now easy and pretty effective.

Spinning Backfist

Here’s some trivia about the Spinning Backfist. The very first change I made in the entire game was allowing Cammy’s Spinning Backfist to go through fireballs. All three versions can now do this and she even has lower body invulnerability during this, but her head is completely vulnerable the whole time, so you can smack her with high moves if you know she is going to Spinning Backfist. Her regular full body vulnerability returns, of course, by the time she can actually hit you.
The Spinning Backfist now has a much bigger hitbox on the second hit. After several experiments, this was the most effective way to make sure that the move no longer failed to get the built-in two hits. If you hit the opponent with the first hit of this move, it’s now extremely likely that the second hit will also hit and knock down.

Cannon Drill

Her other change is that her Cannon Drills are now much more safe on block. (Trivia: this is the second change I attempted to make in the game, only weeks later did I finally figure out how to do this one.) In ST, Cannon Drills could be safe on block only from a very particular distance. Now there is much more leeway so with a little knowledge of ranges and which strength to use, you can make this move safe on block every time. Note that as before, it’s very vulnerable at the top so jumping straight up and attacking as you come down is a counter.
The safe Cannon Drill opens up a new world to Cammy. She can now keep the pressure up and do block damage. If the opponent is a little scared, she can mix in a Hooligan Throw and if the opponent is antsy to attack, she can mix in a Cannon Spike (similar to a Dragon Punch.)

Safe Attack into Safe Attack

Cammy stayed in the state I described above for a long time. There has been no question that she’s good, it’s just been a question of whether she’s second tier or has creeped into the top. After playing her quite a bit, two things started to bother me, and they both had the same solution. One is that she’s just incredibly good against Zangief and T.Hawk. She can Cannon Spike anytime she’s within range and force them to block or get hit by her invulnerable move, then she’s completely safe afterwards. It’s abusive, and she doesn’t even need that against them considering her low forward alone is very good against them.

The other problem is that she started to feel a lot like ST Balrog in that she can keep up the pressure (in her case with safe-on-block Cannon Drills), then do a safe-on-block, invulnerable Cannon Spike at any time. That is the exact same sequence that was deemed “too good” for Balrog, but now she had it. I felt uncomfortable with this, so now the Cannon Spike is not completely safe on block. It still bounces her back, but if she does it from too close, T.Hawk is able to counter with an immediate stand roundhouse and Zangief is able to counter with low roundhouse. She can still currently get away with a safe Cannon Spike when she does it from a bit farther though, so we’ll have to keep an eye on this.

The invulnerable, always-safe-on-block Cannon Spike was nice with Cammy, but she’s a more versatile, fair character having a safe-on-block Cannon Drill instead. I think it’s a fair trade, and she’s *still* a strong character. (In the current version, it’s not even much of a trade since Cannon Spike is still safe from most distances.) Cammy can now go toe-to-toe in previously very difficult matches against Ken, Ryu, and Sagat (Spinning Backfist!) and her easier Hooligan Throw and safe Cannon Drill allow her to pressure and deal good block damage to the non-fireball characters, too.

–Sirlin

GamesRadar interviewed me about Street Fighter HD Remix and also about Street Fighter in general. You can read it here.

--Sirlin

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Blanka is considered bottom tier in ST, but even in that game he has a lot of potential and a lot of things going for him. The throw range on his bite is enormous. His crossup (jumping short) is excellent and easy. After the crossup, you can go for a combo, a bite, a blocked hit into a bite, another crossup, or a blocked hit into another crossup. Also, Blanka’s roll attack does really good damage. HD Remix Blanka retains all those good features, and gets some boosts.

Horizontal Rolling Attack
In ST, most characters can hit back Blanka’s roll after blocking or even being hit by it. In HD Remix, it recovers faster, but it’s still not completely safe. Dhalsim and Balrog are still able to hit it back easily (with standing fierce and jab rushing punch, respectively).

Bison can still hit it back with a well-timed Psycho Crusher. But Honda no longer gets a free hit after the roll, and Ryu no longer gets a free red fireball. Blanka actually lands fast enough from his roll to jump over a fireball if Ryu throws one right away. That’s quite an upgrade from getting hit back and knocked down every time.

Diagonal Rolling Attack
The so-called Beast Roll or Rainbow Roll was not at all useful in ST. It has long startup time as Blanka jumps back before rolling and it has long recovery, allowing almost every character to hit Blanka back, even if he hits with this move. In HD Remix, the initial hop back part is greatly sped up, and the recovery is drastically improved. Blanka actually recovers before the enemy if they block this move, allowing him to keep up his pressure. At mid screen, it’s now a realistic way to go over fireballs, but the hop back part of the move still leaves Blanka vulnerable to a solid fireball trap.

Hop
The hop is a pretty good move, allowing Blanka to move around quickly and hop into position to throw. The old command is press all three kicks while holding either away or toward on the joystick. This motion still works, but now you can use either jab+short, strong+forward, or fierce+roundhouse instead of three kicks, if you like. This is a great benefit to players who use a gamepad, but even I prefer the jab+short command on a joystick. I find it easier to hit those two buttons quickly than any other two because my thumb and index finger rest on these buttons. If your mileage varies, you can always use the original command, though.

The hop back has the same invulnerability from the ST, but it generates much less super meter now. The hop forward has an additional nine frames of foot invulnerability which theoretically allows him to hop over sweeps somewhat, but in practice this has not proven all that effective so far.

