Ultra Street Fighter IV/Akuma/Matchups

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Omega Ver.

Matchups

Abel

Abel[No Data] [character page]

Adon

Adon[No Data] [character page]

Akuma/Gouki (Mirror)

Akuma[No Data] [character page]

Balrog/Boxer

Balrog [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Maintain the life lead and turtle it out. Vortex Boxer to death after getting a hard knockdown. Boxer's gameplan: Pressure Akuma with various rush and turn punches. Get in close. LK Tatsu can be juggled into cr. HK. Both hits of st. HK will connect on defensive crouch. This match is definitely in Akuma's favour on paper. Just having the threat of the vortex and being able to zone him out gives you the advantage in this fight, but know that Boxer has one of the best set of normals in the game. His damage output will also make you bleed fast if you're not careful, so stay on your toes. One thing to be aware of is that whenever Boxer is holding charge, stop playing footsies and begin zoning. Mix up well with air and ground fireballs, because you'll have to force him to lose charge and come at you. Make sure you feint every once in a while to make him stay alert as well. Boxer can punish air fireballs if you use it a bit high up in the air with Dash Straight, Dash Low Straight, or Dash Low Smash, so take caution of your jump height before you chuck plasma. Playing the neutral game with Boxer is not the easiest task due to his outstanding normals. His cr. LP's are 3 frame moves with ridiculous reach, so walking in recklessly can get you combo'd. His far st. HK and cr. HK are also normals to watch out for, as they have decent reach and difficult to whiff punish. They tend to recover fast for hard normals, but you also have a nice sweep with a long reach too. Also, if Boxer does not have charge, he has very little answers to Focus Attack, so throw it out every now and then to make him hesitant to throw out normals. Also, don't hold focus if you see him whiff a hard punch or kick. He's probably charging up for Turnaround Punch, which breaks armour and even gives him counter hit, so the minute you see him whiff a hard normal, be ready to punish it. The last thing you need is to have him up close to you. You can punish Turnaround Punch with a walk up throw or cr. MK xx HK Tatsu. The same applies to EX Rush Punches as well, save for Dash Straight. The only disadvantage in this fight is if you're cornered and being pressured. He has answer to pretty much every escape method you try, so you just need to control your impulses and defend for as long as possible. Push him away with anything you can when you find the opportunity, such as a cr. MK or a slight walk up cr. LP when you see a hole in his pressure. If you manage to knock him down, there is absolutely nothing Boxer can do if you Option Select Demon Flip Palm ~~ cr. HK or Demon Armageddon. He tries to back dash and you'll catch him, his Buffalo Headbutt will go over your cr. HK or be countered with Demon Armageddon, and EX Rush Punches will just be shattered by the palm's armour breaking properties. Overall, this is a match in your favour. Just avoid making mistakes and play as safely as you can.

