SF3S - Alex Guide
Ben Williamson
Writer's Note:
Hello. This isn't structured like most FAQs, because it isn't really meant
to be a FAQ. I'm not going to go through every single move Alex possesses. I
don't know about his uniform colors, how many hits all his combos do, his
background, or his ending. I do however know how to beat human opponents with
him. That's all this guide is for... trashing other players.
Basic Strategy:
Before thinking about anything else, realize this. Alex does enormous amounts
of damage. More than anyone in the game other than a really skilled Ryu or a
pissed off Makoto. So, you can afford to be patient. It's fine to get wake-up
dragon punched two or three times if the last time you block and Hyper-Bomb.
The idea is to make your opponent makes mistakes. So crowd them, but don't
rush... bide your time. People get nervous (and justifiably so) when Alex is
right up in their face, and they will invariably do something silly. Like jump,
or do a special move, or attempt a strong normal. Wait on the mistake, then
punish with Power Bombs, or your bread and butter combo. You'll win... not
necessarily because you're more skilled, but simply because Alex does unfairly
massive amounts of damage.
Brief Note:
I'll be referring to the "bread and butter" combo alot. I'll explain
it later, but just for reference, it's:
Jumping HP, Close Standing MK, Jab Flash Chop.
or just Close Standing MK, Jab Flash Chop.
Normals:
Like I said, I'm not going to cover every move. Just the useful ones:
They are ordered by my personal preference.
Jump-ins:
Alex shouldn't be jumping too much, unless the other player is
acting like an idiot. Basically, jump-ins should only be used
to counter mistakes or when you anticipate a move with recovery.
1) HP - Hits deep by necessity, combos easily. Bread n' Butter!
2) HK - Use only if they are too far away to hit with HP
Anti-air
See the Special Move and other strategy sections for better
ways of dealing with jumpers.
1) D. HP - Hits twice, annoys semi-skilled parriers.
2) MK - For longer range jump-ins
3) F+HP - This looks cool, but it's parry bait. Best not to use.
4) HK - Because it's fun to see Alex punt your opponent :)
Footsie
Alex shouldn't be playing footsie too long. Mess around
just long enough for the opponent to realize that their
footsie game is way better than Alex's. Because Alex's footsie
game sucks... if you attempt a ducking HK, you're going
to get supered. Dance back and forth around MK range, trying to
get them to sweep you. If they do, jump in with the bread n' butter.
1) MK - Very long range kick. Decent recovery, too.
2) F+MK - Interesting long range chop... I need to experiment more
3) D. LK - Fast, target chains into D. HK (not advisable, see above)
4) D. MK/MP - Decent standard ducking hits
Close Range
By hook or by crook, Alex should get into this range. Don't make
the mistake of attempting power bombs like a crazed Zangief/Hugo
wannabe. Realize that Alex's normals are great at close range, and
that your opponent is probably afraid of getting hurled.
1) MK - Alex's best move. Bread and butter!
2) MP - Kind of like the knee, only it whiffs duckers. Why bother?
Yeah, I just basically dedicated an entire section to the close
range knee. It's that good.
Specials:
Flash Chop
Okay, we all want to land the Fierce FC and look cool when we choke
the other guy out or back drop them. Face it, it's never going to
happen in serious competition. You can hit people with it, but
usually only as ranged anti-air. Otherwise, don't get your hopes up.
The Jab FC on the other hand is great, and you can throw it out
all day long.
ES: Extra damage, but personally I'd rather have the super. Use
only if you're using the Boomerang Raid super.
Rushing Elbow
Note to self: Alex is not Balrog. Use this move alot and you _will_
get destroyed. However, this is pretty decent anti-air. What it's
_really_ great for is as a pursuit move, if someone tries to jump
away from you. Great for end-of-round dink battles when people are
jumping around like idiots. Also, if you're stuck in a corner and
Ken's going crossup happy on your sorry self, you can try to run
under him using this move. Finally, it's good to keep this charged
if someone is being silly with mid-ranged special moves... Alex has
trouble chasing after people sometimes, so this move is great as
a counter attack _after_ their move is done.
ES: Alex's only worthwhile ES move. This might be reason enough for
me to use Boomerang Raid. Ultra fast, two hits, smites jumps
but good.
Whatever Stampede (Stompy Move)
Want to get parried-into-Marvel-vs.-Capcom-sized combo? Want to
pretend your Elena doing a Rhino horn? Use this move, and let go
of the joystick because you're going for a _ride_. This move has
two uses:
1) _Very rarely_ throw in a MK Stompy to confuse someone who's going
footsie on you. Do _not_ do this more than once in a very long
while. Trash talk your opponent for getting caught with such
a stupid move.
2) For ultra snazzy skill points, whiff a HK Stompy to jump _over_
someone that you predicted was going to do a heavy move on you.
Then Hyper Bomb them from behind. I'll worship you if you can
pull this off often.
Other than style points, this move just hurts you more than them.
ES: Doesn't even seem to do more damage. WTF?
Flying Knee-to-the-Groin Manuever
Looks good. Even worse priority than Rose. So why use it?
Okay... first of all, I never use LK or MK Flying Knees. However,
the HK flying knee is great. What for? Akuma and Ibuki, and
occasionally a floaty Necro or Twelve. See, the move has crap
priority but great range and speed. So use it when people can't
attack you, and you're fine. Wait for Akuma or Ibuki to chuck a
projectile. Dash under it or parry, then do a flying knee. Or,
wait for Twelve to hang glide or necro to miss a jumping attack.
Ta da!
ES: Doesn't seem to do more damage, but style point city! If you
ES this you can hit _standing opponents_ with it, which is
really fun. See combos.
Swinging DDT
See Alex leap! See Alex hold out his arm! See Alex look stupid!
