English
FIGHTING VIPERS
Frequently Asked Questions
Version is current as of August 27, 1996.
Please mail questions/comments/corrections to tlawson@acs.ucalgary.ca.
Feel free to distribute this document - if you want to modify it, or use
material from it, and then distribute it, acknowledge your sources.
This document, and all parts within, are NOT for commercial use without
express written consent of the author.
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Table of Contents
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Some General Information
New (tm)
Notation
Basic Gameplay
-The character selection screen
-Inside the game
-Moving around
-Types of attacks
Close combat
Throws
Running attacks
Hopping and jumping attacks
Hit them when they're down
-Methods of defense
Blocking
Dodging
Guard & attack
Interrupting
Flipouts and escapes
Getting up
Things to Pay Attention To
-The clock
-Armour
Breaking armour off
Keeping your armour on
-Floating
Floating people
Protection against being floated
-Fun with the wall
Death and the wall
Hopping off the wall
Climbing the wall
Smashing people against the wall
Throwing and the wall
-From behind
Killing them from behind
Defense while your back is turned
-Counters of counters of counters
-Odd uses for the guard button
Pulling back attacks
Stopping combinations
Individual Character Moves
-Grace
-Bahn
-Raxel
-Tokio
-Sanman
-Jane
-Candy
-Picky
Defeating the CPU
Tricks, Glitches, Etc.
Credits
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Some General Information
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Fighting Vipers is an arcade game by Sega, in which your objective is to
kill your opponent before they kill you. This document is intended to
give those interested in the game a start towards learning how to play
effectively.
Fighting Vipers shares quite a few similarities with Virtua Fighter,
another series of games by Sega. However, I'll try to avoid references
to it here, as not everybody has played it.
The game has been released for the Sega Saturn overseas. The North
American version should be out soon.
This faq can be found in the following places:
WWW - http://www.ucalgary.ca/~tlawson/fv_faq.html
FTP - ftp.netcom.com in /pub/vi/vidgames/faqs/fv_faq.txt
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New (tm)
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Aug 27:
Added damage ratings for moves.
Added frame rate statistics for moves.
Added information about different armour strengths for different
characters.
(Many thanks to Graham Chubb for providing me with all this.)
Added a 'back' special for moves that cause the opponent to fly at the
wall, and a 'backwards' special for moves that require you to have
your back to your opponent.
Fixed a lot of moves where things were incorrect, and added a whole
pile of turnaround moves and air moves I was missing.
I'll update this thing again if/when I get my hands on a Saturn version
of FV, or I get filled in on some of the differences from what's here.
April 24:
Added a section on some uses for the guard button.
Added some notes for several characters telling information specific
to that character.
Changed quite a few moves to 'B' level (hits non-blockers) as they
were classified wrong. There are probably still several moves still
in the wrong categories, but I've changed all those I know of.
(+ misc. additions)
April 10:
First release.
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Notation
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Through most of this document, this shorthand notation will be used for
joystick motions and button presses, most especially in the move lists.
u, d, b, and f refer to briefly moving the joystick up, down, backwards,
and forwards respectively. (forwards being the direction your
character is facing)
uf, ub, df, db are diagonal directions - up and forwards, up and back,
down and forward, and down and back.
U, D, B, F, UF, UB, DF, and DB are the same, except the joystick must be
HELD in that direction.
n means 'neutral' or return the joystick to the center after holding it
in a direction.
P, K, and G refer to the buttons Punch, Kick, and Guard (or Defend).
The START button is not abbreviated, mainly because it's rarely used.
When several motions are joined together or are to be done in sequence,
they will be listed as follows.
If two items are joined by a plus (+), it means to do them at the same
time, ie:
P+G - press Punch and Guard at the same time.
u+P - tap Up and press Punch at the same time.
If two items are joined by a comma (,), it means to do them one after
the other, ie:
P,K - press Punch, and then press Kick.
F,P - hold Forward, and then (still holding) press Punch.
If two items are separated by a period (.), it means to do one OR the
other (either will work), ie:
(d.df)+K - is the same as either d+K or df+K.
A double-less-than sign means to roll the joystick between two
positions, ie:
d>>f+P - means down, roll to df, roll to forward, and press Punch.
Always roll through the downward stick motions before the upward ones,
so db>>b+P means db,d,df,f,uf,u,ub,b+P.
If a move starts with (cr), it means you must begin the move while
crouching. If it starts with (air), you must be in the air on the way
down, and if it starts with (run), you must be running. Ie:
(cr) n+K+G - hold the joystick down until crouching, then return it to
the center and press Kick and Guard together.
(run) d+K - start running (f,F), and then slide the joystick to the
down position and press Kick.
(air) f+K - while in the air, tap forwards and press Kick.
The 'special' section of the move list tells some information about how
the move must be done, or what its effects are if it hits.
(wall) means that the move must be done when your opponent is stuck
between you and the wall.
(atwall) means that YOU must have your back against the wall for this
move to work.
(onwall) means that you must climb the wall before doing this move.
(down) means that, if the move hits, the victim will be knocked down.
(back) means that, if the move hits, the victim will fly backwards at
high speed.
(float) means that the move will knock your opponent *very* high up
into the air, and can usually be followed up with another move.
(smash) means that the move can break armour. High and mid-level
moves break upper armour; low and ground-level moves break lower
armour.
(guard) means the move is a guard & attack, and also breaks armour.
(backwards) means your back must be facing your opponent.
More detailed information on these things can be found later.
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Basic Gameplay
--------------
This section covers some of the basic elements of playing the game, such
as attacking and defense. More complex things will be covered later;
for now, the section deals with the foundations of good gameplay.
--The character selection screen
This is fairly straightforward. Using the joystick, you move your
character selection box (shown at the bottom) over the picture of the
character you want to select, and press any button. (except START)
To select an alternate set of colours, you must be holding down the
START button when moving the character selection box; the character's
large picture on screen will change colours as well, to let you know
that it's been done correctly.
There are two special modes you can activate when fighting against
the CPU; Random Mode and Ranking mode. Only one can be turned on at
a time. To start the game in Random Mode, insert your money into the
machine then hold the joystick in the UP position when you press
START to begin. To start the game in Ranking mode, instead hold the
Punch Kick, and Guard buttons down when you press START.
Random Mode simply makes the order in which the CPU characters fight
you random, instead of the usual Bahn -> Grace -> Picky -> etc
lineup. Random mode is far more difficult than normal mode. Ranking
Mode will gauge your skill based on your fights against the computer.
The factory default settings make Ranking Mode unavailable. Complain
if it's disallowed on your machine.
--Inside the game
Once you begin the game, the majority of the screen is taken up
displaying the actual combat scene. When fighting against the CPU,
the lower corner of the screen displays how much total time the
player has taken. This is not present when fighting in player vs.
player mode.
The upper portion of the screen displays several things:
Lifebars - Each player has a lifebar, which displays how much life
they have left. Initially, your lifebar is full. Whenever you
are hit by an attack which you don't block, your lifebar goes
down. If it becomes empty, you die.
The lifebar changes colours depending on how much armour you have
left. Green means you are fully armoured, red means you have no
armour left, and yellow means you have either your upper or lower
armour broken, but not both.
Armour guy - Each player also has a small picture of a body which
tells the current state of their armour. The armour guy is split
into two sections - upper armour and lower armour. If one of the
sections is solid green, your armour is still in fairly good
shape. If it is flashing green, your armour is in danger of
being broken. If it is flashing red, your armour has broken off.
