CAPCOM VERSUS SNK 2: EAGLE FAQ
-= SAL's guide to scoring under par =-
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NORMAL ATTACKS:
(Note that some of his moves are pretty basic and don't really need
explaining, so not all of his normal moves are listed here. Just because a
move isn't listed here doesn't mean it isn't useful though. It likely just
means it's too simple and straight-forward to be worth explaining in any
amount of detail. Also note that Eagle has no punches or kicks, per se. All
of his attacks are made using his escima sticks, with the Kick buttons
corresponding to low attacks and the Punch buttons to high attacks.)
MEDIUM PUNCH
Hits twice. The first hit can be cancelled into specials. Aims high, so it
may miss crouching opponents. Good combo starter, though not quite as good
as the standing Medium Kick.
D + MEDIUM PUNCH
Hits twice. Crouching version of his standing Medium Punch. Fairly good
range. A fairly useful low attack to use when up close.
MEDIUM KICK
Strikes lower than the Medium Punch, but only hits once. Can be easily
cancelled into any special attack or super move though. The slightly better
range and angle than the Medium Punch makes this his best combo starter on
the ground.
D + MEDIUM KICK
A quick low poke. Pretty good range and speed. Looks just like the standing
Medium Kick, but while crouching. Useful when you're too close to use the
crouching Hard Kick. Can't be cancelled into special attacks, but it can be
cancelled into his Union Jack Platinum super move.
HARD PUNCH (far)
A very long strike in front of him. Very fast, good priority, tremendous
damage. Use it whenever people get in range for it to whack at them from a
safe distance. Can be used to hit distant jumpers, but misses when too
close. When used in conjunction with his crouching Hard Kick he becomes a
real threat as a distance fighter.
HARD PUNCH (close)
A two handed stick strike. Very fast and excellent priority. Doesn't seem to
be cancellable though, which limits it's usefulness. The Medium Kick tends
to be a much better alternative.
D + HARD PUNCH
Very high upward swing. Good anti-air technique against jumpers, but do it
early because it's not invincible by any means. You might be trading hits a
lot with this, but with Eagle's damage rating it should be trading in your
favor. One of his best anti-air techniques overall.
HARD PUNCH (while jumping)
A long straight strike with the stick. Good against jumpers, not so good
against grounded opponents. You should usually use the jumping Hard Kick a
lot more.
HARD KICK
A double strike angled downward. Doesn't have the range of the Hard Punch,
but won't miss crouching opponents like the Hard Punch occasionally does.
Overall it's not that useful though, since it can't combo. Just stick with
the standing Medium Kick instead.
D + HARD KICK
A foot sweep that comes out fast and travels almost half screen. Use it
whenever the opponent's in range for it. Can occasionally be vulnerable if
they jump, so mix it up with his standing Hard Punch for a good long-range
ground game. Easily one of his best normal attacks.
HARD KICK (while jumping)
Downward strike with both sticks. Good to use against grounded opponents.
Excellent priority and combo starting ability. Somewhat vulnerable to
jumping attacks, especially if the opponent is above you in the air. Very
good priority against grounded opponents though. This is his best jumping
attack overall though, so make use of it often.
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SPECIAL ATTACKS:
MANCHESTER BLACK - D,DB,B + Punch
Spinning Lariat attack. Counters some high/medium attacks, but is horribly
vulnerable to low attacks. The button used determines the time he spins and
the distance he moves forward. Light Punch just spins on the spot for a
short time, while Hard Punch moves forward a bit and spins longer. Can be
useful as an anti-air defense against cross-overs, due to it's ability to
hit behind him as well as in front. Can also occasionally be a good attack
to use when getting up from a knockdown. Since it comes out instantly and
has good priority, it will usually counter most ground attacks in close.
Against grounded opponents you almost always want to stick with the Light
Punch version since it's the fastest. The other versions leave you so open
when blocked it's ridiculous, and don't really have any clear advantages
over the Light Punch version anyway. Similar to Zangief's Spinning Lariat,
but with a little less range and no ability to control it's movement once
the move starts.