Blanka

Blanka [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Stop Blanka's hop and ball shenanigans. Control space with lots of caution. Blanka's gameplan: Get into the mix up range and pester Akuma with mixups and normals. LK Tatsu cannot be juggled into cr. HK. The second hit of st. HK will whiff against defensive crouch. This match up can be quite frustrating and even overwhelming if you don't know how to approach this fight. One thing to keep in mind is that this match up doesn't boil down to mix ups, but it's whoever can whittle down the other's defenses. Blanka has one of the scariest slides in the game. It has a really long reach and can shut down your projectile game from 3/4 of the screen away. That said, don't let this discourage you from throwing a few ground Gohadokens here and there. In fact, I do encourage you to throw fireballs, but at the right timings and / or spacing. If you're about 3/4 screen away, and Blanka is holding down, it's probably not a good idea to throw that fireball. At this range, it's really easy for Blanka to react to a fireball and either slide or EX Horizontal Ball (depending on whether he's holding down-forward or down-back). The best range to throw fireballs is somewhere just outside of Blanka's cr. HP range. At this range, it's very difficult for him to react to your projectiles, whether he wants to slide or do an EX Horizontal Ball, or even Ultra 2. Use it wisely though; one good read from Blanka and he will jump in at you for big damage. Be careful throwing out back jump air fireballs too. Blanka has a few answers to these, the main one being slide. If you're jumping back and he's walking towards you, you probably don't want to chuck plasma at him. Sometimes, if Blanka has a read on you, he can just hop into Vertical Ball for a knockdown, so be very careful if you choose to zone with air fireballs. When it comes to footsies, Blanka's normals generally tend to outclass yours. They have longer reach and would sometimes outright beat yours if you both pressed buttons at the same time. You do have a faster walk speed however, so try to establish your gameplan more on whiff punishing than sticking pokes out and hoping you'll beat him. For this match up, you will rely mostly on three things; cr. LP, cr. HP, and Ultra 1. Rather than trying to focus on what you want to do, shift your focus more on stopping Blanka from what he wants to do. There are 2 ranges where Blanka has the advantage, and the first one was already mentioned; it's 3/4 screen away, where Blanka can shut down some of your zoning tools. The other range where Blanka is at an advantage is somewhere within his cr. HP range. At this distance, the tip of his cr. HP should connect. His LP Horizontal Ball will also whiff too, and this is what he wants. It has enough recovery for him to throw you immediately if you're not paying attention. At this distance, rely on your cr. LP and cr. HP. You're having the cr. HP ready in case he decides to jump at you. If you have fast enough reactions, then go for the Goshoryuken too if you want. At this distance, you're looking for three things; jump in, LP ball whiff, or hops. As mentioned before, you can counter the jump in with a cr. HP. You can counter the whiffed LP Horizontal Ball or hops with cr. LP. Players inexperienced with the Blanka match up may not know that you can actually hit Blanka out of his hop; it can be misleading because if you watch it visually, he goes through your character and switches sides, but you can hit him out of it completely. You're using cr. LP here because you want to hit him fast before he tries anything. You don't want to deal with more shenanigans when he gets a knockdown on you; he can and will get a knockdown if you let him do either of those two things. With the hop, the most common thing I'll see Blanka players do is hop right into EX Vertical Roll for a soft knockdown... Or he might even just do either of his Ultra's from here if he feels gutsy enough. If you plan to advance forward, pause with a cr. LP every now and then. Use the cr. LP as a shield, so you can stop Blanka from randomly using Horizontal Balls or hops on you. Once you send Blanka the message that he can't do hops or balls liberally, that's your cue to advance and pressure him. Watch out though; sometimes they'll mash out electricity to hit you out of your pressure. You can beat whiffed electricity by waiting a little bit, and then pressing a cr. MK to hit him. The electricity will push you away a bit on block, so you want to give yourself some space before you hit him out of electricity. Otherwise, you'll be too close and you'll end up losing clean. If you knock Blanka down, don't go for vortex mixups. Reversal EX Vertical Roll will shut down almost all of your air approaches, so don't even bother. Instead, go for a delayed crouch tech; Blanka doesn't have a lot of answers to this. If he tries to wake up EX Vertical Roll, your delayed tech won't come out and thus you'll safely block. If Blanka just blocks, you get pressure. However, pay very close attention to what he does on his wake up, because he can and will do EX Backstep Roll to get out. The ideal solution to this is to do a delayed tech Option Select on his wake up. The input is: cr. LK + cr. LP, cr. LK ~ cr. HP. You're covering all avenues of escape for Blanka; if he blocks on wake up, you get pressure. If he does EX Vertical Roll, and you timed the delayed tech correctly, you'll safely block and will be able to punish him. If he does EX Backstep Roll, your cr. HP will come out and you'll hit him out of it. Lastly, pay attention to all Horizontal Balls he might try on you. You can punish HP Ball just by waking up and cr. HK, but other versions cannot be punished until you have Ultra 1 stocked. It is an unforgivable sin to let Blanka get away with a blocked Horizontal Ball, so make sure you're ready to punish at all times. This match up can and will be frustrating at first, and the best Blanka players will be a pain in the nut to deal with. The key to this match up is to always pay attention. One slip up can cost you the whole match.

C. Viper

C. Viper[No Data] [character page]

Cammy

Cammy[No Data] [character page]

Chun-Li

Chun-Li[No Data] [character page]

Cody

Cody[No Data] [character page]

Dan

Dan[No Data] [character page]

Decapre

Decapre[No Data] [character page]

Dee Jay

Dee Jay[No Data] [character page]

Dhalsim

Dhalsim [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Push Dhalsim to the corner, get one knockdown to mix him up. Dhalsim's gameplan: Keep Akuma out with limbs and fireball zoning. LK Tatsu can be juggled into cr. HK. The second hit of st. HK will whiff against defensive crouch. Patience is key in this matchup. The biggest mistake you can make against Dhalsim is to rush him down recklessly, because that's exactly what he wants you to do. Start this matchup by just bulldogging your way through. When you're within Dhalsim's st. HP range, you're at a disadvantage. The only thing you should do at this range is to nullify Dhalsim's Yoga Fire the very moment you see him spit flames out. You suffer many consequences if you fail to do so; throw a fireball too late and Dhalsim can hit you out of your recovery frames with st. HP. Jumping in will either get you anti-aired or it just won't do much. Focusing a Yoga Fire at this range is free damage to Dhalsim, since any of his limbs will make you lose that grey life. Your best bet in this match up is to mix up how you react to a Yoga Fire. Dhalsim has an answer for everything you try, but keeping him guessing will throw him off more. Don't be afraid to back off if you feel that you need to; always having the urge to get in can just make you feel more annoyed and irritated. Once you get in, make sure you do your best to push him to the corner. If you're pressuring him in the middle of the screen, he might do a Yoga Teleport to give himself some room. By pushing him to the corner, you can effectively shut down all avenues of escape for Dhalsim, but make sure your offense is air tight. One small hole in your offense and Dhalsim can either push you away, or you might eat a throw. The latter is probably the worst case scenario, because you'd have to work your way in again. Also, if you manage to get a combo in on Dhalsim, don't end any LK Tatsu combo into LP Goshoryuken. Just juggle into cr. HK, because you always want to make sure Dhalsim stays down on the ground as long as possible. Doing the LP Goshoryuken into j. LK setup can be avoided by Dhalsim slide, and now you just put yourself in the corner. (See setups for more details.) This is a matchup in Akuma's favour, but you're going to have to put a lot of hard work and patience to overcome this annoying matchup.