A timer - You are allowed 30 seconds per round in which to defeat
off your opponent (or be defeated). The timer starts at 30 and
counts down to 0; when 0 is reached, the round ends and the
player with more life left wins.
Message bar - At the very top of the screen there are two message
bars which say such things as how many other humans a player has
successfully defeated (winning streak), whether the player is the
resident champion or challenger of a 2-player game, and invites
people to join in.
Some of these things will be covered in more depth later.
--Moving around
Once fighting, a very important thing to know is how to control your
character's movement. Moving can get you out of the way of attacks,
or help you get into a good position for making attacks of your own.
There are several ways to do this:
Walking: To walk, just hold the joystick forwards or backwards.
This is fairly slow, and not too effective.
Crouching: To crouch, hold the joystick down. This is important
sometimes, as it allows some moves to miss you entirely by
going over your head.
Crawling: To crawl, hold the joystick diagonally down and
forward (to crawl forwards) or down and back (to crawl
backwards). Like walking, it's very slow.
Dashing: To dash, you tap the joystick twice, either forwards or
backwards, depending on the direction that you want to move.
Dashing is usually the preferred method of getting closer or
farther from your opponent; walking is much too slow.
Crouch dashing: Crouch dashing is similar to dashing, except the
joystick is tapped diagonally (down and forwards or down and
back). Crouch dashing makes you vulnerable to mid-level
attacks, but you duck right under high-level ones; and once
the crouch dash is complete, you can use moves which require
you to begin in a crouch.
Hopping: You can hop by tapping the joystick in any upwards
direction. Tapping diagonally will make your character hop
slightly forwards or backwards. Its uses are limited, as
you can't defend yourself in midair and can take severe hits.
Backflips: Backflips are done by tapping the joystick diagonally
up and back. I don't know of any use for them other than
style - they don't move you back very far, and don't seem to
be very effective at getting away from anything. Bahn and
Sanman cannot backflip.
Jumping: Jumping is done by holding the joystick in any upwards
direction - holding diagonally will make your character jump
forwards or backwards. Like hopping, jumping is dangerous,
though it can sometimes quickly get you out of danger.
Running: You can run forwards by tapping forwards once, then
pressing forwards and holding in that direction - essentially
like dashing forwards except the second joystick motion is
held, not a tap. Running cannot be started if your opponent
is very close in front of you. A very aggressive tactic, it
can be very effective. You can stop running quickly by moving
the joystick into the back position.
--Types of attacks
Each character has a multitude of attacks. Some are unique, some are
not, but each does things differently and is useful in different
situations. Knowing what attack to use and when to use it is vital.
One important thing to know is to try not to use a move which will
miss your opponent entirely - if you miss, it's very easy for them to
retaliate.
Most attacks have a 'level', which gives a description of when the
move will hit, when it will miss, and how it should be blocked.
Throws are the exception to this, as their hitting conditions are
more specialized - the section on throws will cover this.
Low-level moves, or level 'L', strike at the opponent's legs. If the
opponent is standing, they will be hit; they must crouch and block,
or get out of the way, to avoid these. Low-level moves are generally
not so powerful, and not so common, but people will often forget to
protect against them.
Mid-level moves, or level 'M', must be blocked high; anyone who
crouches to try and avoid these will be hit. Mid-level moves are
strong, and very effective against those who try and block while
crouching.
High-level moves, or level 'H', are blocked high; however, if your
opponent crouches, these moves will go right over their head and
miss. These are the least likely moves to hit with, but most of them
are deadly if you do make contact.
Some moves hit only those characters who are not blocking, whether
they are standing or crouching. These are fairly rare. They're
referred to as level 'B'.
Ground-hitting moves, or level 'G', are the only moves which can hit
people who have been knocked down and are lying on the ground. You
can usually ONLY do these moves if the opponent has been knocked
down, or is falling down. However, just as a side note, if your
opponent is NOT on the ground when you do a ground-hitting move, you
can still hit them if they are not blocking.
--Close combat
The most basic type of attacks are close combat attacks.
Everything from basic punches and kicks to the nastiest of armour
breakers fall into this category.
Most close combat attacks have something special about them; they
guarantee a knockdown, float the opponent high, or similar things.
Some close combat moves don't seem to do anything special, but
don't be fooled; most of the time this is because they strike fast
as lightning. Armour breakers are a dangerous threat, which do a
lot of damage and can smash off your protection, which puts you at
a heavy disadvantage, but these moves tend to be fairly easy to
avoid.
Beyond simple close combat attacks, there are combinations, which
are strings of several attacks in a row. Combinations can do a lot
of damage, and several attacks at different levels will occur very
quickly within a combo. They can be deceptive in some cases.
Combinations can also recover very quickly, making it very hard to
counter them. Don't overuse them, though; you'll end up being
interrupted, or hit with a guard & attack.
--Throws
Throws are moves which can only be done from extremely close range.
Throws can either send your opponent running at full speed towards
a wall, or do crushing amounts of damage. Missing a throw,
however, causes your character to do a very slow reaching grab,
which leaves you very vulnerable.
No throws can be done on an opponent who has just begun an attack,
though they can be thrown immediately after the part of the attack
which would hit you is finished. Blocking is no protection against
throws.
Some throws can only be done when you are specially positioned near
the wall - with either you or your opponent having their back up
against it.
Most throws are category 'ST', done to opoonents who are standing
up. Crouching avoids these entirely.
Category 'CT' throws work on people who are crouching, but not
those who are standing. The reaching grab animation looks exactly
the same, however; this may fool your opponent into crouching to
avoid a standing throw.
Throws of type 'BT' are behind throws - they can only be done when
your character is very close to your opponent's back. These are
fairly rare to get, as most people won't let you get near enough to
their back to throw them.
Lastly, there are air throws - 'AT' - which must be done when you
and your opponent are both in the air, and very close together.
These work very well after floating your opponent, especially since
you can usually catch them before they have a chance to do a
jumping kick at you.
--Running attacks
Running towards your opponent and attacking is a very aggressive
tactic that can force people into making bad decisions. Most
running attacks hit mid-level, and many recover too fast to
guarantee a counter for your opponent. The running low slide,
which is common to all characters, is a way to break low armour for
everybody, and can keep your opponent guessing as to what level
you're going to attack at.
However, in reality, it's not very difficult to interrupt a running
attack, and you should be careful about overusing them.
By running towards your opponent and then coming to a sudden stop,
you may be able to trick them into trying to counter a running
attack before it comes out, and as a consequence you can get a free
hit.
--Hopping and jumping attacks
Hopping attacks can be useful for dodging over low attacks.
However, if you make a wrong guess and hop at the wrong time, you
are extremely vulnerable. They seem to work best as an occasional
surprise tactic.
Jumping attacks can be useful sometimes, but while in the air you
are very vulnerable; most of the time when you use jumping attacks,
it's because your opponent was responsible for firing you into the
air.
Takeoff kicks, which happen when you kick out immediately as you
jump, come out very fast and can take your opponent by surprise.
However, once you do a takeoff kick, you're committed; you cannot
do anything else until landing, giving your opponent plenty of time
to do something powerful.
Drop kicks, which can hit somebody on the ground, are relatively
safe; if your opponent blocks them, they'll be stunned and won't be
able to hit you before you're on the ground and ready for them.
