Additional Topic: Exploring The Potential for an “Ume-Jackknife” (AKA Learning the Hidden Art of the Psychic Upkick)
Back in the heyday of SF4, Daigo Umehara became famous for a
technique known as the “Ume-shoryu.” Basically, the term refers to his uncanny
ability to let loose a sudden dragon punch out of nowhere as a perfect counter
to his opponent’s attacks and defense. While he was by no means 100 per cent
successful with this strategy, he would score the hit so often that people
began referring to it as a “psychic dragon” punch; that is, people started
believing Daigo could read his opponent’s mind so well that he could tag them
with his uppercut at an unusually successful rate. Thus, the “Ume-shoryu” was
born (here is a video giving an explanation and examples of this technique in action).
While to the average onlooker, Daigo’s ability to use the “ume-shoryu” seems like magic, it is not nearly as magical as people have made it out to be. Rather, the attack strategy takes advantage of a number of SF4 dragon punch properties to make it seem near clairvoyant. For instance:
a) the stronger strength dragon punches have a large degree of invincibility, meaning that it will beat almost every other attack in the game. Thus, Daigo is able to switch the mind game from “what poke to use to counter an opponent’s maneuver” to a much simpler 50/50 of “will the opponent drop his defense at this moment or not?” By virtue of its invincibility, Daigo doesn’t have to worry about his opponent stuffing his attack, only whether it will connect or be blocked.
b) with two levels of super meter, Daigo is able to back dash from a blocked shoryu and make it relatively safe, mitigating the risk of it to some degree.
c) Super meter can also be used to cancel the dragon punch into heavier damage through additional attacks, most notably his Ultra Hadouken. Thus, the payoff is often much greater than the risk associated with it.
d) the nature of shortcuts and inputs in SF4’s game engine is much more relaxed than in previous games, meaning you can regularly “fish” for counters by inputting directions for the Shoryuken and only pressing a button to release it when you either see the opponent’s sprite flinch or have a good feeling the opponent will try something that leaves them open to the dragon punch counterattack. The fact that you have a brief number of frames after the dragon punch joystick inputs to continue landing it makes this even more effective, since you often already have the inputs in the game’s buffer memory and now only have to press a button to release it. This is much easier than having to do a full input plus button press on immediate reaction to an opponent’s incoming attack. In other words, by using the game’s shortcuts, you are able to cut out a good amount of the reaction time necessary to counter your hapless foe.
But what does this have to do with Dee Jay who doesn’t actually have a dragon punch, either in form or input method.? Well, it turns out that Dee Jay can also do a version of this – an “Ume-Jackknife” or “Ume-Upkick”, if you will. In some respects, it is even better than Ryu’s dragon punch version, although it is not without some limitations. Here’s how it works.
To even begin to implement this technique, I should stress that you NEED to have the earlier charge and input hacks I mentioned down perfectly. Put simply, you should be well-practiced in charging as quickly as possible as well as in instantly doing an Upkick when you require it. This advanced technique was already explained in my posts here and here but, to crunch it down to its most basic elements, you need to become adept at only moving the joystick the bare minimum necessary to both charge moves and release them. In the case of the Jackknife/Upkick, this involves going from some version of a Down direction (fully charged), only moving up by the tiniest amount (through a roll pause), before returning to Down/Back and pressing the button for the Upkick. This is the basis for doing higher level techniques like juggling Upkicks and anti-airing with the Upkicks quickly after an opponent jumps your projectile. Like many things related to muscle memory, it is difficult to explain it in words . . . but if you practice the technique enough, you will be amazed how quickly you are able to both charge a second special after releasing an initial one, as well as release an instant Upkick in record time.
Note as well that, similar to Ryu’s dragon punch, Dee Jay has a brief number of frames where he is able to do his Upkicks after inputting an Up direction – he doesn’t need to do the Upkick at the exact moment that he presses up on the joystick. In fact, you generally don’t want to do this, as it lessens the time you have available for your second charge. In any case, the beauty of having a few frames to perform the Jackknife/Upkicks after inputting Up is that you are often able to just press a button to counter your opponent’s incoming attack because you already have the directional input for it stored in the game engine’s buffer window. In one way, Dee Jay’s ability to psychically let loose a sudden Upkick to kill his opponent’s momentum is even better than Ryu’s, in that he only needs to input a single direction (Up) into his input buffer to unleash his attack (whereas Ryu needs two to three). The downside to Dee Jay’s version is that he needs sufficient charge for every Upkick he does, whereas Ryu is free to do his shoryuken at any time he wants. However, by roll pausing at peak efficiency, you will be recharging in minimum time and thus are limiting the amount of time you are truly vulnerable without charge. Consequently, this primary weakness of the Jackknife can be reduced a fair bit by learning to charge and release specials with max efficiency.
Lastly, keep in mind that Dee Jay’s light/medium Upkicks (as well as his EX Upkicks special) have a fair amount of invincibility, so always use these versions to translate your decision-making from the more complex “which counter is the best to use?” to the far simpler question of ‘will the Upkick connect or not?” After a while, you can get so proficient at this technique that you only have to see the early frames of an opponent’s walk forward or attack to register it and clip it cleanly with the Upkicks. Not only will this drop decent damage on an opponent, it will also do a fair amount of psychological damage to him/her, since they will have to be much more wary about the moments when they can safely attack you. That extra level of hesitancy can only work in your favour. As demonstration, here's a quick example of the "Ume-Upkick" against a computer opponent on maximum difficulty to show just how beneficial it can be:
Things to note in this video:
a) Notice how quickly charge is being built in different scenarios – including as anti-air after a projectile as well as for juggling upkicks and EX sobats.
b) I am regularly using the shortcut methods and relaxed input system of USF4 to let fire instant Upkicks at the very moment I need them. For instance, at the 30 second mark, I actually see Rufus moving forward, which is usually indicative of an incoming attack. Knowing this – and already having the charge and inputted directions in place – I only have to press the medium kick button to quickly get the Upkick counter to his attack. I also do the same thing near the end of the round when I use the EX Kicks to blow through Rufus’s Ultra 2 in the brief time I am invulnerable and counter him before eating the rest of his Ultra hits. That hit also ends up dizzying him, thus sealing his fate for good.
c) the Jackknife/Upkicks special attack is used to peel off a large amount of Rufus’s life bar in this round under a variety of circumstances (anti-air, punish, combo, juggle, counter to opponent's normal attack, etc.). Because of this – and for a whole bunch of other reasons – I continue to believe Dee Jay’s Upkicks are one of the most useful special attacks in the entire game.
To conclude, using this set of techniques at peak capacity is what will make it seem to your opponent like your Dee Jay has an “Ume-Upkick” . . . when what you are really doing is using the properties of the game engine itself to minimize your charge/reaction time while also maximizing your chances of success. Really, the "Ume-Upkick" is an aspect of Dee Jay play I feel was never fully explored during the entire cycle of SF4’s run. As it turns out, this was most unfortunate, since it makes a huge difference to large parts of his game and, to be honest, is a really limiting factor on his potency if you don’t have it down unconsciously. A strategy not to be ignored if you truly want to take your Dee Jay game higher into the Jamaican skies.