THE COMPLETE X-MEN VERSUS STREET FIGHTER COMBO FAQ _______ _______ _______ _____ __________ _____ ____ |"Y88888b. /d88888P |Y888888b. /88888b|Y888888888b|Y8888b. |Y888b `. "Y88888b./d88888P | Y8888888b.|888888b Y888888888b Y88888b. Y888b `. "Y88888d88888P \ Y88888888b8888888b Y8888b___/\ Y888888b,X888b `. "Y88888888P __\ Y8888b"Y8888Y8888b Y88888888b\ Y############b `. "8888888. /888b Y####b "Y## Y####b Y########b\ Y###X"Y######b / d########b.\Y#### Y####b "Y Y####b Y####b__/_\ Y###b "Y#####b / d###########b.---'\ Y####b\/ \ Y####b Y#########b Y###b\ "Y####b / d#####P "Y#####b. \ Y####b \ Y####b Y#####P"""/____/ \/_____/ / d#####P `. "Y#####b. \ Y####b \/_____//_______--' / d#####P `. 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Street Fighter part). The X-Men portion of the Title Art was taken from Rich Joseph's X-Men: Children of the Atom FAQ v8.0. The Street Fighter portion was designed by myself based on the Alpha Series logo. ================================================================================ ========== ******************************************* * VERY IMPORTANT NOTE... PLEASE READ: * ******************************************* For clearest reading of this FAQ, it is best viewed with a type-writer font (example: Courier) with top/bottom margins at 1.0 inches or smaller and left/right margins at 0.5 inches or smaller with a font size at 10 point or smaller (try different combinations of fonts, sizes, and margins to see if you can find a format that looks the most clear). If you want to be EXACT, use a set up where there are 90 characters per line and 54 lines per page. You can tell if the margins and font sizes are right if the Title Page fits on exactly one page. Below this is a margin tester to see if your set-up is right: ________________________________________________________________________________ __________ This is a margin tester. If the above and below lines fit on one line, you're doin' fine! ________________________________________________________________________________ __________ Once again, a summary: Font: Typewriter-type, like Courier Top/Bottom Margins: 1.0 inches Left/Right Margins: 0.5 inches Font size: 10 point If you are unable to find a way to view this FAQ properly by changing the margins and changing the font sizes, please e-mail me and I will see what I can do to help you out. Hopefully, you'll be able to fix the FAQ so that it looks all right. Also, some people may not be familiar with the terminology I use for this FAQ. In this FAQ, I use the terms Jab, Strong, Fierce, Short, Forward, Roundhouse for the six attack buttons in my combo descriptions. Some people are more familiar with an a, b, c and x, y, z (or even A, B, C and a, b, c) notation for button notation. Also, others are used to a Weak/Soft Punch, Medium/Medium Punch, Strong/Hard Punch and Weak/Soft Kick, Medium/Medium Kick, and Strong/Hard Kick notation. Thus, if you use a notation other than the one I have used, I recommend that you use the Replace function of your Word Processor to replace the terms I use with the terms you are more familiar with. Please do note that some of the margins and spacing of the combos may be altered in strange ways if you do this. Here is a diagram of which buttons are which if you are unfamiliar with my terminology: () () () PUNCHES Jab Strong Fierce () () () KICKS Short Forward Roundhouse ================================================================================ ========== Table of Contents: - What's new in this version - Intro - The Basic Components to the Combos - Multi-Hit Moves - Special Moves/Super Combos - Special Move Cancellation (Buffering) - The Magic Series (Chain Combos) - Basic Rules - Rules for Ground Magic Series - Rules for Regular Jumping Magic Series - Rules for Super Jumping Magic Series - Combo Classifications - Regular Combos - Dashing Combos - Jump-In Combos - Juggling Combos - Off The Ground Combos And Rolling - Flying Screen Combos - Air Combos - Set-Ups - Launchers - Super Jumping - Regular Jumping - Types of Air Combos - Super Jumping - Regular Jumping - Tips On How To Perform - The Reaction Problem - The Timing Problem - The Fireball Problem - The Confusion Problem - Character Switching Combos - Combo Combinations - Jumping Combos Into Dashing Combos - Two Air Combos In One - Sweep Into OTG Combos - Throw Combos - Air Throw Combos - Character Specifics - LEGEND (includes a lot of sub categories... too many to list) - THE X-MEN - Cyclops - Storm - Wolverine - Gambit - Rogue - Sabretooth - Juggernaut - Magneto - THE STREET FIGHTERS - Ryu - Ken - Chun Li - Charlie - Dhalsim - Zangief - Cammy - Bison - Akuma - Special Thanks/Closing - Appendix: Extra Things That Need Mention - Team-Up Super Combo Combos - The Police Van - Note on Infinite Combos WHAT'S NEW IN THIS VERSION - Everything is new! This FAQ hasn't existed before now. :-) ================================================================================ ========== ********* * INTRO * ********* Well, Capcom has finally done it: after hiding Akuma in X-Men: Children of the Atom, people have long wondered how those from the Street Fighter world would fare against those from the Marvel Fighting Games world. Well, Capcom lets us answer that question with their third and latest installment to the combo-filled Marvel Fighting Games series. Ever wondered what it would be like being able to do a 12+ hit combo with Chun Li? Or how about a 20+ hit combo with Cammy? Well, wonder no more because Capcom has finally given the pleasure of doing long-winded and flashy combos to your favorite characters from the Street Fighter world. X-Men vs. Street Fighter gives you the opportunity to do some of the strangest combos ever seen. And to help you get to the point where you can whip out these 20 hitters in your sleep, I present to you my Combo FAQ. Hopefully, this FAQ will help you pull off those wild and crazy combos that will dazzle spectators, give you an adrenaline rush, and, most importantly, frustrate and destroy your opponents. Hopefully, this FAQ will help you produce large numbers on the "Combometer" (this is what I call the hit-counter that appears on the side of the screen that tells you how big your combo is... pronounced com-BOM-uh-ter). Please note that the first half of the FAQ deals with the system of combos in the game. It is VERY technical and explains everything in great detail to help those who desire a deeper understanding of how and why everything works. However, for those of you who just want the combos, feel free to jump right to the middle, where all those crazy combos are listed. Note: Remember, this is a FAQ dedicated to helping you DO COMBOS. This FAQ will not help explain how everything works or give you details on moves or tell you game system details like how the super meter works. It may be a good idea to pick two characters to start with, learn their moves, and THEN try and learn the combos. This FAQ assumes that you already know a lot of the basic structures and systems of the game, like how the super meter works or how character switching works or that there even IS character switching. If you are very unfamiliar with this game, it may be more productive to learn the game to a small extent before utilizing this FAQ. Also, for those of you who are already familiar with the Marvel Super Heroes combo FAQ that I had written before, you may only need to browse through most of the technical information. Most of the technical aspects of the combos in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter are similar to those in Marvel Super Heroes. Thus, a lot very similar information is provided in this FAQ that was provided in the Marvel FAQ. And now... without further ado... ================================================================================ ========== ************************************** * THE BASIC COMPONENTS TO THE COMBOS * ************************************** There are many different kinds of combos in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter. However, all of the combos are made up of different combo rules and different techniques and systems. This section lists the basic components of every combo for the game. Understanding the very basics behind every combo is a key factor in learning how to do combos effectively. -=Multi-Hit Moves=- What better way to do a combo than to just hit a button that makes your character perform a move that hits more than once? Some examples are Sabretooth's Standing Fierce, Ryu's Toward + Strong, and Magneto's Standing Roundhouse, all which