Additional Topic: How to Upgrade Your Beat on Cross Up (AKA Maximally Minimizing Starting Hits to Make Your Combos Count)
One
of the most difficult (but rewarding) combos that Dee Jay can do on cross up is
his Cross Up Forward into Stand Forward Kick, Stand Short Kick and Super into
Ultra. You can see a demonstration of this combo in the video below (as well as an even more
damaging version that also works, but only on a smaller number of opponents).
Truth be told, this combo was near impossible for me to do initially, and I only
started to believe it existed when I accidentally performed it a few times
while trying to do another form of cross up combo.
Once I realized that the above combo WAS possible, however, I became obsessed
with getting it down consistently, which then led to an exercise in trying to
figure out the main conditions required to pull it off. As it turns out, this
was harder to do than one would think, the main reason being that the 9 times
out of 10 that I would try this combo, I either:
a) got no super after the standing Short kick connected OR
b) comboed into Dee Jay's Dread Kick instead of his Super
This created a great deal of frustration for me for a long time, mainly
because Dee Jay's standing Short Kick after the Stand Forward only gives him a
very limited number of frames to enter the full input for the Super (meaning
the sweet spot for success – and not one of the two accidental outcomes above –
is pretty precise). In fact, I came up with a number of weird input theories over
time in my determination to figure out how to get this combo consistently, most
of which were on the right track but still largely inaccurate. However, after
years (yes, literally YEARS), I think I have arrived at the most sensible
understanding of the rules for joystick inputs and can now reliably cancel into
Dee Jay’s super from all kinds of specials and normals . . . including the most
challenging ones like his stand Short.
Note that I actually go over the rules for reliably inputting moves such as Super in a later post which you can find here. For the rest of this current post, though, I will simply focus on showing the combo is possible – as well as some of the best ways to practice it and make it part of your regular combo arsenal:
Option 1: When doing this combo, your first option is to negative edge the Short button from the initial standing Short kick to get the light version of the super. The benefit of this method is that, if you fuck up the input and get an unintended Dread Kick, you'll get the Short version of it, which still combos from the Short Kick and is relatively safe on block, should you not time it properly. The drawback is that this version of the combo doesn't work on all opponents (for a small number of characters, the super can be blocked after the standing Short; for several others, the follow up Ultra 1 sometimes misses).
Option 2: Eventually, you will want to move beyond the easier negative edge version and
instead shift toward the superior second option where you press Forward kick after
the Short Kick to get the medium version of the super. This version of the
super is both faster and covers more distance than the light one (meaning it is
better at comboing into super from the Short and easier to add on the juggling
Ultra afterwards). The pros and cons of this second method are the exact
opposite of those for the above negative edge one. On the plus side, the combo
works on a much larger number of the character cast (the majority of them, actually).
The downside is that, if you accidentally do a Dread Kick instead of a super,
you are open to potentially heavy counterattack after the Short Kick (since
this is not a true blockstring) as well as after the Forward Dread Kick (since
this version of Dread has much more recovery).
For these reasons, my suggestion is to learn the negative edge version first
and, once you get this down, then move on to learning the more challenging
Forward version. In both cases, your input to activate the super (either the
negative edge Short or the actual Forward button press) should follow the rules
presented in my input mechanics post. It goes without saying that brushing up on that knowledge before
taking it to training and getting the necessary muscle memory down helps a great deal (given that you'll better understand which input method works best and, more importantly, WHY it works the best). Regardless, this is a
damaging comeback combo that will have your opponent reeling before they even
know what hit them – meaning, it’s well worth taking the time to learn it
unconsciously.
NOTE 1: There are
a lot of moving parts in this combo, so the best way to learn it is through
incremental steps of practice. To start with, begin by learning the Short kick
cancel into the Super. Following this, practice the Standing Forward into
Standing Short link before trying to input the super from the standing Short in
the Forward/Short link combo. Then, once you have this conquered, add in the
cross up Forward that comes before the link combination and super. That is a
much more effective way to commit the full combo to memory than trying to do
the whole thing at once. It's also why most Dee Jays never learned this
incredibly strong technique; because, for the average player, it was simply too
much work. Be willing to make that extra effort, though, and you will win big
for your diligence.
NOTE 2:
An even more damaging (and admittedly easier) cross up combo is possible by
doing two standing Forward kicks linked together after the cross up before
doing the super (in other words, you replace the standing Short with an
additional Forward Kick). Because the standing Forward kick has more frames of
both animation and cancelling window, it is actually easier to go into this
combo than the standing Short version. The problem is that the double Forward
version only works on a much more condensed number of characters in the SF4
cast. Nevertheless, if you know which characters this works on (which you can
determine by looking at my combo sheet here outlining the characters you
can do a double Forward kick on in column 2), feel free to go with the double
Forward version of this combo to up your final combo damage slightly.
NOTE 3 (AKA THE FINAL NOTE . . . BLOODY FINALLY)
There are a small number of characters that these combos will not consistently
work on because the second linked Forward kick is not possible and the
Standing Short after the Standing Forward sometimes misses. The characters
where this seems to be most often the case are: Dan, Sakura, M.Bison, and possibly Zangief and Poison (the last of which seems to be a ridiculous character to get multiple
hit combos on after a crossup due to her small, arguably incomplete, hurt box).
You may wish to go with another version of a cross up combo for these
characters rather than waste your meter and leave yourself open to heavy
counterattack against these particular fighters.