SUPER STREET FIGHTER II
Single-Player FAQ
by Sephiroth Katana (http://www.rpgclassics.com)

INTRODUCTION
============

I don't usually play fighting games (for one thing, recent fighting
games are over-reliant on "combos," which I could never learn how to
use), but Super Street Fighter II is the exception. What makes this
game fun is the fact that the characters really are different from
each other, with different strengths and weaknesses, unlike in other
fighting games where they're all basically the same. Furthermore,
Super Street Fighter II has very good hit detection and a good sense
of physics, so there's some actual strategy involved in the fighting,
and it rarely feels like the game is deliberately not letting the
player score any points. The game also has some pretty damn catchy
music.

Anyway, I didn't see a FAQ about strategies for playing the game
solo, so I decided to write one. Now, I know that Street Fighter is
meant to be played by two people. However, I think that by playing
against the computer, one can get a good understanding of the
strengths and weaknesses of the characters, and how to exploit those
weaknesses, and apply that knowledge to multiplayer games later
to good effect. Keep in mind that this is not a FAQ about how to
do special moves; rather, it is about when to do them. If you want
to find out the button combinations for some of the special moves,
plenty of other FAQs dealing with that subject are available.

I decided to organize the FAQ by character. For each character, I 
describe "Patterns," or various behaviours that I've seen the
computer use many times when controlling that character, and then 
give some strategy on how to play against that character and as 
that character, respectively. These strategies range from the 
general to the very specific. They are drawn from my extensive
observations of the game. For what it's worth, I've beaten the game
on the highest level of difficulty, without losing any fights, with
all the characters, using pretty much these exact strategies, so I
think they should be of some value.

A brief note on the terminology that I use in this FAQ. I refer to
attacks as being punches or kicks, qualified as "weak," "medium" or 
"fierce," in accordance with other FAQs. Furthermore, I distinguish
between "standing," "crouching" and "jumping" attacks. So, the L button
corresponds to a "fierce punch," and pressing it while holding Down
would constitute a "crouching fierce punch." I have no idea what the
"official" names of most of the special moves are, so I just named
them according to what they look like. For example, the "vertical
corkscrew attack" is Dhalsim's special move, performed by pressing
Down and the R button while in mid-air.

With that established, let us proceed to the strategies.

CHARACTERS
==========

 1. Balrog
 2. Blanka
 3. Cammy
 4. Chun Li
 5. Dee Jay
 6. Dhalsim
 7. E. Honda
 8. Fei Long
 9. Guile
10. Ken
11. M. Bison
12. Ryu
13. Sagat
14. T. Hawk
15. Vega
16. Zangief

1. BALROG
=========

Patterns:
1. If he crouches for a couple of seconds without doing anything, he's
about to hop forward suddenly and try to smash into you that way.
Move in until you're barely within range of his hop, then crouch so
he misses, and throw him when he lands.
2. If he begins to move backward, chances are that he'll fly right
back at you with one of his dashing punches. Counter with any long-
range move.
3. If you've trapped Balrog into a corner, and he jumps straight up,
chances are that he'll dash at you the moment he lands.

Against Balrog:
Most of his attacks will be centered around his two dashing punches.
He doesn't take any time to set them up, so they're hard to counter.
However, if you time it right, you can easily get a double flawless
victory. See, when he dashes, he doesn't immediately punch: he starts
flying forward, then extends his fist. If you hit him with any attack
while he's dashing but before he punches, you'll knock him back and
interrupt the punch. However, you only have a small window of time in
which to do this, so you have to time your own attack very well. Use
something that has long range and is fairly responsive. Examples
include Vega's standing fierce punch (this works best, I've found),
Guile's, Ken's, and Ryu's crouching fierce kicks, Cammy's standing
fierce punch (the kick is harder to time, I think, but you can try
that too), Fei Long's standing fierce punch, Dee Jay and T. Hawk's
standing fierce kicks, and so forth. Also, Balrog seems to be
susceptible to crouching fierce kicks, so if you knock him down
once, you can often do it again just as he gets up.

As Balrog:
The dashing punches are your best weapons. The uppercut is a
marginally better anti-air attack, but loses in range to the
dashing punch, which can counter most jumps anyway. You can often
put your opponent on the defensive by throwing a regular punch,
charging up a dash as you do it, then flying forward immediately
after your punch lands. The standing fierce punch also has
pretty good range, so you can keep opponents at bay. Lastly, Balrog
has one hell of a grab, so watch for your opponent to slip up and
move right in. Thanks to his dashing punches, Balrog is much
faster than he looks.