hit twice, for an easy 2-hit Combo. They don't require much skill and they don't look at all impressive, but they count as combos anyhow. * * * -=Special Moves/Super Combos=- Not much harder to do are the Special Moves and Super Combos that automatically get you a higher number of hits. These can be more impressive, however... especially the Super Combos. Examples of automatically multi-hitting Special Moves are Ken's Dragon Punch, Storm's Typhoon, Dhalsim's Yoga Flame, Wolverine's Berserker Barrage, Rogue's Rushing Punches, and Juggernaut's Earthquake. Examples of multi-hitting Super Combos are Akuma's Mesatsu GouHaDouKen Rain, Cammy's Spin Dive Smasher, Charlie's Sonic Blades, Chun Li's Thousand Burst Kick, Bison's Psycho Crusher and Gambit's Royal Flush. These all get you some-what impressive looking combos but aren't out of the ordinary. * * * -=Special-Move Cancellation (Buffering)=- X-Men Vs. Street Fighter still retains the daddy of all combo systems: buffering. The method of allowing you to cancel normal moves with special moves is still possible to this day and is still one of the most effective methods of creating a combo. The whole principle behind this combo method is to hit the enemy with a normal move and then cancel the normal move's animation (and, thus, their delay) with a special move so that the special move hits faster than the opponent can recover from the first hit. When I say Special Move, that includes Special Moves, Super Combos, Character Switches, and even Team-Up Super Combos. Just as in Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter gives the player MUCH more freedom of normal move cancellation compared to Classic Street Fighter II. In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, you now have the freedom to cancel ALL normal moves (grounded, jumping, super jumping) at ANY point in its animation whether you hit the enemy or not (in Street Fighter, you could only cancel CERTAIN moves in only CERTAIN frames of animation only if they actually made CONTACT with the enemy)! This goes for ALL normal moves including Cyclops's Low Fierce Optic Bullet, Juggernaut's Toward + Fierce, and and Chun Li's Offensive Roundhouse Somersault Kick. This allows for a great freedom of combos. But as with anything, there are always exceptions to the rules. In this game, the only exceptions to the Special-Move Cancellation rule are the Overheads: the moves that are done on the ground and must be blocked standing up. The Overheads in this game are are Ryu's Toward + Strong, Ken's Toward + Forward, Charlie's Toward + Forward. * * * -=The Magic Series (Chain Combos)=- In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, the Magic Series system still rules the game, as it did in the two earlier Marvel Fighting Games. Basically, the Magic Series is a system in which the fighters are allowed to cancel one normal move into another different normal move. For each character, there is a specific "rule" that their Magic Series follows and each of these rules can be different for when they are on the ground, Jumping, or Super Jumping. Basic Rules: Some basic rules about Magic Series: You have to actually make contact with the enemy before the next move can be chained. For example, with Cyclops, you can chain the Jab button into the Roundhouse button. However, you have to make sure the Jab Punch actually hits the enemy (whether they block it or not) or it cannot be chained... in other words, if you whiff a Jab punch, you cannot chain it into the Roundhouse. Also, if the move you start with hits, you can chain into the next move at ANY further point in that moves animation. For example, if you perform Ryu's Standing Fierce, you can chain that into a Low Roundhouse immediately when the Fierce, or you can wait a while before you chain into the Roundhouse. Any point after the move makes contact is chainable. If a Magic Series is more than two buttons long, you can skip any of the middle buttons and jump straight to later buttons in the series. However, you can never go backwards in a series. For example, Wolverine's Ground Magic Series is Jab -> Short -> Strong -> Forward -> Fierce -> Roundhouse. However, he can choose to just do a Jab -> Strong -> Forward -> Roundhouse, skipping Short and Fierce all together. However, he cannot do a Jab -> Strong -> Fierce, and then back to a Forward. You can only progress forward in the series. Rules for ground Magic Series: When performing a Magic Series while on the ground, you can cancel the appropriate normal move with a Standing, Crouching, or any other specialty normal move so long as the button you press still follows the Magic Series. For example, Chun Li can chain her Standing Short into a Standing Roundhouse OR a Low Roundhouse. She can also chain it into her Offensive Crouch Roundhouse Flip Kick... any of three is possible. Also, she could have started the chain with a Standing OR Crouching Short. Any version of any button works AS LONG AS IT FOLLOWS THE SERIES. However, again, the Overheads are exceptions to this rule as Overheads cannot be chained INTO anything. You can chain a move into an Overhead, but not an Overhead into another move. Rules for Jumping Magic Series: Basically the same as Ground Magic Series. Just like the Ground Magic Series, you can do any version of a button that you want. For example, you can do a Short Drill with Dhalsim and chain it into a Jumping Fierce or into a Headroll (which is done by holding Down and pressing Fierce). Rules for Super Jumping Magic Series: Like the Ground Magic Series and the Regular Jumping Magic Series, the Super Jumping Magic Series allows you to do any version of a button. For example, with Cyclops, you can do a Jumping Jab into a Jumping Roundhouse OR a Jumping Jab into a Jumping Down + Roundhouse. ================================================================================ ========== ************************* * COMBO CLASSIFICATIONS * ************************* Now, with all of the basic components to combos, you can do many different things with them. This section here lists all of the different types of combos possible using the basic components. Throughout this section, I will classify combos in the terms of locations. For example, in the Dashing Combos section, I will say that it is a Ground-to-Ground combo, meaning that these combos are done when you are on the ground attacking an enemy on the ground. The first location applies to you and the second applies to your opponent. * * * -=Regular Combos (Anywhere to Anywhere)=- The first type of combo possible, of course, is a normal combo using any of the four, basic components. A good example of this is a basic Magic Series Combo with Ryu: Crouching Short -> Crouching Forward -> Crouching Roundhouse. Another example is a basic Special Move Cancellation Combo with Gambit: Standing Roundhouse canceled by a Cajun Slash. Another example yet is doing a Jumping Fierce canceled by an aerial Cannon Drill with Cammy. These regular combos work everywhere including while jumping, like with the Cammy example. * * * -=Dashing Combos (Ground to Ground)=- There is no better way to initiate ground combos than by Dashing in this game. By doing a Dash before your first move, you can add more hits than if you did the combo without the Dash. This works because, when you Dash, your first attack will carry some left-over momentum from the dash and, thus, your first hit won't push you away from the enemy as far as a non-dashing version of the attack would. For example, when Chun Li fights against Ken, she can do a Dashing Standing Short -> Standing Roundhouse Magic Series against him. However, if you do the exact same combo without Dashing, your Short kick will actually push you too far away so that the Standing Roundhouse, which has little horizontal hitting range, will completely miss your opponent. The extra Dash inserted at the beginning allows Chun Li to put in more hits for her Ground Magic Series so that she will not slide too far from the enemy from the initial hits, making the last move/moves whiff. Thus, when someone like Wolverine leaves himself open for a combo after missing with the Tornado Claw, it is much better to start a combo off by dashing at him and comboing him than to just start it from standing next to him. Remember that it is key that you do not attack too fast with your first attack. The point of Dashing-In is also to make sure you're as close to the enemy as possible so you can sneak in the most hits. In order to ensure that you are close to the enemy and hit them with all