Dudley

Dudley[No Data] [character page]

E. Honda

E. Honda[No Data] [character page]

El Fuerte

El Fuerte[No Data] [character page]

Elena

Elena[No Data] [character page]

Evil Ryu

Evil Ryu[No Data] [character page]

Fei Long

Fei Long [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Zone Fei Long and fight for every of space possible. Fei Long's gameplan: Push Akuma to the corner with the threat of Rekkas. LK Tatsu can be juggled into cr. HK. Both hits of st. HK will connect on defensive crouch. This is a match up in Akuma's favour by a slight amount. Fei Long has problems dealing with air fireballs, and one hard knock down is never a good news for Fei Long. However, one successful Rekka combo is all Fei Long needs to get the momentum. Playing footsies against Fei Long can be risky, but you will be forced to play if you want to keep your back away from the corner. You're forced to walk at a range where his Rekkas would connect if you want your poke to connect, but you don't want to whiff any pokes neither. His Rekka and his other plethora of normals are perfectly designed for footsies, be it for poking or whiff punishing. He is also equipped with arguably the best Focus Attack in the game due to its range and speed. It's fast enough that he can hit you out of the second hit of st. HK, and even crumple you for doing so. Also, when playing footsies, NEVER USE AKUMA'S CR. HK!! One blocked cr. HK is a free Rekka for Fei Long. Rather than playing footsies, try to focus more on the fireball game. Fei Long has little answers to a good projectile throwing Akuma outside of EX Chicken Wing or a Focus. Throwing ground fireballs can be a little risky since he may be able to Focus you at max range of Akuma's fireball animation, but he can't really do much to contest air fireballs. He can try to Ultra, but he'd have to be closer up at a range where LP fireball would barely hit. If he jumps at you, know that your st. HP will successfully anti-air most of his jump-in normals at most ranges. You can even hit his nj. HK if you space it correctly. If he's closer up, just use Goshoryuken. Fei Long's biggest nightmare in this match up is when he eats a hard knock down, be it from throws or a combo into cr. HK. If you have Ultra 2 equipped, you shut down all of his wake up options via Demon Flip Palm ~ Ultra 2 Option Select. Wake up back dash and EX Chicken Wing will lose to Ultra 2, safe jump reversal Flame Kick and Ultra 1, and obliterate his Ultra 2 completely. His Ultra 2 loses to any move that has armour breaking properties, so slap him in the face for even equipping himself with Ultra 2 in the first place. Even without the Option Select, vortexing Fei Long isn't that difficult. He can try to escape with EX Chicken Wing, but most of the time, you'll have time to walk up to him and hit him with cr. HK before he recovers.

Gen

Gen[No Data] [character page]

Gouken

Gouken[No Data] [character page]

Guile

Guile [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Take out Guile's Sonic Boom game and push him slowly to the corner. Guile's gameplan: Pester Akuma with Sonic Booms and normals. LK Tatsu can be juggled into cr. HK. The second hit of st. HK will only whiff against defensive crouch at farther ranges. Akuma is usually considered one of Guile's worst matchups for a number of reasons. Akuma shuts down Guile's gameplan effectively, and once Guile is knocked down, there is very little he can do to escape Akuma's vortex. One of the biggest misconceptions when fighting against Guile is that you have to punish his Sonic Booms by jumping over them. This is actually what Guile wants; his anti-airs options beat out almost every single jump-in attack you can try. He recovers ridiculously fast from throwing a Sonic Boom too, so trying to get in recklessly is not a good idea. What you want to do instead is take away Guile's Sonic Boom. At full screen, throw a bunch of Gohadokens and Shakunetsu to make Guile hesitant to chuck plasma. When you do this, you make it very difficult for Guile to keep up. You will eventually overwhelm him with your barrage of projectiles, and force Guile to throw Sonic Booms less. You'll force him to come at you. Also, you'll be able to build meter with this gameplan, and you might need as much meter as possible to win this fight at certain ranges. The fight gets a little interesting when you're at mid range. The range Guile has the advantage is outside of Akuma's cr. HK range. At this range, your options become a lot more limited. This is a range where Guile can try to outpoke you, be it with his normals or his Sonic Booms. You do not want to be fighting Guile around this range, because this is the only range where Akuma can and will lose in. If Guile throws a Sonic Boom, the only thing you should do is throw an EX Gohadoken. Jumping in would be too risky because of Guile's cr. HP anti air. Absorbing his Sonic Boom with Focus can be risky too because he can follow up with any of his normals. Lastly, if you throw a Gohadoken to get rid of Sonic Booms at this range, Guile can follow it up with a backfist to hit you out of your recovery. You can throw an EX Gohadoken to counter Guile's Sonic Boom here, but you must see Guile throw a Sonic Boom first. If you just throw an EX Gohadoken, but you guess wrong, there's a chance you might either eat a jump in, or Guile can trade with his Ultra 2 if he has charge.

