Additional Topic: How to Be A Jumping Jamaican Nightmare (AKA How to Perfect the Ambiguous Cross Up for Ultimate Dee Jay Combo Success)
Since his earliest appearance in Super Street Fighter 4, players have placed a lot of emphasis on Dee Jay’s ambiguous cross up possibilities; in particular, the one which uses his jumping medium kick to hit opponents in the back, in combination with a jumping knee which shortens his jump arc and instead causes the attack to land in the front. During the preliminary years of the game – and long before delayed wake up options became available – you could create a rather mediocre version of a vortex with these two attacks alone, by ending the jump in combo with a sweep (to reset the ambiguous cross up situation all over again).
While I am of the firm belief that relying solely on this set up was never an optimal idea, I can certainly see why people were drawn to it. The same also goes for the allure of the front knee/medium kick cross up trick, which is still being mentioned in professional YouTube videos to this day ten-plus years later (here is one mention from prominent YouTuber jmcrofts and an even earlier one from video game enthusiast Bafael). That said, the front knee shot vs. cross up medium kick is actually not Dee Jay’s optimal mix up, although it is the most common one you’ll see. The main reason for this is that the knee shot is somewhat easier to see coming than a regular cross up and also places you close to the opponent if they block correctly, which is where you generally don’t want to be (as described in the danger of the maul). The knee also shortens the time you have to charge so you end up having to put additional hits in before specials, leading to scaled damage and largely inefficient combos.
In contrast, Dee Jay’s best mix up on a rising opponent is a well-timed medium kick that aims to hit the opponent at the very top of their head while they are still in the process of rising from a knockdown (in other words, not fully standing but close to it). The main reason this set up works better is that whether it hits from the front or the back doesn’t depend as much on how far in front or behind you are but rather when you press the button at that sweet spot directly above their skull. Since the success of the cross up now relies on timing and not spacing when used this way, it is A LOT more difficult for an opponent to block it properly.
What’s more, the extended hit box on the medium kick, combined
with its relatively long hit stun when not blocked properly, means you always
have enough time to do a follow-up low punch of any strength (including
a low Strong punch or even a low Fierce punch, in many cases). This was rather
surprising to me when I first noticed it, given that for pretty much all of
SF4’s run, Dee Jay players have defaulted to low Jabs after a successful cross
up which, in addition to being unnecessary and less damaging than heavier hits,
also increases the chances of you being mauled or popped with a mashed special
during your extended block-strings from the weak attacks. Unknown to most Dee
Jay players, the long hit stun from a jump medium kick actually allows you to
hit the opponent pretty high on the head and still follow-up with a heavier low
attack which then combos quite nicely into Dee Jay’s down/up charge specials
(as partially described in several earlier posts of mine, including this one, this one, and this one).
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| "Get ready for the Jamaican Cross Up Rhythm! Dis Beat comes at you fast, Mon!" |
So really, that’s the basic technique you need to optimize your ambiguous cross ups in USF4 (and with Dee Jay, specifically). When going for these cross up shenanigans, here are a few other things to note:
a) The key to this set up is to throw that jump medium kick as close to the centre of the opponent’s head as possible while they are standing up. You will know that you have nailed the most ambiguous cross up possible when even you don’t know on what side you will land after the cross up hit. To do this properly, it's important to remember that it is not just the extended front leg of Dee Jay's jump medium kick that has a hit box - it's pretty much the entire bottom of his jump animation including both the front jumping leg and his rear leg as well (i.e., the one which is bent at the knee). For the most ambiguous cross up attempts, you should try to time your jump medium so that the more center region between the two legs is the section that you aim to contact with the top of the opponent's head - reason being, hitting a standing opponent high with this part of the jump kick makes it the most difficult to properly block based on visuals alone. Here is a pic of that optimal hitting zone for reference BTW:
b) When you reach that area near the center of the opponent's head, an earlier button press will usually lead to a hit from the front. Waiting just a few millisceonds later, though, that kick becomes a cross up hit. Because you are purposely aiming to hit the opponent at the center of their rising sprite, there is only a tiny range between these two attack vectors, meaning that your foe will have a very limited window to react to the strike with a proper block. This is what makes the cross up's placement imperative to its level of ambiguity (and therefore overall success rate).