2. BLANKA
=========

Patterns:
1. If Blanka moves away from you, he'll probably fly right back
at you with his torpedo move. Block it, or jump over it.
2. Blanka will sometimes curl up into a ball and fly diagonally
upwards, then back down, twice in a row. He is vulnerable to throws
after landing, both times.
3. Blanka will sometimes electrify himself. When he does this,
use your crouching fierce kick at the maximum possible distance.
(Don't do this if your character's crouching fierce kick is a slide.)
If you take too long, Blanka will probably do his flying torpedo move.
4. Occasionally, Blanka will keep jumping in place for no reason
whatsoever. Sometimes, he'll electrify himself after doing this, but
most of the time, you can just walk up to him and use your best anti-
air attack to knock him down.

Against Blanka:
Blanka is very sloppy at blocking your attacks. Sometimes he'll block
one punch but not the next, for no discernible reason. This occurs
especially often when you use a long-range attack (like Balrog's and
Vega's standing fierce punches). However, his torpedo attack is very
fast and takes no time to set up, and he can usually knock you out of
the air if you jump at him. Stay on the ground and push him back into
a corner. Having a good anti-air attack helps because he tends to jump
at you a lot.

As Blanka:
Blanka is very slow on the ground, but is great at jumping. His jump
kick will take precedence over most other characters' aerial attacks,
and is also good for hitting opponents on the ground. His standing
fierce kick is a pretty good anti-air attack, though it's not a good
offensive move (since he does it in place). Electrification is pretty
useless, as Blanka can't move when he does it. The torpedo attack,
however, is absolutely great. Blanka can do it in a split second, so
you can effectively counter even the regular attacks of your opponents,
flying into them after they miss with even a medium punch! You can
also use it to escape from an opponent who is trying to trap you in
a corner, by flying underneath him when he jumps. Blanka is also one of
the few characters with a grab move.

3. CAMMY
========

Patterns:
1. If Cammy jumps away from you, she'll probably do her screwdriver
kick when she lands.
2. Cammy jumps at you constantly, which can be easily countered.

Against Cammy:
In the computer's hands, Cammy is the most predictable fighter in the
game. She'll start almost every round by jumping at you again and again
and again. Use your best anti-air attack over and over. Eventually,
she'll get tired of that and add her flying screwdriver kick in. If you
see it coming, you can dodge it by jumping, then throw her immediately
afterward (it takes her a while to recover from a kick that missed).
However, if she does hit you, she can usually do it multiple times in
a row, so if you're not careful you can lose really quickly.

As Cammy:
The screwdriver kick is even more useless in your hands than in the
computer's. Cammy is reasonably fast, however, so you can do pretty well
by running from the opponent, waiting for a weakness, then moving in to
throw. Cammy also has an air throw, which can be useful sometimes. In
other cases, stick to her standing fierce punch, which is fast and has
a decent range. Her standing fierce kick is okay, but if the opponent
is sufficiently close, it loses most of its range and is practically
never useful.

4. CHUN LI
==========

Patterns:
1. Chun Li likes to throw many fireballs at you. She has two ways of
doing this: crouching for a little bit, then throwing a fireball, or
jumping backwards, then throwing it. She can repeat this over and over,
sometimes for the entire duration of the fight. This is extremely easy
to counter. If you see her enter one of these chains, just wait until
she's done crouching or jumping, jump over the fireball and jump-kick
her in the face. Sometimes you can even follow it up with an immediate
standing attack, but this is kind of risky.
2. If Chun Li bounces off the wall towards you, she'll probably do
her upside-down spinning attack when she lands. Counter by using an
anti-air attack before she lands.
3. If Chun Li moves towards you, she will probably try to do a
combination of punches and kicks. It's best to block these, but 
sometimes you can surprise her by moving right into her and throwing
her, just as she's running into you.
4. Sometimes, when Chun Li jumps at you, she'll try to bounce off
your head. She'll do this for as long as possible, so keep blocking.
If she jumps into a wall in the process, she'll continue bouncing off
your head after bouncing off the wall. Just try to get out of her way
when she does this.

