Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike/Akuma/Archive

Akuma's Character Select Portrait

Akuma's Neutral Stance

Introduction

When playing Akuma the basic goal is to use his superior zoning ability in order to control your opponent’s options, and at the same time, minimizing the risk of getting hit yourself.

It is very important to note (if you haven't noticed already) that Akuma has THE WORST defense rating of the characters in 3S. He is also tied with Remy for having the smallest stun bar of all of the characters 3S.

You should also note that Akuma's supers are all the same length, and that he has no EX moves. All this was done to counter balance his incredible offense and mix-up. Many people are turned away from Akuma because they see him as being too inconsistent due to his stamina, but I hope to reassure you that by making smart decisions during the match, Akuma has no holes at all in his game.

Moves List

Normal Moves

Standing

Far LP - standard shoto jab, a quick jab with his far arm, good for tick throws, and filler moves. Whiffs on crouching opponents. Can be used as a fast anti-air. Cancellable into itself and specials and supers.

Close LP - he does a fast elbow with his far arm to the opponents head, same as Ken's and Ryu's. Whiffs on crouching opponents. Cancellable into itself and specials and supers

Far MP - he does a palm strike with his close arm. Decent range, great poke, meter builder, great counter poke. Whiffs on most crouching opponents, except for the characters with large hit boxes such as dudley and urien. cancellable into supers and specials.

Close MP - he does a shoto gut punch with his close arm, same as Ken's and Ryu's. A good poke, doesn't push too far so its useful for tick throws much like ken's. Cancellable into HP, but i don't recommend it as its a little slow. Cancellable into supers and specials as well.

Far HP - he fully extends his far arm for punch. Very good range, but slow recovery so very easily punished. Use sparingly and only at a good distance.

Close HP - He does an uppercut with his far arm, same as Kens and Ryu's. A very good move, alot of stun, good damage, comes out relatively fast. Try to land these as often as possible. A good anti-air. Cancellable into supers and specials.

LK - a shin kick with his close leg, same as Ryu's and Ken's. Decent range, but not all too useful as almost every other poke would be better in all situations.

Far MK - a straight out toe kick to the mid section with his far leg, same as Ryu's. Good range and good priority, useful during poke strings to stuff moves.

Close MK - a knee with the close leg to the midsection, same as Ryu's. A very good poke as well, comes out fast, and hit confirmable. Cancellable into supers and specials.

Far HK - He does a roundhouse kick to the head, same as Ryu's. Used much in the same way as Ryu's, used to catch jump aways, good damage. Comboable into Raging Demon.

Close HK - He does a two hitting axe kick, where he lifts his leg straight up (1hit) and brings his leg down (2nd hit). 2nd Hit is an overhead. Overall a decent move, but very limited as you have to be pretty close, in which case there are many other better things you can do.

Crouching

LP - a quick jab with his far arm, same as Ken's and Ryu's. Looks the same as cr. MP except comes out and retracts a little faster, and leaves less block stun. Same basic function as cr. lk except with a little less range, but it doesn't push opponents as far away as cr. lk. Cancellable into itself, cr. lk, and specials and supers.

MP - a punch with his far arm, same as Ken's and Ryu's and looks similar to the cr. lp. Great priority, so very useful as a counter-poke. Cancellable into supers and specials.

HP - He does a straight up uppercut with his close arm, same as Ken's and Ryu's. Very good counter poke as it will stuff and beat out almost anything that hits the arm while he does the uppercut. Also great as an anti-air since it reaches pretty high up and it doesn't expose your hit box as much as standing HP. Cancellable into supers and specials.

LK - a fast short kick, same as Ken's and Ryu's. A good poke, longer ranger than cr. lp, hit confirmable. Cancellable into itself, cr. lp, specials, and supers.

MK - a long reaching kick, same as Ken's and Ryu's. Great poke, good range. Can be punished if blocked with certain supers (Ken's SA3), but nothing to be too worried about. Cancellable into specials and supers.

