Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo/O. T. Hawk

Introduction

T. Hawk is a grappler character added in Super Street Fighter II: They New Challengers (SSF2), and returns in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. The differences from CPS-2 Zangief are that his special throw, the typhoon, does not have a whiff animation or a grab window; he was given a special anti-air move that is similar to the shotos' Shoryuken and and air dash attack like E. Honda's headbutt or Blanka's rolling attack. Also, his arsenal of normal moves is different from Zangief's, making both very different characters which are often weak where the other is strong. Say, Zangief has no dash-like special and his sweep is fast but does not reach very far; T. Hawk has a dash-like attack and his sweep is very slow, but with long reach. The most important difference in high-level play, however, is the lack of a whiff animation. While it is harder to do a tight tick into special throw with T. Hawk, they can be made safe with the use of negative-edge.

Old Hawk is the version from SSF2: he has no super nor he can soften throws. On the other hand, he has better normals across the board.

Color Selection

Normal	Alternative

--Born2SPD
To select Old T. Hawk, place the cursor over T.Hawk, press any button, then input "right, right, left, left." Press Jab to use the original color from SSF2 and either Jab + Short or Fierce + Short to use an alternate color.

Moves List

Special Moves

→↓↘ + P: Tomahawk Buster, also known as Rising Hawk. Hawk becomes invulnerable for a split second, crouches, then rises diagonally to the air while hitting the enemy. After that, he falls defenseless to the ground. The Jab and Strong versions hit only once and cause a full knockdown, while the Fierce one hits twice, being that the second active part causes a full knock down. This can go throw projectiles if timed late enough, and is Hawk's best anti-air move.

PPP (air): Condor Dive. If you press all punch buttons while ascending or just before the peak a jump, Hawk will hover in the air for a brief moment, then dive diagonally towards your enemy. This move causes a full knock down if it hits, but has long recovery and push back. It is a good move to punish projectiles and other long recovery moves. It can also be used as a dash, after knocking the enemy down or using a typhoon, to close the gap and pressure him on wake-up.

→↓←↑ (any order) + P: Mexican Typhoon. T.Hawk grabs the enemy by the face, jumps while flipping them, then smashes their head on the ground for high damage. The Jab version does the least damage and recovers the fastest while the Fierce one does more damage but takes slightly more time to recover. This is Hawk's main attack tool. It has better range than any other throw but Zangief's Spinning Pile Driver and can be made safe with the use of negative edge. After attacking the enemy, press all punch buttons, move the joystick in a 360% motion and simply release the buttons one-by-one by the time you think the enemy recovers from block or hitstun. If in range, he will get thrown, otherwise, you will not whiff any moves, being ready to block or act any way you want.

The Basics

O.Hawk has significantly better normals than N.Hawk. This allows him to use more of his normals in footsies, creating more openings for either punishing with normals or walking in for the Typhoon. After Hawk uses a Typhoon, he can close the gap with a Condor Dive relatively close to the ground. After a knockdown, Hawk usually wants to apply great pressure on the enemy's wake-up with wither a jumping Forward or Fierce aerial cross-up, safe jump then tick into Typhoons or a ground normal as a tick move. Other than O.Hawks ground game, he can use jumping Jab, as it has very good priority; diagonal jumping Fierce, which hits very low, beating moves most characters can't; and Condor Dive, which punishes anti-air sweep attempts and long recovery moves in general, such as a Hadouken.

Advanced Strategy

Option-Select ticks

T. Hawk's main weapon is his Mexican Typhoon throw. Most other tools O.T. Hawk has often find use due to the enemy's (justified) fear of the Mexican Typhoon. Anyway, his strongest strategy is related to the Mexican Typhoon itself, using negative edge so as to avoid whiffed normals.

Say you tick your opponent with any attack, then input a 360 motion and press a punch button for the Typhoon at the exact time he recovers from blockstun. This is a strong strategy, as it forces the enemy to use a reversal attack to avoid the throw. Not any reversal attack, in fact: it must be either a reversal throw, a reversal invulnerable special move or a reversal instantly-airbone move. With the exception of Zangief's Spinning Pile Driver, reversal throws can be dealt with by ticking so as to be outside their throw range. However, if the enemy reversals with an invulnerable move that also attacks, such as a Shoryuken or a Flash Kick, a punch will come out and Hawk will be hit while performing it. If the enemy becomes airbone, he will surely evade the throw and may also evade or even hit Hawk as he punches. Fortunately for T. Hawk, he has a way of not whiffing normals when attempting Typhoons, causing reversal special to whiff or get blocked. As a number of such attacks are unsafe on block, Hawk can throw them afterward and reset the situation.

Negative-edge typhoon

Hawk's most simple option select consists of using a cr.Jab as a tick attack, then quickly pressing the other punch buttons and buffering a 360 motion, ending in defensive crouch. As the enemy recovers from the Jab, release the buttons one-by-one in a quick succession, giving you three chances of obtaining a Typhoon. As you are releasing buttons, no attacks will come out, and eventual reversal attacks will either whiff or get blocked. For instance, Flash Kicks and Shoryukens are unsafe on block, and you can simply do a typhoon or Tomahawk Buster as they recover. Coupling this strategy with safe jumps, it may be very hard or impossible to avoid taking damage for most characters. Even though this is very hard to apply consistently, that's what makes T. Hawk a viable character in high level play.

Walk-up button-release typhoon

Whiff a normal just outside your enemy poke range, and buffer ↑←↓→ (hold) + punches (hold). Continue to hold → and release the punch buttons one by one in a quick succession as you enter the Typhoon range. This allows you to obtain a Typhoon quicker after entering the opponents poke range. Would one try a normal walk-up Typhoon, you could get hit before completing the motion.

Buster-Typhoon option select

Do a negative edge Typhoon, but after reaching down back, move the stick to down towards, and release the buttons. If done right, you will either obtain a Typhoon or a Tomahawk Buster. This is good when dealing with safe-on-block reversal attacks, such as Cammy's Cannon Spike, and moves that may allow the enemy to escape from a corner, such as Ryu's tatsus.

Hit-Confirm cross-up

If T. Hawk scores a knockdown at mid-screen and stays close to his opponent, he has a chance of ending the round right there. In order to do that, he use jumping Forward of Fierce splash to hit the enemy as a cross-up. After that, he can use cr.Jab into st.Jab, which give enough time to check if the combo was blocked or not. If the combo is not blocked, Hawk can cancel the st.Jab into the Tomahawk Buster, for another knockdown and, possibly, a dizzy, leading to another damaging combo. Else, he can use the option-select Typhoon.

Match-ups