Wait till he does a 'Boom or long arms, then jump kick and sweep.  Lv 3 Focus attack as he gets up, punish with a knockdown combo, rinse and repeat.

YESSS! Thanks elf, that helped a lot.

By the way, playing the AI won't teach you much.

If I was going to get competitive with something it would probably be a shooter or strategy game as I have a much longer history with those and that hasn't happened yet so I don't know if it ever will.

Nah, my tactics work better!

Rick, point taken. But you're not gonna get all the achievements without doing the hardest combos and linking. The later trials for each character can be monstrous.

For time attack and survival, just use 'Gief and spam the lariat. 

Talking of achievements, I need to get back to SFxT for them, even if I don't really wanna get good at the game.

Both are solid characters Jimmy, both however are charge folk. So you'll have to get to grips with that mechanic, some folks find it weird and not to their taste as it's not got the instant reliability of quarter circle moves (for example). 

Play around with both, try their trials and whichever feels more fun to you stick with for a while.

The standard special moves. For Ryu and Ken etc, the moves like Hadoken and Shoryuken are circular/fluid movements. "Charge characters" are ones where the special moves are done by holding one direction for a couple of seconds (charging) and then yanking in the opposite direction as you press a button.

Haha no worries man, OK so most of the cast either have a move set which involves quarter circle, half circle or dragon punch inputs. The rest have charge moves, these are done by holding back or down (depending on the move) for 2 seconds and then forward and a button. So Guile's Sonic Boom is Backwards for 2 seconds then forward and Punch. Or his Flash Kick which is down for 2 seconds and then up and kick. 


So for Balrog try this basic one to get the idea. Try holding down back for 2 seconds near the dummy, then press Medium punch then as that hits push the stick forward and press light punch. He should hit with medium punch then immediately do his Dashing Straight move and hit the dummy for a 2 hit combo. 

So basically Charge characters take a bit more thought in certain situations as they don't have the ability to call on special moves (like Dragon Punches and Hadoukens) immediately because their move set needs the 2 second charge time. 

Have a look at Balrog's later Trials and you'll see there'll be more elaborate combos. One good one is crouching light punch, crouching light kick, then up and light punch to do his Headbutt. This is one of his most useful bread and butter combos. You can keep the stick in the down back through both the first two inputs, then just flick it straight to Up back position, Up and Punch for his special doesn't need to be straight up, it can be up back as well. 


EDIT: So that would look like this. down-back light punch, light kick, then up-back and light punch.

Hope that was helpful! It can be a bit of a head-fuck when you first start trying to get to grips with it all.

I would say if you plan on putting a bit of time into it then it is definitely worth investing in some Sanwa buttons. Which Hori stick do you have?

That stick has a Sanwa JLF stick as standard which is what all high end sticks come with. IT has stock Hori buttons though which you'd be better off replacing with Sanwa OBSF 30 buttons.

It has quick disconnects so the button swaps are piss easy.

akihabarashop.jp is my preferred store for buttons.

Also I cannot stress this enough, for your own sanity if at all possible buy the OBSN 30 buttons, which are the screw in versions of the OBSF's and are much easier to install and later remove if required. 

Also re button choices, I upgraded from a hori stock stick to sanwa parts, but found the buttons a bit too twitchy for my liking, as I am not dainty of hand. I find that Seimitsu PS-14-GN buttons (screw ins, but again there is a snap in version if you are a masochist) have just the right amount of resistance that they wont go off if I'm resting my fingers on them, but they are still nice and precise.

Another vote for Gremlin as well, I normally get my stuff delivered within a week if it's in stock there and have used them many times without problem.

Anyone been keeping up with the 25th anniversary series of tournaments?
The West Coast regionals?

Two Zangief players in the SSF4 top 3? 

This game is mental.

Haha, well they do nice stick buttons too, but you know, priorities! Must be some Tony Stark level man cave you've got going there...

Yeah Ricky I caught up with that today, that was a hell of a GF.

Also, Desk.

I've not played SFIV in so long I feel guilty, like i've been cheating on it. My arcade stick keeps asking where i've been.

It'll always have a special place in my heart, but the constant revisions and updates meant I couldn't keep up with which moves were best for what anymore – they even changed the buttons on Gouken's parry moves...


I'm sure things'd be different if I had local friends into it too though.