Street Fighter 6/Zangief/Introduction

Introduction

A colossal wrestler nicknamed the Red Cyclone. Zangief is dedicated to physical improvement and instructing his students.

Zangief is the original big-body grappler character, and acts as a lumbering monster who utilizes his size and long reach to intimidate the opponent into sitting still, before opening them back up with one of his many command grabs.

Zangief's gameplan is very simple- use his arsenal of good pokes, like 5MP, 5HP, 5LP, and 5MK to wear down the opponent while slowly approaching them. Gief's huge size allows him to poke at longer distances than most of the cast, making it difficult for them to respond to his poke assault without committing to a high-risk option. Once the opponent has been conditioned to sit still, Zangief lurches forward and grabs his opponent with the signature Screw Piledriver. This command grab has completely absurd range, is incredibly fast, and deals monstrous damage on hit. SPD has the potential to instantly turn the tide of a match and sets up the remainder of the Zangief's gameplan.

From here, Zangief continues to approach his opponent, moving between safer options and risker options to capatilize on the mistakes of his opponents. Zangief has dozens of ways to set up tick throws and punish poor decision making. He also has a bunch of unique tools for hard reads, like Siberian Express. As well, Zangief's signature Lariat allows him to become projectile invulnerable for a while, giving him the ability to deal with fireballs somewhat. All of this, combined with his solid pokes, makes Zangief into a midrange menace.

While Zangief is a perfectly effective character, he is notably not a vortex character like some other famous grapplers. Every time Gief uses Screw Piledriver, he sends the opponent nearly fullscreen and must play neutral all over again. In general, Zangief is notably weak to fireballs in spite of Lariat, and in general must play very patiently. There are many strong zoners on the SF6 roster, which can make his life difficult. Even still, a good Zangief player is more than capable of overcoming his bad matchups. Choosing to stick with the Red Cyclone will let you live the wrestler powerfantasy of your dreams while terrifying your opponents into submission.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Situational Burst Damage: Zangief is infamous for his ability to steal rounds off of a single, well-placed special move. His Screw Piledriver is the best command grab in the game with incredible damage, and the OD version deals more damage than some supers. Opponents must be wary if they are close to Zangief. Decent Mixups: True to his earlier appearances, Zangief inherits a timeless, devastating strike/throw game. Once he's in, Zangief's opponents gamble with their lives.

Slow Anti-Airs: Gief's biggest problem is his lack of safe, quick anti-airs. While his 2HP and Lariat have great reward on hit and are useful anti-airs, they have huge recovery and leave him wide open on whiff. To make matters worse Lariat does not hit cross up jumps. Slow and Limited in Neutral: In trade for his high health, Zangief is slower than other characters. On top of that, he lacks options to outright punish things like fireballs, instead being forced to navigate around them using Lariat and Drive Parry, or use riskier options like jumping or Siberian Express. Limited Okizeme: Altough Zangief's mixups are very rewarding in term of damage, they also create lots of distance between him and his opponent outside the corner, forcing him to play neutral again if he wants to makes the opponent guess again. Expensive Reversals: Zangief's Level 1 can't be used as a reversal as it only hits airbone opponents, Level 2 works but is very slow. Zangief only gets a good reversal when he has full super meter.