However, if you miss, the drop kick has a huge recovery time.
Hopping and jumping attacks which hit low are great for deceiving
people, but again, don't overuse them.
--Hit them when they're down
The various ground attacks are a quick and easy way to do extra
damage to someone who's just been hit.
The jumping pounce, common to all characters, does a lot of damage.
If it misses, you'll take so long to recover that your opponent is
almost guaranteed a chance to severely punish you.
Most attacks which guaraantee a knockdown also guarantee that a
jumping pounce will hit.
Ground punches and kicks are much safer, and quicker, but do very
little damage. As a bonus, if you hit with a quick ground attack
just as they're beginning to get up, you can often get a second one
for free.
Sometimes, if your opponent is not particularly smart about which
method they're using to get up, you can get several punches or
kicks to hit before they clue in.
As a rule, pounces which break armour break leg armour.
There is one other type of attack: the ground throw (category 'GT')
which allows you to pick up a downed opponent and throw them
around. These only tend to work if you're very close to your
victim, and do it fairly quickly after they were knocked down.
Ground throws do a lot of damage and are much safer to execute than
other types of pounces.
--Methods of defense
While Fighting Vipers places a heavy emphasis on offensive play,
knowing how to protect yourself is still very important to winning.
Properly defending yourself can often grant you the ability to hit
your opponent in return.
--Blocking
Blocking is the basic method of defense - it's quick and easy to
do. Just hold down the 'guard' button while standing to block high
or midlevel attacks, or hold down the guard button while crouching
to block low attacks. You cannot block while in the air; as a
matter of fact, you cannot block when you're moving at all.
Blocking is far from the best method of protecting yourself.
Blocked hits can do a tremendous amount of damage to your armour,
and once you block an attack you're often stuck in something called
'block stun' - you are unable to do anything until your character
recovers from it. Often, you will recover from block stun far too
slowly to punish your opponent from attacking you, and you're stuck
in a no-win situation. Moves which do heavy damage, like armour
breakers, often cause a lot of block stun.
Keep in mind, though, that while blocking is not the best option,
sometimes there aren't many others. Blocking is still better than
taking a hit.
--Dodging
Dodging covers a variety of techniques, but they all do basically
the same thing. Dodging is when you get out of the way of an
attack altogether, letting it hit nothing but air. Crouching under
a high attack is dodging; hopping over a low attack is dodging;
dashing out of range from an attack is dodging as well.
When you dodge, you obviously don't suffer from armour weakening or
block stun that are a problem after blocking a hit. Most
importantly, dodging leaves you in a position where you can attack
your opponent immediately after they attack.
Unfortunately, dodging often requires quite a bit of thinking
ahead, and predicting what your opponent is going to do. If you
try and dodge an attack but make the wrong choice, you'll put
yourself in an extremely bad situation.
--Guard & attack
A guard & attack is a special kind of move which blocks for a
split-second, and then immediately afterwards does a counterhit.
If your opponent attacks you with a high or mid-level attack, the
guard & attack will block it and you are guaranteed that you'll hit
with the counter. Against opponents who use combinations a lot,
this is very effective.
There are a lot of reasons, however, that guard & attacks are very
dangerous to use. Firstly, they are very slow to come out, and
your opponent has plenty of time to see that you're doing a guard
& attack, then block or dodge away. Second, they are very slow to
recover, giving your opponent plenty of time to hit you if you
miss.
While in the 'guard' portion of these moves, you can be hit by
throws and low attacks very easily; a single quick low punch is
enough to stop the guard & attack dead. Very strong moves, such as
armour breakers, will still be blocked, but you will suffer from
block stun instead of hitting with the counter.
Guard & attacks are not very useful when used as attacks instead of
defense, due to the fact that they're so slow. If your opponent
blocks them, you can usually be thrown easily.
--Interrupting
It requires quick reflexes or good prediction to do this properly,
but it's fairly safe. Interrupting an attack means that you do
another attack which hits the opponent very quickly, stopping their
attack dead in its tracks. It's much easier to do this when your
opponent is doing a slow attack, like an armour breaker.
Simple, ordinary low punches are very effective at interrupting
high and mid level attacks. Most characters have a quick mid-level
attack that's fairly simple to do, and this works well against
people trying to do low attacks. In some circumstances, you can
use takeoff kicks to interrupt an attack, which have the added
bonus of getting you out of the way.
If you don't interrupt your opponent, either because you missed or
were too slow, you will end up being hit. This is bad. Don't
miss.
--Flipouts and escapes
Often, when you're hit, you'll be knocked into the air. If you do
nothing when that happens, you may end up flying into a wall and
taking a lot of extra damage, or falling heavily to the ground and
taking more damage. In these situations, it's best to flip out by
pressing Punch, Kick, and Guard all together; you'll flip yourself
to an upright position, essentially as if you had jumped up instead
of being hit. Doing this also helps you avoid being hit by ground
attacks; if you do this and your opponent does a pounce, block it
and hit them with the worst you can do.
Flipouts are not always a good idea, as you'll stay up in the air
longer after flipping out; it gives your opponent a good
opportunity to hit you again, and again, and again. More on this
in the floating section, later.
All character have a throw which sends you running at full speed
towards the wall. You can stop running towards the wall in two
ways; by tapping forwards, then pressing all the butttons together,
or by tapping backwards, then pressing all the buttons together.
The first method makes you slow down and stop, while the second
makes you hop and turn around, so that your back is no longer
exposed. Learning to do these escapes will help you survive
against wall throws. It's a better idea to do the hop escape, due
to the fact that leaving your back exposed is not a good idea.
Sanman's 'bowling' wall throw cannot be broken out of, as you're
not running. Ouch.
--Getting up
Often, you'll find yourself knocked down and lying on the ground.
There are several ways of getting up, though which is the right
choice depends on your situation.
Jumping up in place: To do this, tap Punch repeatedly. This gets
you up somewhat quickly, and can avoid ground attacks sometimes.
Rolling away: Tap either up or down on the joystick, depending on
whether you want to roll towards yourself (out of the screen) or
away from yourself (into the screen). Rolling away puts you at
an angle to the way your opponent was, making them pretty much
inable to hit you as you get up.
Tumbling away: Tap away from your opponent to somersault away.
This distances you from your opponent, which is good if you need
a break.
Tumbling towards: Tap towards your opponent to somersault right
towards their feet before getting up. This is a fairly
aggressive way to get up, and you may be able to hit your
opponent quickly after getting up. Rolling into their feet can
also mean that you'll get hit by several ground punches or kicks
in a row. If you tumble towards them and they miss a jumping
pounce, you get a free shot at their back, which is always nice.
Just get up: Don't press Punch. Don't move the joystick
anywhere. Your character will get up in place, fairly simply.
The nice thing about this method is that it leaves you ready to
attack almost before your opponent knows that you're rising.
Some attacks will leave you lying with your head towards your
opponent, or at bizarre angles. With your head towards your
opponent, you often take longer to stand up; at bizarre angles, you
can never quite tell which way rumbling or rolling will take you.
In these cases, rolling to get up is probably the safest idea.
When you are getting up, you can repeatedly tap the Kick and Guard
buttons; this helps you to get up much faster.
--------------------------
Things to Pay Attention To
--------------------------
This section is more useful than it sounds. While you might be able to
get through a match and ignore most of these things, they're important
once you get beyond the most basic levels of play.