Guy

Guy[No Data] [character page]

Hakan

Hakan[No Data] [character page]

Hugo

Hugo[No Data] [character page]

Ibuki

Ibuki[No Data] [character page]

Juri

Juri[No Data] [character page]

Ken

Ken[No Data] [character page]

M. Bison/Dictator

M. Bison [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Maintain the life lead and watch out for anything Dictator attempts on wake up. Dictator's gameplan: Push Akuma to the corner and keep him trapped there. Punish all air fireball attempts with st. HK LK Tatsu does NOT juggle into cr. HK. The second hit of st. HK will only whiff against defensive crouch at farther ranges. This is a matchup that both players will hate. Akuma players hate Dictator, and vice versa. The advantage between the two characters shift for every situation, and it's important to recognize to maintain any advantageous situations you may have at any given moment. Round 1, Fight. You have the immediate advantage here. Dictator is going to have trouble getting in, because he only has one very risky tool to get around fireballs, which is his Headstomp. If Dictator starts the round by building meter with Devil's Reverse, always stay mobile. Throw some ground fireballs here and there and hope to catch him with on the way down. Just don't be too obvious, because that's when he's going to bonk you on the head. The worst thing you want to have happen at this point of the match is to lose the life lead. If he's not doing too many Devil's Reverse, then pester him with projectiles; there's very little he can do without meter. Of course, unless if you got a perfect in Round 1 before he built any meter, he will have at least one bar. Now you really have to watch out, because there's so much he can do about your fireball game... if he has charge. You throw an air fireball from super high up, he'll go through you using EX Psycho Crusher. You throw any fireball on the ground, he'll go through you with his EX Knee Press. Always assess whether he has charge or not before you throw that fireball. Even then, you have to watch out when you throw an air fireball as well; Dictator can usually walk under it and peg you with his st. HK. Against Dictator, you generally want to play defensive, but playing too defensive can have its consequences. He is dangerous up close, thanks to his 3 frame cr. LK that he can combo into, and his normals reach further than most of yours. Your cr. HK actually reaches longer than his st. MK, but whiff punishing it is really difficult because your spacing has to be near pixel perfect. At least if you whiff punish, you get a knockdown into setups, while he just gets measly 70 damage for whiff punishing a sweep. That said, if you end up playing too defensive, you'll end up pushing yourself to the corner, and that's exactly what Dictator wants. Always make sure you fight for space, because it's never fun when Dictator cages you in the corner. It's important to play footsies, even if his normals can be intimidating to deal with. Also, remember that it's a common tactic for good Dictator players to walk under an air fireball and hitting you with his st. HK, so learn to not play too defensive against him. If you have him knock down, make sure you force him to lose charge. If he has no bar, always do Demon Flip and OS a palm into HK Tatsu; it's pretty much his only reversal option. Now if he has meter, always make sure you make him lose charge. It's never fun having to guess whether he's going to EX Psycho Crusher, EX Knee Press, EX Devil's Reverse, or Teleport on wake up. By making him lose charge, you only limit his wake up to EX Devil's Reverse and Teleport. Very rarely is he ever going to do EX Headstomp, because that is completely punishable on wake up. If you do Demon Flip Palm OS into Wrath of the Raging Demon, you'll only beat his EX Psycho Crusher and Teleport... anything else he does will make you waste that precious Ultra you had. It doesn't matter whether you're being too predictable and only going for cross ups, what's more important is to make sure you either force him to block or waste his meter. One tool that can come in handy is the Super. If Dictator does EX Psycho Crusher, and you block it even at point blank range, you can always punish with Super. If Dictator has you cornered, control your nerves. Just sit back and eat some LK Knee Press chip. He has an answer to everything you try. If he thinks you'll stick out a poke, he can either counter poke with st. MK or another LK Knee Press. If he thinks you're going to jump, he'll either st. HK or Headstomp... or even worse, he's going to j. MP into Ultra. You try to teleport, he'll either slide or throw you back into the corner. Just sit back and wait a bit. Sometimes it'll take 2 LK Knee Press, sometimes 4, sometimes even 10... eventually he's going to try something like walk up throw, Headstomp, or EX Psycho Crusher frame trap. Always look out for these possible moments to escape, rather than taking a risky guess to try to escape. If Dictator won the first round and he has some meter, round 2 is going to be pretty difficult. You have to play super careful and not make any mistakes, because losing the life lead at any point here is nearly equivalent to game over. Once he has the life lead, and he's holding down back, there's very little you can do to approach. You can try to get some sneaky jumps in here and there, but he can always EX Psycho Crusher to anti air you if he's always prepared. Even if he doesn't hit you, he still just ran away and avoided pressure, so he has room to hold down back again... and losing that one bar isn't a problem because he can use Devil's Reverse to build meter again if he wants to. If it's round 2 or 3, and he's holding on to the life lead with 2 or more bars while you have 2 or less... all I can say is good luck.