Against Chun Li:
Chun Li is quite fast, but if you can get the hang of her proclivity
for throwing fireballs, you can easily beat her. Since she throws
fireballs all the time, she'll give you many opportunities to hit her.
When she's not doing that, play defensively until she does enter a
fireball chain. If she jumps at you, use an anti-air attack to repel
her. She can do a lot of damage with her regular attacks, so try to
stay away from them. Sometimes, if you damage her early in the fight,
you can hang out on the opposite side of the screen while she hurls
fireballs at you (which fizzle out before reaching the opposite end)
for the rest of the round.

As Chun Li:
Chun Li's standing fierce kick is a great anti-air attack. Her fireball
is good for driving back opponents who want to get in your face, but
it takes her a while to set up and recover from, so it isn't a good
idea if you're up against a fast character. She's quite agile, so you
can take Vega on at his own game and jump with the best of them. Like
Vega, she can bounce off walls, giving her jumps added height. Her
jumping fierce kick doesn't have much range, but is hard for opponents
to block, and usually takes priority in mid-air over their attacks.
She also has an air throw.

5. DEE JAY
==========

Patterns:
1. If Dee Jay jumps away from you, he'll probably throw a fireball when
he lands.
2. Dee Jay sometimes does a series of weak and medium kicks and punches.
These do little damage; just walk right through them and throw him.
3. If Dee Jay walks towards you, crouch and block, as there's a good
chance that he'll do his slide attack.

Against Dee Jay:
Dee Jay is probably the hardest character in the game to beat (M. Bison
has many more weak points). The problem is that he's so damn fast; his
crouching fierce kick is actually a slide with good range, he takes
no time whatsoever to set it up, and it will do a lot of damage on the
higher difficulty levels. He also has a missile attack, so he's not
dependent on close-quarters fighting, and he has great anti-air attacks.
So what do you do? Well, if your character has a sliding attack of his
own (Vega, Dhalsim, or Dee Jay himself), Dee Jay happens to be somewhat
susceptible to crouching fierce kicks, so you can just slide into
him over and over again. If you're Guile or Sagat, you can stand back
at a safe distance and sling Sonic Booms and Tigers over and over;
Guile throws his fireball very quickly, whereas Sagat's fireball flies
very quickly, so you can usually keep Dee Jay back. Most of the time,
he'll block the fireballs, but they'll chip away at his health;
sometimes, he actually won't block, because he'll be trying to do some
other attack. What do you do if you're any of the other characters?
Unfortunately, there's not much strategy involved. If he keeps using
his combination of weak punches, you can throw him repeatedly; you
can also kick him out of the air when he jumps sometimes. That's about
it. If you back him into a corner, you can jump right on top of his
head and jump-kick him in the face when he gets up, too.

As Dee Jay:
Dee Jay is a good choice for beginners, as he's got a fireball and a 
good long-range and anti-air attack in his standing fierce kick. (He
also has a slide, as was mentioned earlier.) The fireball should be
used defensively, as it takes him a while to recover from it; the
others, however, should be used all the time, and will probably hand
numerous fights to you.

6. DHALSIM
==========

Patterns:
1. If Dhalsim keeps jumping up and down without approaching you, he's
waiting for you to come to him. If you approach when he's in mid-air,
he'll probably do one of his corkscrew attacks. If he does the
horizontal one, you can block or duck it, then throw him. The
vertical one is a little harder to counter, so you might be better off
just blocking it.
2. Dhalsim is the only character who can teleport. He's vulnerable
to throws right after he rematerializes.
3. If he slides at you and you block, he might slide one or two more
times. If you stop blocking, you'll get knocked off your feet.
4. If he throws a Yoga Fireball at you, he will often follow it up
with a standing fierce punch. Block both the fireball and the punch.

Against Dhalsim:
Dhalsim isn't very hard to beat, but he does have a good anti-air
attack, and his tendency to slide multiple times can catch one off
guard. He can also grab you and do some serious damage that way. Try
to lure him into doing his horizontal corkscrew attack, so you can
throw him. Also, he's extremely susceptible to crouching fierce
attacks, especially if your character slides while doing them. If
you're Vega, you can just keep sliding into him for an easy double
flawless victory.

As Dhalsim:
Dhalsim is probably the slowest character in the game. His standing
fierce punch has tremendous range, and his standing fierce kick is
a great anti-air attack, but both take a long time to set up, which
is why they'll be ineffective as offensive moves most of the time.
His vertical corkscrew attack, though, is pretty good; with it, he
can get across the stage much faster, and it can drive an opponent
back. Sometimes, if the opponent is standing and you time it right,
you can do the vertical corkscrew right into the opponent's legs,
which will damage him even if he blocks (since then it will count
as a crouching attack). Unfortunately, these attacks all do very
little damage, so you'll be left relying on your throws and your
opponents' mistakes.