--The clock
The clock might seem fairly innocent, as it just counts down the
amount of time that you're allowed to continue playing. It's a good
idea to keep an eye on it once in a while, to know when to start a
last attempt to kill your opponent before time runs out, and to know
when to hold your opponent off for the last few seconds when you're
ahead.
--Armour
Armour is your protection against the worst the opponent can do to
you. When all your armour is knocked off, even a simple jumping
pounce can take off between 1/3 and 1/2 of a full lifebar. Losing
your armour can be devastating, but it's not a reason for you to give
up the game; some of the most amazing playing can come from someone
desparate who has just had all their armour knocked off.
Having your armour knocked off also gives you a small extra burst of
speed and power.
--Breaking armour off
To be broken off, armour must first be weakened. Armour will
become weaker if you get hit by an attack, or even if you block it.
Large, powerful attacks and armour breakers do a better job of
weakening armour than quick, light attacks do, but they're not as
safe to do. If you concentrate on trying to weaken somebody's
armour, you become predictable. Don't worry; in the course of any
game, most of the time at least half of your opponent's armour will
become weak.
Once armour is weak, you need to hit with an armour breaking attack
to actually knock it off. Everybody has at least one guard &
attack, which knocks armour off if it hits, as well as some running
attacks. Many mid-level running attacks knock off upper armour,
and all characters have the running slide kick which knocks off
lower armour. Most characters have special armour breaking moves.
High or mid-level armour breakers knock off upper armour only, and
the more rare low-level armour breakers knock off low armour. Some
characters have pounces which knock off low armour.
One thing to remember about armour breaking moves is that you can
usually see them coming. Running attacks and reversals are very
easy to deal with. The best time to use your armour breakers is
often when your opponent is floated, as they don't have as many
ways to defend against you.
As an aside, in some arcades it's customary to give mercy rounds to
a player who loses. Abusing these to break off armour is generally
considered to be a good way to stop getting mercy rounds.
--Keeping your armour on
It is very difficult keep your armour from being weakened. Unless
you win rounds without your opponents touching you, you're probably
going to be in danger of losing armour, and often. However, once
your armour is weakened (armour guy is flashing green), then there
are some tactics you can use to protect yourself.
Many people, upon seeing that your armour is weak, will very
predictably try to hit you with nothing but armour breaking
attacks. Knowing this, it's easy to block against them in the
worst cases, or keep out of the way. Knowing something about how
various characters can break armour will help you here, by allowing
you to spot when people are going to try and hit you.
Other than that, the only other advice is not to get hit; if you
can do that perfectly, then you don't need to read anything else I
write.
Different characters have different strengths of armour; it takes
longer for them to have it knocked off.
All characters can take their armour off with the armour blast off
move (f,b,f,b+P+K+G); this move is mostly for showing off. If your
opponent has you almost dead, but you still have armour left, this
move can save you, as you don't need your armour anyways, and can
hit your opponent if you're close enough.
--Floating
Floating is, quite simply, the art of hitting your opponent several
times before they finally fall to the ground. Needless to say, the
damage from a float adds up very quickly. Being able to float your
opponent can cripple them, and being able to protect yourself from
someone trying to float you is a good skill to help you stay alive.
--Floating people
Having your opponent up in the air severely limits their options.
They can't block, dodge, or in any way get out of your way. They
aren't completely helpless, but use these opportunities to do your
worst to them.
Getting someone to float is not too difficult. Some moves float
people just by hitting them. Most of the time, though, if your
opponent crashes into the wall, this causes them to float as well,
but not as high up. If your opponent likes to jump around a lot,
use this against them by hitting them out of the air.
Once someone is floating, you can hit them with almost any attack.
Combinations are good for floating, as you can be pretty sure that
your opponent won't block any of the hits. Even better, your slow
armour breaking attacks are unlikely to be defended against. If
you're far away from your opponent, running attacks work well. A
running slide can connect on your floating opponent too, knocking
off lower armour.
When learning the game, a lot of people will do the flipout (P+K+G)
whenever they get hit. This keeps them in the air quite a bit
longer, and allows you to hit them again and again before they
finally hit the ground. If you do this a lot, they tend to learn
pretty quickly not to flipout.
Don't blindly rush in and try to smash your opponent, though. They
aren't completely helpless; after doing a flipout, if they have
enough time, they can do a dropkick and send you flying away. In
these cases, you can use moves which hit them while they're still
high in the air, or you can dodge just outside the range of their
dropkick; if they miss it, their recovery time is long enough for
you to run in and quickly throw them.
Air throws also work well when your opponent is floated, and you're
not at much risk of being kicked out before it hits.
--Protection against being floated
When in the air, you don't have many options. However, there are
some things you can do to protect yourself from taking too much
damage from a float.
First, it's essential that you do not do the flipout (P+K+G) all
the time after being hit. In a lot of cases, it only hurts you
more. This move is still essential to avoid taking huge amounts of
damage when you fly and hit the wall, but in a lot of cases you
don't need it. Sometimes not flipping out will also give your
opponent a free pounce, but compared to the damage you might take
while being floated, this isn't usually much.
Second, you can try and interrupt them by flipping out and doing a
dropkick. (hold towards your opponent and press Kick) The dropkick
has high priority, and can usually hit them before they hit you,
but it takes some time to come out. If they hit you after you flip
out, but before you dropkick, you're worse off than you were
before. Getting into a habit of this is bad, too, because if you
miss, your opponent can run in and get a free hit.
--Fun with the wall
The wall is the boundary that holds both fighters in the ring, but
it also allows you to do a multitude of interesting things. It
hurts you if you hit it, but it can help as well; a multitude of
moves and throws make use of the walls.
--Death and the wall
When an opponent is killed by a strong attack which send them
flying back, they will break through the ring's wall and fly out
into the surrounding environment. The only exceptions are the
stages belonging to Jane and B.M., the boss at the game's end -
instead, the wall (made of wrestling-ring ropes) flings you
competely out of the ring.
If you kill someone with a move which floats them, and your
positioning is perfect, they may fall down and break their back on
the top of the ring's wall. This is hard to do but a nice crowd
pleaser.
--Hopping off the wall
When you're in the air and near the wall, you can hop off it by
pressing up on the joystick. This can get you out of a tight
corner sometimes, by hopping back towards the wall, using it to
push off, and then flying over your opponent's head. These leave
the two of you with your backs to each other, but can really
surprise someone who's never seen it happen before. As always,
though, jumping in the air is generally not a good idea against
someone who knows what they're doing.
The farther your opponent is from the wall, the faster you'll be
going when you spring off the wall. In such cases it's possible to
hop all the way to the middle of the ring; if your opponent was
running towards you, you'll probably fly over their head.
If you're lucky, you can even land a backwards dropkick (hold back
and press Kick) on your opponent's head after flying over.
--Climbing the wall
Candy, Jane, and Picky can all climb the wall, by jumping towards
it and press up and Punch before they reach it. Once climbing to
the top, they will jump off, towards their opponent, allowing you
to do the air attack of your choice. Again, this is not good to do
regularly as your opponent will probably catch on.
Once climbing the wall, however, they can also do a jumping pounce
(tap up and Punch at the same time), whether their opponent is
knocked down or not. What's special about this pounce is that it
knocks off leg armour if it connects. It can be blocked high or
low, however, and I've never seen someone aside from early CPU
characters knocked down for long enough to climb the wall and jump
on them. If anybody can do this regularly, let me know.