Makoto

Makoto[No Data] [character page]

Oni

Oni[No Data] [character page]

Poison

Poison[No Data] [character page]

Rolento

Rolento[No Data] [character page]

Rose

Rose [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Push Rose to the corner, get one knockdown to mix her up. Rose's gameplan: Control Akuma's space with cr. MP xx Soul Spiral pressure, fight for as much space as possible. LK Tatsu can be juggled into cr. HK. The second hit of st. HK will whiff against defensive crouch. At first glance, this may seem like a matchup in Rose's favour, but it's actually 6-4 in Akuma's favour. It may seem discouraging to throw fireballs in this match, since she can absorb or reflect them and build tons of meter. The thing is you should throw fireballs... at closer ranges. A good range to throw them are somewhere just outside of her st. HK range, or even somewhere within it. If you're throwing fireballs at timings and places when Rose isn't expecting you to throw them, it's very difficult for her to react to it. Just be a little more careful when she has meter, because she can get through your fireballs with EX Soul Spiral. However, if you're always changing up your patterns (ie distances and timings), it can still be difficult for her to react in time. Rose can be really annoying to fight against at footsie ranges however. She's going to pester you with normals like st. HK, slide, cr. MK, and occasionally cr. HK as well. Her st. HK is especially annoying to deal with, because it reaches long and her feet are off the ground, so it's difficult to whiff punish with something like a cr. MK or cr. HK. You can try an Option Select to deal with this however. You can try to do cr. MP, and buffer a Gohadouken while the cr. MP is still out. If you're at the right range, you can actually hit Rose's feet with cr. MP, and if it hits, you'll get a Gohadouken coming out. At that range, your fireball won't hit, but it will help push her to the corner. Once you do have her cornered, you have a lot of things you can do to her. One thing to look out for is her slide, because it covers a lot of ground and will push you away. When you have her cornered, always dance around her cr. MP range, because her cr. MP XX Soul Spiral is another way she's going to try to push herself out of the corner. Also, when you dance at this range, and you successfully block her slide, you can usually punish her with a cr. LP hit confirm or even LP Goshoryuken. If you're lucky, and Rose hit you with a slide point blank, you can still punish her because she's -3 on hit. If you block just the tip end of the slide, don't bother pressing any buttons. She's going to counter hit you every single time, so just remain blocking. If Rose is the one putting offensive pressure on you, be very careful about pressing buttons. She has an annoying frame trap in her close st. MK, which is throw invincible and is a fantastic frame trap. She's totally safe on block, and if she hits you, she can convert it into a combo. When fighting Rose, it's usually better to eat throws than to eat her combo's, because she won't be getting nasty ambiguous setups against you off of a hard knockdown. That of course is different if she has Soul Satellite equipped, but unless if you're cornered, you can usually teleport your way out. That is, if Rose doesn't predict which direction you would escape to. Even then, it's an annoying Ultra to deal with because it kills whatever momentum you had before. There are some things that she can annoy you with though. Her cr. MP pressure is pretty annoying to deal with. Her cr. MP XX Soul Spark can be punished just by jumping forward after blocking her cr. MP. Her cr. MP XX Soul Spiral can be Ultra'd in between. Ultra 1 would lose to Soul Spark, but Ultra 2 would cover both options. Another cool trick is that if you block the tip of her cr. MP, and she does LP Soul Spiral, you can avoid it by doing a st. LK to raise your hurtbox and punish her. This is pretty distance specific, but you can always try it if you feel confident that you spaced yourself correctly. When she's knocked down, unless you have Wrath of the Raging Demon equipped, this is a guessing game. You can try to OS Demon Flip Palm into cr. HK, which would beat her backdash, but lose to her EX Soul Spiral. You can try Demon Flip Throw, which would lose to backdash but beat her EX Soul Spiral (it has no throw invincibility). You have a bit of a guessing game to play, but if you have Ultra 1 equipped, you cover everything that she has on her wake up. As far as Ultra Combo's go, this is totally up to you, though I wouldn't choose Ultra Combo Double thanks to damage reduction. With Wrath of the Raging Demon, you can punish blocked EX Soul Spiral and Option Select her on wake up using Demon Flip Palm ~ Ultra 1 (covers backdash and EX Soul Spiral). On the other hand, you can try Demon Armageddon to punish her cr. MP XX Soul Spark / Soul Spiral pressure, or just land big damage combo if you get the opportunity. Take note that Demon Armageddon will not hit her EX Soul Spiral if you Option Select Demon Flip Palm ~ Ultra 2. It also won't hit her when she's crouching after a close st. HP if you cancel into it too quickly. Overall, play very patient and push her to the corner. Once you limit her ability to move, there's very little she can do without taking big risks.