7. E. HONDA
===========

Patterns:
1. If he crouches for a couple of seconds without doing anything, he's
about to do one of his special moves. Get ready to block.
2. If he crouches far away from you and does a crouching fierce kick,
he's about to do his torpedo move. Jump over him and counter.
3. If he crouches far away from you and does two crouching weak kicks,
he's about to do his upward-flying move. Stay out of range, then move
in to counter.
4. If he stands for a couple of seconds without doing anything, he's
about to do his Hundred-Hand Slap for no reason at all. Counter with
a missile attack, if you can.

Against E. Honda:
Try not to move in too close, because E. Honda will probably throw
or grab you, then follow up with the Hundred-Hand Slap immediately
after. You can do pretty well by countering his two special moves:
if he flies straight at you (torpedo move), jump over him, then
move at him and throw him just as he stops. If he flies upward,
move towards him until you're just out of the move's range, then
throw him as soon as he lands. Aside from that, E. Honda will 
frequently jump at you. Keep your distance and counter with your best 
anti-air attack. If you've got a good long-range attack (like Vega's
standing fierce punch), you can sometimes make him think that he's
out of range and fail to block it.

As E. Honda:
The torpedo move is actually great for knocking opponents out of the
air as they're jumping toward or away from you. When they're in the
air, they can't block it at all, so you can usually knock them down.
If you want to do the Hundred-Hand Slap, don't move in too close to
the target, since the computer will usually cheat and throw you when
its character gets up. Aside from the torpedo, E. Honda lacks good
anti-air and long-range moves, and is also fairly slow. Try to use
the torpedo to catch opponents off guard.

8. FEI LONG
===========

Patterns:
1. Fei Long can throw a weak punch, a medium punch, and a fierce punch
in quick succession. If you get hit by the first one, he'll probably
end up landing all three.
2. If Fei Long stands still for a couple of seconds, he's about to do
his spinning fire move. Just stand clear of it until he lands, then
throw him.
3. Fei Long's best special move is a series of three punches; if the
first one lands, they all will, and the result will be quite painful.
However, after he throws the final punch, he'll just stand there for
a little bit, allowing you to easily counter with a throw.

Against Fei Long:
Fei Long likes to fight in close quarters. He can link a lot of moves
together - even his standing fierce kick, when performed up close, is
actually a jump and double kick in and of itself. However, his little
stick arms don't have much range, so if you've got longer reach, you
can hit him as he's coming at you (Vega can get an easy double 
flawless victory against Fei Long). He tends to waste time throwing
a lot of weak punches and kicks; walk right through them and throw
him. He'll counter your jumps with his spinning fire move, so stay
on the ground.

As Fei Long:
Fei Long's special moves are pretty useless (his three-punch special
move rarely works, though sometimes you can throw just the first
punch in the series to quickly stun your opponent), and as I already
said, he has no range. His only remaining strength is his speed. Use
a hit-and-run strategy, advancing for a jump-kick or a fierce punch
and retreating. His standing fierce kick can be used as an anti-air
attack, and if the opponent gets too close and tries to get the drop
on you, Fei Long's standing fierce punch will repel him. As is the
case with all of the weaker characters in the game, throws are Fei
Long's best chance to do serious damage. However, his standing fierce
punch is very quick, allowing him to face off toe-to-toe against
even Zangief and win.

9. GUILE
========

Patterns:
1. If Guile throws two weak punches, he's about to follow it up with
a powerful fierce punch. Block (or use your crouching fierce kick) 
before he does so.
2. Sometimes, when Guile throws a Sonic Boom, he'll follow it up by
hopping forward (his medium kick), throwing another Sonic Boom, then
running up to you and doing a crouching fierce kick. To interrupt
this sequence, jump over the first Sonic Boom and hit him in the face
from the air.
3. If Guile crouches for a couple of seconds, he's trying to lure
you closer to him so he can hit you with his Flash Kick. Approach
him, but crouch just when you come within range, so he misses. When
he lands, counter with a throw.