CANTERBURY BLUE - D,DF,F + hold Punch
An excellent but strange move that takes some explaining. There are two
parts to this move, the wind-up and the strike. The wind-up is immune
(auto-guards) against certain moves depending on the punch button used. By
this immunity I mean the opponent's moves will will connect, but they
register no damage, and Eagle will not react to them in any way. You can
also hold the punch to slightly increase the delay time on the wind-up
before he strikes. Using Light Punch will make Eagle immune to jumping
attacks on the wind-up, and then strike high. Medium Punch makes him immune
to mid-level attacks, and then strikes straight ahead. Hard Punch gives him
immunity to low-hitting attacks, and then strikes low. The immunity applies
to all normal and special attacks, but not to super moves or throws. The
immunity even includes projectile special attacks though. The Medium Punch
version is immune to horizontal projectiles, the Hard Punch to ground
projectiles, and the Light Punch version to air projectiles. Note that the
strike part of the move does not have the immunity that the wind-up does.
For example, while his Light Punch version makes him immune to jumping
attacks during the wind-up, it is actually possible to hit him with a
jumping attack during the strike afterwards. The strike does a surprisingly
large amount of damage though, which is comparable to Geese's Atemi-Nage,
and will often trade hits in Eagle's favor. For further analysis of this
move, see the COUNTERING section below.
OXFORD RED - B,DB,D,DF,F + Kick
Rushing combo attack. Keeps attacking even if he doesn't connect, often
leaving him open when it misses. The button used determines the number of
hits, and the distance and lag time of the leap forward at the beginning of
the move. Light Kick goes forward the shortest distance and delivers the
fewest hits, but comes out the fastest. Hard Kick is the reverse, going a
good distance and doing lots of hits, but also having the biggest lag time
at the start. A good move to use in combos, but usually not on it's own
because it leaves you too open if you miss. Make sure you always connect
with it and you'll be fine. One block defense you sometimes have to worry
about is counter-rolling. If your opponent is using N-Groove, watch out for
that. Some characters also have moves that can hit you out of the Oxford Red
after blocking. This problem occurs with any button version of the move you
use, since although this changes the initial lag time before the hits, it
always has the same lag time afterwards. Obviously not a failsafe tactic to
be using all the time, but overall it's one of Eagle's strongest assets, and
should play a crucial part in your overall offensive strategy.
LIVERPOOL WHITE - D,DB,B + Kick
A leaping overhead dive attack. Must be blocked high. Fairly safe coming
down, but going up it's vulnerable, especially against jumping attacks. The
Kick button used determines how far he travels. Light Kick travels the
least, and Hard Kick travels the most, going about half a screen distance
forward. The Hard or Medium Kick version can be used as an anti-projectile
or just to cover distance. The Light Kick version is fairly useful in
semi-combos, to cancel into from blocked attacks. Similar to Necro's Snake
Fang in Street Fighter III, but not quite as safe.
ST.ANDREW GREEN - F,D,DF + Punch
Projectile counter. He absorbs a projectile and sends back his own. The
incoming projectile must hit the energy arc of the swing for it to
successfully reflect. The Punch button used determined the trajectory of the
return projectile. Light Punch sends it straight, Medium sends it a little
bit upwards, and Hard Punch sends it higher upwards. Similar to Rose's Soul
Reflect in the Street Fighter Alpha series, minus the ability to absorb
projectiles into your super bar. See the GENERAL STRATEGY section below for
more info.
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SUPER MOVES:
MANCHESTER GOLD - D,DB,B,D,DB,B + Punch
Spinning Lariat attack. Super version of the Manchester Black. Makes for a
good defensive super move. It has a vacuum effect similar to Ryu's
Shinkuu-Tatsumaki-Senpukyaku, where it can pull an opponent into it and keep
them there until the move finishes or they die. Can counter jumping attacks,
but it juggles airborne opponents and won't deliver all the hits. It's main
strength lies as a counter on the ground. It has tremendous priority,
especially at the higher levels, effectively sucking in any attackers who
get into it's range. Makes a great anti-roll technique as well. If an
opponent rolls at you, just start this up and watch them get helplessly
sucked into it. The move leaves you almost completely safe when blocked as
well, allowing you to use it without worrying about counter attacks. The
level 3 version adds an extra strike at the end which tosses the opponent up
and onto the stick, which looks very cool as a finishing move.
