Street Fighter 6/Blanka/Introduction: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:03, 12 July 2023

Introduction

A kindhearted defender of nature, Blanka has become an adventure tour guide, confident his intimate knowledge of the jungle will serve as a springboard to fame—and a comfortable life for his beloved mother.

Blanka is a character that focuses on aggressive mobility and a variety of confusing mind games, supplemented by setplay in the corner. Many of Blanka's tools either allow him to advance quickly or force the opponent to guess at what he's going to do next, which he can use to his advantage by overwhelming them with options.

One of the biggest tools that Blanka uses for this gameplan is his Horizontal Rolling Attack special move, often called the Blanka Ball. It travels very quickly and very far, with the heavy version traveling full screen and being difficult to punish in many circumstances. He also has a diving aerial variant in the Aerial Rolling Attack, an anti-air version with the Vertical Rolling Attack, and one that travels in a controllable arc from the ground to the air and back down again with the Backstep Rolling Attack. He also has Surprise Hop, a command dash that allows him to quickly advance forward or backward, on top of a very fast forward dash, and can use Wild Hunt to close the gap when an opponent is expecting to block or parry a Blanka Ball and punish them for it.

All of these moves are supplemented by other unorthodox or shocking maneuvers once Blanka has the opponent scared of what he might do next and manages to get in. Electric Thunder is often used to get confirms when Blanka doesn't have the charge for Blanka Ball, but allows him a fair bit of flexibility on hit and is a powerful launcher when the Overdrive version is used. Many of his normals are also fairly strong for pokes and pressure, such as his light punches and kicks, his 5MP, his 2MP, and his 2MK, and if he can land a Punish Counter, then he can use Coward Crouch to set up for a launcher that does a lot of damage. Blanka becomes especially scary in the corner, though, as he can set up a Blanka-chan Bomb and then throw in an Electric Thunder to activate it for some setplay. Even if he's pushed out, he can rely on a little patience and careful use of surprise maneuvers like Blanka Ball fakeouts, Drive Rush 3HP, Surprise Hop, or Wild Hunt to get back in.

Another notable tool in Blanka's kit is his Level 2 Super Art, Lightning Beast. When activated, it allows him to use Rolling Cannon as followups to his Horizontal, Aerial, Vertical, or Backstep Rolling Attacks, in addition to giving them a lightning aura that makes them a little stronger and lets him activate Blanka-chan Bombs by using one of these moves to pass over them. Rolling Cannon ups his pressure game significantly while Lightning Beast is active, and if set up properly with an Overdrive Electric Thunder or a Coward Crouch launch, Lightning Beast can convert a stray hit from Blanka into huge damage.

In return for all of this, Blanka has to weigh his options carefully when going in for the attack, as the high reward for a fair number of his moves is balanced out by how punishable they are if they're evaded, blocked, or otherwise called out. It can also take some doing to get his combos going at midscreen or otherwise, since a lot of his more intricate combos need a launch from Coward Crouch, Overdrive Electric Thunder, and/or meter for Lightning Beast on hand. If you enjoy bewildering your opponents with risky but rewarding offensive plays and a variety of options, heed the call of the wild and howl with Blanka.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Great Mobility: Blanka's forward dash is among the best in the game, both in distance and speed. The majority of his special moves also offer aggressive, albeit risky movement options, namely his Horizontal Rolling Attack (nicknamed Blanka Ball), Aerial Rolling Attack, and Backstep Rolling Attack. He also has unique command dashes in Surprise Hop (4 or 6 and all kicks) that have amazing reach and can even cross the opponent up close.
Powerful Install: Blanka's Level 2 Super, Lightning Beast, has a host of powerful applications. It leads to damaging combos, and can easily make Rolling Attack end in plus frames, enabling absurdly oppressive pressure.
Setplay: In the corner, Blanka has access to practical and powerful setups using his Blanka-Chan Bomb (22P), letting him threaten with a high/low/throw mixup that easily leads to great damage and keeps him safe against defensive options.
Knowledge Checks: Blanka has a large variety of unorthodox moves in his toolkit, forcing the opponent to consider specific counterplay and pay attention to things they normally don't have to. Aside from making Blanka obnoxious against unsuspecting opponents, it is genuinely quite practical for him to try and overload an opponent's mental stack as they try their hardest to react to all of his peculiar options.

Conditional Damage: Blanka's common BnB combos tend to lack a bit of damage without his Level 2 Super install, corner, or plenty of Drive Gauge to spare.
Risk & Reaction: By the nature of his largely punishable moves, Blanka tends to take a lot of risks in his gameplay. Solid reads or reactions are required to make his tools work best, as reckless use of them can get you blown up much harder than the average character.