your moves, you must do the attack a little AFTER you start Dashing. For example, say you are Wolverine and you want to do a Dashing Combo against Juggernaut and want to hit him with a full Jab -> Short -> Strong -> Forward -> Roundhouse Magic Series. If you dash at him but hit Jab too early in your dash, you'll stop your Dash too soon and you won't be as close to Juggernaut as you would have wanted to be, thus giving you the chance of missing with your last hit. However, if you Dash and attack a little later after your Dash starts, this will make sure you are closer to Juggernaut, giving you a better chance of landing all five hits. Needless to say that this is highly dependent on the distance between you and your enemy. If you are already next to each other, only a short pause is needed. If you are a screen away from the enemy, you can't get close enough with a Dash no matter what. * * * -=Jump-In Combos (Air to Ground)=- This type of combo is the use of the Magic Series to give yourself more hits when initiating a combo from Jumping. For example, if you are using Cammy and you jump in at Magneto, you can do a Jumping Roundhouse, land, and do a Crouch Short -> Crouch Roundhouse combo. However, utilizing a Jump-In Combo allows you to perform a Jumping Jab -> Jumping Short -> Jumping Strong -> Jumping Fierce when you jump in at Magneto and all four attacks will come out before you land! Plus, you can still tack on the two hits from the ground afterwards. This is a VERY VERY VERY important technique to learn for this game for characters like Wolverine and Cammy. It allows you to trick other players into getting hit by combos. For example, if you are Dhalsim, you can attack with the Short Drill (Down + Short) from the air. If the enemy stands up and blocks it, they tend to fear that you are going to attack with a move that hits low when you land, like a Low Short for example. Thus, they tend to crouch block after the initial hit. Thus, if you learn to chain Dhalsim's Short Drill into a Forward Drill into a Headroll, and they duck in the middle of ANY of those attacks, they will get hit by your moves since the Drills and the Headroll cannot be blocked low. Thus, you can continue on for a nice, nasty combo. As said before, Wolverine and Cammy are also good at this and even characters like Ryu can occasionally fool people into taking hits really well with this technique. An important thing to know to do these combos more effectively, however, is that in order to add many hits from normal jumping at the enemy, it is better to start the first hit VERY HIGH on your Jump Arc. For example, in the previous Cammy Vs. Magneto example, you have to hit the Jab Button right when Cammy starts on her way down from her Jump. If you wait too late to hit the Jab Button, there won't be enough time for her to get in all four hits before she lands. Also, it is important to note that the smaller attacks, such as Jab and Short, permit more hits. Using the Cammy example again, she can get in four hits ONLY if she uses Jab and Short for the first two. If she tries a Jumping Strong -> Jumping Forward -> Jumping Fierce -> Jumping Roundhouse, the Fierce or Roundhouse will miss because the previous two moves come out slower than the Jab and Short, preventing her from getting all four hits in. So, in the long run, it is debatable which is better: doing four hits with weaker attacks or two hits with stronger attacks. For example: Wolverine can jump against Sabretooth with a Jumping Jab -> Jumping Short -> Jumping Strong -> Jumping Forward. However, he can opt for a Jumping Fierce -> Jumping Roundhouse instead. Which is better? To put it simply: for more hits and a more impressive looking combo and to confuse the enemy more, do the four hits from the weaker attacks. For more damage, do the two hits with the stronger attacks. I will leave it at that. * * * -=Juggling Combos (Ground to Air)=- Juggling is basically any combo that keeps your opponent in the air while you are on the ground hitting them. This can come in MANY forms. For example, If the enemy jumps backwards in the corner, Wolverine can catch them out of the air with a Low Strong and chain that into a Standing Forward into a Standing Fierce, all which will combo against the enemy while the enemy is still in the air and you are still on the ground. All three hits will connect and "bounce" the enemy in the air a little. Another example is after Dhalsim performs the Yoga Noogie against you while you are in the corner. After he releases you and you fly from his hands, he can do a Yoga Flame and nail you before you hit the ground, thus juggling you out of the air. You can also juggle the enemy with a jumping attack. For example, after you perform a Berserker Barrage against an enemy with Wolverine in the corner, you can jump after the enemy and hit them with a Jumping Jab before they land. This is considered juggling but do take note that if you chain that Jumping Jab into a Jumping Roundhouse, you're heading into Air Combo territory. There are many forms of Juggling Combos. This isn't the most useful type of Combo, however. It is almost exclusively used most effectively for Air Combo set-ups after OTG Combos and for Flying Screen Combos (see the next two sections for more details). * * * -=Off The Ground Combos and Rolling (Anywhere to Ground)=- The Off the Ground Combo (OTG Combo) breaks the rule of combos that says: "A combo is a series of hits that the opponent can do nothing about once the first hit makes contact." You can actually prevent yourself from being OTG Comboed if you are aware of them (in MOST cases... see section entitled "Flying Screen Combos" for exceptions). So what is an OTG Combo? This is a combo where you knock the enemy onto the ground with a Knock-Down move (any move that makes the enemy fall down onto the floor so that they end up lying on the ground) and then combo them off the floor while they are still lying there. The basic way it works is this: when an enemy is lying on the ground, they can be hit by moves that hit low enough (sweeps, downward punches, etc.). When hit by these moves, regardless of WHAT they are, the person hit will fly off the ground only a SMALL distance and then land quickly. During the time after they are hit before they land, they cannot block anything because they are stuck in reeling animation. Thus, you can actually hit them in that period of time with any move that will reach them. A good example of this is with Gambit. If you sweep someone with Gambit, the enemy hits the ground. You can OTG Combo them, however, if you cancel the Low Roundhouse into a Strong Cajun Slash. The Strong Cajun slash will leap up, knock the enemy off of the floor with the first downward swing, and then juggle the enemy in the air with the next two hits. So even though you knocked the enemy down, you can still combo them afterwards. Other examples of how this can be very useful is with Magneto. If you perform a Magnetic Tempest and hit someone when they are right next to you, they will hit the floor after the Magnetic Tempest is finished. Magneto recovers afterwards quickly enough to Low Short the enemy off the floor and chain that into a Low Fierce, which will knock the enemy upwards, setting them up for an Air Combo (see section entitled "Air Combos" to see how that works). So even though the enemy gets knocked down, you can still do the combo. But there is one catch: even though you can hit them off of the floor after you knock them over, the enemy is not doomed for certain. Remember that in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, you can roll the instant you hit the floor after being hit by a move that knocks you down (with one exception... see "Flying Screen Combos" section for more details). So, in the previous Gambit example, after you sweep the enemy with the Low Roundhouse, if the enemy is ready for it or reacts quickly enough, he can roll the instant he hits the ground and avoid the Cajun Slash. Anytime you can OTG an enemy, they can roll away before the OTG hits. One thing you should take note of regarding OTG Combos: there is actually only a VERY small window that you can hit people off the floor while they are lying there. For example, with Rogue, you can Low Roundhouse the enemy and cancel that into her Super Rushing Punches. The Super Combo will OTG the enemy and continue to bash the enemy like normal. However, if Rogue delays even just one second, the Super Combo will whiff and just fly uselessly over the enemy on the floor. The window is smaller than it was in