Vertical Ball
The vertical ball is unchanged, but I just want to point out that it’s one of the only moves in the game that can hit on the very first frame. This makes it incredibly good air defense and it’s impossible to “safe jump” against Blanka because of this (see the video tutorials on Capcom Classics Collection 2). The move is also vulnerable on the first frame which means Blanka often trades, but the trade usually does damage in his favor and leaves the enemy knocked down, allowing Blanka to go for his tricky crossup short.

Note that we did fix a bug with this move. In ST, moves that can hit on the first frame have an unintended property that if the opponent tries to block them on the very first frame, there is a 50% chance the move will hit anyway. These 1-frame semi-unblockables are fixed in HD Remix (but left unfixed in HD Classic Arcade).

Electricity
The properties of this move are unchanged, but fewer mashes on the punch buttons are required to activate electricity.

Super
Blanka’s super is one of the worst in the game in ST, so it’s improved in HD Remix. The startup is faster and the recovery is faster so it doesn’t get hit back all the time on block like it did before. You can actually use it just for the sake of getting close and going for crossups, if you like. If the move hits, it will now always knock down.

Blanka’s rolling attacks are the main upgrades here, allowing him to roll more safely against some of his biggest enemies, such as Ryu, Sagat, and Honda. His Diagonal Roll gives him a new pressure option that also doubles as a way around fireballs. That said, fireball characters can still keep Blanka in check (back away and sweep the Diagonal Roll as it ends or just Dragon Punch it), but the matches should be a lot closer.

–Sirlin

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Ken is juiced up! Although there isn’t any single overwhelming change to him, all the small changes add up.

Hurricane Kicks
The most visible change to Ken is his new roundhouse Hurricane Kick. In the original ST it has almost no use, but now it travels much faster and goes much farther. Most people say, “Wow!” when they see it for the first time. It allows Ken to hit back various whiffed moves from far away, such as Cammy’s Spinning Backfist or Balrog’s Buffalo Headbutt, but it usually gets only one air hit in those cases. If you can hit a standing opponent with it, it has a lot of dizzy power. So far in testing, this moves *looks* a lot more dangerous than it actually is, but it’s definitely a fun toy.

There are a few more small changes to Hurricane kicks, mostly because of the change mentioned above. The medium Hurricane kick goes just slightly farther, as does the aerial roundhouse Hurricane kick, but you probably won’t even really notice those changes. The short Hurricane kick stays in the air a shorter amount of time, making it a slightly better trick and a little bit better against Sagat’s low Tiger Shots.

Dragon Punches
Now Ken’s jab and strong Dragon Punches are invulnerable on the way up, exactly the like Old Ken’s from SSF2T. Ken’s fierce dragon punch is based on ST New Ken’s, so it still has fire effects and sets the enemy on fire on hit. Although it has no additional invulnerability, it has even more horizontal range than before, similar to the range it had in SF2: Champion Edition. You can think of his three Dragon Punches as a kind of Greatest Hits of Ken: the best properties of Old Ken (invulnerable jab and strong versions), as well as ST’s fire and CE’s arc on the fierce Dragon Punch.

Another change to the Dragon Punches is that the strong and fierce versions always knock down on hit. In the original ST, it’s frustrating if you happen to hit with a Dragon Punch at just the wrong range where it won’t knock down and gets only one of the intended 2 or 3 hits (you’re going to get hit back!). Now the strong version knocks down even on the first hit and can air juggle for a second hit, and the fierce version always knocks down and can air juggle for two additional hits. Note that if you get a glancing hit with the fierce Dragon Punch, it will do very little damage, just like in ST. But if you land a very deep fierce Dragon Punch against a jump-in, it will now juggle for 3 hits and do high damage, even more than New Ken’s deep jab Dragon Punch.

“Crazy Kicks”
In ST, Ken has three different so-called Crazy Kicks, each with a different joystick motion. These three motions made the kicks generally confusing and they would come out when you didn’t want them. In HD Remix, the commands for these kicks have been changed to the commands in Capcom vs. SNK2. Quarter circle forward + either short, forward, or roundhouse gives you each of the three different kicks, and holding the kick button down makes any of the Crazy Kicks cancel into an overhead. The actual properties of the kicks (speed, hitboxes, damage, etc) are exactly the same as in ST. They’re just a little easier to keep straight in your head now. Note that, like before, you can easily combo a normal attack into the qcf+medium kick version and with good timing you can combo a sweep after the qcf+short version.

Knee Bash
Ken’s Knee Bash hold is very powerful. Afterwards, he can walk under most characters and end up on the other side. This means that he might do a low attack from one side or the other side, and then either try for another Knee Bash or maybe a jab Dragon Punch. Or, against many characters, he can jump jab right after the Knee Bash and the spacing is just right for him to “safe jump” (see the tutorials on Capcom Classics Collection 2), which lets him go for another Knee Bash.

The Knee Bash is, in my opinion, the third most deadly repeated throw trap in ST. This is a close call, but I left it in. Ken is not considered a top tier character, and we’re trying not to nerf the power level of anything unless it’s absolutely necessary. Also, Ken gets so much gameplay out of this mixup that he’d lose a lot of fun-factor if this were removed.

As a bit of a compromise, I reduced the damage on the first hit of the Knee Bash. I don’t mind the fun gameplay resulting from his mixups, but his ability to get as much as 25% damage off each one was just too much.

Super
In ST, there is a bug that prevents Ken from doing a reversal super. That means if he’s knocked down and the enemy makes him get up into a sweep (or any move), he can’t do a super on the first frame he stands up. This bug is fixed in HD Remix, but it remains unfixed in HD Classic Arcade.