Against Guile:
Guile alternates between throwing numerous Sonic Booms and advancing
toward you. When he does the latter, he'll usually jump at you; use
your anti-air attack to drive him back. Don't let him in close, as
he will just walk up to you and throw you (his throws are likely to
have priority over yours). Jump attacks are not very effective, as
Guile's Flash Kick is perhaps the ultimate anti-air attack, and his
jump-kick is a good aerial attack as well. He's a little slow, so if
he starts walking backwards, you can overtake him and throw him before
he has time to react.

As Guile:
Guile's Sonic Boom is a very effective missile attack, because it
takes Guile no time at all to recover from throwing it. Thus, if your
opponent likes to jump over missile attacks (like Vega), you can
throw a Sonic Boom at him to lure him into jumping at you, then
immediately use your standing fierce kick (a good anti-air attack).
If you believe that your opponent will open the fight with a jump,
charge up a Flash Kick as the round begins and knock him out of the
air. The Flash Kick is an unstoppable anti-air attack, but it takes
a while to charge and Guile is a sitting duck as he charges it. On
the ground, use the long reach of Guile's crouching fierce attack, and
the strength of his fierce punches and kicks. Guile also has two
air throws that you can use; the one linked to the R button is
especially impressive.

10. KEN
=======

Patterns:
1. If Ken does his spinning kick move, he'll follow it up with a
flaming uppercut. Block both moves and throw him as he comes down.
2. If Ken jumps backwards, he'll probably throw a fireball. It seems
that, if he throws a slow fireball, he'll jump back at you afterward,
whereas if he throws a fast fireball, he'll continue throwing them.

Against Ken:
Ken likes to jump a lot. If you've got a good anti-air attack, then
half the fight is won, as Ken will continually jump at you, trying
to kick you in the face. As tempting as it may be, don't do the same
to him, because he can knock you out of the air easily with his
flaming uppercut. Getting hit by the flaming uppercut itself is not
actually dangerous; the real damage will be done if you're close to
him as he's winding up for it, because then he'll hit you four or
five times as he does the uppercut, taking off about half of your
health. For this reason, it is very dangerous to let Ken trap you
in a corner, so you have to drive him back whenever he jumps at you.
His fireball is much slower than Ryu's, so using it actually leaves
him open.

As Ken:
Your fireball should be used sparingly, since it takes Ken a while to
recover from it. Ken is a strong character, with an excellent standing
fierce kick and a good jump-kick. These should be your primary methods
of attack. Ken's spinning kick is very good if it catches an opponent
unawares, because it will hit him multiple times; however, if the
opponent blocks the kick, he'll probably counter with a throw. All in
all, you can stand your ground with Ken by means of fierce kicks and
the occasional fireball.

11. M. BISON
============

Patterns:
1. If M. Bison throws several weak punches, he might follow them up
with a two-hit scissor kick. Block these attacks; you probably won't
have time to counter.
2. If M. Bison bounces off your head, he'll try to punch you in the
face as he comes back down. Block the bounce, then use an anti-air
attack to prevent the punch.
3. If M. Bison is close to you, and blocks one of your attacks, there's
a chance that he will counter with a crouching kick (which, in his
case, is a slide attack). Crouch and block, then throw him.
4. If M. Bison jumps away from you, he may be about to use his
Psycho Crusher move. If he's far away from you, he might not even
reach you, allowing you to wait until he's done and hit him with any
attack. However, if he can reach you, he'll hit you several times even
if you block, then try to throw you.
5. If M. Bison closes in on you, he will probably try to throw you.
Once he's close enough, you can't block this, so keep him at bay.

Against M. Bison:
Because the computer cheats, M. Bison can do a lot of damage, but when
all's said and done, he's actually pretty predictable. His head bounce,
once you've figured out how to distinguish it from a normal jump (he
moves his feet in a different way when he's about to bounce), can be
easily countered in the way described above. He often jumps towards 
you, which can be repelled by means of an anti-air attack of some kind.
However, his standing fierce kick is fast and powerful, and his jump-
kick will take priority over your own jump attacks in mid-air. Don't
jump on him and don't try to rush him. Rather, attempt to conserve
your health, always making sure that he's hurt more than you are, and
take advantage of the weakness of his head bounce. As the fight
progresses, he will start to do Psycho Crushers, but if your character
has a good jump attack (Sagat's jump-kick, Vega's stationary jump-punch,
E. Honda's jump kick, and so forth), you can actually knock him out
of it as he's flying across the screen, with no harm done to yourself.
As long as you take extra care to block his attacks, you shouldn't have
too much trouble.