UNION JACK PLATINUM - D,DF,F,D,DF,F + Punch
Rushing combo attack. Super variation of the Oxford Red. Serves as an
effective offensive super move. Nothing really too special about it, it's
basically just an Oxford Red that does more hits and damage. It doesn't dash
forward as much though, starting out the combo hits most like the Light Kick
version of the Oxford Red. Mostly useful in combos, since like the Oxford
Red it leaves you totally open when it misses. It has less lag time
afterwards though, leaving you safer when it's blocked. In fact, the level 3
version has no lag time at all, meaning the only way it can leave you
vulnerable if blocked is through use of the N-Groove counter roll ability.
You can use it to replace the Oxford Red in any legitimate combos for it,
and can also chain it onto a crouching Medium Kick, which the Oxford Red
can't even do. This is Eagle's most damaging attack, so use it in combos
whenever you can, or to catch opponents if they make a mistake and leave
themselves open.
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COMBOS:
Eagle's combos are short and sweet. Not overly long or complicated, but he
has a lot of cancellable attacks, and a lot of special moves to cancel them
into, resulting in a large assortment of combo variations at his disposal.
The only special attack that truly combos well is his Oxford Red, but moves
like his Liverpool White and Canterbury Blue make for good cancellations in
blocked combos. In fact, since the Oxford Red can leave him open against
certain attacks when blocked, it's good to get into the habit of only
cancelling into it out of attacks that actually hit, and instead cancelling
into something else from of attacks that are blocked. Listed below are his
most useful true combos and semi-combos. True combos will register all the
hits on the combo meter, meaning if you connect with the first hit, the
others become unblockable. The semi-combos are cancellation patterns that
don't truly combo, but can be very useful to use in his gameplay strategy
regardless.
TRUE COMBOS:
MP/MK, Oxford Red (B,DB,D,DF,F + Medium Kick)
D+HP, Oxford Red (B,DB,D,DF,F + Medium Kick)
D+LP, D+LK, Union Jack Platinum (D,DF,F,D,DF,F + Punch)
D+HP, Union Jack Platinum (D,DF,F,D,DF,F + Punch)
D+MK, Union Jack Platinum (D,DF,F,D,DF,F + Punch)
SEMI-COMBO CHAIN PATTERNS:
MP/MK, Liverpool White (D,DB,B + Light Kick)
D+LP, D+LK, Liverpool White (D,DB,B + Light Kick)
D+HP, Liverpool White (D,DB,B + Light Kick)
MP/MK, Canterbury Blue (D,DF,F + Punch)
D+LP, D+LK, Canterbury Blue (D,DF,F + Punch)
D+HP, Canterbury Blue (D,DF,F + Punch)
Note that these aren't necessarily all of his combos, but just the most
useful ones. He can chain his Manchester Black into some true combos in
place of the Oxford Red, for instance. But since the Oxford Red serves that
purpose better in every way, I really can't see any reason you'd ever want
to use the Manchester Black here instead.
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COUNTERING:
The Canterbury Blue (D,DF,F + Punch) is one of Eagle's strongest assets.
Learn to use it well and it will improve your gameplay effectiveness
greatly. For a brief description of the move itself, see the SPECIAL MOVES
section above. Due to the move's complexity though, I will go over how to
use it in more detail.
It's probably most easily used as an air counter. If someone jumps in
normally, do the Light Punch version and hold the button. If they attack
you'll hear the thud of their move hitting you harmlessly, and that's your
cue to let go of the button. If they seem to be jumping in without an
attack, then you can still make the call and let the button go early. This
will knock them out of the air, or at least force them to block it somehow.
In any case, if they land before you strike then it's likely to miss by
going over their head, so you want to let go of the button sometime before
they touch down.
