Getting serious..
I wanna get serious about Street Fighter, how can i step up my game? What is important for me to know about the game?
Responses (2 total)
Having gone through a similar process somewhat recently when deciding to become more serious about fighting games, here are the things that proved the most useful for me when making the transition. (I'm making the assumption here that you understand the basics of the game. If you're an absolute newbie, this video tutorial series is pretty good.) Your results may vary!
1. Play, a lot. Play a lot of different people if possible, and play offline matches as much as you possibly can. This is unfortunately more difficult if you don't have much of a scene in your area, but even 1 local friend who also wants to improve can do wonders for your game. Training mode it up as often as possible.
2. Immerse yourself in info about the game. Read forum discussions about your chosen character. Read strategy guides and frame data. Watch match videos, but don't just try to emulate what you see, try to actually understand what's happening and follow the match. If you have a daily commute, you might consider downloading some podcasts to listen to in your car -- there are some great podcasts out there that have interviews with top players that can give you a lot of insight into their philosophy about the game, and how they work to improve themselves. Some good ones to look up would be the early Gootecks podcasts, Alpha-ISM and a handful of the Shoryuken podcasts.
3. Analyze your own game. By which I mean when you lose, try to figure out why you lost. Failing that, try to identify a handful of things that you did in your match that didn't work, or things that your opponent did that did work against you. Figure out how to counter those things in training mode by using the Record function on the dummy.
4. Have fun. Make sure you're using a character that you love to play. It may seem obvious, but if you're not enjoying the time you put into the game, you're not going to be motivated to practice enough. Having local friends to hang out and practice with is a big help in keeping it fun, too.
The gootek podcasts are great (I listen at work). They mention a LOT of good sites to find videos, discussion, etc. That's how I found SF4Answers, option-select, etc etc etc. Also, search through the online videos through the game itself and find a bunch of matchups with your character. Whether or not your character is the one that wins is almost irrelevant, as you can learn a lot either way.