c) To hit the opponent at that “sweet spot” on their head, you usually have to be jumping above them at a pretty specific range. If you are too close to them as they are rising, for instance, the jumping medium kick will always be a cross up hit, making it easier to see and block. What’s worse, many opponents will block that first hit and use it as an opportunity to pound you with a dragon punch or similar special before your follow-up normal ever reaches them. So going for an obvious cross up is not always worth the payback it can cost you.
d) When you jump from this less than optimal range, bear in mind that you can switch your mix up from a front/back version to several useful others. Most notably, here are the options you have to play around with:
i) Perform a cross up medium kick as already mentioned above. Yes, it’s easier to see coming and has inherent risks . . . but it can still be useful on occasion, particularly when you have trained the opponent to not expect the cross up and to instead expect something else. See below for more details.
ii) Don’t do an attack while jumping over the opponent and instead go for a low short kick into a combo of your choice. With Super and Ultra meter full, you can land upwards of 400 damage or more from this starting weak hit. More importantly, occasionally going for the empty jump low teaches the opponent that always assuming a cross up hit is as dangerous as not looking out for it all. Note that you must use the low light/short kick here because this is one of the few attacks Dee Jay has that is interpreted by the game as an attack that must be blocked low (which is why it is useful, given that it forces the opponent to guess between the high block from a cross up and the low hit from this weak attack). You can also insert a crouch tech when doing the low short kick to stop any throw attempts when you land on the other side of the opponent.
iii) If you suspect an opponent will try a dragon punch or similar reversal during your cross up attempt, you can do a jump over them and not throw any attack at all. Done properly, you will often land and be able to block while their reversal comes out, allowing you to pummel them with massive damage after they come down from their blocked attack (in other words, a safe jump with huge combo possibilities if the opponent falls for it).
iv) The last option is to jump over with no attack and then go for a throw upon landing. Not the best attack but useful for keeping opponents honest.
e) Observant readers of this journal will note that many of these mix up options are similar to the ones I cited for Dee Jay’s front mix up game here. Above all, when mixing these options up, always pay attention to how the opponent responds to your different jump in approaches. And remember: whenever they are anticipating one attack pattern, they will inevitably leave themselves open to a potential other. So be sure to capitalize on that fact.
f) Lastly, when doing these cross up options, keep in mind that
the later you perform your intended attack in that optimal zone as they rise – and the closer the two possible
hit zones are in time (i.e., low vs. high, left vs. right) – the better it usually
is, as it gives the opponent less time to react to it in a safe way. Thus why,
for example, the sweet spot for cross up success is the very top of the
opponent’s head since this is the area where the zone/timing between a front hit and a
cross up hit is shortest.
FINAL (ADDITIONAL) NOTE: In SF2 days, Dee Jay was known for his crazy dizzy capability off of a single successful cross up. While this ability is gone in SF4, Dee Jay does have the ability to nearly dizzy an opponent with two successful cross up combos (assuming you use optimal normal attacks and specials). Check out the combo sequences in the video below and note the amount of stun these do on an opponent in a very short period of time. These combos don't actually use the optimal ambiguous cross up, mind you (I only learned the better way to perform these highly ambiguous cross ups after the sequences in the video below were already recorded). However, the same concept can be used with that advanced cross up technique as well (and obviously works even better in that case).
In particular, when doing these sequences, observe that you should end the first combo with either a light Sobat kick or a regular Fierce Hyperfist, since these set up the perfect range for your second cross up attempt (as does an EX Hyperfist if you don’t mash the hits OR a juggling medium Upkick for one hit only after a fully mashed EX Hyperfist). Furthermore, the key to getting those quicker dizzies is to use heavy dizzy normals (most notably, Dee Jay’s low Fierce) wherever possible and to end each sequence with the opponent fairly close to you (given that it allows additional cross up attempts and also minimizes the amount of time when their dizzy meter can start to decrease). Lastly, keep in mind that making an opponent block after a successful combo sequence also keeps their dizzy meter from depleting, further maintaining the pressure on your hapless opponent. After two consecutive cross up combos like this, most characters will be either dizzy or damn close to it thanks to Dee Jay's unstoppable "riddim." Just one more area of Dee Jay’s game in USF4 that I feel was never fully explored to the extent that it could have been.