The Hard Punch version is slightly more tricky, but not overly so. Low
poking is a common strategy in this game. If you find yourself up against an
opponent who uses a lot of low poking strategies with their crouching Kick
attacks, just stick this into their pattern to mess them up. They'll
probably be more than likely to hit the wind-up right away in most cases. In
fact, in this situation I wouldn't even really recommend holding the button
down. Even if they don't hit the wind-up, three things will typically
happen. Number one is that they'll see it coming and block. Not a problem
because it doesn't really leave you open when blocked. Number two is that it
manages to hit them out of a move cleanly. Don't expect it to happen all the
time, but the strike even has enough priority to go through some things once
in a while. Number three is you'll trade hits. Due to Eagle's already
generally high damage rating, and this move being especially strong, the
trade-off usually comes out in your favor. All you really have to watch out
for is possible super moves here. If they pull off a super right away,
you're gonna be eating it, since the Canterbury Blue is never immune to
super moves.
The Medium Punch version isn't used so directly quite as much, but can be
surprisingly useful and safe a lot of the time. The strike on this one has
the most horizontal range of any version, sticking straight out ahead of
him. Generally this makes it the best random poking tool among the three
versions of the move. It's especially great to throw out as a "cover move"
after something like the Oxford Red. Typically a good strategy is to just do
it without holding the button directly after an Oxford Red combo, regardless
of whether that was blocked or hit before it. Sometimes people may try using
a straight move as a counter after this, which will be effectively nullified
by the wind-up. This strike should just barely reach from the ending
position after an Oxford Red too, so even if they don't do anything it's a
free poke. Another important note is that there is considerable overlap
between the immunity of the low and high counters with this one. By that I
mean that when your opponent attacks, it's often possible to use two
different versions of the Canterbury Blue and successfully remain immune to
the attack with both of them. The Light Punch version is immune to attacks
that generally hit Eagle in his head or chest area, and the Hard Punch is
immune to attacks directed at his legs or feet. The immunity of the Medium
Punch version covers an area starting at around his knees and going all the
way up to his shoulders though. So basically, you're essentially immune to
anything except for attacks to your head or feet with this one. As a result,
deep jumping attacks that target your torso can be negated with this
surprisingly well, as well as any low attacks that hit higher than ground
level. It has the widest area of coverage overall, including a lot of
overlap into the immunity range of the other versions of this move, making
the Medium Punch version easily the best Canterbury Blue to use. It's
especially useful when you don't know what area your opponent is going to
specifically target on you with their next attack. Any time you're doing any
guessing about at all it's typically best to use this version, to both
maximize your strike range and minimize your wind-up vulnerablility risk.
In ending, just practice with this and you should get the hang of it. It's
not really that complex, but it can be easily overlooked or forgotten during
a fight, especially when you're new to playing Eagle. Just remember that the
Canterbury Blue isn't an invincible move, as alternate attacks can still hit
the wind-up of any version. Using a foot sweep on the Medium Punch version
will trip you straight out of the wind-up, for example. Also remember that
none of the versions of this move are able to counter throws or super moves
at all. Even with the strike coming out afterwards, the short but mandatory
wind-up time still gives your opponent a chance to roll in and throw. Or
they can even just hit you with a super move right through the wind-up or
strike, which you're unfortunately left completely helpless against. So just
keep in mind that the Canterbury Blue is not to be overused to the point of
getting blatently predictable, since it can obviously leave you open for a
severe beating when expected. But you should also try not to forget about it
in situations where it's appropriate, or you're really missing out of a lot
of potential with this guy. This move is essentially the single strongest
asset to Eagle's nearly-unbreakable defense, so it's important to really get
it down.
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GENERAL STRATEGY:
If Eagle's gameplay style could be described by one word, that word would be
"blitz". On the offensive, Eagle becomes an extremely effective force to be
reckoned with. His hits and combos do a lot of damage, and the speed and
range on a lot of his moves is simply phenomenal. On defense, Eagle is very
technical, but nearly flawless when used correctly. He has an excellent
assortment of special moves in general, and two very good supers that serve
different purposes. Overall he can really stand out as a powerhouse in this
game, but the advanced skill level required to use him properly seems to
turn most players away from him.
