What character to play after trying a some out for a few months? - Super Street Fighter 4 Question - sf4answers

To add to casperOne's post: also remember that a lot of the time (particularly among players in the US), not liking the character you are playing can mentally severely limit your enjoyment of the game and potential growth. Sometimes it's better to play the character you like more (ie. Ken) over the one that's clearly top tier (ie. Guile), because enjoying the character you are playing can motivate you to learn more about it and therefore effectively help raise your game simply through motivation.

That said, a lot of the time it comes down more to how the character plays. If he's new, all those characters are a bit hard, but I see people having the most immediate success with Guile. Honda is a little easier as there's no worrying about how to use projectiles properly but instead just how to get around them (which I believe is less involved than properly setting them up), so maybe Honda to start would be good.

I think that there are some very important questions that need to be answered first which would help greatly with giving a definitive answer to his question:

• Who is his current main?  Does he even have a main?  If so, what is it that he finds dissatisfying about his current main?
• What is the play-style of his current character, or his preference of play styles?  Does he like charge characters over QCB characters?  Rush-down over grapplers?  Strong and slow vs. weaker and fast?
• What is he hoping to gain from learning a new character?  Is it to expand his general knowledge base?  To deviate from the type of character he normally plays?  Or is it to have an answer for a bad matchup for his current character?

Answers to these questions would help in the final answer (note: do not add a reply if you have these answers, update the original question with the questions and the answers to provide more information for others who might answer).

Now, speaking to the specific characters, I'm going to put them into three groups and point out some of the pros/cons of the players in those groups:

Ryu, Ken

These guys are all about the QCB/SRK inputs.  The gate on your joystick will thank you for it (this is lighthearted; it shouldn't be a part of why you make a choice between one or another).

While the movesets are pretty similar, they are vastly different characters.  I personally prefer Ryu, as he is one of the best all-around characters in the game (he might not be the strongest, but he has the fundamentals to counter pretty much anything).

Ken doesn't have this though.  What Ken does have is a kara-throw (rate that how you will), and a pretty decent poke with F+MK.

I could comment on the alt costumes, in which case, Ken wins hands down, but I think generally, Ryu is the better choice here.

Guile, Honda

Both are charge characters.  Some people find it easier because they can ride the gate, or because of the linear nature of their moves, others find getting the optimal charge time and "always charging" mode to be strenuous.

The benefit that charge characters have over QCB characters is that typically, the recovery for their moves is much less and more difficult to punish; the price for executing the move is placed up front when storing the charge.

Guile has been vastly improved in SSF4, to the point where he ranks pretty highly in most of his matchups.  This is due to the addition of his Sonic Hurricane as an Ultra, as well as better normals and great (read: low) charge time on his Sonic Booms (which he had in vanilla).  He plays very, very defensively, much more like he would be played in Super Turbo.

Honda, on the other hand, has to get to the opponent, and sometimes, that's a very difficult thing for him to do.  He has tools (just watch Mike Ross play him), but he has to work for it more than Guile does.

Chun-Li

Chun-Li has a pretty varied play style.  She can zone somewhat with her Kikouken, but her main strength lies in her footsies.  She has a great number of pokes, so she's the type of character which requires a good amount of knowledge about other characters in order to counter them.  The great thing about her pokes though is that if she has EX/Super/Ultra stocked, she can usually turn a successful poke into something big.  Additionally, both of her Ultras are very good, both with unique properties to help against specific opponents.