Ken was a viable, middle-tier character before and now he’s a bit better all around (except for the lower damage Knee Bash). The invulnerable Dragon Punches come in handy because it allows you beat out every other character’s Dragon Punch if done correctly. The big range on the fierce Dragon Punch also has several uses, such as stopping a pesky off-the-wall Vega even moreso than before. And the 3-hit anti-air fierce Dragon Punch, the simpler Crazy Kicks, and the long range roundhouse Hurricane Kick give him some fun new toys.

--Sirlin

You can post comments here, but if you want a response, you have a better chance at Capcom Unity.

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Last time we looked Ryu’s short change list, so this time lets look at something more extensive. We’ll have to dig deep into the abyss of Super Turbo tiers to find this character. Buried somewhere near the bottom, we find T.Hawk. Attention readers, a T.Hawk “megaton bomb” is coming.

Most (both?) T.hawk players play Old T.Hawk in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. He’s the version that can’t soften throws and doesn’t have a super, but his normal moves are better. The HD Remixed version is kind of a “greatest hits” of T.Hawk’s moves, so he gets to keep his super and his ability to soften throws, and he also gets the better normal attacks from Old T.Hawk. That means his standing roundhouse and standing strong have better hitboxes and are good for poking, and his low roundhouse is faster than ST’s New T.Hawk. He can also crossup with either his jumping splash (down + fierce in the air) and his jumping medium kick.

His Dragon Punch priority is also the (better) Old T.Hawk version, and the timing is more lenient (as it is for all Dragon Punches in the game). T.Hawk’s uppercut often did not knock down before as part of a game-wide problem where 2-hit moves are tagged to only knock down on the second hit. This has been corrected by making both hits able to knock down and the first hit juggles into the second. Don’t get too excited about T.Hawk juggles though, this is actually a small change that just makes the move function as it was meant to (if it actually hits you, you can’t hit it back).

The Street Fighter trivia experts out there know that T.Hawk’s low strong had a stray vulnerable box that allowed him to get hit from really far away during that move’s recovery. Yes, we fixed that, too.

More exciting than these normal moves and Dragon Punches, the 360 command has changed. Well, you can still do the old 360 command if you like, but the special throw will also come out with the new motion that doesn’t require holding up on the joystick/d-pad. The motion is half circle back, then forward + punch or half circle forward, then back + punch. It’s even more lenient in that you can start from defensive or offensive crouch if you like, instead of straight left or right. And finally, you can even replace the final left or right input with any of the three up inputs if you really want. If all that sounds complicated, just remember this: half circle back, then forward + punch is the main way to do it and doesn’t make you accidentally jump.

This change alone breathes new life into T.Hawk. His 360 was incredibly hard to do in ST because T.Hawk, unlike Zangief, jumps in only 3 frames. You had very little leeway in getting that up input before you accidentally jumped, but now doing the command throw is breeze. The emphasis is much more on *should* you do it, rather than *can* you do it.

The 720 motion is also much easier. It’s either half circle back x 2, then forward + punch, or half circle forward x 2, then back + punch. Yes, that means you can walk up and do a super throw without jumping. This is potentially very dangerous, but so far I don’t see a problem. T.Hawk’s non-super throw does about third of your life, so if the opponent is down to that much life, it doesn’t matter much if you land a super on him as opposed to a non-super throw. For this to really matter, you have to have full super meter and the opponent has to have more than 1/3rd of his life, and you have to get into a situation where you can do a command throw, have time to do it, and you have to successfully pull off the super. It’s on my watchlist definitely, but it has not yet let him beat characters he otherwise couldn’t. If it does prove to be a problem, we could lower the damage of the super throw.

And now for the megaton bomb: T.Hawk’s aerial dive is now SAFE on block. Incidentally, it can also be done with jab + short or strong + forward or fierce + roundhouse, in addition to the original command of jab+strong+roundhouse. The new command is for gamepad players, but the SAFE ON BLOCK is a huge balance change that will strike terror into all your hearts.

After the hawk dive, T.Hawk falls mostly straight down rather than bouncing back. This is a great tool for getting in. You’re probably thinking it’s an insanely overpowered tool, so let’s take a look at that. When I first implemented this move, it immediately seemed too good, but I tried it for a while anyway. Note that the bounce still puts him too far away to get a command throw, so you’re not literally “in” yet, you’re just “almost in.” You end up at a distance where you’re close enough to Dragon Punch if the opponent sticks something out, but he could block and punish you if he guesses that. You could also walk up and try for a command throw, but you’re really too far to just walk up, so the opponent can counter that with sweeps pretty easily.

Specifically, Guile can block the dive, then low forward kick. If T.Hawk decides to walk up, he will always get hit by low forward. If T.Hawk decides to Dragon Punch when he lands, it will whiff vs the low forward (because of angles of the hitboxes) and Guile can punish him afterwards. If T.Hawk jumps in after the dive or jumps and dives again, Guile has time to retract his low forward and flash kick on reaction. Guile has plenty of answers here.

I first thought Dhalsim would have no chance against this megaton dive, because he always relied on hitting it back with standing roundhouse. I soon realized Dhalsim can jump back, then drill the dive. He can standing jab to hit the dive cleanly every time. He can medium slide under the dive to make it miss then hit back with far standing strong. That’s three answers right there, it’s just that he no longer has the universal answer of always block, then stand roundhouse.

