Super Street Fighter II Turbo-Balrog (Boxer) FAQ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
V. 1.0 last updated 2/22/2010
By Airthrow (Julian Blake)
[email protected]
==============
Sections Covered:
==============
-Why was this FAQ created?
-Intro
-Move Legend/terminology
-Movelist, normal moves
-Movelist, special moves
-THE SUPER
-Combos
-What are Balrog's weaknesses?
-Strategies and Tactics
-Matchup notes (Please submit!)
-Where to find more Balrog and ST resources
-Credits
-Revision history
-Disclaimer
-Contact Info
--------------------------------------
==========================
-Why was this FAQ created?
==========================
For some reason, the only Character FAQ for ST is for Zangief. Being a
Balrog/Boxer user and seeing a lot of beginners struggle with the basics of
the character on SRK, I thought a FAQ would help a lot, so that the forums
could address only advanced questions. Don't worry though, this FAQ should be
quite indepth and describe some of the advanced tactics and strategies with
Balrog.
This guide should be 99.999% interchangeable with HD Remix, as Boxer's changes
to HDR are relatively mild (from jimmyrey's capcom unity blog):
* Turn punch and headbutt award less super meter.
* Small and medium headbutts travel slightly farther and are less safe.
* Throw range decreased.
* First hit of throw does less damage.
* Turn Punch can be performed by holding 2 punches or 2 kicks, rather than
all 3
* Super does a little less damage
==========================
-Intro
==========================
Super Street Fighter II Turbo (abbreviated in the fighting game community as
just "ST") is my favorite fighting game. I have been playing it competitively
since late 2006. Balrog in the US is often referred to as "Boxer" because in
Japan Balrog is known as M. Bison, but Capcom Japan changed the name when
bringing SFII to america to avoid a lawsuit from Mike Tyson.
Boxer is probably slightly behind Dhalsim as the second best tournament legal
character in ST, because he has very good matchups with most of the cast, and
especially against powerful characters like Ryu, O. Sagat, and Vega/Claw. His
trouble matchups (in this author's opinion) tend to be with lower tiered
characters like Blanka, Cammy, and T. Hawk. He also has QUITE a fight ahead of
him with Dhalsim because of the difficulty of getting in close without taking
1/2 life damage in the process.
Over all, Balrog is an incredibly complete character in ST who does ridiculous
damage, has great mixup potential, and can end any round in seconds.
It is possible to select the Super Street Fighter II version of Balrog (AKA, O.
Boxer or "old version") by selecting Balrog with jab at the character select
screen, pressing right, left, left, right, and jab again. The only real
version this boxer has is a faster straight rush punch that hits medium (in
other words, hits opponents blocking low). Since he loses his super, one of
the best weapons in the game, picking O. Boxer is for novelty's sake only.
==========================
-Move Legend/terminology
==========================
This guide assumes know can understand basic Streetfighter terminology. To
summarize:
(charge)- Means hold the joystick in that direction for roughly two seconds.
Cr.-Crouching
J.-Jumping
TAP- stands for "turn around punch", the special move Balrog has by holding
down 3P or 3K. Can be charged longer for increased damage and speed.
3P/3K- Press or hold all 3 punch buttons, or all 3 kick buttons.
jab, strong, fierce: The names on the control panel of western released arcade
machines for light punch, medium punch, and hard punch.
short, forward, roundhouse: The names on the control panel of western released
arcade machines for light kick, medium kick, and hard kick.
wakeup, waking up: Standing up after getting knocked down.
Meaty: timing a move on an opponent waking up from a knockdown so that the
attack is overlapping their sprite as soon as they are waking up. Immensely
powerful because it makes the opponent deal with the attack immediately, or
take damage or get knocked down again.
==========================
-Movelist, normal moves
==========================
In my opinion, Balrog is slightly behind only Deejay for best normal moves in
the game. Almost ALL of them with the exception of St. RH has a clearly
defined, proper useage. There are almost no "filler" normals here, you need to
learn all of them.
-Standing jab: Very fast, comboable into specials and super, stuffs torpedo
moves like Blanka ball and Honda torpedo. Can also be used as a last minute
anti-air.
-Standing Strong: A great anti air to use when someone immediately leaves the
ground when you are already standing, because going into a crouch and hitting
fierce might be too slow.
-Standing fierce: AMAZING poke, does excellent damage, has a huge hitbox, and
gives you time to charge for a dash punch or TAP. Puts opponent into a long
period of blockstun as well, so "holds them in place" while you are charging
for another special.