HK - a typical shoto sweep, same as Ken's and Ryu's. Scores a knockdown, comes out fast, but has poor recovery. Use only at max range where it is much harder to punish.

Jumping

LP - an elbow that lasts for the duration of the jump. Not all too useful, can be used to bait parries so you can parry their counter attack and attack them with a real move.

MP - a jumping punch, not very useful at all.

HP - a powerful punch, good damage, stun, and block and hit stun.

LK - a knee attack, pretty much useless except for the same purposes as the j. LP.

MK - a jumping kick. Not too useful since the jumping HK serves the same function and it does the job better. Only use is for less block stun.

HK - A longer reaching jumping kick. Good damage, good range, good hit and block stun. Overall a very good move.

Throws

Seoi Nage	LP LK Over the shoulder throw that lands the opponent right in front of you
Tomoe Nage	B LP LK Throws opponent over and behind you to a screen length's distance

Command Normals

Zugai Hasatsu	F MP Command overhead. Ridiculous range, two-hits, and unthrowable in arcade version.
Tenma Kuujin Kyaku	D j.MK Command dive kick, can only be used on or around peak of jump. If you super jump cancel, there is a larger window where you can cancel the jump into the dive kick.

Target Combos

• close standing MP -> HP

Special Moves

Gohadouken	QCF P Basic fireball, strength of punch determines speed of fireball
Zanku Hadouken	QCF j.P Air fireball
Shakunestu Hadouken	HCB P A Flaming fireball, strength of punch determines number of hits, startup and recovery speeds. LP is 1 hit and is fastest, HP is 3 hits and is slowest
Tatsumaki Zankuukyaku	QCB K * Hurricane kick, LK version is 1 hit, slowest startup and can be easily followed up for a a juggle. MK version is 2 hits (but 3 parries), can be followed up with mp shoryu, hp shoryu, or hk tatsu, depending on character. HK version is 3 hits (5 parries) Depending on the character, the hurricane kicks can cross over crouching opponents.
	* Can also be done in air
Ashura Senkuu	DP / B, D, DB PPP / KKK * Teleport. Invincible during startup and travel EXCEPT to supers, as supers freezes the teleport. A little slow on recovery so it is punishable.
	* PPP travels farther than KKK
Hyakki Shuu	DP K Demon flip, the move that puts akuma over the top. Strength of kick determines distance the demon flip travels, HK has the greatest distance.
-> Hyakki Gouzan	During Hyakki Shuu, (No input) A sliding kick, try to use it sparingly and land it at the max range of the slide so its much harder to punish, even after a parry.
-> Hyakki Goushou	During Hyakki Shuu, P A punch, not all too useful since it is slow and uncomboable. However, it acts as an overhead, and scores a knockdown.
-> Hyakki Goujin	During Hyakki Shuu, K A dive kick, can be cancelled early or late. Cancelling it late can lead to combos, cancelling really late allows you to "cancel" the demon flip so no attack comes out along with no recovery. Can be blocked high or low.
-> Hyakki Gousai	During Hyakki Shuu, LP LK (When directly on top of opponent) Throw. A little strict on spacing, but a very useful move thats hard to counter.

Super Arts

I	Messatsu-Gouhadou	QCF -> QCF P	2 stocks Fireball super, 6 hits. I believe this to be the best super as it is the most versatile.
I	Tenma-Gouzanku	QCF -> QCF j.P	2 stocks Air fireball super, 6. hits.
II	Messatsu-Goushouryu	QCF -> QCF P	2 stocks A 3 uppercut super. Does more damage than SA1, but not as versatile.
III	Messatsu-Gourasen	QCF -> QCF K	2 stocks A rising hurricane kick.
III	Messatsu-Gousenpuu	QCF -> QCF j.K	2 stocks Air rising hurricane kick.
any	Shungokusatsu	LP -> LP -> F -> LK -> HP	MAX required Raging demon. Unblockable grab super. Akuma glides across a screen length and tries to grab the opponent.
any	Kongouko-kuretsuzan	D -> D -> D -> PPP	MAX required a massive damage super, blockable, and slow recovery. Does massive chip damage, even more than Ibuki's SA1.