Marvel Super Heroes. In most cases, there is a very small amount of time you have to OTG the enemy after they are swept, especially after enemies land on the floor after falling from a very high height. You can usually only OTG the enemies the instant they crash on the floor. So in order to OTG them, you have to stick your move out so that it meets the enemy the same time they hit the floor. An example of this is with Cammy. If she does the Spin Dive Smasher to an enemy in the corner, she can actually Crouch Short them after they hit the ground after the Spin Dive Smasher finishes. However, if she does it too early or too late, she'll most likely miss. In order to OTG the enemy, she has to time her Crouch Short so that it hits the enemy the INSTANT they land on the floor. Technically speaking, there is no such thing as an OTG "Combo" because OTG combos are mainly Juggling Combos initiated by hitting the enemy off the ground. After you knock the enemy off the ground, you can try to combo them in the air for as long as possible but this, then, has become a Juggling Combo. So Juggling Combos and OTG Combos go hand in hand. Without Juggling Combos, OTG Combos would be useless. The reason why OTG Combos are so good is because they usually allow the player to create longer combos. You can add many hits into a combo sequence if you add in a good OTG section. However, the bad part about OTG Combos is that the enemy can roll away and completely avoid the rest of the combo. If they do NOT roll, however, the combo will keep going and your Combometer will still rise. So even though the combos are escapable, they will still continue the Combometer going if they do NOT roll away. There is one major limitation to OTG combos. It is NOT possible to do 2 OTGs in one combo. After being knocked off the ground once, you can no longer be hit off the floor again until you land and are able to block. Thus, if you do a combo that knocks the enemy down, OTGs them off the floor, and knocks them down again, you will no longer be able to OTG them again because the game only allows one OTG per combo. * * * -=Flying Screen Combos=- The Flying Screen: a strange system that was also present in Marvel Super Heroes is carried over into X-Men Vs. Street Fighter. The Flying Screen is the phenomena that causes the screen to scroll VERY quickly after a character is struck by a certain move in certain situations. The view of the game follows the person who was hit and the person who initiated the hit is scrolled off the screen in a hurry. Once the screen stops moving, the person who was hit will just lie there and the other player will hop into the screen from the side. So what are some examples of moves that cause the Flying Screen? Wolverine's Berserker Barrage is one. If you hit the enemy with the maximum number of hits of this move, the person getting hit will fly really quickly to the side while Wolverine disappears from view as the screen scrolls to follow the flying body. Another example of this is Ken's ShinRyuKen. After it finishes hitting the enemy, the enemy is hurled with great speed away from Ken's flaming column but the view follows the person being hurled, not Ken. Ken, on the other hand, scrolls off the screen only to hop back in after the hurled body lands on the ground. Also, all official "Air Combo Finishers" will cause the Flying Screen to be initiated (see the section entitled "Air Combos" for more details). When the Flying Screen is activated, certain conventions are completely disabled for a brief moment. For example, normally, a person who is knocked to the floor can perform a roll to escape any further punishment, as explained above. However, when the Flying Screen is initiated, the enemy who was struck and flying through the air canNOT roll upon landing at that instant. The restrictions, though, are more noticeable against the person who did the attacking. After a Flying Screen is activated, the player that was doing the attacking can no longer perform ANY special moves, whether they are special moves or super combos. They can also no longer Super Jump. These limitations go away as soon as the person being hit is finally able to block again. Although these limitations would seem really limiting to the person trying to perform the combo, it can actually help him/her. If you are too close to the corner of the playing field (one of the two edges of the playing field), there is no where for the person who is hit to fly away! Thus, after getting sent into the Flying Screen, they will just hug the corner wall going up, and then down and hit the floor. So essentially, if you hit the enemy while you are in the corner and they are sent into the Flying Screen and you can recover quickly enough, you can add extra hits AFTER or BEFORE they land! And they can't roll away from any attacks you hit them off the floor with! Here's an example of how to take advantage of the Flying Screen: if you're Wolverine and you do a Fierce Berserker Barrage against someone in the corner and you get all hits to connect, the enemy will be sent into the Flying Screen but he won't fly away from you because you're both in the corner. The enemy will merely fly against the wall up and then down. Wolverine recovers very quickly after the Berserker Barrage so by the time the enemy is on their way down from the air, Wolverine is free to move again. Thus, he can actually jump up, meet the falling body and hit it with a Regular Jumping Air Combo (see "Air Combos" section for more details). An example of being able to take advantage of the fact that they can't roll after a Flying Screen is when Juggernaut hits the enemy with a Juggernaut Punch while in the corner. The Juggernaut Punch will initiate the Flying Screen and floor the enemy, but Juggernaut will recover quick enough to nail the floored enemy with, say, a Crouching Short. Since the Flying Screen was initiated, the enemy has no ability to roll away from this. Unfortunately, a Crouch Short is about the best Juggernaut can do because he can't cancel it into a Special Move. * * * -=Air Combos (Air to Air)=- Once again, the Air Combos are still the most "special" kind of combo, as the words "Air Combo" still appear at the side of the screen when you perform them (On Japanese versions, the words" Aerial Rave" will appear). However, Air Combos have been reduced slightly in the ease of performing them because some new technicalities have been introduced since Marvel Super Heroes. Now, it's not as easy to pull them off as before, but they still aren't too difficult in the long run. The actual definition that I give Air Combos is: "A series of hits you perform on an airborne enemy while you yourself are airborne." For example, if you juggle an enemy in the air while remaining on the ground, it is not considered an Air Combo. If you jump at an enemy and hit the ground-based enemy with two hits from a Jumping Magic Series, you do not get an Air Combo message. It only counts as an Air Combo if both characters are in the air. **NOTE: This section is VERY long and it might get confusing after a while. To help make things clearer, here is an "outline" of what will be discussed. First of all, I will describe the three different ways to set up an Air Combo: Launchers, Super Jumping at the enemy, and Regular Jumping at the enemy. Then, I will describe the two different types of Air Combos: Super Jumping Air Combos and Regular Jumping Air Combos. Then, I will go into a section on tips on how to perform Air Combos, since a lot of people tend to have problems performing them correctly. -Set-Ups- Set-Up #1) Launchers --- In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, there are many moves that, when striking the opponent while they stand on the floor, will knock them off of their feet so that they are no longer on the ground. There are three kinds of these moves: 1) Launchers: these will knock the opponent off the ground and up into the air at relatively high heights; 2) Strikes: these moves will knock the enemy off their feet but not in an upwards direction so that they can't be used for an Air Combo set-up. Most of the time, they knock the enemy straight across the screen; 3) Knock-Downs: These are your basic sweep attacks... ones that drop the enemy to the floor, like most Crouching Roundhouse Kicks. Obviously, since these do not knock the opponent upwards, these cannot be used as Air Combo set-ups on their own. The Launchers are by far the most useful for Air Combos because they knock the opponent right into the range for an air combo. Launchers will