I didn’t post about them yet, but I had two great sessions with Chris, Mike, and Billy in Third Strike. Basically, my parrying is fine, but my super canceling leaves much to be desired. I’m going to probably main Chun-Li in Third Strike as well, mainly because she’s good and a lot easier to pick up than Makoto. Mike plays Ibuki better than anyone I’ve played so far, and Billy’s Urien has Aegis setups on tap. I did a little better at Chris’ place, I think because his PS2 sticks are a little looser, so getting double quarter circle motions is a little easier. I am now much more motivated to practice, since I can at least test my progress with more people IRL. This isn’t the first time I’ve made a resolution to go back to 3S, but at least this time, I’ve managed to stick to it a little more.

So I’m technically on vacation this week, so probably not much posting and not much playing. I did bring my laptop and my stick, so at least twice a day, I’m playing through the single player mode of Third Strike on MAME. Right now, I’m going to try a different, more guided strategy when practicing: make notes of areas I need to work on, and practice those, rather than just combo and setup practice. To make a list:

Controller familiarity:

Dragon punch motions from the left side are harder for me than the right side on a stick.

Canceling into super is hard for me on stick because I tend to not bother buffering in the first quarter circle on a pad.

Technical ability:

Become more consistent with kara throwing.

Links – Chun’s various links into super, Makoto’s links into SA1

First things first, I’m going to make sure stick execution is not my problem, so I’m playing Ken since he has a ton of moves that cancel into super, and lots of dragon punches. I’m already noticeably better, going from about 15-20% to more like 60-70%, but it needs to be at least 90% before I move on.

I’m also playing some KOF, which is more about learning to input moves very cleanly and precisely, because there are a lot of half-circle motions, and the game is a lot more particular than SF4, which has definitely spoiled me with its shortcuts.