--Smashing people against the wall
The wall adds extra damage if you hit it; in some cases, it adds a
lot. What's more, it aids in floating someone by both adding more
damage and keeping them in place while you hit them. Most of the
truly damaging float combos happen with the aid of the wall.
If you're really feeling like doing something strange, you can run
into the wall and hurt yourself on it. This usually happens by
accident, though, and is a very embarassing way to die unless you
intended to do it.
--Throwing and the wall
Many throws make use of the wall in once way or another.
The basic P+G throw, which everybody has, does 3 different things
depending on where you are in relationship to the wall. If neither
you nor your opponent has their back to the wall, you'll grab them
and sending them running or flying towards the wall at full speed
(except for Jane, who has no wall rush throw). If they have their
back to the wall, you'll press/crush/ram them against it. If you
have your back to the wall, you'll grab your opponent's arm and
switch places with them, with you now standing where they were and
them being rammed into the wall.
Both of the throws which make your opponent hit the wall are
perfect setups for floating.
As a side note, the throw which makes your opponent run towards the
wall can be escaped. If your opponent has a habit of doing this,
try running after them after throwing them; if they stop, you can
hit them with a running attack in the back, making them hit the
wall anyways.
Some characters have special throws that can only be done when
their opponent has their back against the wall. These can be quite
nasty. Some also have special throws which throw the opponent at
the wall, but don't allow them to escape, like Picky and Raxel's
neck throw. If you want to play it safe, you can use these.
--From behind
There is nothing quite so dangerous as having your back to your
opponent. You can't defend yourself properly in this state, and you
have very few attacks that you can use; most of these, quite plainly,
are terrible. On the other hand, if you can get a free shot at your
opponent's back, it may spell the end for them.
--Killing them from behind
When they find that they have their back to you, most people will
panic and do anything in their power to keep you from getting a
free shot. This is a good idea on their part, but makes it
difficult to do anything to them. In most cases, stick to simple,
quick attacks, or try and predict what they're going to do; you can
hop over low turning attacks or use a guard & attack against high
ones. If you have enough time, you can hit them with a behind
throw. If you have enough room to run at them, a dashing attack
would be hard for them to get away from.
--Defense while your back is turned
Your first option when you discover that you're facing the wrong
way is to run. This is quick, safe, and if your opponent
doesn't run after you too soon, you can turn yourself around after
distancing yourself. However, if you run too far and hit the wall,
you may end up saving your opponent the trouble of killing you.
Turning around with a low punch or kick can often interrupt them if
they're overanxious and try to hit you with something that's too
slow. Turning around with a mid-level attack is generally a bad
idea, as not many people will crouch when in this position.
If you're really feeling lucky, you can try to jump backwards -
over their head - and reverse your positions. Most people will
never fall for this, but it's very funny if you manage it.
When turning around with a high punch, you can immediately after do
any combo that starts with a high jab; this can extend combos such
as Grace's machine gun punches to up to 6 hits.
--Counters of counters of counters
Most people are aware that, if two people do a guard & attack, the
one who does it later will win the exchange. However, if you were
the one to do the first guard & attack, you can do it again, and end
up being the one who hits. This sounds confusing, but it goes
something like this:
You do a guard & attack.
Your opponent sees this, and does a guard & attack to counter
yours.
You see this and do your guard & attack motion again.
You end up hitting.
You can't do this with some guard & attacks, like Bahn's uppercut
guard & attack.
--Odd uses for the guard button
--Pulling back attacks
Most high-kicks can be pulled back before they finish, by pressing
G before the kick would usually hit. This is mostly useful to
trick your opponent into trying to retaliate to an attack that
never happened. If your opponent is attacking you already,
however, it's not very useful to do a non-attack like this; you'll
most likely be hit. However, it takes no time to recover from
pulling back an attack.
--Stopping combinations
If you want to stop a combination in the middle, you can press
Guard; this will cause the game to ignore the rest of the attacks
you've entered in (if any). It also cancels the rest of the
combination, so that you can do such things as repeated standing
jabs; usually, if you did this, you would get a P,P,P combo. This
can be useful when floating someone, but pressing P,G,P,G,P,G...
requires some degree of coordination.
--------------------------
Individual Character Moves
--------------------------
This section contains, primarily, a list of all the moves each character
can do. If these are what you're after, you've probably ignored most
everything else anyways.
If the 'level' category looks confusing, read the section on types of
attacks under Basic Gameplay. If anything else looks confusing, read
the section on notation.
The second line of each move contains some information about how much
damage a move does, and the number of frames it takes for the move to
finish once you've started. The number of frames is listed like this:
11A - 2D - 17R
11A means it takes 11 frames before the move actually does damage.
2D means the move does damage for a total of 2 frames.
17R means it takes 17 frames after you do damage before the move
finishes and you can do something else.
Throws aren't listed like this, because they have no such separate parts
to the move; there's just one number which tells the total amount of
time it takes to execute the throw.
Each frame is 1/60 of a second.
The damage and number of frames always relate to the LAST hit in a
combination, not to the combination as a whole.
Along with these, there's some information on more advanced techniques.
There are likely some mistakes, both mine and others, here; if you see a
technique where the motion is listed wrong, the attack level is listed
wrong, it's missing information in the "special" category, or it's
missing altogether, please mail me about it.
Some of the move names on this list are outdated, and I'm sure to have
missed some things when it comes to techniques. If you have anything to
contribute, whether it be move names or something more interesting,
please do.
GRACE
~~~~~
Grace's upper armour has a strength of 150.
Her lower armour has a strength of 50.
Move Name Level Special Command
---------------------- ------ -------------- ----------------------
Jab H P
12 damage 9A 1D 20R
Low jab L d+P
20 damage 10A 1D 16R
Standing kick H (down) K
30 damage 12A 4D 26R
Low kick L d+K
22 damage 19A 1D 25R
Blade cutter H u,d+K
49 damage 18A 3D 30R
Vertical kick M (float) df,df+K
35 damage 16A 4D 26R
Hand chop M P+K
28 damage 16A 2D 32R
Backhand slap M (down,smash) f,f+P
35 damage 18A 3D 29R
Notes:
The Frankensteiner can grab people who are on the ground. If the
person is blocking, they will be caught in the Frankensteiner. On
another note, if Grace does the Frankensteiner, and misses, she takes
damage; if she hits her opponent but doesn't catch them in the throw,
both characters take damage.
Grace's standing kick (K) can be followed up immediately by any
combination that begins with a jab punch (P) - for example, the combo
K,P,P,P,P,P.
Grace must stay on the ground to execute the blade cutter; you should
hold G to prevent her from hopping when you press up.
BAHN
~~~~
Bahn's upper armour has a strength of 250.
His lower armour has a strength of 100.