-Standing short: Can be used as an anti-air, can also combo into
specials...but isn't horribly useful because there area always better options.
-Standing forward: Great for tick throws, does good damage.
-Standing Roundhouse: Looks cool as hell to throw that elbow...no known good
use though.
-crouching jab: Excellent. Fast speed, combos into other things, great for
tick throws. Can snuff out many other normals and specials, too.
-Crouching strong: Excellent. One of your best crouching pokes, and links into
low rush punch. Does great damage.
-Crouching Fierce: Excellent anti-air for when you know you don't have a down
charge. Also great up close against standing opponents.
-Crouching Short: Don't bother, everything this does, jab does better.
-Crouching medium kick: Almost broken it is so good. Stuffs almost EVERY
other crouching normal in the game. Beats all slides (Deejay, Dhalsim). Links
to Cr. strong. Excellent mixups to tick throw or st. Fierce to keep them in
block stun to setup a shenanigan.
=Cr. RH: Excellent trip, very slow recovery and distinct disadvantage if they
block, though.
****The only jumping normals you need****
-Jumping Jab: Very good air to air, can also start combos on standing opponents.
-Jumping Fierce: The exact same as J. RH. Good and combos onto standing
opponents.
-Jump up neutrally, and press forward or backwards+Fierce Punch: This is one
of the tools Capcom gave Balrog to deal with fireballs. By jumping over the
fireball and pressing forward to narrowly miss it, you can hit opponents who
jump at you with fierce. You might have to do 2 or 3 of these to advance on
fireball spamming opponents. You can hit a lot of Dhalsim's limbs after
jumping over a yoga fire with this. Often a much safer way to advance on
fireballing opponents, but requires a lot of patience and timing.
***Balrog's Throw***
Balrog only has a "hold", which is a multi-hitting throw where he grabs the
opponent and repeatedly headbutts them. You can mash buttons and directional
inputs (going from d/b to u/f rapidly is the best technique) to get more hits.
ALWAYS, ALWAYS use Medium Punch to do this throw, because it does identical
damage to the Fierce Punch version, but has much longer range.
An interesting property of this throw, which is one of Boxer's most vital
tools, is that after finishing headbutting the opponent, they flip up before
landing on the ground. During this flip the opponent cannot move, but Balrog
can cross over to the other side behind the opponent by walking under them. Or
he can walk forward for a moment, and then back at the last moment before the
opponent regains control of their character, and then trip or go for another
throw. The guessing game for the opponent becomes whether they should block
your trip or cr. mk from the right or left direction, or whether you will just
throw them again. Be careful of abusing this because if you go for a normal
after crossing over, the opponent can get a free throw depending on distance.
Crossing over is more useful against beginning and intermediate players who are
not good at counter throwing.
Mixups after a throw, to give you some ideas:
same side:
cr. mk, cr. mp, low rush
cr. mk, cr. mp, kick rush, throw
Fake crossing over to the other side, then walk back and do cr. RH as a meaty
at the last second
cr. mk, cr. mp, kick rush, jab buffalo headbutt
meaty jab buffalo headbutt
instant overhead (j. mk)
Crossing over mixups:
cr. mk, cr. mp, low rush
cr. mk, cr. mp, kick rush, throw
cr. mk, cr. mp, kick rush, jab buffalo headbutt
cr. mk, kick rush throw
Throw
cr. jab, cr. jab, standing jab, super
instant overhead (j. mk)
==========================
-Movelist, special moves
==========================
Straight dash punch (Charge d/b or b, f+P):
If you are using the O. Version of boxer, this hits mid and knocks down
crouching opponents (and is coincidentally the ONLY reason to ever pick O.
Boxer, because it's the old version's only advantage). With ST Boxer, this can
be blocked by crouching opponents. Is a good poke, does good chip, and can hit
jumpers if they land shallow in front of you and have already done their air
attack. You will probably use low rush about 10x more often than this move
though. You can be dragon punched out of this if someone has good reactions.
The punch button determines how much startup and distance traveled the move has
with lp having the least startup and going the least distance, and hp having
the most startup and going the most distance.
Low rush punch (Charge d/b or b, d/f+p):
This is a dashing punch that hits low, so must be blocked while crouching.
Knocks the opponent down. This move is mostly always safe on block or hit.