As M. Bison:
It turns out that M. Bison is actually a pretty bad character. His main
limitation is his total lack of a good anti-air attack. His standing
fierce punch has no range, and his standing fierce kick is perfectly
horizontal, which allows opponents to just jump over it and hit him in
the face. The Psycho Crusher is usually blocked, and the computer will
cheat by throwing you immediately after it. The head bounce is even
more useless than it was when the computer used it. The scissor kick
works well if it connects, but leaves M. Bison wide open if it is
blocked. So, if you use M. Bison, you'll have to try to use the Psycho
Crusher as an anti-air attack and rely on your standing fierce kicks.
Not fun.

12. RYU
=======

Patterns:
1. If Ryu stands still for a couple of seconds, he will do his Dragon
Uppercut for no reason at all. Throw him when he lands.
2. If Ryu advances toward you, he will attempt to hit you with his
crouching medium kick when he's in range, then follow it up with a
fireball. Anticipate this by blocking the kick.

Against Ryu:
Ryu likes to throw a lot of fireballs. He will throw long sequences of
them, allowing you to leisurely jump over them and jump-kick him in the
face. That, and hitting him with an anti-air attack when he switches to
jumping at you, should be your primary methods of fighting him. If he's
not flinging fireballs, don't jump, lest he hit you with his Dragon
Uppercut. The Uppercut is extremely powerful, but if you stay on the
ground, it will be largely useless. Ryu's main way of damaging you will
be his combination of crouching medium kicks and fireballs, which does
a lot of damage and can make you dizzy. When he comes near, crouch and
block.

As Ryu:
Fighting with Ryu is very similar to fighting with Ken. His standing
and jumping fierce kicks are identical. However, his spinning kick
move is weaker than Ken's, in that it immediately knocks an opponent
down, whereas Ken's move hit several times in a row. Similarly, his
Dragon Uppercut can only hit once, and not four or five times. But
that's okay, since you probably won't be using the Dragon Uppercut
much anyway (it's a hard move to do). To make up for it, Ryu's
fireballs are faster than Ken's, and he spends less time recovering
after throwing one, so you can use them offensively. Ryu is a pretty
strong and fast character, so you'll do pretty well with him.

13. SAGAT
=========

Patterns:
1. If he moves toward you, he'll jump at you twice in a row (and jump-
kick you given the chance). Counter with an anti-air attack. If you
crouch, he'll throw a crouching fierce punch.
2. If you jump at him, most of the time he'll counter with a Tiger
Uppercut. Stay on the ground, for the most part.
3. If he stands in one place doing nothing for a couple of seconds,
move toward him cautiously. As soon as you come within range, he'll do
a Tiger Knee, but you can crouch to avoid it, then counter with a
throw.
4. He likes to throw fireballs a lot. He can alternate between high
and low Tigers without rhyme or reason. In either case, you can jump
over the fireball and jump-kick him in the face. If he's throwing a
low Tiger, though, you can also hit him a second time immediately
after landing the first hit, if you're still in range.
5. If you jump toward him, but not quite at him (like, if you start
out pretty far from him), you can provoke him into doing a Tiger
Uppercut just when you land. Then, crouch and counter by throwing him
when he lands.
6. If Sagat uses one of his regular attacks, it will be his standing
fierce kick most of the time. You can counter it with your crouching
fierce kick (his attack will pass right over you).

Against Sagat:
Four Tiger Uppercuts will knock you out, so play defensively. Wait for
Sagat to start flinging fireballs, then jump over them and jump-kick
(or jump-punch, depending on what attack has better trajectory) him
in the face. If you're Vega, you can easily do a 2-Hit Combo if he's
throwing a low Tiger by jumping over it, jump-punching him, then
immediately doing your standing fierce punch. Most other characters
can't do this, but will still have no problem countering the fireballs.
However, if you're Guile, your jump-kick is perfectly horizontal, so
you won't be able to jump-kick Sagat when he's throwing a low fireball.
This will hamper you quite a bit. Try to provoke him into doing a Tiger
Uppercut that misses, as described above; also, use your crouching
fierce kick to counter his regular attacks, and try to exploit the
weakness of his Tiger Knee (you can crouch underneath it and throw him
as he comes down). If you're Dhalsim, use your vertical aerial
corkscrew attack when countering Tigers, as your other jump attacks
will be too slow.