Move Name Level Special Command
---------------------- ------ -------------- ----------------------
Jab H P
14 damage 9A 1D 19R
Low jab L d+P
20 damage 10A 1D 16R
Uppercut M (float) df+P
26 damage 10A 2D 34R
Iron elbow M (down) f+P
28 damage 11A 1D 25R
Kick H (down) K
40 damage 15A 1D 24R
Shin kick L d+K
22 damage 15A 1D 30R
Straight kick B (down) df+K
30 damage 14A 2D 29R
Quick high-kick H (down) f,f+K
30 damage 13A 3D 32R
Super straight H (back,smash) F,P
55 damage 19A 1D 28R
Dodge elbow M (back,smash) b,f+P
45 damage 28A 2D 30R
Bodycheck B (back,smash) b,f,f+P+K
100 damage 13A 1D 42R
Headbutt M (down,smash) P+K+G
45 damage 19A 1D 30R
Hand sweep L (down,smash) db,DF,P
33 damage 21A 1D 30R
Dash elbow M f,f+P
45 damage 19A 1D 25R
Double elbow MM (down) f,f+P,f+P
30 damage 17A 1D 35R
Hopping hammer M (down) (uf.u.ub)+P
30 damage 28D 3A 10R
Front takeoff kick M (down) UF+K
30 damage 4D 5A 55R
Takeoff kick M (down) (U.UB)+K
26 damage 9D 2A 57R
Air spinkick M (down) (UF.U.UB),K
25 damage 15D 1A 29R
Landing kick M (air)K
30 damage 8D 3A 19R
Front dropkick M (back) (air)F+K
40 damage 12D 4A 54R
Back dropkick M (back) (air)B+K
40 damage 12D 4A 43R
Air dive M (down) U,d+K
40 damage 15D 2A 23R
Flare kick M (down) (air)d+K
30 damage 15D 2A 13R
Jump hammer M (down) U+P
50 damage 50D 5A 24R
Drop hammer M (down) (air)P
30 damage 28D 3A 10R
Running straight B (back,smash) (run)P
25 damage 15D 1A 28R
Running bodycheck B (back,smash) (run)P+K
60 damage 13D 1A 42R
Running knee M (float) (run)K
40 damage 13D 5A 22R
Shoulder ram M (back,smash) (run)P+G
40 damage 16D 6A 23R
Running dropkick M (down) (run)uf+K
50 damage 18D 1A 21R
Sliding kick L (down,smash) (run)(d.df)+K
40 damage 16D 3A 29R
Wall rush ST P+G
No damage 60
Wall press ST (wall) P+G
30 damage 133
Wall exchange ST (atwall) P+G
No damage 76
Heel sweep ST b+P+G
30 damage 64
Crushing headbutt ST b,f+P+K+G
50 damage 100
Atomic drop BT P+G
100 damage 190
Jumping pounce G u+P
50 damage 30D 1A 70R
Ground punch G d+P
15 damage 19D 1A 39R
Double ground punch GG d+P,P
10 damage 32D 1A 37R
Spit kick G d+K
15 damage 19D 1A 49R
Armour blast M f,b,f,b+P+K+G
?
Notes:
The block uppercut and block upper combo do not break armour, unlike
other guard & attacks. The block upper rising combination does,
however.
After beginning the quick high-kick, you can press G to abort it. If
you time the press of G to about the exact moment that Bahn would
have hit his opponent, the kick will hit but be retracted extremely
quickly. (also called Iaigeri)
Some things to try:
Knee Lift and Uppercuts: Bahn runs towards his opponent and hits them
with a running knee, and while they are still in the air he hits them
with a double uppercut. This takes away most of your opponent's
lifebar.
The running knee ((run)K) must make contact when your opponent is
moving somehow, or your opponent must try to do the flipout, for them
to be high enough in the air that the uppercuts will hit. The knee
itself is fairly safe as running attacks go - it has high priority
and recovers quickly. Once you hit them with this, try and do the
rising uppercut (f,d,df+P); either you will hit them, or they'll be
on the ground and you lose nothing. If the first uppercut hits, do
the second for more damage.
Switch and Grab: Bahn grabs his opponent and pushes then towards the
wall, but before they can take more than a step towards it he closes
in behind them and grabs them in the atomic drop. This technique
takes away most of your opponent's lifebar.
The wall rush throw allows Bahn to recover incredibly quickly, before
his opponent has even started running towards the wall. After
pushing them towards the wall (P+G), as soon as Bahn recovers,
quickly dash towards them (f,f) and then do the atomic drop. (P+G)
When you miss this, however, you don't have another chance to hit
your opponent.
Switch and Uppercuts: Bahn gives his opponent a push towards the wall,
but before they go anywhere he quickly uppercuts them in the back
twice. This technique does about as much as the Switch and Grab, but
can also cause more damage if your opponent hits the wall.
Grab your opponent in the wall rush throw (P+G), and partway through
it, begin doing the motions for the rising uppercut (f,d,df+P), so
that the uppercut comes out as soon as Bahn can move again. Follow
it up with the second uppercut for more damage.
Sudden Death: Bahn is about one character length away from the wall,
and has his back to it. He grabs his opponent in the wall rush
throw, pushes them into the wall, and bodychecks them through it.
This technique is an instant kill.
Positioning is important for the throw. When you do it, you must be
close enough for the bodycheck to connect, but if you are too close
you will do the wall exchange instead, which recovers too slowly.
Grab your opponent from this distance will the wall rush (P+G). Just
before Bahn pushes his opponent towards the wall, begin the motions
for the bodycheck (b,f,f+P+K). You want the bodycheck to come out
almost as soon as it possibly can. If you do it too fast, though,
the bodycheck won't happen.
Wall Drop: Bahn, a short distance from the wall and with his back
towards it, grabs his opponent and pushes them towards the wall.
They run into it facefirst, but before they begin falling Bahn grabs
them from behind in the atomic drop. This technique is an instant
kill, but is unconfirmed.
Positioning, again, is important for this. From approximately the
same distance as for doing the Sudden Death technique, grab your
opponent in the wall rush (P+G). When you have recovered, quickly
dash towards your opponent (f,f) and attempt to do the atomic drop.
If you grab your opponent before they hit the wall, it was done too
fast or from too close to the wall; if you miss the grab entirely you
were either too far from the wall or too slow.
RAXEL
~~~~~
Raxel's upper armour has a strength of 200.
His lower armour has a strength of 75.
Move Name Level Special Command
---------------------- ------ -------------- ----------------------
Jab H P
12 damage 9D 1A 20R
Low jab L d+P
20 damage 10D 2A 15R
Kick H K
30 damage 12D 4A 28R
Low kick L d+K
22 damage 17D 1A 30R
Rising spinkick M (down) (cr)n+K
40 damage 14D 4A 30R
Backoff kick M (down) f+K
29 damage 12D 4A 30R
Vertical kick M (float) K+G
35 damage 16D 4A 26R
Quick slidekick L (down) d+K+G
30 damage 22D 7A 45R
Guitar thrust H (back,smash) f,f+P
50 damage 25D 1A 44R
Notes:
Raxel's Death Crescent cannot be blocked; if you block the first or
second hit, you go into block stun and will be hit by the rest.
You can do the Crashdown throw in the following way:
hold Guard, tap the joystick up, release Guard, press d+P+G.
This prevents you from hopping into the air, making the throw easier.
TOKIO
~~~~~
Tokio's upper armour has a strength of 200.
His lower armour has a strength of 75.