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Move Analysis

Meaties:

far mp, only on opponents with large hit boxes.

cl.mk, easy to link with sa1.

cr.lk

demonflip kick

dive kick

Air Hadouken

Combos

Midscreen

You can add Akuma's dive kick or a j.HP before these combos for more damage.

Everyone

• cl.MK/cr.MK/s.HP/cr.HP, LK Tatsumaki, HP Shoryuken
• cr. lk, cr. mp, mk tatsu, MP Shoryu or HP shoryu(strength depends on char)
• c.MK, MK Tatsumaki, MP Shoryuken (Except Hugo(?))

Specific to:

Chun-Li, Makoto, Q, Alex, Necro, 12 and Elena

• c.mk, mk tatsumaki, HP shoryuken

Hit Confirms

You can add Akuma's dive kick or a j.HP before these combos for more damage.

SA1

• cl.MK
• cr.MK, SA1
• cr.LK x2 xx SA1
• cr.LK, c.LP, c.LK xx SA1
• c.MP, SA1

SA2

• c.HP, MP Shoryuken xx SA2
• c.MK, MP Shoryuken xx SA2
• j.HP, c.MP/c.MK, MP Shoryuken xx SA2
• c.LK x2 xx SA2

SA3

c.MK xx SA3.

Other

(far) HK, Shun Goku Satsu

c.MK, LK Tatsumaki, LP (reset), Kongou Kokuretsu Zan

Corner

You can add Akuma's dive kick or a j.HP before these combos for more damage.

• c.MK, Tatsumaki, Shoryuken xx SA1, Shoryuken
• c.MK, Tatsumaki, Shoryuken xx SA1, SA1, Shoryuken

Frame Data

http://web.archive.org/web/20040415185817/www.karathrow.com/akuma.html

Strategies

Due to Akuma's weak defense and low stun gauge you have to play aggressively. Like pherai said, you gotta play defensively (and space yourself) sometimes too like against Hugo or so. Don't let Akuma's low defense and stun gauge fool you cause his attack and speed make up for it.

Overview

Punish after Parrying:

Air Parry:

- Air Hadouken

- Tatsumaki, land, SRK (very precise)

- Tatsumaki, land SA1/3.

- lp,lk (air reset, not very useful)

Normal Parry:

- Raging Demon (requires fast reflexes)

- s.hp xx tatsumaki, SRK.

- s.hk xx SA1/2/3

- s.hp xx SRK xx SA1/2

- CORNER: s.hp xx tatsumaki, SRK, SA1

Low Parry:

- c.mk xx SA1/2/3

- c.lk, c.lp, c.lk xx SA1 (works only on some characters)

- CORNER: c.mk, tatsumaki, xx shoryuken xx Sa1

Wake-Up Moves:

- Demon flip

- Teleport

- Hurricane

- Lp srk xx sa1

- HP srk

- The best by far: Block!

Super Art Selection

SAI (Messatsu Gouhadou) - Akuma's fireball super, and his super art of choice, for a variety of reasons. It's easily the safest of his supers, which makes it hard to punish unless it's blocked at close range. It can be confirmed or cancelled out of a variety of moves, including cr. short x 2, cr. forward, any of his uppercuts, etc. It also does good chip damage, especially when preceded by a fireball or red fireball. The main thing going against it is its fairly low damage, but it's still respectable, especially against the weaker characters.

SAII (Messatsu Goushoryu) - Akuma's uppercut super, similar to Ken's SAI. Does better damage than SAI, and has many of the same confirms and cancels as SAI. On the other hand, this super is much more than SAI unsafe if missed, and basically gives the opponent a free combo. Also has less chip potential, since the last 3 hits are easily parried. Not a bad super, but SAI is preferrable.