As Sagat:
Tigers travel fast, so you can keep an opponent at bay by throwing
many of them. Sagat's crouching and jumping fierce kicks have good
range, and his standing fierce kick is a good anti-air attack. However,
if your opponent is on the ground, you'll want to use your stnading
fierce punch instead, as that has greater range and is less finicky
in its timing. The Tiger Uppercut is an ideal anti-air attack, but is
somewhat hard to do. Sagat is pretty slow, so don't get too aggressive.
Wait the fight out, exploit weaknesses, and use fireballs to keep the
opponent from getting in your face.

14. T. HAWK
===========

Patterns:
1. If he quickly shuffles his feet (steps forward, then backward, then
quickly forward again), he's likely to move up close. If you back away
from this, you can get trapped in a corner and thrown or grabbed. As he
approaches, hit him with some long range move to knock him back until
he does something else.
2. If he stands in place for a couple of seconds without doing
anything, he'll do his upward flying move. Take advantage of this by
moving in just out of range and getting ready to counter.

Against T. Hawk:
T. Hawk hits really hard, but fortunately, he has a tendency to use
his two diagonal flying special moves. The upward-flying one is totally
useless; unless you're right next to him, he'll miss, and you can throw
him the second he comes down. Use this tactic for an easy double
flawless fight. Other than that, try to stay out of his way. If he
insists on coming up to you, he telegraphs his standing fierce punch
before throwing it, so if you see him winding up for it, you can
knock him off his feet with your crouching fierce kick.

As T. Hawk:
T. Hawk's standing fierce kick is an excellent long-range move, good
for knocking jumping opponents out of the air. Stay away from his
special moves. Instead, exploit your opponents' weaknesses and grab
them when they miss a move. If your enemy is trying to jump right on
your head, use T. Hawk's standing medium punch. He'll hit right above
himself and usually knock the opponent out of the air. If your
opponent is jumping from farther away, though, use the standing fierce
kick.

15. VEGA
========

Patterns:
1. He'll sometimes throw four or five weak punches in a row. They're
more of an annoyance than anything else, and you can't really counter
them.
2. If he does his rolling attack, there's a good chance that he'll
do it again immediately after the first one finishes.
3. If he seems to be jumping very slowly, he's actually leaping at a
wall, in order to launch off it and hit you. He'll either use a flying
punch that is extremely difficult to block, but weak; or, he'll use
a more powerful punch that you can counter by jumping and kicking him
in mid-air.
4. He tends to counter jumps with his standing fierce kick, so less
agile characters will do better by staying on the ground.

Against Vega:
Vega is quicker than any other character, so fighting him is extremely
frustrating. He can easily escape out of your reach, then charge back
with one of his flying punches. For many characters, the only hope of
beating him lies in exploiting a fatal weakness. See, Vega has a move
where he back-flips away from you. You can't hit him while he's in the
back-flip, and when he's done, he's usually out of your reach. However,
if you've got him pressed against the back wall, he can only back-flip
in place. The idea is to make him back-flip over and over again, and
throw him every time he lands on his feet. This is pretty hard, and
there's no concrete calculus for making him back-flip. Generally, he
tends to do the back-flip when you jump at him aggressively and try
to jump-kick him in the face. So, one strategy is to jump at him, throw
him after he back-flips, then jump right on top of him as he gets up,
provoking another back-flip, and so forth. This is actually pretty easy
once you've got him in the corner, since then you can just jump on his
head and he won't be able to counter. However, in the beginning of the
fight, he'll counter your jumps with his standing fierce kick, so you
might try staying on the ground, letting him come to you for a while,
then suddenly changing tactics and leaping at him. This is hard to pull
off, but if it works, you can get a double flawless victory even with
characters like Zangief and T. Hawk. If you're Guile, you can use an
alternate strategy: back off, throw a Sonic Boom, then move in and
use your standing fierce kick once Vega jumps over it and at you. If
you're Vega himself, you can take on Vega at his own game by constantly
leaping at him and jump-punching him in the face.

As Vega:
Vega is the best character for beginners. His standing fierce punch is
fast and has tremendous range. You can easily use it over and over to
catch opponents unawares as they move toward you. His standing fierce
kick is a great anti-air attack, and his crouching fierce kick is
actually a long-range slide. With these attacks, you won't need special
moves. Also, if you jump into a wall, you can bounce off it and jump
even higher (only Vega and Chun Li have this ability).