Rufus

Rufus[No Data] [character page]

Ryu

Ryu [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Dominate the ground game with the use of Akuma's variety of fireballs. Fish for a hard knockdown. Ryu's gameplan: Push Akuma to the corner without getting knocked down. Build meter to slowly discourage Akuma from fighting close. LK Tatsu does NOT juggle into cr. HK. The second hit of st. HK will whiff against defensive crouch. This is mostly considered an even match, although some say Akuma has a slight advantage in this fight. Akuma has the superior fireball game, since he has three different varieties of projectiles. He also has many different ways to build meter. For Ryu, he's usually limited to throwing out Hadokens or LP Shoryuken's to build meter. From fullscreen, this match is essentially nothing more than a stalemate; both characters have to take risks trying to get in. Akuma can pester Ryu with fireballs and his pokes, and one mistake from Ryu can give Akuma a hard knockdown. On the other hand, Akuma has to walk Ryu slowly as well, since he does not have much life to take that many trades or hits. The first thing you want to do in this matchup is try to figure out patterns Ryu likes to do at footsie range. He relies heavily on his cr. MK and his Hadoken. Learning to find patterns at this range and countering them takes away a huge portion of Ryu's gameplan, and it helps you mount up your offense as well. Akuma's most dominant range is just the tip of his cr. HK range. Ryu's options are limited, as Akuma's pokes at this range will usually outright beat Ryu's. At times, you'll even trip Ryu with a cr. HK before he can even throw out his Hadoken. Also, at the tip range of Akuma's cr. HK, Ryu's cr. MK will usually whiff if you're standing. There will be occasions where you'll need to crouch in case you didn't measure the distance correctly. Also, even though you're at cr. HK range, don't hesitate to walk up slightly to use cr. MK. This is a useful poke to use if you want to slowly push Ryu to the corner. Lastly, at this range, you can occasionally throw a Focus Attack to catch Ryu throw a careless fireball. Akuma takes a step back when he holds his Focus, so at times, Ryu's pokes might whiff. You can peg him if Ryu throws a Hadoken at you, since his outstretched hands will expand his hurtbox. There are some ranges where Ryu has the advantage though. If you block Ryu's cr. MK XX Hadoken, it will push you away a bit, and that is exactly the range where Ryu has the upper hand. At this distance, most of your pokes aren't going to connect, but neither would his. At this range, you will likely throw fireballs, and this where you're at a disadvantage. Ryu's fireball is much faster than yours, so it's much harder for you to react to what he does if he throws a barrage of fireballs. Also, at this range, your jump in is much riskier than Ryu's. If Ryu jumps in, you're most likely going to get a Goshoryuken, and if it trades then you'll just get a Shakunetsu juggle. Of course, if you have Ultra 1 equipped, then it's a different story, but if Ryu survives, you're giving him a lot of meter. On the other hand, if you jump, Ryu's Shoryuken will likely do more damage if hits you clean, and it's even worse if you trade because he can juggle into either EX Hadoken, Super, or Ultra. This fight can get a little more challenging if Ryu has meter built. The more meter he has, the more dangerous he can get up close. Even at Akuma's cr. HK tip range, it can get a little risky. Ryu throws an EX Hadoken, you get knocked down and you might lose whatever momentum you had in the ground game. Ryu will also gain some ground if he manages to hit you with an EX Hadoken. If he has at least two bars, you definitely do not want to mess with him. Anything that leads Ryu into his Shoryuken FADC U1 can give Ryu the momentum booster he needs, and he can land this off of an anti-air or a frame trap. Lastly, if Ryu has a full Super stocked up, this match can turn instantly into Ryu's favour. At this point, your options are way more limited than before. Ryu can punish a blocked cr. HK into Super, punish a back jump fireball with Super, punish mid range fireball, and even juggle a Shoryuken trade into Super. You might think after reading that, Ryu probably wins this matchup. Well, before you reach that conclusion, notice that a lot of the advantages Ryu has in this matchup really boils down to having meter. Ryu is usually forced to spend bar to make this fight more honest, but Akuma usually doesn't need meter to do big damage. In fact, in this matchup, when it comes to offense, Akuma probably doesn't need meter that much. A lot of Akuma's meter usage may come from a defensive Shoryuken FADC or occasional EX Gohadokens to pester Ryu with. Outside of tools with meter, Akuma has superior options otherwise, ranging from superior ground game (better pokes, better fireball game, faster walkspeed) to the infamous Akuma mixups. Ryu doesn't have safe ways to escape the vortex; usually if you do a Demon Flip Kick to pressure Ryu on wakeup, and Ryu attempts a reversal Shoryuken, it will usually whiff. Ryu is usually forced to guess and block Akuma's vortex. What makes this fight honest is that Akuma can't keep knocking Ryu down over and over; he can't juggle LK Tatsu into cr. HK unlike he can for some other characters, so the vortex will eventually come to a halt at some point. This is mostly an even matchup. In order to win this fight, you should always pay attention to how much meter Ryu has at all times. A meterless Ryu can't fight Akuma that well, but once Ryu gradually starts building those blue bars, it's a fight where you have to play more carefully. Work on trying to outzone him, and use Akuma's superior ground game to your advantage.