knock the enemy straight up into the air regardless of whether the enemy is hit out of the air or off of the ground right into range of an Air Combo. When the opponent is knocked upwards into the air by a Launcher, he or she becomes stuck in what I call "reel flight." This essentially means that they cannot block, move, or do anything during this time that they are being knocked upwards into the air, making them vulnerable to any attacks you may throw out on them. This reel flight lasts up until right after they begin falling back down. In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, they have given players a bit more leniency on doing Air Combos. Before, in Marvel Super Heroes, the enemy's reel flight ended just as they began their downward fall. Now, in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, you can still combo them slightly AFTER they begin their downward fall because they still are not able to block at that point. However, after that point, they can block everything again. So remember, it is always preferable to hit the enemy while they are still going UPWARDS in their reel flight. By the time they start falling back down, your air combo can be blocked. To use a Launcher successfully, you must hit the enemy with it and then cancel your Launcher with a Super Jump to follow the reeling enemy into the air to combo them. Thankfully, Capcom made it so that you do not have to do the complete Down, Up motion required to Super Jump after hitting the enemy with a Launcher. You merely have to hit any of the three up directions to send your character Super Jumping after the enemy that was launched by your move. This only works after Launchers, however. If you hit the enemy with non-Launchers, you cannot Super Jump after hitting them. If you hit the enemy with a Launcher, however, the game will automatically make you Super Jump as soon as you touch any of the three Jump positions with the Joystick. So after you hit the enemy with Launcher, immediately hold Forward Flip (or Straight Up depending on the situation) upon contact to make your character Super Jump and then start your Air Combo. A side note: you can ONLY cancel your Launcher with a Super Jump if it HITS the enemy. If they block your launcher or you whiff with it, you cannot cancel it with a Super Jump. Side note: Before, in Marvel Super Heroes, I had classified three different types of Launchers: Launchers, Small Launchers, and Air Launchers. However, in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, there is actually only one type: Launchers. All official Launchers in this game are accompanied by a large, blue "energy circle" or "hit spark" when the Launcher hits the enemy. These are the only moves that allow you to Super Jump by merely holding up after the move makes contact. However, Capcom is really not very strict on counting what are or are not Launchers. There are some moves that are NOT accompanied by this "energy launch" that can still be used as Launchers, evident by the fact that you can still just hold up and Super Jump after the enemy. I will count these particular moves as Launchers, since you can still do Air Combos after them. What I used to call "Small Launchers" are moves like Wolverine's Crouching Strong. This move will knock the enemy off their feet, but only VERY slightly. The enemy will not be in range for an air combo (not knocked high enough) but won't be too far away for more hits (not knocked far away enough). Thus, after a move like Wolverine's Low Strong, you can still chain a Standing Fierce afterwards which will juggle the enemy out of the air. Due to the complete lack of Air Launchers, Small Launchers have lost a lot of importance. Speaking of, Air Launchers in Marvel Super Heroes were moves that only counted as Launchers if they hit the enemy out of the air. In other words, if you hit the enemy with an Air Launcher while they were on the floor, the enemy would NOT fly upwards, but stay grounded. Air Launchers are extinct in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter. No move that would not have launched a grounded enemy will launch the enemy if it hits them out of the air anymore... except for ONE exception: Juggernaut's Standing Neutral Fierce punch. This is the ONLY sign of an Air Launcher still in the game, but since it is only one, I will not count it as anything special. Set-Up #2) Super Jumping --- In this second set-up for Air Combos, you can actually Super Jump after an enemy who is already airborne and start comboing them right there and then without setting them up with a Launcher. This, however, is not as carefully set-up and the same combos that you used after Launchers may not connect with every hit as the enemy is not always in such perfect positioning. The enemy can be Flying, Super Jumping, or Regular Jumping... it doesn't matter. You can just Super Jump after them and start Air Comboing them. This is a good strategy against players who Super Jump constantly and attack from the air without regard to their own safety. Set-Up #3) Regular Jumping --- The best time to do this one is when your opponent Regular Jumps at you. You can regular jump up at them and try to hit them first with your air combo. This is basically the same as the second method, except you're just regular jumping and not Super Jumping. There is also one more difference, but that will be explained in the next section. -Types of Air Combos- 1) Super Jumping: The most noteworthy thing about Super Jumping Air Combos is the presence of "Air Combo Finishers." Basically, an Air Combo Finisher is any move that, when done in an Air Combo, initiates the Flying Screen. For every character, the Roundhouse button is an Air Combo Finisher... in other words, if you Super Jump and hit the enemy with a Jab and chain that into a Short which is then chained into a Roundhouse, the Roundhouse attack will initiate the Flying Screen, knock the enemy away with great velocity, and the view will follow the person being hit down to the floor. Roundhouse is not the only Air Combo Finisher. For the majority of characters, Fierce is ALSO an Air Combo Finisher. However, there are some cases where the character does NOT have a Fierce Air Combo Finisher, like Cammy. Her Fierce does not end the combo nor does it initiate the Flying Screen. Some Special Moves also act as Air Combo Finishers. Wolverine's Drill Claw and Ryu's HaDouKen (Fireball) are also Air Combo Finishers, initiating the Flying Screen and knocking the enemy away with great speed. Most special moves, however, are NOT Air Combo Finishers. Ken's Air ShouRyuKen (Dragon Punch), for example, does not initiate the Flying Screen nor does it knock the enemy down with great speed. In fact, it doesn't knock the enemy down at all. After they are knocked upwards, the enemy can block on their way down just like normal. Generally, the rule for an Air Combo is to try and end it with a Special Move in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter. Not all of them are Air Combo Finishers, but in general, they do the most damage. Cammy, for example, does a MUCH larger amount of damage if she uses the Cannon Drill in an Air Combo compared to just using normal moves. Some special cases allow you to actually hit the enemy AGAIN after the initial Air Combo and Flying Screen initiation. For example, if you end an Air Combo with the Drill Claw, which is an Air Combo Finisher, that is aimed Diagonally Upwards with Wolverine, you will knock the enemy slightly upwards. Since you are in the corner, the enemy will start falling back down and pass by Wolverine again, who is still hovering in the air after the Drill Claw. Thus, in this time, Wolverine can land MORE hits on the enemy while they are both on their way down. If he hits them with a Magic Series and ends with an Air Combo Finisher (whether it be Fierce or Roundhouse), they will take the damage and still hit the floor afterwards, unable to roll or block. You can even hit them with just another Fierce or Roundhouse after the Drill Claw and the enemy will fall back to the floor... as long as it is an official Air Combo Finisher. HOWEVER, if Wolverine does NOT hit the enemy with an Air Combo Finisher and stops at a Jab, Short, Strong, or Forward, the enemy will recover afterwards and can block on their way down again. The Flying Screen will still be present all the way until they land, so you still won't be able to do a Special move until then. Another way that this can happen is just that the Fierce chain into the Roundhouse fast enough for the Roundhouse to hit the enemy before they fly away fast enough. For example, with Gambit, Fierce and Roundhouse are both Air Combo Finishers. However, if you're in the corner, you can actually Launch the enemy up into the air and do a full Jab, Short, Strong, Forward, Fierce, and Roundhouse Air Combo. The Fierce knocks them downwards and the Flying Screen is initiated, but the Fierce can STILL chain into the Roundhouse. Thus, in certain cases, the Roundhouse will come out fast enough to nail the enemy before the Fierce knocks them too far away. 2) Regular Jumping: There is only one main difference between Super Jumping Air Combos and Regular Jumping Air Combos: the lack of Air Combo Finishers. The Fierce and Roundhouse buttons, instead, will knock the enemy to the floor with great speed. However, instead of flooring the enemy, the Fierce and Roundhouse will knock them to the floor so that they will bounce off the floor. After bouncing, the enemy is able to block again. There is a LOT of inconsistency between characters these days concerning Air Combos. A lot of characters have different timing problems, different height adjustments, different Magic Series... in fact, some characters are better off not ever performing an Air Combo!! Therefore, in the "Character Specifics" half on the FAQ, I am going to include a paragraph entitled "Air Combo Tips" for each character, as each character has their own problems and their own advantages. Thus, a lot of detail for each specific character won't be gone into here about Air Combos. Check the paragraph of your favorite character for in depth tips on how their Air Combo behaves. -Tips On How To Perform Air Combos- By now a lot of you Marvel Super Heroes freaks won't need this section. You guys have already practiced your Air Combos to the point where you can do them in your sleep. Well, this section is still here for one main reason now: to help all you Street Fighter fanatics compete with the Air Combos from your expert Marvel Super Heroes players. So this section is dedicated directly at you Street Fighter fans to help you pull of those nasty Air Combos so that you too can get those nice, long combos. 1) The Reaction Problem: When it comes to using Launchers for Air Combos, one problem may occur: the enemy blocks your attack. When you go for Air Combos, your opponent may not be so nice as to let you hit them with your Launcher every time. In fact, they will probably block more than half of your Launchers. Thus, half the time you will find that your Air Combo attempts must be aborted. However, sometimes you WILL get a miracle Launcher to connect and the enemy is knocked high into the air. However, since you were so used to having the enemy block it, you reacted too late to them actually getting hit, Super Jumped too slowly, and your Air Combo failed. There is a simple solution to this problem: ***never believe your opponent is going to block your Launcher.*** In fact, this is the Fundamental Theorem of Combos: "Never believe your opponent is going to block your combo for it is always easier to react to them blocking it and abort the combo mid-way than it is to react to them getting hit and continuing the combo after you notice them getting hit." After you hit the enemy with your Launcher, hold Up for the Super Jump anyhow. If the enemy is hit, you'll go into your Air Combo. If they block it, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. Your move can't get canceled by a Super Jump since it was blocked. So merely let go of the controller and start blocking if you notice the enemy blocked your move. You can react quicker to the fact that the opponent BLOCKED your Launcher than to the fact that they got hit by it so always believe you're Launcher is going to hit. 2) The Timing Problem: A more elementary problem is merely getting off all the hits in the air. Some people have trouble, at first, timing the hits so that they will all connect. I've seen many people attack too late and fly past their enemy, attack too slowly so their combo just stops connecting, or hit their buttons too sporadically and only get 2 hits instead of potentially 5 or 6. The two most likely problems are 1) You aren't timing the buttons rhythmically. 2) You're doing nothing wrong (I'll explain). When you do Air Combos, it is VERY important that you do NOT HIT THE BUTTONS LOTS OF TIMES until you see the move hit and then switch buttons and hit that button LOTS of times until it hits. You also cannot hit the buttons really quickly and expect the whole combo to finish itself just 'cause you hit the right buttons, like you can with a UMK3 "Dial-A-Combo" or a Tekken "Typing Combo". The best way to do Air Combos is to develop a nice, steady rhythmic timing for each button so that you only hit each button once. If you develop this timing, you can do Air Combos with your eyes closed... seriously. The rhythms may be different for each character, however. For example, Sabretooth has a VERY easy timing and is BY FAR one of the easiest to do. His timing is VERY fast and very steady. However, Chun Li's is bizarrely slow, and very delayed so that the timing is a LOT slower than Sabretooth. Experiment with your character. The X-Men generally use quicker rhythms while the Street Fighters generally use slower rhythms. Warning, though: don't do it TOO fast... you can potentially do it SO fast that you skip moves. Learn a good consistent timing. The other problem is that you're doing nothing wrong. Some characters have moves that simply aim in the wrong direction. For example, Cammy's Jumping Forward Kick aims up and can't hit anything next to her. So if you get into the air and do a Jab, Short, Strong, Forward Air Combo, the Forward will most likely miss and the Air Combo will fail. So skip the Forward button altogether to get a simpler, easier Air Combo. Of course, against very large opponents like Juggernaut, you can hit them even with those high aiming moves. If there are any moves that are recommended to skip, I will mention that in the "Details about the Air Combos" section for each character in the "Character Specifics" half of this FAQ. 3) The Fireball Problem: This problem occurs for only characters will Air fireballs and Crouching Launchers (Ryu, Cyclops, and Magneto). A lot of the times after you Launch the enemy into the air, you go up for the Jab hit and instead comes out a Jab Fireball, be it a HaDouKen, Optic Blast or EM Disrupter. This occurs because when you go from a Crouching Launcher to Forward Flip, the controller passes from Down to Down/Forward to Forward to Forward Flip. The fireball code is in there and so when you hit Jab, the fireball comes out instead. To fix this problem, this is what I do: hit Up on the controller EARLY. As SOON as I hit the button that is my Launcher, I immediately hold Up. Thus, by the time I hit Jab, the fireball won't come out. That prevents the fireball from coming out and you can proceed with your Air Combo. Another solution is merely to just be more careful when going to Up. Do it more carefully and don't sweep it around the front, doing the fireball motion. Some characters will have this problem more seriously than other. It really is a minor problem and doesn't happen that often. Bering careful is really the best advice I can give if you have this problem. 