Use this move to get in close to the opponent and start guessing games between
throws, more low rushes, tick throws, and supering through and normals or
specials you can see.
The punch button determines how much startup and distance traveled the move has
with lp having the least startup and going the least distance, and hp having
the most startup and going the most distance.
Kick rush (Charge d/b or b, d/f+k):
A forward dashing upward punch that is great for anti air. This move hits
high, so will completely whiff standing opponents...which oddly is one of it's
greatest STRENGTHS, because it's quick recovery time means that if the opponent
doesn't react to you whiffing this move on them while crouching, you often get
a free throw.
A not well known property of the kick rush is that Balrog has 4 kick rushes:
lk, mk, and hk regular kick rushes, and then a kick rush with LESS recovery
time by charging back or d/b, and pressing DOWN/FORWARD+lk. Try having the
opponent crouch low, go a few steps in front of them, do d/b, d/F+LK and then
immediately forward throw with medium punch. It almost functions as a
teleport>Throw it is so fast.
The kick button determines how much startup and distance traveled the move has
with LK having the least startup and going the least distance, and HK having
the most startup and going the most distance. After a kick rush, you can also
activate super simply by pressing back and then forward+punch rapidly. This is
very useful for spacing reasons-if a fireball character throws a fireball at
you fullscreen, you can d/f+short kick rush very quickly (now the fireball will
be right in your face) and then super through the fireball and hit the
fireballer for full damage.
Buffalo Headbutt (charge any down directional, and then press any up
directional+punch):
This move is often your best anti-air against jumping opponents if you have
meter and they are jumping deeply in at you. Also jab and fierce versions have
some startup invincibility allowing you to go through fireballs. MP version
has less or no(?) invincibility so I recommend not using it. Jab headbutt is
excellent to use as a mixup on waking up opponents, because it will beat them
cleanly if you are invincible and they try to wakeup and throw you.
Turn around Punch aka TAP (hold down 3K or 3P):
This is another of Balrog's excellent moves. He can charge the buttons by
holding them down longer to make the attack come out faster, cover more
distance, and do more damage. After doing the move Balrog will say "1!" "2!"
"3!" etc up until the maximum charge which is "FINAL!". Final takes about 40
seconds on the clock straight to charge, and does MASSIVE amounts of damage,
about the same as his super. TAP puts the opponent in MASSIVE blockstun on
block, so it is excellent to tick throw, or setup more specials or even a super
(with higher TAPs, if you do TAP> Super the opponent will have to block the
whole super because they are in blockstun the entire time).
TAP is also an excellent way to move forward to get closer to the opponent.
Also charging a lvl 2 or higher TAP and using it as a meaty is a good gamble,
you might eat a reversal, but then again if they get hit they are taking big
damage, and if they block you retain initiative from the knockdown and can
continue chipping the opponent with specials, or throwing them, etc. Very high
reward move to minimal risk.
You can charge TAP while the announcer is still saying "ROUND 1...!", so
immediately after he says "FIGHT!" if you let go of the buttons, you will
immediately start the round with a lvl 2 charge. In this way if you want to,
you can immediately start the round with 2x level 2 TAPs in a row.
==========================
-THE SUPER
==========================
Many people argue about which super is the best super move in ST. In this
author's opinion, it is a tie between Ryu's super fireball and Boxer's super.
While Ryu can combo into his super much easier from cr. short or j. mp's, it is
more affected by damage scaling that way. But on the other hand, Ryu controls
space more effectively with his Super.
Boxer's super actually has two distinct versions.
Charge d/b or back, f, b, f+P: Boxer does a series of rushing straight
punches. Amazingly fast, and has TONS of startup invincibility. If you are
between about 2/3 of a screen away and 1/2 of a screen away and you see an
opponent throw a fireball, you can often activate super, rush through the
fireball, and start punching them all before they recover from throwing it for
mega-damage. You can also punish people for whiffing a SINGLE jab if you have
excellent reaction time. It is THAT fast and good.
At any time during the super if you press a kick button, Boxer will start doing
kick rush punches instead of straight rush punches. This is useful if the
first straight punch whiffs and the opponent tries to jump.
Charge d/b, or back, f, b, F+K: Boxer rushes forward starting with a series of
kick rush punches. Great for anti-airing opponents. Does less damage than the
punch version of the super. Also the kick version of the super beats Zangief
lariats, while punch version oddly gets beat out by lariat.