GETTING YOUR GROOVE ON:
The first thing you may be wondering is which Groove to choose for him.
Well, I won't go and say there's any single best Groove for him, because I
think a lot of this has to do with personal play-style. Using a Groove you
feel comfortable using him with is more important than any technical reasons
I could give about their benefits and shortcomings. That said and out of the
way though, I won't leave you totally hanging with only that cop-out
statement to go on. From my experience with him, I would say the most
important Groove-related issue for Eagle is running. Running is a crucial
part of Eagle's blitzing strategy, and without it he seems to just lose so
much potential. So unless you're really set on using a Capcom Groove for
some reason, I would strongly suggest choosing one of the SNK Grooves while
playing as Eagle. Any SNK Groove will probably be fine, since they all allow
running. But if you want my personal preference on the matter, I most like
to use K-Groove with him. Why? Well, K-Groove has several important
benefits. One of the most obvious is the Just Defend system, the potential
of which doesn't really need explaining. When talking about benefits to
Eagle specifically, the Rage mode really jacks up normal attacks. And since
Eagle relies a lot on using them, he can benefit from that damage increase a
lot. Another really nice feature is that if Eagle nullifies an attack in the
wind-up of his Canterbury Blue, it jacks up his Rage bar just as if he got
hit. The same goes for his St.Andrew green when hit by a projectile. This
means these two moves become even more of a bonus to him. Not only are they
already great counters, but now they're also giving him loads of super
energy every time you use them successfully. As for what K-Groove is
missing, it's mostly inconsequential with Eagle. You don't really need to
roll with him, so I never miss that at all. The counters of N-Groove aren't
really important with him, since he's primarily an offensive character and
you have all sorts of other counters anyway. Not having level 1 or 2 supers
isn't much of a big deal either. Eagle doesn't really need to rely on his
supers to fill any gaps in his strategy, so they're best used at level 3 for
maximum priority and damage potential anyway. It might be nice to have
S-Groove's dodging feature, but again his own special move counters can take
the place of that. In the end, I think K-Groove has enough benefits over
N-Groove and S-Groove to more than make up for what it lacks. But like I
said, it's really up to you. The most important thing is to have that run
feature, since Capcom-style dashing just doesn't cut it with this guy.
Everything aside from that is more or less an issue of preference. I should
also mention here that I tend to like using Eagle either alone as ratio 4,
or teamed up with Geese Howard. K-Groove generally has the most benefits for
a character being used on their own, which I won't specifically go into
here. But with Geese having a high defense, and his own counter (Atemi-Nage)
that can raise his rage bar similarly to Eagle's, using these two as a pair
also makes a great choice with K-Groove. Just take note that if you prefer
using Eagle as part of some other team, it's certainly reasonable that you
might find yourself getting more use out of one of the other Grooves
overall.
PROJECTILE PITCH-HITTING:
For dealing with projectiles, learn to use his St.Andrew Green. I'd go to
say straight out that it's the best projectile counter move in the game. It
has literally no delay time, the return projectile comes out quickly, is
fairly large, travels very fast, and can be angled. The only trick is to
train yourself to use it instinctively against any incoming projectile
attacks, and get a feel for what your opponent is going to do after a
projectile so that you can angle the return appropriately. If they like to
stay on the ground and fire another projectile, a Light Punch St.Andrew
Green is what you want to do. If they like to jump, then use the Medium or
Hard Punch depending on how close they are. The Medium Punch version can
actually hit opponents on the ground if they're close enough, but can
usually be jumped at that point. At long range the Medium Punch angle will
go over their head, but will be better at hitting them out of the air.
Alternatively, the Hard Punch is better at hitting them out of the air up
close, but will never be able to hit them on the ground at all. Just adjust
your angle depending on what they're likely to do. If you really don't know,
then making a guess usually won't leave you open even if you're wrong due to
the fast recovery. I can't even count the number of times I've knocked Guile
players out of the air with the Hard Punch angled return projectile just on
a hunch, and even when I'm wrong the worst thing that will happen is a miss.