4) The Confusion Problem: Lastly, another problem that can occur once in a while is just pure confusion. Sometimes I launch the enemy and jump after them and forget which buttons I should try and use. In the above Cammy example, you might forget to skip Forward until it's too late and thus, you either pause too long because of your realization that you shouldn't hit Forward and whiff the Fierce Punch, or actually hit Forward and miss the enemy all together, missing the rest of the combo. A good way to solve this is to, with each character you use, keep it set in your mind which combo you want to do and what moves you are planning to use before you go up for it. That way, you can do the whole combo with great ease and control and not have to remember things at the last minute. I basically have each character's Air Combo dead set into my mind now so that it's completely second nature to me for which buttons to hit in an Air Combo... so much so that if I want to change it, I have a hard time changing. * * * -=Character Switching Combos=- This form of combo isn't flashy, isn't awesome, isn't anything but EXTREMELY practical. The reason that they are so practical is because, after switching characters, your new character has a fairly significant delay upon entering the screen... so significant that the majority of the time, the enemy can Super Combo you before you recover. This can get VERY frustrating and cause you to wonder, "When the heck am I supposed to change characters?!?" Well, one answer is Character Switching Combos. The best Character Switching Combo is a very simple thing: Sweep into Character Switch. The Character Switch acts just like a Special Move so you can cancel your normal move into a Character Switch just like you could cancel it into a Gene Splice. Thus, if you sweep the enemy and character switch, the new character entering the screen will actually fly in and OTG the enemy off the ground!! This will cause them to roll away, giving you PLENTY of time to end you entering delay. Also, if the enemy ROLLS after being swept, their roll is long enough to recover too late. By the time their roll is over, your character is safe and sound and ready to move. There are other possibilities to this. For example, after nailing someone with the Yoga Inferno Super Combo with Dhalsim, I switched characters and was able to hit the enemy off of the floor with my incoming character (though I haven't always been able to repeat this feat, for some odd reason). Another example is when the enemy is getting hit by Sabretooth's Birdie Bullet Spray, Sabretooth recovers before the Spray is finished. In that time, you can Switch Characters and your new character will hit the enemy at the end of the Bullet Spray in a combo, and your character that entered the screen will be safe and sound. Experiment around and find new ways to enter your characters in so that they won't get a Super Combo in their face every time. ================================================================================ ========== ********************** * COMBO COMBINATIONS * ********************** Here's the meaty part: the ability to combine ALL of those different Combo Classifications in one combo. It is possible to put nearly every classification into one combo. An example: With Wolverine, do a Jumping Jab into a Jumping Short into a Jumping Strong. Land and dash with a Jab into a Short into a Crouching Strong into a Standing Roundhouse. Super Jump after them with a Jab into a Short into a Strong into a Strong into a Strong into a Forward canceled by an upwards aimed Drill Claw. Then, as the enemy falls down past your hovering body, hit them with a Jab into a Roundhouse. Hit the enemy Off The Ground with a Crouching Short into a Crouching Strong into a Standing Roundhouse. YES, this is all one combo. In it, we have a Jump-In Combo, a Dashing Combo, and Air Combo, a Special Move cancellation, a Flying Screen Combo, an OTG Combo, a Juggle Combo... and the Magic Series is used everywhere in there. It's all actually possible and you can eventually do it flawlessly, hopefully, with enough practice. * * * -=Jumping Combos Into Dashing Combos=- There is ONE essential combination of Combo Classifications that deserves a LOT of attention and that is what this section will concentrate on: the Jump-In Combos into the Dashing Combos. As in MSH, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter gives you the possibility of hitting the enemy from a Jump-In, land and dash with a move fast enough so that it all connects into one combo. If you do not learn this technique, it will be difficult to perform the larger and more impressive combos. So here are some tips on how to perform a Jump-In to Dashing Combo since it is such an important part of combos since it helps do the maximum potential damage in one combo. Jump-In to Dashing Combos is 100% timing and nothing else. In order to perform this correctly, you must 1) do however many hits from the air you were planning to do; 2) land with a Dash; 3) attack quickly enough before your opponent recovers from the hits from the air. To start off, make sure you know EXACTLY how many hits you're planning to do from the air. Jump at the enemy and start attacking the enemy. After you hit the last move you plan on doing from the air, you must enter the Dash code by tapping forward on the joystick twice quickly. However, you must start to do the motion BEFORE you land from the air. So, in other words, after your last hit from the air, start dashing right away. However, you ALSO have to FINISH the code right AFTER you land. Thus, you must hit the first forward on the joystick while not yet landed but hit the second forward on the joystick AFTER you have landed. THEN, you must hit the first button in your Dashing Combo quickly enough so that the enemy does not have time to recover from the air. Thus, it is logical to try to finish your Jump-In Combo with a Fierce or Roundhouse as those moves make the enemy reel the longest, giving you MORE time to connect a Dashing attack when you land. Also, it is logical to START your Dashing Combo with a Jab or Short, since those moves come out the quickest. This gives you the most lee-way for timing errors between the Jump-in and the Dash. This just takes practice. Once you practice enough, it gets REALLY easy to do and you'll never do a combo without it ever again. Just practice it and don't give up because it is VERY important to learn this technique. Another thing: there is an alternate way of doing the Jump-in to Dashing Combos. Since you can Dash by pressing all three Punches, you CAN also do a Jump-in to Dashing Combo simply by pressing the three Punches RIGHT when you land and going for your combo VERY quickly after Dashing. Seeing as how I prefer to use the Double Tap method personally, I can't offer any tips on doing it this way. Experiment with both methods and see which suits you the most. * * * -=Two Air Combos In One=- This is a really bizarre form of combo in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter that some people may not realize is possible. It requires two separate Air Combos... one normal Jumping Air Combo and one last Super Jumping Air Combo. The enemy must be in the air when you start this and there are two ways to do this combo. Basically, this is how it works: during a regular fight, this situation comes up a lot... the situation where you jump at your enemy and he jumps at you as well. Well, the "Two Air Combos in One" Combo Combination is just the thing you need to do a nice, damaging combo. If you Regular Jump at the enemy and they just happen to be jumping at you as well, you can start hitting them on your way down from your jump. When you land, they will be finish their reel in the air. In that time, you can do one of two things: a) you can land and quickly throw out a Launcher attack if the enemy is low enough and knock them right back up for an Air Combo. Then, of course, you Super Jump and do your basic Air Combo; b) you can actually Super Jump the instant you land and continue hitting them on your way up if you're fast enough and if the enemy is too high up in the air for the Launcher to reach them. Thus, you connect the two Air Combos together in one. Not the greatest nor most exciting Combo combination, but they can be useful against people who jump a lot. Also, one last alternate way to do something like this: after hitting the enemy with the Regular jump moves, you can land and walk under the enemy while they are reeling in the air. They'll be able to block by this point, but they will usually be blocking the wrong way, since they are not expecting you to walk under them. Thus, if you throw out a Launcher after walking under them, they usually get nailed by it so you can get an Air Combo out this way as well. * * * -=Sweep Into OTG Combos=- In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, sweeps have become more useful than ever before. That is because there are a LOT of natural Off The Ground moves in this game. For example, Cyclops's new Hook Kick move can OTG enemies off the floor with the second hit. Thus, Low Roundhouse canceled into the Hook Kick will be a two-hit combo. Another example is with Gambit: his Strong Cajun Slash is a natural and perfect OTG move. Thus, Low Roundhouse into the Strong Cajun Slash is an easy 4 hit Combo. Worse yet, for a LOT of the characters, a sweep can be comboed into a Super Combo, which can be highly devastating to the person on the receiving end since it is so damaging and so easy to do. For example, Chun Li can do a Low Roundhouse into the KikoShou Super. Rogue can do a Low Roundhouse into the Super Rushing Punches. Ryu can do a Low Roundhouse into a ShinKuu TatsuMakiSenPuuKyaku Super. And all of these combos hurt a great deal. So if you are playing this game, you must, I repeat, MUST