Cammy's Counter Ultra and Other Changes in Super Street Fighter 4
After spending several hours with Super Street Fighter 4 yesterday, the first thing I decided to do was check out Cammy (my secondary) and look at the changes she got along with the usefulness of her Counter Ultra. Seeing that I can't seem to find an extensive list of her changes, I decided to make one myself.
One of my biggest concerns was how her CQC (Cammy Quick Combination) would work well since, in vanilla SF4, when you hit a button during an Ultra animation most of the time the corresponding action to that button wouldn't come out and you were still able to block the Ultra. When factoring Counter Ultras into that, it seems they are useless. Looks like Capcom was aware of that and with SSF4 they have gone ahead and fixed it. Now, if you hit any button during any Ultra animation the move will come out and you will get wrecked! And her CQC comes out pretty quick. Quick enough to use as an anti-air, inbetween block strings, after a cross up, and by predicting a poke. I was able nail Chun Li's st. MP during it's active frames (2) with it due to it's speed. Yeah you can be thrown out of it and you can't use it against armor breaking Ultras, but it still has strong uses against some of her tougher match ups such as Balrog since he's a poke heavy character. The way I look at it is, her first Ultra is for fighting characters with fireballs (with the exception of Chun Li since her fireball is so slow) and grapplers and her second Ultra for the brawlers that need to get in close (Fei, Ibuki, Balrog). Counter Ultras have gotten a pretty negative reaction, but they are very useful in my opinion.
Other changes of note are that her Cannon Spike has seen a damage reduction, but since the game received nerfs across the board, it's hardly a big deal. It still hits hard and if you FADC into another one, the damage is still solid. Her Spiral Arrow does indeed have better recovery, especially the LK version, but it still isn't safe unless you do it at it's peak distance. It looks like her EX Hooligan Combination received more vertical movement, catching airbourne players more often than before, but I'm not 100% sure about this yet. I couldn't spot any changes to her Quick Spin Knuckle. Also, I couldn't help but feel that her links are easier to pull off now. I'm not sure if they lowered the timing strictness on her cr.lk, cr.lp, cr.lk, Heavy Spiral Arrow, but I was pulling it off like a breeze. I didn't check her cr.lk, cr.lp, cr.lp, HSP and I had trouble connecting her cr.HP, cr.MK, HSP but I attribute that to me being quite sleepy when I tried it XD.
On her match ups, she still seems to be a tough fight for Abel, but if he has his second Ultra (Breathless) he will own her soul with it. Since it has Armor properties, he can absorb a Dive Kick and release it (he can hold it and even cancel it) as soon as she lands so you'll have to try to bait it and aim to land behind him. It's a grab therefore unblockable and it goes full screen meaning that as a Cammy player you'll have to be wary of where you're going to land if you're not real close to him. Other than that, I think Abel got more forward movement on his Focus Attack so if he FA absorbs a dive kick, you'll land behind him. That happened several times in my fights against Abel, but I'm not sure if other things factored into that (dive kick height, how early my opponent released it). One last note on Abel, they did improve his Falling SKy anti air, so you will get snatched by it easier. The way I see it, with it's newfound reliability, Abel players will use it more making it easier to bait.
Out of the new fighters, I see her being a tough fight for Makoto as well. since Makoto has weak anti-airs, Cammy can Dive Kick her all day. After a DK you'll have to be wary of her Karakusa (grab & choke) and if she can anticipate your jumps she can nail you with Fukiage (upwards punch) but other than that, she's not much of a threat to Cammy's air game. I couldn't see a blatant advantage for Makoto's pokes over Cammy's, with the exception of her cr.MP to set up her Dash Punch. Cammy beats her dash punch with Spiral Arrow and her CQC. Makoto's first Ultra will mess you up if you do a mid to low height Dive Kick on her so you'll have to treat it like Abel's Breathless. I don't know if it'll punish a max height Dive Kick but i think it's safe to say it will. Makoto's second Ultra isn't much of a threat since it's intended for fireballers. Also, due to her horrible walking speed, Makoto relies heavily on her dashes which are punishable with Cammy's Spiral Arrow. Mak's (I'm tired of writing out her name :P) EX Overhead Chop can stop Spiral Arrow, but I'm not sure if it has to be at a certain range. I don't think her Axe Kick can hit a Spiral Arrow since SA is so low to the ground. One solid advantage Makoto does have over Cammy is her Focus Attack. Since it arches downward, it can put the brakes on your Dive Kick game quick, but landing behind it will leave her open for punishment.
All in all, I can honestly say that Cammy players shouldn't fret much. The Killer Bee is still a little beast! If I get the chance to try it out again before the release, I'll edit with more match ups. Hope you guys find this info useful!