Blanka is also able to beat this dive without too much trouble. His jumping straight up roundhouse has a good angle to either hit the dive, or even come down and do a combo if the spacing is right. He can use electricity (which is easier to do now) to hit the dive cleanly, too. Bison can use similar techniques with jump straight up roundhouse or jump towards strong punch. T.Hawk still hangs in the air just a bit before diving, and it’s often just the right height for Bison to do his juggling jump strongs.

T.Hawk still has a lot of trouble—maybe too much trouble—against Cammy. It’s hard for T.Hawk to hit her ducking medium kick and it’s even harder to deal with her unpunishable Thrust Kick (aka Dragon Punch).

The list goes on, but I think you get the point. The new safe dive is a very dangerous weapon that lets T.Hawk get in (almost), but there are a lot of countermeasures already in place. T.Hawk is now lots of fun to play with none of the frustrations of trying to do a 360 with only 2 frames of leeway. His safe dive and the ability to do his 360 throw reliably now (remember, it was harder than Zangief’s before) actually make T.Hawk feel like a new character to me.

–Sirlin

You can post comments here, but if you want a response, you have a better chance at Capcom Unity.

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Is the gameplay the same as Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo?
You actually get two games in one in this package:
1) SSF2T HD Remix
2) SSF2T HD Classic Arcade

SSF2T HD Remix is a brand new game. It’s a sequel to SSF2T, with over 100 changes to improve the balance and playability.

SSF2T HD Classic Arcade has the same gameplay as the original Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. It does NOT have any of the easier joystick motions, command changes, bug fixes, or gameplay tweaks that you might have heard about in SSF2T HD Remix. Our goal is to make SSF2T HD Classic Arcade as close as possible to the gameplay of the original arcade ST in every way.

You don’t have to worry about which game you might like, because you get both of them together!

Is the rebalanced game (SSF2THDR) intended only for beginners? I heard someone say it’s “dumbed down.”
Although easier special move timings will help beginners, the rebalanced game is intended to be the tournament standard played by pros. The pros can already perform almost any move with staggering precision, so changes to move commands won’t affect them very much. The balance changes of hitboxes, recoveries, and other move properties will definitely affect the gameplay at the pro level though. Most of the balance changes are specifically aimed at the very highest level of tournament play in the world. (Plus several additions for the sake of fun that don’t ruin the balance.)

We hope that players will find the rebalanced game “smartened up,” rather than dumbed down. Making various special moves a bit easier to perform puts more emphasis on strategy and reading the mind of your opponent. Likewise, strengthening the low tier characters will put more emphasis on player skill and less on disparities between characters. While we hope beginners will find the game more accessible, make no mistake that we intend the game to be more strategically interesting at the tournament level than ever before.

Will each game have separate rankings?
Yes. Similar to X and X’ modes in Puzzle Fighter, there will be separate leaderboards for SSF2T HD Remix and SSF2T HD Classic Arcade.

Do both games have new art?
Yes. All the character sprites, backgrounds, projectiles, effects, UI, and menus are redone in HD. Every piece of art is new whether you play the classic game or the new game.

Is the game widescreen 16:9 or is it 4:3?
It’s both. If you have a widescreen tv, the menu screens and character select screen will always be widescreen. You can choose whether to view the gameplay itself in either the original 4:3 or the new 16:9. The 16:9 mode zooms in to fill your screen, and also adjusts the camera movement to pan up when necessary. The 16:9 mode does not alter gameplay at all. In fact, you can play in the 4:3 mode while your networked opponent plays in the 16:9 mode, and neither of you will even know how the other is viewing the game.

Is the game 1080p?
Like most 1080p games, SSF2T HD Remix does render in full 1080p with no hardware scaling. Our goal is actually a higher standard for 1080p where every pixel on screen maps 1:1 with a pixel from the source texture. There are very few games that meet this standard, and it would be nearly impossible for a 3D game to do so with today’s hardware. Every piece of art in our entire game—from menus to life bars to backgrounds to character sprites—is being created at 1080p resolution.

Because of download size limits, we are not yet sure if we can meet our goal of 1:1 pixels. Maybe we will be able to do further optimizations to meet it, or maybe the download size limits will change. In the absolute worst case though, the game will still output a 1080p signal and will still have 1:1 1080p source resolution for all text, all UI elements such as life bars and super meters, and even the foreground elements on all the stages. Only the characters and far backgrounds might have to use 720p source art scaled to 1080p.

Even though this worst case still leaves the game a 1080p game, we are still working toward our goal of a 1080p signal with 100% 1080p source art as well.

Is there new music?
Yes, all the stages will have new remixed music.

Is this game based on the Dreamcast version of SSF2T? I thought people wanted the arcade version.
Yes it is based on the Dreamcast version. The Dreamcast version has many fixes and features over the arcade version. It has random character select, a training mode, a versus mode, and lots of bug fixes such the ability to do reversal supers with Ken/Sagat/Dhalsim, the correct sound effects for hitting with certain normal moves, the correct point values for hitting with certain normal moves, etc. The new gamely in SSF2T HD Remix uses the Dreamcast version as a starting point because we wanted these small bugs fixed.

We also know that everyone wants the arcade version for SSF2T HD Classic Arcade. Luckily, the Dreamcast version contains the source code of the arcade game with internal dipswitches to set gameplay back to the arcade version. We’ve set everything to the 02/23/1994 settings, which should be the same as the arcade version. This allows to have the gameplay of the arcade version with the versus mode, training mode, random select, and damage handicap options of the Dreamcast version.