Move Name Level Special Command
---------------------- ------ -------------- ----------------------
Jab H P
12 damage 9D 1A 20R
Low jab L d+P
20 damage 10D 2A 15R
Uppercut M (float) df+P
30 damage 13D 3A 24R
Kick H (down) K
30 damage 12D 4A 26R
Low kick L d+K
22 damage 17D 1A 30R
Toe kick M (cr)n+K
24 damage 13D 2A 31R
Snap knee M (down) f+K
30 damage 15D 2A 33R
Rolling high kick H (down) F,K
40 damage 15D 1A 24R
Notes:
Any of Tokio's combinations which begin with a jab (P) can be started
with a hopstrike ((uf.u.ub)+P) instead. (ie, uf+P,P,K)
Some things to try:
Wall crushing flykick: Tokio grabs his opponent, and pushes them
towards the wall. Tokio then runs after them, and after they hit the
wall, he does a running flykick, crushing them against it again.
This technique does a crippling amount of damage, but is avoidable.
First, throw your opponent with the wall rush (P+G). After getting
thrown this way, they can escape; be ready if they manage to. You
should then begin running (f,F) towards them, but it has to be timed
so that when you do the flykick ((run)K) afterwards, it will hit them
into the wall again.
SANMAN
~~~~~~
Sanman's upper armour has a strength of 250.
His lower armour has a strength of 100.
Move Name Level Special Command
---------------------- ------ -------------- ----------------------
Jab H P
12 damage 9D 1A 20R
Low jab L d+P
15 damage 10D 1A 16R
Kick H K
38 damage 15D 1A 26R
Low kick L d+K
22 damage 15D 1A 30R
Straight kick M (down) df+K
40 damage 18D 2A 28R
Shin knockdown L (down) d+K+G
24 damage 18D 2A 29R
Launch fling M (float) df+P+G
40 damage 20D 4A 26R
Elbow smash H (down,smash) f,f+P
35 damage 22D 3A 25R
Neck hang double slam GT by head d,b,f+P
30 damage 134
Jumping pounce G u+P
50 damage 38D 1A 63R
Earthquake stomp G d+K
30 damage 33D 1A 46R
Armour blast M f,b,f,b+P+K+G
?
Notes:
Sanman's Iron Claw throw (d+P+G) comes out as a low punch when it
misses, unlike other throws. It then hits all players who are
standing, and throws all people who are crouching.
Some things to try:
Knockdown and slam: Sanman kicks the opponent's exposed legs, knocking
them quickly down onto the ground. He then reaches down and grabs
their neck, swinging them overhead and slamming them into the ground
twice. This technique does quite a bit of damage.
Your opponent must be quite close to you after being knocked down.
You must either be very close to them when you hit them, or their
back must be very close to the wall; they'll slide off the wall and
towards your feet, making this easy. Kick their legs out with the
shin knockdown (d+K+G) first, then do the neck hang ground throw
(d,b,f+P) before they can get up. If Sanman reaches down but nothing
happens, you weren't close enough; if he reaches down and tries to
grab them, and they twitch, but no ground throw happens, you did the
ground throw too slowly.
Launch at point blank: Sanman grabs his opponent in the Giant Swing,
and rapidly begins spinning. He continues to speed up and finally
releases his opponent, who flies headfirst into the wall only a few
feet away. This technique does a crippling amount of damage.
More than anything, you need to know when to try and grab the
opponent in a giant swing. Since Sanman always throws his opponent
to the side, you'll want to do this when you have the wall to your
side.
Crush and spin: Sanman picks his opponent up, and slams them twice
forcefully, first into the wall and then onto the ground. Before
they have a chance to get up, he reaches down, grabs their legs, and
swings them around, finally releasing them to fall heavily across the
ring. This technique does a crippling amount of damage.
When your opponent's back is to the wall, do the double powerbomb
throw (f,b,f+P+G) to them. Immediately after Sanman finishes the
throw and drops them on the ground, pick them up with the giant swing
ground throw (b>>f+P). If Sanman reaches down and grabs at them, and
they twitch, but no ground throw happens, you did the second part too
slowly.
JANE
~~~~
Jane's upper armour has a strength of 200.
Her lower armour has a strength of 75.
Move Name Level Special Command
---------------------- ------ -------------- ----------------------
Jab H P
12 damage 9D 1A 20R
Low jab L d+P
15 damage 10D 1A 16R
Twohand strike M (down) d>>f+P
60 damage 19D 1A 25R
Uppercut M (float) df+P
33 damage 17D 3A 26R
Rising uppercut M (float) (cr)df+P
37 damage 13D 3A 24R
Kick H K
30 damage 12D 4A 26R
Low kick L d+K
22 damage 17D 1A 30R
Mid spin kick M df+K
26 damage 14D 4A 30R
Rising kick M (down) (cr)n+K
40 damage 14D 4A 30R
Knee M (down) f+K
30 damage 15D 2A 33R
Launch knee M (float) (cr)f+K
48 damage 14D 4A 38R
Power smash H (down,smash) f,f+P
35 damage 16D 2A 32R
Tornado strike M (back,smash) b>>f+P
100 damage 39D 1A 36R
5 ground punches G d+P,P,P,P,P
5 damage 15D 1A 46R
Spit kick G d+K
15 damage 19D 1A 49R
Super heel drop G (onwall,smash) u+P
60 damage 39D 1A 40R
Armour blast M f,b,f,b+P+K+G
?
Some things to try:
Drop of Doom: Candy kicks her opponent high up into the air, and then
jumps up, grabs them, and spins them so she lands on them when they
hit the ground. This technique is more visually impressive than
damaging.
First, hit your opponent while they are on the ground with the
vertical kick (K+G); this sends them high up into the air. Then,
as soon as you can move again, jump towards them (UF), and when next
to them in midair do the air grab (b+P+K+G).
PICKY
~~~~~
Picky's upper armour has a strength of 150.
His lower armour has a strength of 50.
Move Name Level Special Command
---------------------- ------ -------------- ----------------------
Jab H P
18 damage 13D 1A 12R
Low jab L d+P
15 damage 10D 1A 16R
Standing knee M K
20 damage 8D 2A 20R
Tail kick L D,K
25 damage 15D 1A 30R
Heel drop MM u,d+K
20+30 damage 12D 5A 24R
Mid spinkick M df+K
26 damage 14D 3A 30R
High spinkick H (down) d>>f+K
60 damage 12D 3A 39R
Hopping knee M (down) K+G
30 damage 15D 2A 33R
Rising knee M (float) (cr)f+K+G
34 damage 14D 4A 35R
Board bash M (back,smash) b,f,f+P
40 damage 17D 2A 32R
Super heel drop G (onwall,smash) u+P
60 damage 39D 1D 40R
Armour blast M f,b,f,b+P+K+G
?
Notes:
The Frankensteiner can grab people who are on the ground. If the
person is blocking, they will be caught in the Frankensteiner. On
another note, if Picky does the Frankensteiner, and misses, he takes
damage; if he hits his opponent but doesn't catch them in the throw,
both characters take damage.
Some things to try:
Drop of Doom: Picky does a rising knee, knocking his opponent high
into the air. He then jumps up towards them, grabs hold of them, and
spins them down to a heavy landing on the ground. This technique is
more visually impressive than damaging.
First, you must land the rising knee ((cr)f+K+G) on your opponent
while they are standing on the ground; this knocks them high into the
air. Then, when you've recovered from the rising knee, jump towards
them (UF), and when next to them in midair do the air grab (b+P+K+G).
MAHLER
~~~~~~
Mahler is a smaller version of B.M., the game's end character.