Sagat

Sagat [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Weaken Sagat's zoning game while slowly pushing Sagat to the corner. Sagat's gameplan: Pester Akuma with Tiger Shots, well-spaced Tiger Knees, and variety of normals. LK Tatsu can be juggled into cr. HK. The second hit of st. HK will only whiff against defensive crouch at max range. This is a matchup in Akuma's favour, but you definitely need to stay on your toes to win this matchup. Be patient; the biggest mistake when fighting Sagat is to recklessly rush him down and make mistakes. Sagat dominates in that aspect. Akuma actually has a better fireball game than Sagat, so at full range, you have the advantage. Mix it up between Hadokens and Shakunetsu to give yourself momentum. You want to tell Sagat that his zoning game won't get him anywhere. Occasionally, don't throw a fireball at all to throw Sagat off. As long as you establish ground dominance with your projectiles, you're doing the right thing. Things get a little trickier at footsie range. This is where your patience will be tested, as this is the range where Sagat dominates in this matchup. He's going to pester you with many, many things here. You want to consistently stay somewhere around your cr. MK range. Your goal in this matchup is to push Sagat to the corner, and Akuma's cr. MK does a great job in doing that. Mix it up between a normal cr. MK and a cr. MK XX Gohadoken, and you'll gradually start pushing him forward. Of course, it's Sagat's job to make sure he doesn't get cornered, so he's going to do everything he can to slow you down. A lot of his normals will lose to your cr. MK, save for Sagat's st. LK. Block every now and then when you reach your cr. MK range, because constantly throwing this out without thought can get punished by Sagat's st. LK. You have to watch out for random low Tiger Shots he's going to throw at you, because each one you block will push you away. Resist the urge to jump at him if he pesters you; one bad jump in can cost you a huge chunk of your life with a Tiger Uppercut trade -> f. HK -> Ultra (if he has Ultra stocked). Also resist the urge to use Focus Attack. In fact, at this range you should never be using Focus Attack at all. You risk eating Sagat's normals (most of the ones he'll use at this range are two hitters), a Tiger Knee, or EX Tiger Shot. It's definitely not worth trying to absorb a regular Tiger Shot and hoping to catch him. Also, at this range, watch out for Tiger Knees. Sagat will occasionally throw these out at ranges where it's safe on block. This is a pretty dangerous situation you might put yourself in; you either have to guess whether he'll throw you or frame trap you with a Tiger Uppercut. You're probably better off getting thrown than eating a random Tiger Uppercut, which can lead him to FADC'ing into big damage. Study this range well; you may occasionally be able to bait this out with a neutral jump and punish him. Don't rely on this too much though, because Sagat can counter your attempt to counter with a st. HK of his own. Speaking of st. HK, Akuma's far st. HK is a great move to use in this fight... so long as you're not predictable with it. This is a 2-hitter normal attack that can also push Sagat closer to the corner. Akuma's cr. MK is still probably the better poke to use to push Sagat to the corner, as it's safer and and has less recovery. Abusing st. HK will result in Sagat neutral jumping to punish you for big damage. Once you do push Sagat to the corner, make sure he never gets out. From this point on, mix it up between throwing neutral jump air fireballs for pressure and using a variety of your normals to prevent him from escaping. Also, watch for meter; Sagat can and will do EX Tiger Knee when you're not expecting it. It can be a very annoying move to deal with; you'll feel you did all that work of pushing Sagat to the corner for nothing. Stay calm, you haven't been pushed that far away just yet. Just be worried about either being thrown or frame trapped, and if you feel that it might be too risky to take any chances, just teleport away safely. You're better off losing a bit of positioning than losing a great deal of health. If you do successfully land a hard knockdown against Sagat, he's definitely in your world. His big hurtbox makes him susceptible to side to side mixups, so take advantage of this situation while you can. Also, because Sagat has a big hurtbox, if you successfully hit Sagat with a cross up air Tatsu, you can juggle into Demon Armageddon for massive damage.

Sakura

Sakura[No Data] [character page]

Seth

Seth[No Data] [character page]

T. Hawk

T. Hawk[No Data] [character page]

Vega/Claw

Vega[No Data] [character page]

Yang

Yang[No Data] [character page]

Yun

Yun[No Data] [character page]

Zangief

Zangief [character page]