16. ZANGIEF
===========

Patterns:
1. For the most part, Zangief just moves at you and uses one of his 
numerous throws or grabs. He tends to use some attacks multiple times
in a row, though. For instance, he can sometimes throw five medium
punches in a row, which will probably be sufficient to take away three
quarters of your health on the highest difficulty setting.

Against Zangief:
Zangief is pretty slow. If you've got a character with a good long-range
attack (Vega, T. Hawk, Balrog), you can use that attack just as he's
walking into range of it. Sometimes he won't be able to block in time.
If you're Vega, you can use this tactic to get the easiest double flawless
victory in the whole game. If you're anyone else, you might have a big
problem; slow characters especially are at a big disadvantage, since
Zangief will easily jump over their attacks and crush them before you
can react. Fast characters can try to use the Vega technique even if they
don't have good long-range attacks: Fei Long is fast enough for his fierce
punch to hit first most of the time. If you've got a missile attack, you
can use it over and over to knock Zangief back: sometimes, you can hit him
just as he's beginning a jump, knocking him to the ground. (If you time
it right, you can do this over and over.) So if you're Chun Li, Guile or
Sagat, you might try doing that. If you don't have that option, retreat
all the way to the wall, then jump up and down over and over. Zangief will
usually walk at you, throw a punch or two, then move back and repeat the
process. The idea is to avoid the attack by jumping over it, then using
a jump kick on your way down, in case he doesn't move away in time. (Guile
and E. Honda can do this pretty well.) If you're Dhalsim, however, you'll
probably be too slow to pull even that off. Instead, retreat to a big
distance and throw a Yoga Fireball at Zangief; he'll probably jump over it,
allowing you to hit him with your standing fierce kick. As he recoils,
quickly throw another Yoga Fireball and repeat the process. You can do this
many times in a row; in fact, if you're Dhalsim, it's probably your best
chance. If you're Blanka, try using your torpedo move to fly into him right
after he throws a punch. Sometimes you'll hit him just as he's finishing it.
E. Honda also has a torpedo move, but he can't do this because his move
takes longer to set up.

As Zangief:
Zangief's most powerful special moves are too complicated to use frequently.
Instead, just watch for your opponent to mess up and counter with one of
Zangief's numerous grabs. Four or five of those and you'll win. In general,
Zangief's standing fierce punch is a good anti-air attack; his crouching
fierce kick will be blocked most of the time, but is good for driving
aggressive opponents back; and his jump kick has pretty good range and is
good for aerial conflicts. He also has two air throws, so you can sometimes
surprise your opponent with a particularly stylish and damaging move.

BONUS ROUNDS
============

If you're playing the "Super Battle," you'll have to go through three
bonus rounds, which occur every time you beat three challengers. These 
are pretty boring diversions from the actual game, but they do provide
opportunities for you to score some free points. While I'm at it, I
might as well briefly go over them.

Bonus Round 1:
In the first bonus round, you have to destroy an old car. You can do this
by doing four standing fierce attacks of your choice to the left side
of the car (where you start), then jumping over to the right side and
doing four more standing fierce attacks, then crouching and continuing to
do fierce attacks until the car falls apart. You're timed, so it's best to
pick your fastest attacks. If you're E. Honda, Chun Li, or Blanka, you can
use the Hundred-Hand Slap, the Lightning Kick, or electricity, respectively,
to make it quick. (Each hit from these attacks is counted as one separate
fierce attack.)

Bonus Round 2:
Here, you have to destroy four segments of wall, by applying six fierce
attacks to each segment. First destroy the segment right in front of you,
then the sole segment on top, then the one on the opposite side of the room,
then the one in the middle. You're timed in this round, as well.

Bonus Round 3:
In the last bonus round, twenty barrels will fall from the ceiling. Your
task will be to break all of them before they roll offscreen. Usually, a
fierce attack is enough to destroy a barrel; however, sometimes it only
knocks barrels away from you without breaking them. If a barrel runs into
you, it will knock you over. This won't "damage" you in any meaningful
way, but you'll probably miss some barrels while you're getting up. The
Hundred-Hand Slap and similar attacks will be ineffective here, because
the barrels land in different places. Just walk up close to each barrel
as it's falling and put a fierce attack right into it. You are not timed
in this round (it ends when the last barrel has either rolled away or been
destroyed).

THE END
=======

Super Street Fighter II is copyrighted by Capcom, 1994.
This FAQ is copyrighted by Sephiroth Katana, 2004.