It shouldn't necessarily be your only projectile defense, but make this move
your friend and it can really give you an edge against characters who
heavily rely on them.
THE BLITZ:
Eagle's offensive game is one that's fast and furious. Generally speaking,
about 80-90% of the time should usually be spent running and attacking with
this guy. The run is a crucial factor for him for several reasons. For one,
although Eagle is kind of on the slow side in terms of movement overall, he
has a very fast running speed. This lets him close distance quickly and
safely, and increases his overall mobility dramatically. His running jump is
also a big plus. It takes him far and fast, allowing him to dash-jump over
projectiles and attack helpless foes with ease. And even when they're not
specifically vulnerable Eagle's running jump is very hard for opponents to
deal with. His jumping Hard Kick is an excellent attack to use out of a run,
allowing him to fly in with a high priority attack at high speed. His
jumping Hard Kick can trade hits with most anti-air moves, such as Ryu's
Shoryuken and Guile's Flash Kick, and usually in Eagle's favor for damage.
And if anything of less priority is used against it, it's likely to slam
right through and provide you with an easy combo setup to boot.
Alternatively, you can just run in and attack on the ground rather than the
air. Running just into range of his foot sweep is an ideal tactic that's
sure to trip people up. Cancel the run into his D+HK and just let them try
to anticipate it. Even if they do see it coming there's often not much they
can do but block. You should still way out of the reach of most characters
at this range, and even if they roll through your foot sweep you can usually
recover in time for them to do anything. Going a little further in, you can
cancel the run into his standing Hard Punch or Medium Kick. The Hard Punch
can be good in this situation because it's really hard to get around. Again,
they're often forced to block or get hit. The Medium Kick is an ideal cancel
for the run as well, with one of the biggest payoffs when it connects. If
they try to attack it's likely that the Medium Kick will connect cleanly,
due to the move's amazing priority. And when it does, just cancel it quickly
into the Oxford Red (B,DB,D,DF,F + Medium Kick) or the Union Jack Platinum
(D,DF,F,D,DF,F + Punch) for a nice big damaging combo. If the character
doesn't have anything reliable to hit you out of a blocked Oxford Red with,
you can even cancel into it out of blocked Medium Kicks to wear down their
guard bar. One of the best things about running is that you're never really
left too open while using it. With Eagle you don't have to get right in
close, so you're usually stopping early to attack just out of other
characters' reach anyway. If they try to jump or roll at you, you can easily
cancel the run into a block or defensive move in time. Since a lot of
Eagle's attacks leave the opponent flying to the other side of the screen,
running is also important for closing the gap of distance while they're
down. Eagle's best played at medium range, and running lets him avoid being
stuck too far away from the opponent.
THE RETURN (VERSUS AIR):
Eagle's offensive game should be your primary concern, but certainly not the
only concern. Defensively, Eagle is very technical but well-rounded, having
a counter for just about any situation imaginable. For jumping opponents, he
has a few main moves to make use of. The crouching Hard Punch has great
upwards range and is ideal for high jumping characters who like to fly over
your head. It doesn't have the best priority, but has the best upwards range
of anything he can do from the ground. Use that range to your advantage,
doing the move early before the opponent gets into range to attack, and
there's very little the opponent can do about it. The Canterbury Blue
(D,DF,F + Light Punch) is obviously a great air counter as well. This is his
safest move for use against jumpers overall. The key is to make sure the
opponent's jumping trajectory will fall along the angle of the move's
strike. This way, if the opponent attacks you can use the wind-up to absorb
it, and even if they don't attack you can still hit them with the strike.
The only time this is really ever ineffective as an air counter is in a
situation where they're in a position where the strike just won't hit them
at all. So basically, just watch out for weird angled jumps that will avoid
the angle of the strike portion of the move. One such jump would be the
cross-up. If an opponent jumps over you and tries to hit you from behind,
the Manchester Black (D,DB,B + Punch) is sometimes your best bet. The
different Punch buttons can be used to adjust your position to match where
the opponent will land. The key is to get them behind you, not on top of
you. For this the Hard Punch version of the move can occasionally come in
handy to move you forward slightly and hit them cleanly with the back swing.