Akuma's gameplan: Stop Zangief from getting in at all costs. Fight for every inch for space. Zangief's gameplan: Push Akuma to the corner and keep him there. Build as much meter as possible to threaten with EX Red Focus combos. LK Tatsu can be juggled into cr. HK. Both hits of far st. HK will hit against defensive crouch. Akuma VS Zangief matchup has always consistently been in Akuma's favour, but it's become a little more difficult from iteration to iteration. You have to pay attention to every single aspect in this fight, including meter, spacing, and time. At the beginning of the match, the best thing to do is to abuse the hell out of your fireballs. Use regular Gohadoken and jump Zanku Hadoken's, but one thing I will tell you right now is that do not back away from Zangief. In other words, do not start the round by jumping back for an air fireball, or backing off before throwing a fireball. Good Zangief players want you to back away as much as possible, because they want to instill fear in you and force you to back yourself to the corner. Fighting Zangief with your back to the wall is never fun, so make sure you fight for every inch of space possible. One thing you must keep in mind of is that it's not very likely Zangief will just randomly do SPD while both of you are dancing around. Instead, he's going to be throwing out normals such as st. MP and st. LK to either hit you or whiff punish you. The only way he'll ever get big chunks of damage off of you in this situation is by jumping at you, so it's very important to anti-air every single jump-in he tries. One jump-in you fail to anti-air means losing that precious space you had on the stage to fight. Never give him the opportunity to jump-in, ever. Once Zangief has meter, use projectiles more sparingly. Throw them at random intervals to keep him guessing, because you definitely do not want him close to you with his EX Banishing Flat. Even with the threat of this move, don't hesitate to throw fireballs here and there. If you throw these in ways that can make the opponent difficult to get a read on you, you are a lot less likely to get hit. You want to make sure you have different modes of fighting Zangief, and mix these up in between. The first anti-Zangief strategy you want to use is throwing out pokes efficiently. Akuma has slightly better pokes, but Zangief's st. lk might rival them in some ways due to its speed. It's an excellent whiff punish tool, so stay around the range where it won't be as effective. There may be times when Zangief has meter, he will more than likely concentrate more on whiff punishing your pokes than to throw one of his out. If that's the case, don't be afraid to walk right up to him and throw him. You want to throw because if you attempt a frame trap or block string pressure, you risk eating a churned SPD. Of course, Zangief can beat this strategy by sticking out a cr. LP or cr. LK earlier than your throw and cancel that into EX Banishing Flat, so don't get too cocky and throw. The second strategy to use in this matchup is to go crazy with your fireballs, even if he has meter. It may sound crazy, but you want to throw this at closer ranges, somewhere within your cr. MK range. Throwing projectiles at this range makes it very difficult for Zangief to react with EX Banishing Flat, and also makes jumping in risky if he guesses wrong. Mix up how many projectiles you want to throw; at this range, sometimes you just want to throw 2, sometimes 3, sometimes 4, hell, throw out 8 if you really want to mess with your opponent's head. Making Zangief second guess himself in these situations can frustrate him beyond words. When playing footsies, keep your fingers off of the HK button. You have no reason to use any version Akuma's HK, be it crouching or standing. Akuma's st. HK is -2 on block, so you give Zangief a free SPD if he blocks. You also risk eating a jump in or getting whiff punished if you use cr. HK... and since you can't cancel into Ultra 1 anymore, you have no reason to ever use this move. However, let's say you managed to get Zangief in a hard knockdown state. It's usually ill-advised to go for Demon Flip mixups, because Zangief has an answer for each mixup attempt you try at him. Demon Flip Kick can be countered with a wake up Ultra 2 or a delayed Lariat, Demon Flip Throw can be countered with a wake up Ultra 2 or backdash into SPD, and Demon Flip Palm can be countered with wake up Ultra 2 or a delayed Lariat. Your best bet is to go for a meaty Shakunetsu chip. If you knock Zangief down with cr. HK, and he has no meter, use HP Shakunetsu. It's free chip, or if he wakes up with Lariat to avoid it, it's free punish for you. If he does have meter, use LP Shakunetsu instead, because a meaty LP Shakunetsu cannot be punished with an EX Banishing Flat. You're not doing much in the damage department, but you put yourself at a safer position by sticking with fireball chip. Also, make sure you save up as much meter as you can possible if Zangief has Ultra 2 equipped. Akuma's EX Goshoryuken will keep you completely safe from this Ultra, so you should probably show Zangief that having Ultra 2 won't do him any good if you have a few bars by your side. Speaking of meter, if Zangief has 4 bars stocked up, this matchup is probably in Zangief's favour. The threat of having EX Banishing Flat cancelled into EX Red Focus is enough to make you respect his ground game, because one predictable poke you throw out will result in you losing a ton of life. Try to find ways to bait out EX Banishing Flat here, because you want to make sure he loses at least one bar, or three if he wants to be safe. You can try this by throwing fireballs at the range where it'd be hard for Zangief to react, and then once you feel like you've planted an image in his head, go for feints more often. In this matchup, the preferred Ultra would be Wrath of the Raging Demon. Zangief doesn't have a special move that does a great job chasing down teleports (his Banishing Flat is okay, but he has to guess which way you're going). Also, any combo into Demon Armageddon isn't going to do that much, since cancelling Ultra 2 off a teleport is going to scale the damage. You want to focus on anti-airs against Zangief, so Wrath of the Raging Demon is the more preferred Ultra in this matchup.