To select the character Mahler, the machine must have played 15000 or
more matches between humans. Insert your coin(s) into the machine,
then:
-Hold the joystick up
-Press START
-Keeping the joystick up, move the character selection box outside
the list of selectable characters (to the right of Picky or the
left of Grace)
-Press START within 9 seconds.
If this portion of the FAQ looks incomplete, that's because it is. If
anybody can contribute information about Mahler, please do, as I have
little to none.
Move Name Level Special Command
---------------------- ------ -------------- ----------------------
Jab H P
Low jab L d+P
Strong uppercut M df+P
Kick H K
Strong knee M f+K
Hurricane punch M (smash) b>>f+P
Gust of rage M b,f,f+P
1-2 punch HM P,P
Blow combo upper HMM P,P,P
Blow combo straight HMM P,P,f+P
Punch and kick HH P,K
Punch kick upper HHM P,K,P
Blow combo low spin HML P,P,d+K
Extreme Death prelude HMM P,P,f+K
Extreme Death symphony HMMH P,P,f+K,P
Extreme Death requiem HMMHM P,P,f+K,P,f+P
Extreme Death finale HMMHMM (smash) P,P,f+K,P,f+P,b>>f+P
Blow combo doublekick HMMH P,P,f+K,K
Stomach blow M f+P
Stomach blow and fist MM f+P,P
High kick fist HH K,P
Low shot L db+K
Low shot accel LH db+K,K
Low shot blow LHH db+K,K,P
Low shot dark prelude LHHM db+K,K,P,P
Accel roll M df+K
High double accel MH df+K,K
Mid double accel MM df+K,f+K
Low double accel ML df+K,d+K
Revolution L d+K+G
High double revolution LH d+K+G,K
Low double revolution LL d+K+G,d+K
Wall climb _ (atwall) (air)u+P
Running straight M (run)P
Running knee M (run)K
Shoulder ram M (smash) (run)P+G
Running dropkick M (run)uf+K
Sliding kick L (smash) (run)(d.df)+K
Wall rush ST P+G
Wall blaster ST (wall) P+G
Wall exchange ST (atwall) P+G
Brain buster ST d+P+G
Black rainbow ST b,f,b+P+G
Black hole AT b+P+K+G
German suplex BT P+G
Wrecking dive G (smash) u+P
Strike stomp G d+K
Super heel drop G (onwall,smash) u+P
-----------------
Defeating the CPU
-----------------
There are several tactics which the CPU is particularly vulnerable to.
When the round begins, no matter what CPU character you are fighting,
you can do a forwards takeoff kick (UF+K) and be almost assured of it
hitting.
When some distance away from the CPU, run in towards them, and do a
shoulder ram (P+G usually) or the equivalent for your character
(Sanman's charging ram works nicely, as does Picky's knee). If the CPU
gets hit, great - if not, then throw them. (This works better if your
dashing attack pressed them against the wall)
When you are knocked down and your feet are towards the CPU character,
you can roll towards them (tap the joystick towards them) and do a throw
immediately upon getting up - the early CPU opponents will always fall
for it. Raxel, Jane, and B.M. have a tendency to dodge just out of
throw range and then kickflip/stomach punch/etc you if you try this,
however, so it's not advised.
The above also has the nice bonus that, if the computer does a late u+P
pounce, you'll roll under them and they'll miss, with you right behind
them. Press back ONCE (too many times and you'll end up doing backward
dashes) to turn around, then run towards them and hit them with your
choice of dashing attack, behind throw, armour breaker, nasty combo,
etc.
(Note that these are not very flashy techniques - they're more useful
for desparate situations.)
The CPU also has a bad habit of not protecting its legs in close combat.
Low punches and kicks will hit fairly often, and if your character has a
low armour breaker, use it repeatedly.
When floating the computer, you don't have to worry about it doing a
flipout and then dropkicking you - float combos are easy and pretty safe
to do. In fact, the CPU sometimes will flip out again and again,
allowing you to do huge damage to them.
----------------------
Tricks, Glitches, Etc.
----------------------
-Many characters have moves which require you to move the
joystick forward, then neutral, then down, then roll to down-
forward (a classic uppercut motion), or the same except
backwards. In a sense, the game is fairly lenient with these,
and allows you to do (f, db, d, df) instead. This is sometimes
easier to do, as you almost have to go through neutral when
going from forwards to down and back; and the lower circle (db,
d, df) makes it easier for some to stop on diagonally down and
forwards.
-On the character selection screen, you can gain control of your
character by doing the following:
-Hold the joystick down
-Press P+K+G repeatedly
Your character will begin do what you tell it to instead of
practicing moves. You only really have enough time to do this
if you're the current champion and someone challenges you.
-If you take control of your character on the selection screen,
and then remove your armour with the armour blast as the round
is beginning, you will begin the round appearing to have your
armour on, but you will act and take damage as if you had no
armour at all.
-During long winning streaks, the armour-status picture will
change poses, depending on how many wins the player has:
8 wins: Hanging on lifebar
16 wins: Macho pose
24 wins: Guts pose
32 wins: Chin pose
-During a winning streak of 100 or more wins, if Candy/Honey's
lower armour is broken off, her skirt will be removed (!) also.
-Rounds can end in draws, which will give BOTH players credit for
a win. If this happens in the final round of the match, the
game goes into Sudden Death - both characters will have NO life
whatsoever. The first unblocked hit will kill.
(Does anybody know what happens if Sudden Death is a draw?)
-After killing an opponent through the wall at the round's end,
you can follow them by running out after them. (do this on
Raxel's stage especially) However, during the victory taunt,
you will be moved back inside the ring and the wall will
magically reappear. Running yourself into the walls on Jane or
B.M.'s stages will not fling you out, which would be pretty
funny.
-Sometimes, when doing the above on Raxel's stage, your character
will start walking on air instead of falling, though I don't
know what conditions cause this to happen.
-It's rumoured that doing one of Sanman's ground throws when a
round ends may cause Sanman to be in the "throwing" animation
when the next round starts, or the other player to be in the
"being thrown" animation and take damage as the round starts.
(anybody confirm this?)
-On American machines, Candy is referred to as Honey (her name in
Japan) on the high score lists, but as Candy everywhere else.
-At least CPU Tokio, possibly other characters, will sometimes
decide to do the armour blast in mid-round for no apparent
reason.
-Supposedly, pressing the Guard button a lot will cause your
character to turn sideways. I've never seen this so I don't
know any specifics.
-------
Credits
-------
Yukinobu Miyamoto (miyamo@jedi.seg.kobe-u.ac.up)
- who maintains the Fighting Vipers webpage which is probably
the ultimate origin of most of the movelists for this game.
Takeshi Morozumi (nij@teleport.com)
- creator of the Bahn FAQ, from where most of his special
techniques originated.
Jirawat Uttawata (jirawat@phys.ufl.edu)
- who runs another webpage with information on the game, and
translated Gamest's information about Bahn.
Graham Chubb (chubb@ecf.toronto.edu)
- who was willing to read through the first draft of the FAQ I
wrote and point out where I'd screwed up and what I'd missed,
as well as helping me with some things I wasn't clear on; and
for giving me the list of ALL the damage and frame statistics
for this game (many many moons ago).
Gamest
- a Japanese gaming magazine which published all the moves with
the damage and frame statistics.
And the various people at the U of C who (sometimes unwillingly) let me
practice and experiment with a lot of the things I wrote here. ;)