train yourself to react to sweeps very quickly. In a lot of those cases, a Roll can mean the difference between life and death. If you can train yourself so that you can react to sweeps at a moments notice, you should be able to escape this type of combo. No Sweep Combo cannot be rolled away from. All sweep combos can be escaped with a Roll. So listen to my advice: TRAIN YOURSELF INTO REACTING TO SWEEPS. You'll thank me for it. * * * -=Throw Combos=- If you hate throws, you'd better start getting used to them. In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, throws have the potential to be more damaging than ever. That's because for a lot of the characters, they can recover after throwing you before you hit the floor. Thus, many times, a player can throw you and then combo you before you can roll or recover. For example, if Dhalsim performs the Yoga Noogie on you while he has you trapped in the corner, the last hit of the Yoga Noogie knocks you very high up into the air and makes you land on the floor. HOWEVER, Dhalsim recovers before you hit the floor so, before you can block or roll, he can do a Yoga Inferno and nail you OUT of the air. So if a player plays with throws, he can potentially drain more than 25% of your energy from a throw. Another example is Juggernaut. If he throws you with Fierce from ANYWHERE, he can Juggernaut Headcrush you before you land every time. With Cyclops, if he grabs you with the Leg Tackle and he lands you in the corner, he can Low Short you off the floor and chain that into a Standing Strong, which is a Launcher... then he can perform an Air Combo on you that includes the Guidable Optic Beam. Of course, in the Cyclops example, you can roll away in time after the throw... so REMEMBER TO ROLL every chance you can in this game!!! Failure to roll could result in major energy loss. * * * -=Air Throw Combos=- Throws performed from the ground, i.e. any regular throw such as a ground Spinning Pile Driver, Cyclops's Leg Tackle, etc., canNOT be put into the back end of a combo (a throw can start a combo, but a regular ground throw can never be put at the end or in the middle of a combo). You can NEVER throw someone out of their reel animation so they ALWAYS have the chance to perform a Reversal with a Special Move or a Super Combo before you can throw them. However, Air Throws in this game are a completely different story. It is actually possible to COMBO an Air Throw so that the Combometer actually will keep going up even though you performed a throw and not a hit! For example, it IS possible for Zangief to Launch the enemy up and do a Super Jumping Jab into Air Spinning Pile Driver for a 3-hit combo! The Combometer will actually read "3 hits" if you time it all correctly. But that's the catch: the timing is VERY difficult to do in most cases and the positioning is very touchy. For example, Sabretooth can do a Low Fierce (which is a Launcher) and Super Jump and do a Super Jumping Jab, Short, Strong... and then combo in an Air Throw afterwards. However, if the enemy doesn't end up at just the right height and at just the right distance, it won't combo. Most of the time, you actually end up throwing them, but not in a combo... you just throw them without adding to the Combometer. Of course, that's good enough, but it's more impressive to land it in a combo because after the Air Throw, Sabretooth can do the Super Berserker Barrage and catch you before you land. Thus, if you can combo the Air Throw, you'll have a larger combo count, which is more impressive. A good tip to doing Air Throws in combos is to use a repeated button so that you won't accidentally do a Chained move. For example, in the above Sabretooth combo, you can try to throw with Fierce, but any SLIGHT mistiming will make you chain from the Strong into the Fierce, since that's his Magic Series. Thus, trying to throw with the Strong button is much better because you cannot chain from Strong into Strong, giving you a better chance to land the throw rather than coming out with the next move in the Super Jumping Magic Series. * * * Of course, there are a ton of Combo combinations that are possible. All you need to do is find them and work at them. If you examine the combos in the Character Specifics section carefully, you'll find a lot of different forms of combinations. So keep working on the combos and remember there are more combinations that just the three listed above. Good luck! ================================================================================ ========== *********************** * CHARACTER SPECIFICS * *********************** For each character, I will give specific information. In X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, the different characters all have different problems, conveniences, and "feel". So for each character, I will give as much info as possible. Here is a list of each of the categories I will go through. -=Magic Series=- a) Ground Magic Series b) Jumping Magic Series c) Super Jumping Magic Series For these three categories, here are the different series that will be listed and what their rule is: - ZigZag - The Series that incorporates all six buttons: Jab -> Short -> Strong -> Forward -> Fierce -> Roundhouse - Stronger - The series that lets you go to any stronger attack. Jab/Short -> Strong/Forward -> Fierce/Roundhouse - Weak Start - Start on Jab or Short and end with any of the other 4 attacks. Jab/Short -> Strong/Forward/Fierce/Roundhouse - None - No Magic Series available for specified situation. * * * -=List of Launchers=- d) Launchers: This is the list of all the character's Launchers. e) Strikes: These moves are the moves that will knock the enemy off their feet, but not high enough for Air Combos. They also do not knock the enemy to the floor so it is also not an OTG Combo set-up. These moves should be avoided if you are going for a nice, long Chain Combo, in most cases. f) Knock-Downs: All the normal moves the character has that can knock the enemy down onto the ground. These can possibly set-up for OTG Combos. * * * -=Special Move Codes Section=- g) Special Move names and motions: I will list these mainly so you can recognize which moves I am referring to since I do not have official names for all of the moves. h) Super Combo names and motions: Same as the Special Moves section. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Legend for the codes on performing the Special Moves: (**note: these codes are all for when character faces right.**) FB: Fireball Motion (D, DF, F) | \ --o + Button o o RFB: Reverse Fireball Motion (D, DB, B) | / o-- + Button o o DP: Dragon Punch Motion (F, D, DF) --o | \ + Button o o RDP: Reverse Dragon Punch Motion (B, D, DB) o-- | / + Button o o YF: Yoga Flame Motion (B, DB, D, DF, F) o-- / | \ --o + Button o o o *Note: I call it the Yoga Flame Motion based on Street Fighter II Classic even though nowadays, Yoga Flame is done with a Reverse Yoga Flame motion. RYF: Reverse Yoga Flame Motion (F, DF, D, DB, B) --o \ | / o-- + Button o o o BP: Banishing Punch Motion (F, DF, D) --o \ | + Button o o *Note: I call it the Banishing Punch motion based on Zangief's move from Super Street Fighter II Turbo even though nowadays, it is done with a Dragon Punch motion. SF: Air Soul Fist Motion (U, UF, F) o o + Button | / --o *Note: In case you're wondering, I call it the Soul Fist Motion because Morrigan of DarkStalkers fame was one of the first characters to ever use this code. SPD: Spinning Pile Driver Motion (360 degree spin on the controller) *Note: The code for the Spinning Pile Driver is not really a full 360 degree circle on the controller. It has always been merely 5/8 of the circle. However, it doesn't matter where you start the 5/8 nor where you end, as long as you complete a full 5/8 of a circle. Most people start it from walking forward or backwards and just do a full 360 motion because it's easier to do and makes it more certain to come out. o o-- / | \ --o / + Button o o o OR o --o \ | / o-- \ + Button o o o OR RK: Razor Kick Motion (Charge D, U) | (charge), o + Button o | *Note: When charging for this code, you can charge at ANY of the three down positions and when you press up to activate the move, you can go to ANY of the three up positions. SB: Sonic Boom Motion (Charge B, F) o-- (charge), --o + Button *Note: When charging for this code, you can charge at ANY of the three back positions and when you press up to activate the move, you can go to ANY of the three toward positions. + Punch: Do the motion with any punch button + Kick: Do the motion with any kick button