Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike/Hugo/Introduction

Introduction

Hugo (or Andore as he was called in his initial debut as an enemy in the beat-em-up series Final Fight) is an ex-member of the Mad Gear Gang. His old gang now fallen, Hugo is determined to become the number one wrestler in the world, with his former gang member and long-time friend Poison as his manager. Hugo was first introduced to the Street Fighter series in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact

Hugo is 3rd Strike's most straightforward grappler, moreso than Alex, and as such, requires exceptional patience to play. His impressive damage output puts a lot of mental overhead on the opponent and enables him to take games in only a few interactions if he can lock them down, but his slow move speed, committal buttons and unconventional-to-bad anti airs mean he often gets overwhelmed. Hugo is also the largest character in 3rd Strike, meaning he has a big set of hurtboxes, and combined with his unsafe pokes makes him exploitable in neutral and severely vulnerable against moves that aren't very strong versus other characters.

Super Arts

SA1: Gigas Breaker

Recommended

Gigas Breaker is great because it forces the opponent to play Hugo's game, lest they instantly lose half their health. Can be setup in a variety of ways including an SJ cancel/Tachi gigas. It can also be buffered in a dash, but is mostly used in a situation where a parry or block can lead to fat ass damage. Drawbacks include a lack of combo-ability and loss of some EX potential. Hayao is arguably the best known SAI player, also notable is Eriho.

• Does incredible damage.
• Instant startup, beats many moves.
• Puts a lot of mental overhead on the opponent.
• Usually takes close to or an entire round to fill the meter
• If missed, Hugo is screwed.
• Always be buffering 360 motions into your normals, jumps and other moves. This allows you to execute a second 360 on reaction, and thus Gigas on demand, without jumping.

SA2: Megaton Press

Not Recommended

Hugo's version of Aerial Russian Slam, being similarly useless. It has very low priority and is hard to land versus an aware opponent. It can be used to counter characters who want to be in the air a lot and force them to play a ground game. Can be comboed into in place of backbreaker. Most people pass it up to have either the power of Gigas or the flexibility of Hammer Mountain.

• Excellent damage if hit raw
• Gives Hugo a decent amount of EX to play with
• Zero invulnerability; gets stuffed by most jump-ins if used on reaction
• Particularly affected by damage scaling

SA3: Hammer Mountain

Recommended

Hammer Mountain is Hugo's most flexible SA. It deals decent damage and stun, can be used on wakeup or to charge through poke strings and as a whiff punisher. Easily confirmable from claps and jumping normals and allows for EX usage. The best known SAIII player is YSB. Hammer mountain is the best choice if you want to play a more hit-confirm based play-style, as opposed to the reactive style of Gigas.

• Good damage output.
• Has running/cancel gimmick, which is useful for longer range confirms.
• Ample invincibility on startup
• Great corner with a potent knockdown Hugo can capitalize on
• Lots of moves that confirm into it
• Occasional consistency issues
• Easily baitable and death on block or whiff.
• Cheeky overhead

Strengths

Weaknesses

Highest unbuffed health in the game, and with taunts that can increase it further, which leads to a long match in which the opponent makes more mistakes Longest range light attacks in the game, and many pokes with very far reach. His pressure moves also reach fairly far Excellent damage output and can take the round off of 2 to 3 right guesses. Claps allow for tight and extremely versatile pressure and mix-ups. Very threatening with super, SA1 allows for tight and scary punishes, while SA3 is easily confirmable, corner carries well and has great range.

Limited pool of normals to choose from, most notably no consistent anti airs. Slow pokes, making it difficult to whiff punish a lot of characters on reaction. No true reversal outside of super, making it very hard for him to escape pressure if he starts a round on the back foot Huge, tall hurtbox allows for unique combos and setups against him, and make certain moves that are trivial against other characters incredibly threatening for him. Awful mobility, struggles to get in to start his pressure and his slow, floaty jump arc leaves him very vulnerable to anti airs. Some characters have all the tools to easily and safely stay away from him.

Character Colors