It's duckable, and Alex tends to do horrid things like jump _over_
the opponent and get hurt. Also, those rare times that you might
be able to land the move usually come right after you were blocking,
so you end up getting a Rushing Elbow. Personally, I don't use the
move much. You can use it sort of like a dash to get out from under
a cross up. You can use it to jump over someone who footsie's you,
if you are _really_ good at judging the range... then throw them
from behind. Finally, if you try to parry-Power Bomb but they are
out of range, do a parry-DDT instead.
Power Bomb
Yay! Sort of like Zangief, but with massive startup. Hurrah!
Okay, so it sort of sucks, but it has it's uses.
1) Punish just about _any_ blocked special move. Yun's rushing
punch, Shotobrat's shoryuken or hurricane kick (watch out for
another shoryuken or a super though), Makoto's rushing punch, and
many more. Usually you can get a HP powerbomb out, but if you
want to be safe use a LP powerbomb.
2) Anti-air. Parry into power bomb. Yay!
3) Often, when people see you anti-air them, they will jump in with
a parry. Personally, I think this is the stupidest possible thing
to do, especially against alex. Simply wait until they are about
to land, and give them a great big Alex Power hug.
4) After a HP power bomb, the timing and distance are _perfect_ for
the following sequence:
Dash - Dash - HP powerbomb.
Unless they either jump up or do a special/super move, they
will get sucked in. Don't do it too often, but it's _great_ for
surprise value.
Supers:
Hyper Bomb
My super of choice. How do you use it? Simple. _don't_.
The primary mistake of people is trying to use this move offensively.
Never, ever, do that. Aware players will jump straight out of it,
even _after_ the move starts.
Instead, remember what I said about patience? No matter how good
the player, they will eventually make a mistake. Especially if you
crowd them on the wake up. Do they stay still and get power bombed,
or do they dragon punch you? Well, if they dragon punch you once
or twice on wake up... the third time you block. End of round.
Play defensively when you have this move. One of two things will
happen. Either they will miss a special/super move, in which case
you get the super for free. Or, they will play _so_ carefully, not
doing _anything_ with recovery time, that you will beat them with
normal moves and combos. Make sense?
The final way to use this is as anti-air. Sure, you can do
parry - Hyper Bomb, but where's the style? Also, I think it's
escapable by certain fast moves (dragon punch, for example).
Skip the parry. Hyper Bomb has HUGE invulnerability. Wait for
a jump in, and finish the motion right before they hit the ground.
Their foot/hand will go through your face, and they will fall into
you _after_ you grab, but you will still complete the move. Takes
some timing though... experiment!
Boomerang Raid
My second best super. Good for wake up, and because it seems to
push people back a bit if they block, you won't get MASSIVELY
comboed. You'll still get punished, but not as badly as if you
(for example) whiffed a shoryureppa or something. It comboes, of
course, but it doesn't do much damage in a combo. Instead, use it
as a counter... take advantage of it's invulnerability, not it's
damage dealing capacity. Also, it's good if you like using ES moves.
In particular, the ES rushing elbow is great, and the ES flash chop
adds a little "oomph" to the bread and butter combo.
Stun Gun Headbutt
Great if you are playing a drunken, catatonic 7 year old with no
limbs. Otherwise complete and utter crap. Yes, you can land it
on occasion. Yes, it does huge damage. It's just that the
other two supers are sooooo much better.
Combos:
Can we say "Bread and Butter"
Okay, call it what you will. You can call it the "Ben has only
one testicle" combo. It's still _the key_ to playing Alex
effectively.
If someone fireballs you, whiffs a special, or attempts a sweep,
jump in with HP, close MK, Jab FC. Check out the damage this
does...it's ridiculous. And if they block, no worries. FC has nearly
zero recovery. Keep the pressure on... every time you are close, just do
standing close MK into Jab FC. Every once in a while throw in a throw,
powerbomb, or ddt and you're set. Excellent as
retaliation, as pressure, after a jump in, even as a wake up.
There's no reason _not_ to use this combo.
Style combos
Deep Jumping HK into B+HP headbutt works sometimes.
Jumping HP, close MK, ES Jumping Knee looks great.
I _think_ that it's possible to do:
HP FC -> MP FC -> Close standing MK -> Jab/ES FC
I'm not sure how to check the timing to see if it's possible to
get HP FC -> MP FC to work though. Anyone verify this?
Final notes:
Sorry if this was a little disjoint, but I hope it gives you a head
start on playing Alex. I know I'm a little nuts about that MK->FC combo, but it
really makes all the difference. I've been playing Alex since the very
beginning, trying to make him not suck. But other than getting lucky with
Zangief tactics, I generally got reamed by decent Ryuken players. Now I defeat
everyone. Mu ha ha ha ha. Seriously though, I am king of Sunnyvale Golfland
=). Well, maybe it's because everyone else is playing Tekken Tag and doesn't
care about me. Ah well.
Anyway... get the word out! Ryu and Ken are tired, 40 year old bastardized
kickboxers that wouldn't know Karate if Makoto bit them on the arse. Major
props to anyone who plays Alex, Q, Twelve, Oro, Makoto,
even Ibuki or Chun Li. I'm just frickin SICK of Ryu and Ken. And someone come
to golfland and show me how to play Sean please!
Thanks to Jinston for getting me to write this. Thanks to Kao Megura for
crediting me in one of his FAQs and generally being a vast source of
information. Thanks to Natalie Portman for gracing my desktop as I write this.
Mm... goth Natalie. yum.
Okay, that's it. Oh yeah... if you want to post this, put it on a
website, or stick it in a larger FAQ, I'd be honored. But _please_
notify me and credit me, or I'll have to use my Hung Gar to terrorize
your younger siblings!
-ben williamson
benw@ugcs.caltech.edu