At any time during the super if you press a punch button, Boxer will start
doing straight punches instead of kick rushes. This is useful because if you
hit a grounded opponent with kick rushes, punch version does more damage. If
you catch someone in the corner jumping with kick rushes, you can also switch
to punch rushes to juggle for more damage.
-The super also does a wicked amount of chip damage, so it is often a free win
on the opponent in the corner if they don't have enough life to block the
entire attack. However, the super does at least 3x more damage if you hit with
it rather than block, plus advanced players can use the THREAT of the super as
a powerful weapon to inflict more damage or restrict the opponent from using
many of their moves or whiffing a single normal. So in a zen kind of way, the
stages of mastering the super go something like: Doing it from fullscreen and
hoping it hits> Making the opponent take the block damage to cheese them>
Landing supers on opponents who whiff a single jab > to finally, sitting on the
super and making the opponent afraid to use a single move, and greedily
attacking them with near impunity.
==========================
-Combos
==========================
Cr. jab, cr. jab, st. jab> Straight jab punch rush or low jab rush.
cr. jab, cr. jab, st. jab> d/f+short Kick rush (better dizzy potential)
cr. MK, cr. MP>Low jab rush (Your MAIN bread and butter)
Jump in, cr. mk, cr. mp, d/f+short kick rush (great dizzy potential)
J. RH, low RH.
cr. MK> Super
Cr. MK, st. lk>Super
Cr. jab, cr. jab, st. jab> Super
^This combo requires some explanation, because there is an input "trick" you
must know, otherwise you will get cr. jab x2, standing jab, straight rush punch
(which is also a combo). To execute, you charge d/b while doing cr. jabs.
Then you press FORWARD to clear the "back" charge so you won't get forward rush
punch. Then you press Back+jab to do the standing jab, and then forward+punch
to activate the super, since it lets you press forward and back after a charge
and still execute super, whereas rush punch doesn't give you this allowance.
This super is very stylish and impressive once you land it, but you will get
the chance roughly once every 1,000 games against good opponents. One
guaranteed way to land it is after a blocked flash kick up close.
Zangief or T. Hawk: You can typically add an extra cr. jab in combos because
of their hitboxes, so it is possible to do cr. jab X3, st. jab, super on them.
4x cr. jabs if you are extremely fast.
==============================
-What are Balrog's weaknesses?
==============================
Boxer users have a much easier learning curve than many characters in ST. You
don't need to know matchups as well as say, a T. hawk or Fei Long player,
because you will often be using the same strategies against 80% of the cast to
win. However, Boxer does have a few General weaknesses:
Anti-Air: No great command anti air like a dragon punch. However by having a
charge most of the time you play, and knowing which of your normals to use if
you don't, most opponents should be VERY afraid of jumping at you.
Comboability: It is very very rare to be able to combo into your super with
Balrog.
=======================
-Strategies and Tactics
=======================
Always start a round by charging down/back, so that you have access to all of
your specials. The only time not to do this is if you intend to start the
round by jumping forward to try to combo, or by starting the round with a
standing fierce punch. If you start the round with a charge, you can hit any
character that starts the round by jumping backwards by doing an immediate
Roundhouse kick rush.
Balrog is best used as a rushdown character to pressure the opponent with
strings of powerful attacks, but he can also be a very good hit-and-run type
character. He does the most damage in specials in the game other than command
throws, so even if you are constantly trading hits with the opponent, you will
win because of better damage output. You can charge TAP with the kick buttons
with the ridge of your palm while still having access to the punch buttons, but
this is risky since you lose the ability to kick rush>throw, and cr. mk. You
can lose the TAP anytime without executing the move by letting go of the
buttons while hitting someone or doing a move, while in blockstun, while
knocked down, or while jumping.
The best range when trying to rush people, is just around the tip of his glove
distance from a standing fierce punch. This is because st. Fierce will beat
fireballs and many other specials, and if they block it they are "kept in
place" while you will have another special ready. And if they don't have good
reaction time, you will be able to near instantly do a kick rush>throw. If
they try to counter throw you or do a special after the kick rush, you can
often do kick rush> jab buffalo headbutt and counter all of the counters the
opponent tries to do to beat kick rush>throw.
Mixing up Boxer's best tick throws, which are cr. mk, cr. mp, cr. jab, and st.
mk are great because you are mixing up the amount of block stun the opponent is
in, making it harder to counter throw you.
===============================
-Matchup notes (Please submit!)