SAIII (Messatsu Gourasen) - Akuma's hurricane kick super, goes straight up. Does the most damage out of all of his supers, but has the worst recovery and chip damage by far. Also lacks range and lead-in combos, making it hard to easily integrate into his ground pressure/offensive. Probably his worst super.

Shun Goku Satsu (Raging Demon) - Akuma's signature special art, requires 2 full meters (all of his super arts are the same length.) Does loads of damage and is a grab super (therefore, unblockable), but is ordinarily hard to connect with since the jabs usually give the super away, and it's fairly easy to jump after the super flash if it's not kara'ed. Techniques such as kara-ing it with toward MP or hiding the jabs by dashing eliminate these problems and make it a much more lethal super, however.

Kongou Kokuretsu Zan: Akuma's new special art, channels his energy into a shockwave, requires 2 full meters again. Even more damaging than the raging demon (provided all of the hits connect), and has potential for extra with taunt and/or crouching damage. Good for countering dash-ins, jump-ins, and cross-ups, but is somewhat slow to come out and does severely reduced damage if the first hit misses. His most common combo with this super involves a jab reset into the KKZ (after the BnB.) This is also the ultimate chip out super - if you get a knockdown with 2 full stocks and your opponent having only a few pixels of life, this super guarantees the win, provided you time it right. This is since the first hit is unparriable; therefore, it must be blocked, and does good chip on its own. If, by some ridiculous chance, your opponent survives the first hit and starts red-parrying out of it, you still have a good 6 or 7 parries worth of time to screw them up (about the same as his SAI).

Kara-Techniques

Kara Demon - f mp, lp, lp, down-forward, lk, hp

Kara Throw - f mp, lp lk

Mixups

Demon Flip Mixups!:

The demon flip really gives you lots of options. The kick should be your main tool, since its the safest. With this, you can late cancel to try to combo, early cancel to stuff potential counters, or go for the cross up. If you are close enough, you have the throw option, which works really well against tall characters. To keep the kicks unexpected, you have either the slide kick, or an empty demon flip, which I generally follow up with a throw, or I sometimes just go straight into another demon flip. Anyway, lets talk about setups.

fp juggle into demon flip

This is either an air tatsu juggle into fp, or bnb ending in fp instead of srk. This attack string can really put pressure on the opponent, and is a good tool against characters without uppercuts. You won't ever be in range for the throw with this one.

just a standing normal into demon flip

You see JR use these a lot. This is your primary way of connecting the throw, which I use nearly as much as the kick, sometimes more than the kick depending on the opponent.

meaty demon flip

I don't use this often, but its a good setup because you stand a better chance against uppercuts, and have really great combo potential.

air fb, land, demon flip

This is a setup I've been experimenting with against makoto mainly. You don't have to worry so much about a dash under or anything.

Ok, so you're in the flip...now what?

Like I said, the kick is your main option, so lets talk about that. Its tempting to always late cancel the flip so you can combo. The first thing you learn in Mixup 101 is always doing one thing in a situation = death, so you have to early cancel this thing too. Once people start getting knocked by the early cancel, they wont be so tempted to try to AA you everytime, or parry, and an early cancel kick can lead to RD setups or kara throws or more flips. Its a good sign if they just start blocking the kicks, because you are getting close to locking them down, and you have them unprepared for throws. The blocked kicks should be followed up pretty much the same way as an early cancel kick. Either land, normal > demon flip, kara throws, or if you can, an RD. I also like going for the f mp overhead after blocked or early canceled kicks.

You also have the cross up kick. I'm just starting to use this thing, but its really great because its ambigous. What sucks though is you really need to know what situations it will cross people up on. Most of the time, a cl.mk > mk flip, and early cancel the kick will lead to a crossup. If anyone can give some insight on crossups with demon flips that would be great.