If they're already landing behind you, then you may want the Medium or Light
Punch version so you don't move too far away. Remember during the Manchester
Black Eagle's head is still vulnerable, so you want to try to make them land
behind you on your arms, not on top of you on your head. When your opponent
is on the ground you typically only want to use the Light Punch version, to
leave yourself open to low attacks as little as possible. But in the air
this isn't so much of a problem, since they obviously can't hit you with any
low attacks up there anyway. Finally, if they're jumping some distance away,
out of range of all of these attacks, you can swing the standing Hard Punch
and hit opponents out of the air from quite far back. It should basically
only be used when they're not even close enough to hit you with anything out
of their jump. The move doesn't have much height on it, but enough to catch
them on their landing. So use it late against distant jumpers to score an
extra hit now and then. While each of the moves listed here has limitations
on their own, when combined they can effectively take care of all his
anti-air needs. Instead of having just one dominant anti-air attack, Eagle
essentially has four seperate anti-air moves that each excel in different
circumstances. When taking all these moves into account together Eagle's air
defense becomes superb, but the trick is in learning to make use of all of
them accordingly.
THE RETURN (VERSUS GROUND):
Ground defense is typically dealt with by his high priority poking and
offensive blitz, but there are a few points to bring up here. Against
rollers, you can do several things. Number one thing to keep in mind is that
like most of his other moves, Eagle's throws (F+HP/HK when close) have very
good range, priority, and speed. I don't encourage people to throw too much,
but I do think it's useful to get in the habit of instinctively throwing
rollers in particular. You can also use moves like his standing or crouching
Medium attacks. They pretty much all have good priority, and stick out for a
little while so tagging people out of rolls with them tends to be pretty
easy. These also allow you to go into a quick combo if you're fast enough.
Finally, you can just start up a Manchester Gold (D,DB,B,D,DB,B + Punch) and
watch them get helplessly sucked into it out of their roll. Great fun with
the level 3 version in particular. Also worth mentioning, there are a few
characters Eagle's offense doesn't work so well on, and he occasionally has
to take a little more defensive appoach to. Luckily, the range and speed of
his moves makes him as good at block-and-counter techniques as anyone. He
can block Blanka's rolls and hit him out of it with a standing Hard Punch,
for instance. He can counter pretty much any attempted foot sweep by
blocking and then using his own long-range sweep. Anything that's too fast
and risky to counter directly with his Canterbury Blue can typically be
dealt with in some way after a block. Use moves like his crouching Hard
Kick, standing Hard Punch, and Canterbury Blue to keep opponents at bay and
attack from outside of their reach. When you find yourself in close, switch
to using his combos and semi-combos (see COMBO section above) to stay on the
offensive. Using a pattern like cancelling his crouching Light attacks into
a Liverpool White (D,DB,B + Kick) can be very useful for confusing an
opponent up close, for example. Or if you think you can predict an attack
that's coming, just use the Canterbury Blue. Opponents usually think twice
about playing an offensive ground game against Eagle after being knocked
back by that a few times.
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To "wind-up" this FAQ, remember the main points about Eagle. His aggressive
blitz style of play makes him a primarily very active offensive character.
His ability to simply overwhelm most characters with a constant barrare of
effective attacks is amazing. Add to that a rock-solid technical defense and
you've got one impressive character on your hands. The skill required to
play him properly is definately well above average though. He has a large
assortment of complicated and unusual attacks that first have to be figured
out on their own, and then learned to be used together. But once you do,
you'll find that his moves all connect like a jigsaw puzzle, with each one
filling a vital and important role in his overall strategy. Don't feel
discouraged if you find yourself somewhat lost when starting out trying to
learn him though. Eagle can take a good deal of practice to master, but if
you hang in there with him it can really pay off. See you at the arcades,
Eagle fans... "The show must go on!" :)
email me at:
[email protected]
Also check out my CvS2 Geese Howard guide, available at www.GameFAQs.com.