There are claims that the character sizes are different in the Dreamcast version than arcade. After capturing screens from both versions and comparing, I found that they line up exactly, pixel for pixel. The only difference is that the Dreamcast version introduced a black border around the edges of the video signal that might make the entire game appear to be slightly smaller, depending on your tv. This will not be an issue in our version though, so the character sizes should be exactly like the arcade.

We also noticed that damage dealt appears to be different in the Dreamcast’s versus mode compared with the arcade version. Yes, this is true and it’s due to the way the game handles handicap settings. We changed the handicap formulas so that if you play on the default handicap, the damage dealt will be exactly the same as the arcade version, but now you have the option of having a little more or less life if you want. (Handicap is of course disabled in ranked play and it defaults to off in unranked play, but you can turn it on if you like.)

The game speed is also slightly different depending on which hardware the game runs on. We are still working towards making our speeds match the arcade speeds. They’re close, but we will do more tuning.

Are the “old characters” still in the game?
The original ST game has 16 characters (including Ken, for example), 16 alternate versions (including Old Ken, for example), and Akuma. SSF2T HD Classic Arcade has all these same characters.

SSF2T HD Remix no longer has the 16 “old characters” though. Instead, the highlights of those characters have been incorporated into their mainline counterparts. SSF2T HD Remix has 17 selectable characters.

Is Akuma selectable?
In the original SSF2T, Akuma was a powerful boss character, not intended to be balanced against the rest of the characters. For this reason, he is NOT selectable in online ranked matches in SSF2T HD Classic Arcade. In unranked matches, he will either also be unselectable, or there will be an option to allow/disallow him with the default set to disallow.

In the new SSF2T HD Remix gameplay, Akuma is rebalanced to compete fairly against the other characters. He is allowed and he no longer even requires a secret code to pick him.

--Sirlin

You can post comments here, but if you want a response, you have a better chance at Capcom Unity.

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Ryu’s change list is unusual, so let’s start with him. He’s the central character in Street Fighter, both in the story and the game mechanics of fireball/uppercut. In ST, he’s not especially powerful (no one ranks him as top tier), and yet in the hands of an expert he is able to win tournaments. He’s pretty balanced as he is.

I asked tournament player John Choi to give me a complete list of Ryu changes that he requested. Choi is, I think, the #1 Ryu player in the US (check out his crushing victory at Evolution West 2007, among others [editor’s note: HERE is one of those matches from Choi]). Choi contemplated this for weeks and finally came up with his complete list: 1) add a fake fireball, and 2) no other changes.

This was not what I expected, but I immediately liked it. Ryu already has the tools he needs to win, so he doesn’t really need much of a change to win. Choi’s original reasoning for the fake fireball was to give him an answer to Dhalsim’s drills. Dhalsim can drill Ryu on reaction when he sees a fireball, but a fake would trick Dhalsim into committing, then Ryu would recover from the fake and be able to Dragon Punch.

That use of the fake fireball sounds fine, but what’s even better is that is addressed a larger problem, too. In this new game, many characters are more able to get around fireballs than before. This is a delicate thing, so don’t misunderstand me. If we have a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the effectiveness of fireballs in Super Turbo and 1 is the effectiveness in SF3: 3rd Strike, I’m shooting for an 8. A lot of the non-fireball characters have pretty bad matches in ST, and they need a little help, but we still want fireballs to be strong. We *especially* want fireballs to still be strong for Ryu, the star character.

As soon as I heard the idea for the fake fireball, I realized it was not only what Ryu wanted in ST, but it’s what he needed in HD Remix. Even if other characters now have ways out of fireball traps that they previously didn’t, Ryu would still be able to trap them by tricking them with fakes. You might wonder if this is any better of a situation than in original Super Turbo. After all, I’m saying Ryu can fireball trap a lot of characters in both games, so what’s changed? What’s changed is that there is now a lot more of a mind-game on both sides of those fights. Ryu *still* has the tools to fireball trap Bison, Honda, Fei Long, etc., but now each player must get into the other’s head to escape the trap or keep it going. It’s great stuff.

Before implementing this, I also talked to Nekohashi, one of the best Ryu players in Japan. I asked him for his list of Ryu changes for a new version of Street Fighter and his response was something close to “No changes needed, Ryu’s design is already perfect.” I said ok, but how about this idea of adding just one thing: a fake fireball? Nekohashi said, “Yes! That is a masterpiece. Give him that move and nothing else.” I think Nekohashi probably had similar reasoning to mine above, because I had already explained to him a few ways that various weaker characters would have to avoid fireballs.

With Nekohashi's blessing, we finally added this move to the game. I know it makes a better story when things turn out totally differently than you expect, but the fake fireball turned out exactly as we expected, at least so far. It really does add an interesting mind-game to a lot of fights. It also has another use as a rushdown tool, such as cancelling low roundhouse or low fierce into a fake fireball, then quickly throwing the opponent. This technique actually lets you recover slightly faster than if you did low roundhouse or low fierce alone, and also the visuals trick the opponent into blocking, so it's an effective technique. I think it's not overly powerful though, but we'll continue to test it and keep an eye on this.

The command for fake fireball is qcf + short. Ryu players tend to fake with short anyway, so this was a natural place for it. Also, putting it only on short kick ensures that you will never ever accidentally get the move when (on button up) you try to do low medium kick or low roundhouse into a real fireball.

So there we have it. The first character change list I'm presenting to you is unusually short: only one item long! But it's quite an item with power that ripples through a lot of matches.

—Sirlin

You can post comments here, but if you want a response, you have a better chance at Capcom Unity.

This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.

Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix was originally going to be a graphical update of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, but along the way some magic happened. HD Remix is now a completely new Street Fighter game—the 6th installment in the SF2 series. It also includes an arcade perfect gameplay version of SSF2T with new art and music. You’re actually getting two games in one.

For years, I’ve been a care-taker of the franchise, helping to present the games in the best way in Capcom Classics Collection 1, 2, and Remixed. Now I have the honor and burden of improving upon what I consider the very best Street Fighter game ever: Super Turbo. So many have said it’s impossible to improve upon the polished gem of ST, but as Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” so Capcom and I felt that it was worth taking a shot.

Here are the design goals:

1) Make the game easier to play—more inclusive rather than exclusive
2) Make the game even more balanced for tournament play
3) Add fun as long as it doesn’t interfere with #2.

Easier Controls
Inside Street Fighter, there is a wonderful battle of wits, but many potential players are locked out of experiencing it because they can’t Dragon Punch or do Fei Long’s flying kicks, or whatever other joystick gymnastics they require. I’d like to reverse this trend. There’s only so far I can go with this and still call it SF2, but wherever I could, I turned the knob towards easy execution of moves. Let’s emphasize good decision making—the true core of competitive games—and get rid of artificially difficult commands.

This will get more players interested in the game, eventually leading to more competition. It will also get players past the awkward beginner phase faster and into the intermediate phase where the interesting strategy starts to emerge.

Easier Moves Overview
• Dragon Punch timing more forgiving
• 360s alternate motions
• Tiger knee motions removed
• Mash moves easier
• All 3 button moves changed to 2 buttons

All Dragon Punches are easier because the timing window to perform them is no longer random—you now always get a 15 frame window rather than a random number between 8 and 15 (and you only had a small chance of getting 15 in the original game). 360 motions are easier because they no longer require you to hold up and accidentally jump. Spinning Pile Drives can now be done by half-circle forward, then back + punch or half circle back, then forward + punch. There is a lot of leeway on these commands so that they can still be done from defensive crouch, and the old 360 commands still work too.

Most commands ending with diagonally up/forward have been changed to much easier motions. Sagat’s Tiger Knee is a Dragon Punch motion now (as it is in later games). Cammy’s Hooligan Throw and Fei Long’s Flying Kicks are now fireball motions (qcf + p and qcf + k, respectively), so no more accidental jumping frustrations.

The “mash moves” require less mashing. That means it takes fewer button presses to activate Chun Li’s Lighting Legs, Honda’s Hundred Hand Slap, and Blanka’s Electricity.

All moves that required three simultaneous button presses now only require two. This is specifically to make the moves easier to execute on a gamepad (as opposed to an arcade joystick). Because of the way you hold a gamepad, it’s easier to hit the jab + short buttons together with your thumb than it is to hit the jab+strong punch buttons. For this reason, there are a lot of jab+short commands now. Zangief’s kick lariat, Vega’s single defensive flip, Blanka’s hop, and T.Hawk’s aerial dive can all be done with jab+short *as well as* the original three button commands. Zangief’s punch lariat and Vega’s double defensive flip can be done with either strong+forward, fierce+roundhouse, or the original commands. Dhalsim and Akuma’s teleports only require two punch or two kick buttons now, as does Balrog’s turn punch (but don’t worry, you can’t charge turn punch while having access to fierce and roundhouse at the same time).

All of this taken together means that it’s easier than ever to get your moves to come out, especially on a gamepad. These changes alone increase the fun factor of the game quite a bit, especially for T.Hawk, Cammy, and Fei Long because their moves were so hard to do before.

Balanced for Tournament Play
Super Turbo is a delicate ecosystem, so changing anything can affect game balance a lot. Because there’s so much potential to wreck things, we need a plan that leverages all the knowledge we have about high-level play over the last 13 years. I picture a flat piece of wood with 100 indentations on it and 100 marbles. If we have 90 of the marbles resting in the right indentations, we wouldn’t want to violently shake the whole thing around in hopes of fixing the last 10.

After over a decade of tournaments, we know which characters are the best (Balrog and Dhalsim for sure, and Old Sagat in the US and Vega in Japan, with Chun Li as an honorable mention). We know which characters are the worst (Cammy, Fei Long, T.Hawk, Zangief, and Blanka). And which are in the middle. My goal is to buff up the worst characters so they reach the middle (or upper middle at best). Next, buff the middle characters slightly, but not so much that they become top tier. And finally, leave the top tier characters intact. In other words, the idea is to compress the tiers so that the difference in power between the best characters and worst characters is much smaller than before.

This approach gives us some margin of error. I’m shooting to make the previously weak characters about 2nd tier, but if they end up a little worse than that, they’re still be much more able to win than before and if they end up a little stronger, there’s some wiggle room before they overshadow the top tier.

Keeping the top tier at about the same power level is a good idea for a few reasons. First, we have a very solid idea of how powerful a character needs to be to be top tier (same as always!). Next, to use my last analogy, rolling around fewer marbles is better, so it’s safer to leave the top tier than it would be to bring them down in power and have no idea who’s good anymore. Also, as I said when I rebalanced Puzzle Fighter, we already know what the game felt like with the previous top tier characters, and it was fun, so it’s better to balance the game around that power level than a new, lower power level. And finally, to restate that, there are so many games that try to fix *everything* and nerf everything to such a low power level that even though things might be “fair,” they are no longer fun. I call this the Marvel vs. Street Fighter syndrome.

That said, there are some nerfs to the top tier. It sounds like I just contradicted myself, so I want you to understand this important distinction. Imagine that a top tier character has 10 awesome things about him or 10 ways to win. If we really wanted to nerf his power level, we would make all 10 of these things, say, 20% worse. (We’re not doing that, don’t worry!) But what if one of those 10 things is so abuseable that it can be repeated over and over pretty mindlessly, leading to shallow gameplay? This is a case where I think we can remove or tone down that 1 option and leave the other 9 just as strong as ever. This does not even necessarily reduce the overall power level of the character—it just forces the player out of repeating loops and into other more interesting options.

There are several of these situations in Super Turbo, and rather than trying to muck with every possible one, I think it’s just safer to remove the repeatable abuse from the top tier characters only—the abuseable stuff that can often decides matches. The various tricks from the worse characters never added up to enough power to dominate anyway.

It’s ironic that as a player, I seek out exactly these kinds of repeatable, mindless moves, yet as a designer they are what I’m trying to remove (again, from the top characters only). The list of toned down things is very, very short in comparison to the list of new, powered up stuff, so I think that fun factor is going up in addition to the compressing the tiers for balance.

In the coming weeks, I’ll detail the changes for each character in this new version of Street Fighter. I know you’ll find it easier to play, and I hope you find even more strategic and with fewer lopsided matches than ever.

–Sirlin

You can post comments here, but if you want a response, you have a better chance at Capcom Unity.

Virtua Fighter 5 just came out for Xbox 360. The gameplay is great as always, but a lot of features of this game leave me scratching my head.

Button Configuration
I think I have witnessed more players configure their buttons than any other US game developer. (Feel free to correct me if you know of someone else who tops me here). I watch people config buttons for hours and hours and hours as I run tournaments at multiple events per year, every year. There is a 100% rate of agreement among players that the best implementation is where the game lists the functions, then the player presses the button he wants for that function. So you highlight "jab" or "punch" or whatever, then you press the button you want to be assigned to that. This process does NOT require you to know that the button you presses is really X or Square or A or whatever else.

Virtua Fighter and many other fighting games STILL use the bad method where you cannot press the button you want to assign. You must highlight the *button* (not the function), then go left/right to set the function. So the game lists "X" then you have to look down at your controller, find the X button, realize that it should be kick or whatever, then go left/right until you select kick.

Believe me, this requires an extra mental step from players and it takes significantly longer for them to configure buttons with this implementation and as I said earlier, exactly no one likes it.

Still on the subject of button config, Virtua Fighter 5 has a major problem that I can't believed passed Microsoft's technical requirement checklist. I configured my buttons for player 1, then I played some matches online where I was the one creating the match. Things worked fine. Then I decided to *join* someone else's created match. I was put on the 2p side (fine), and my buttons were all messed up! I was now using the 2p button config! I can already sense the VF apologists trying to defend this with some kind of warped logic, but it's absolutely terrible. No other fighting game has this problem.

Online Player Match
Very surprisingly, after you play a "player match" (aka unranked match), you and the opponent are both kicked out back to the matchmaking screen. Want a rematch? Tough, there's no rematch option. You can't create a "room", much less with spectators, where you go around in a rotation like Dead or Alive and SF2: Hyper Fighting. Now, you *can* make a private room with someone on your friends list where you get to play them over and over (just them, no spectators or others in the rotation). This will lead to a lot of good players feeling forced to only fight people on their friends list just to have a logistically reasonable set of matches. Bad for community, because you want those players playing out in the open where everyone can challenge them.

Online Ranked Match
You are allowed to set whether you want to play opponents near your skill level or of any skill level. You are allowed to set whether you want arenas with no walls, low walls, high walls, or any walls. These options should not be in ranked matches. The premise of a ranked match in any game is that the player has as little leeway to affect who he fights or what the rules will be. It's supposed to be the same rules all the time and no ability to avoid opponents you're afraid of losing to.

Not only can you filter by skill level and arena type, but you can also see the opponent's name, rank, and exact win/loss record before you even accept the match. (Yes I know that you can see their names before the match starts in Puzzle Fighter's ranked matches. That is a mistake and will be fixed if there's a patch.) Anyway, you get an awful lot of info about your opponent before you even try to join his ranked match. This alone ruins the integrity of the leaderboards. I heard a rumor that disconnects don't count as losses, but I have no idea personally.

Character Selection
Virtua Fighter 5 does another strange thing that no other fighting game does: it tries very hard to get you to only play one character. Usually, character selection is part of the main loop, meaning you go back to it after every game. In VF5, after you play a player match (and are kicked out to the matchmaking screen, ugh), you are *still* tied to your character. You have to exit the whole online mode to switch to another character. Another character is basically like another account.

I of course know why they did this. In Japan, players tend to play just one character in a fighting game. In tournaments, they don't allow switching characters like we do in the US. Now, as a tournament player, I strongly dislike the Japanese method. If I can beat 70% of people in a tournament with character A and the other 30% with character B, I deserve to win the tournament. But anyway, let's not argue that right now. The extreme emphasis on sticking to one character in VF5 comes from how the game is played in Japan. That's nice, but I want to play Jeffry sometimes, Pai sometimes, and Lei Fei some other times. It's a real hassle to do this relative to every other fighting game. The designers are saying to me, "We don't really approve of you having that sort of fun" and it makes me sad.

As I said at the start, the gameplay in VF is just a technical and well thought-out as you'd expect and the online play is surprisingly unlaggy. That's what counts the most, but all the other rough edges are a bit of a downer.

--Sirlin

I talked here about the strategy behind my matches at Evolution West 2007. Now you can see those matches for yourself and get a sense of the crowd excitement.

First up, it's me versus Viscant. I'm purple Bison (the dictator) versus his Vega (claw). I mostly flopped around, loosey goosey because I was pretty sure that would be enough to win. Bison has natural advantages in this match and Vega must know exactly what he's doing to win.

Next is me versus the evil Darkside Phill (DSP). DSP won the mindgame of our initial double-blind character selection by choosing Blanka versus my Vega (claw). Watch this whole match carefully because it's definitely the best of the three in this post. You can stop watching at around 4:50 into the vid when the match ends; I'm not sure why the rest wasn't edited out.

Finally, check out me vs. Afrolegends. I start with Vega (claw) versus his DeeJay. In case you get confused about the technicalities of the match, Afrolegends accidentally paused the game at one point, which is a foul that caused him to lose the round and consequently, the game (but not the whole match). Afrolegends played excellently during this match and all his other matches. He's a rising star.

Thanks to James Chen for recording all this and to Seth Killian for the announcing during the event. Seth, you did a great job, but please, please learn the difference between a "round," a "game" (2 out of 3 rounds), and a "match," (2 out of 3 games). It's actually a bit hard to follow what the score is during these videos because Seth uses these terms incorrectly throughout. But let's not be too hard on him because he did an A job overall. I especially liked when he joked about me being one of the developers of the game (referring to my role on Capcom Classics Collection 2, the version we were using in this tournament) and his jab about how I died to one of the most worthless supers in the game during my match against DSP's Blanka. What can I say, it's true!

Hope you enjoy!
--Sirlin

Ah, Guilty Gear. I few weeks ago I went to a gathering/tournament in Sacramento with about 25 people and three ggxx setups. This last weekend I went to another one in Redwood City with 35-40 people and *seven* tvs with ggxx. Above is a video of one of my tournament matches. I'm Faust (the guy with a giant scalpel and a bag on his head.)

Although I made a couple mistakes I cringe at (such as the accidental item super that lost me one round), you can see that I try to do the silly pogo-stick move as much as possible. After the first round, I could tell the opponent didn't know what to do against it. The last round is also pretty funny, since I managed to get two "mini-potemkin" items on the screen at once. Each of these (small red and brown guys) has only a 1 in 256 chance of appearing when I create an item, and I got two at once. The mini-potemkins take three hits for the enemy to kill, each. Notice that at the end, I hide inside them, lol. Also at the end, when my meteors are coming down at the enemy, I activate an item super. Activating a super at the moment another move (in this case the meteors) hits the enemy can make that thing (the meteors) unblockable. I'm not sure if I triggered that bug here, or if the enemy just randomly got hit or didn't know the meteors were coming, but either way, it's a pretty crazy match.

--Sirlin

Here is the stirring text I wrote for the Evolution 2006 tournament program guide:

“Playing to win is the most important and most widely misunderstood concept in all of competitive games.”—Sirlin

These are the words I chose to start my very first article about “Playing to Win” over six years ago, and I’m sticking to my story. Since then, my articles have been passed around the internet and back, and are still linked to in gaming forums for lots of games I’ve never even heard of.

Here at the finals of Evolution 2006, I hope you will see first hand what I’ve been talking about all these years. The players who have reached this level of skill have long left behind the mental handicaps that hold other players back. You won’t find any complaining about throws being cheap, or characters being cheap, or doing one move over and over being cheap, or exploiting bugs being cheap. At this level of play, the word “cheap” even becomes a compliment.

Isn’t it bad to exploit bugs, though? The answer is a resounding “no.” The Evolution tournament does have hard rules that players must abide by such as no kicking each other in the shins, no pausing during a match, and no picking Akuma in SF2 Aniversary Edition. But beyond that, players cannot be expected to intuit the will of the game designer about what was or wasn’t intended, and the tournament organizers have no interest in stifling the players, either. Everything goes and every good competitor will use anything to his advantage. If competitive gamers don’t push the envelope of what the game allows, then they have abandoned one of the primary virtues of humanity itself: the quest to always improve one’s self. If that made you laugh, then I invite you to watch the tournament through the lens of continuous self-improvement and see that these players’ burning desire to improve is no joke.

You will see Sentinel’s unblockable in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. You will see Chun Li’s “stored” super in Street Fighter 2: Anniversary Edition. You will see long-distance “kara throws” in SF3:3^rd strike. You will see invulnerable “roll canceling” in Capcom vs. SNK 2. You will even see “snaking” in Mario Kart. The game designers probably did not intend any of these things, but this is not their day. This day is for the players to demonstrate how far along the path the excellence they have traveled and tournament victories are how they measure this progress.

While you watch these competitors, remember that they are now facing their biggest tests. All the preparation they’ve had, all the practice, and all their cheap tricks may still not be enough given the incredible competition they face from all over the world. You might even catch a glimpse of a rising star who evolves his play to the next level right in front of your eyes. After all, this trial-by-fire is how players reach that next level.

If you’re interested in reading more about the mechanics and psychology of competitive play—which is applicable to nearly any game—I will humbly recommend my book, Playing to Win. After all the response from my articles over the years, I compiled, polished, and greatly expanded the material into book form. It contains many topics I’ve never written about before such as the concept of critical moments in a match, how to “see the moments” that go by in a flash, which qualities and personality types the top players tend to have, and what duty the best players do or do not have when it comes to teaching others.

If it makes you feel any better, my main motivation for writing the book wasn’t to make a buck (there are better ways to do