Time to start using the throw. Not much to know here, except make sure you are putting yourself in range for this. You really need to be right on top of them. So you are either do c.mk > mk flip, cl.mk > lk flip, cl.fp > mk flip. Just know you're ranges because whiffing this thing is a free combo for your opponent On characters like Q, if you go for a psuedo meaty flip, and just go for the throw right away, there is relatively nothing they can do to counter it.

The slide kick really allows the normal kicks and throws to work well. I follow up my fp juggles with this one a lot! Although, once you get this thing blocked or parried, its time to hold off on it for a while, because you have pretty bad recovery on this one. I very rarely dont land this one, but you do need to be very careful with it.

Lastly, there is the empty flips, and like I said, you should mostly go for kara throws, because if someone didn't try to AA you, they are probably blocking.

Don't really ever use this punch. No real reason. Bad recovery. It sucks.

"Personally, in my experiences, the Demon Flip Punch Variation works as a great overhead. Incorporating it into your DF mix-ups might actually prove to be semi-worthwhile, if not valuable to maintaining control of a match and keeping an opponent that constantly crouch blocks in the corner. You should be able to f.mp kara even on a quick stand. My opinion is solely based on my match win% over a series of games where this move attributed to the increased win% as a whole. On the subject of singular instances where AA is heavily used against DF, empty flips do smooth transitions into Kara Throws." (Xeris)

Hope this is useful I don't want to sound like an expert, because I'm not. I'm still learning the demon flip, but I think its not discussed enough here.

Additional Notes

• Personal Action: Attack up, Stun Damage up for the next non-throw attack/combo.

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A Review by Chaosofdante

Introduction

When playing Akuma the basic goal is to use his superior zoning ability in order to control your opponent’s options, and at the same time, minimizing the risk of getting hit yourself.

It is very important to note (if you haven't noticed already) that Akuma has THE WORST defense rating of the characters in 3S. He is also tied with Remy for having the smallest stun bar of all of the characters 3S.

You should also note that Akuma's supers are all the same length, and that he has no EX moves. All this was done to counter balance his incredible offense and mix-up. Many people are turned away from Akuma because they see him as being too inconsistent due to his stamina, but I hope to reassure you that by making smart decisions during the match, Akuma has no holes at all in his game.

Beginning the Offense

Akuma has the basic Shoto mix-ups that allow him to confuse and knock down his opponent repeatedly. If you're not sure on what these mix ups are (tick throw, high/low, Kara throwing, etc.) please consult the Ryu section for examples.

For offense purposes, you want to use Akuma's air fireballs as a safe window to get in on opponents and begin guessing games. When using an air fireball on someone who is standing always, and I mean ALWAYS option select parry before throwing the fireball. Akuma cannot attack after the fireball has been thrown so you want to do it as late as possible. This ensures that if you throw an air fireball at a standing opponent, they can't counter hit you even if they parry. In this way Akuma becomes very safe after a late air fireball even if it's parried, you only need to watch out for things like reversal Shippus or Hugo/Alex SA1 as moves with 1-2 frame start up will still be able to get you. The option select parry is purely there to protect you from any early anti air attempts. If the parry is successful you can do a meaty fierce in the air and link a standing fierce into either short, or roundhouse Tatsu depending on if they are standing or crouching (short Tatsu whiffs on almost everyone crouching).

Another offensive option from mid range in order to get close is to cancel hit or blocked low forwards into Akuma's daemon flip. Akuma has a fairly good mix-up game from this that can work well as long as it's not used more than a few times in a match, if you become predictable with it, your opponent may be able to punish you. The input for this is (F > D > MK > DF and any kick (LK/MK/HK)). The kick pressed determines the distance of Akuma’s flips. Use the short kick to keep the pressure on with dive kicks, and use the other two for his throw.

Once Akuma scores a knockdown he becomes extremely dangerous. He can hit confirm his close standing forward into his B

Miscellaneous

Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike