How good are you at Street Fighter?

Written by: Alex Shaw

This is something that's been bugging me. I've been playing since I was 12, which at 28 is more than half my life, yet being honest with myself, I'm not actually all that good.

I can beat the computer on easy, maybe normal and I can beat unpracticed players two out of three times if I concentrate, but put me up against someone online who knows a combo or two and I go to pieces. Maybe I'm intimidated by their silence. Maybe it's because they always pick Ken and Ryu and those two characters are hideously unbalanced in terms of being able to pull of quick successions of hits (no matter what Capcom tell you). Maybe it's just that I need to train, but something feels like it's missing.

In the interests of putting things into perspective, let me set a one to ten scale for Street Fighter skill.

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1. You've never played Street Fighter before. You may have button bashed on another brawler but never Street Fighter.

2. You've played Street Fighter but you're not very good. This is usually characterized by leaping all over the screen hammering all buttons at once. You say the moves are too hard to do.

3. You can play Street Fighter. You know how to throw a fireball, but it doesn't always work and once someone gets you in a corner you just give up. You're thinking of getting an arcade stick.

4. You know one character. (Usually Ken or Ryu) and default to them each time, when you fight competently.

5. You know a few combo's. (Jump in, hard kick, crouch, hard kick, dragon punch, then throw if they're stunned.) You may have owned Street Fighter games in the past and beaten them on easy and sometimes normal.

6. You can perform multiple combos for multiple characters, plus you're getting the hang of focus moves and Ex moves. You almost definitely own a stick.

7. You win most fights against regular folks. You're unfazed by their button mashing. You can do Super and Ultra moves every time and you know how to cancel and use it to your advantage.

8. You're a pro. Street Fighter is your game of choice. You had Street Fighter III: Third Strike on the Dreamcast. You take ranked matches VERY seriously.

9. You're a maniac. You hate every other fighter online and want to kill them, which you can, with Akuma, effortlessly. You are a master of all moves. You made your own joystick (possibly out of a shin bone).

10. You're a world champion. We watch vids of you on Youtube and are left humbled by your prowess. You probably use Dhalsim or Dan to leave your opponents confused as to how you're pulling this stuff off. You have a Street Fighter arcade cabinet in your house... which is otherwise empty.

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So looking at the scale, I'm more of a level 5 fighter actually. True Street Fighter players will scoff at this list and the leaving out of the various permutations of pro player, but this is from the point of view of an average gamer.

I think that applies to most of my games playing exploits. I'm never the champion of anything. Leaderboards are alien to me. But I do beat games. I soldier on, and I have level six in my sights. I'm going to master Ryu... or maybe Sagat to throw off the thirteen year olds who keep defaulting to Ryu and Ken.

Wish me luck, and if you meet me online... go easy on me.