===============================
ST is a strongly matchup based game, which means that certain characters do
much better against specific characters than others do, due to the nature of
their movesets. While Balrog suffers from matchups less than many of the other
characters do, there are still little tricks he has that are not obvious that
can make many matchups much easier.
Because there are so many of these little tricks in ST for every match, I need
the most help with this section. If you know any Boxer moves that beat out
other moves that is very useful, please email me:
Vs. Blanka:
st. or cr. jabs will beat out horizontal blanka ball. On blocked horizontal
blanka balls, you get a free low rush. DO NOT let him make you block a j. lk,
because his throw range is better than yours and you will be eating facebites
in no time. Do anything to keep him from landing j. lk on you, because it is
VERY difficult to do anything about once you have blocked one and eaten a
facebite.
Vs. M. Bison (Dictator):
Jumping backwards+RH will often beat out any torpedos cleanly.
Vs. Ryu:
Short kick rush>super through fireballs is very useful. At the beginning of
the round, st. fierce will beat a fireball, but lose to a dragon punch.
Neutral jump fiercing over fireballs is essential against good Ryus.
Vs. Chunli:
Straight punches will often beat her trying to slow fireball. Even if it
trades, you win HEAVILY on damage and dizzy damage. Short kick rush>super
through fireballs is very useful. Fierce punching at the beginning of the
round beats her fireball cleanly.
Vs. Vega (Claw):
If Claw jumps to his same wall for a walldive, you can often Roundhouse Kick
rush to hit him cleanly out of the dive. Fierce Buffalo Haedbutt also hits him
cleanly out of walldives after he jumps off of the wall at you. Cr. MK beats
his slide cleanly, and your cr. mp beats his cr. mp and cr. fierce claw swipes.
Jump Neutral fierce beats most of his air-to-air attacks, and all of his jump
ins lose to your early cr. fierce except for walldives. Beware of his fast
walk speed+throw.
Honda:
Jab beats headbutt, after a low rush is blocked, keeping him in place with a
st. fierce is a good idea. You can jab him out of super as well at a distance
(harder in HD Remix).
Dhalsim:
Usually in this match I like to charge TAPs very very high. Both to get in,
and to equalize the damage you usually take at the beginning of every round
just trying to get in. You can punch his limbs with cr. mp and cr. mk. Also
Jump neutral fierce over yoga fire is essential.
O. Sagat:
Be VERY careful about choosing your low rushes, because he can Tiger uppercut
you on reaction, or you might eat two low tiger shots which link together. You
will be relying on your super's ability to blow through if you can't get in,
which isn't fun if the opponent is good.
T. Hawk:
Don't get knocked down or you will lose.
===========================================
-Where to find more Balrog and ST resources
===========================================
If you want to go beyond the scope of this FAQ to learn more about Balrog, or
ST in general, there are many good resources.
The ST Balrog thread on Shoryuken.com:
http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=118759
The ST Match vids+ discussion thread on shoryuken.com:
http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=118687
The ST wiki on SRK:
http://www.shoryuken.com/wiki/index.php/Super_Street_Fighter_2_Turbo
Nohoho's ST blog:
http://curryallergy.blogspot.com/
Axel kelly's ST site has Yoga Book Hyper frame data, matchups, etc:
http://super-turbo.net/
==========================
-Credits:
==========================
First thanks to Chris Macdonald aka Kao Megura (RIP) for making many EXCELLENT
FAQs over the years for games and setting such a high standard of quality.
Also thanks to Doughboy for sitting down with me that one Saturday and helping
me become a better Balrog player by teaching me basic space control I was
severely lacking up until that point, and providing such a great venue in your
home for us to play at.
Thanks to Axel Kelly for running super-turbo.net for the brief time it was
active, it was fun discovering more about ST.
Thanks to Graham Wolfe and Nelson for spending a long time 1-on-1 with me at
EVO 2k9 and EVO 2k8, I learned a lot!
And thanks to the Seattle ST scene, and fighting game scene as a whole. You
guys are much more accepting a community than many I have seen.
-Revision history
-----------------
V. 1.0-What you're reading now!
-Disclaimer
-----------
You can use this FAQ as long as you don't sell it and you give credit to me.
If you're going to use it, please contact me first. This document Copyright
2010 Julian Blake
-Contact Info
-------------
If you have any comments on the FAQ, suggestions on how to make it better, or
something I missed to contribute, please contact me!
email:
[email protected]
SRK Screenname: Airthrow
