Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike/Akuma/Archive

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Moves List

Throws

Seoi Nage	LP + LK
Tomoe Nage	B + LP + LK

Special Normals

Zugai Hasatsu	F + MP
Tenma Kuujin Kyaku	In air, D + MK

Target Combos

• close standing MP -> HP

Special Moves

Gohadouken	D, DF, F + P
Zanku Hadouken	In air, D, DF, F + P
Shakunestu Hadouken	F, DF, D, DB, B + P
Tatsumaki Zankuukyaku	D, DB, B + K *
	* Can also be done in air
Ashura Senkuu	F, D, DF or B, D, DB + PPP or KKK *
	* PPP travels farther than KKK
Hyakki Shuu	F, D, DF + K
-> Hyakki Gouzan	During Hyakki Shuu, no input
-> Hyakki Goushou	During Hyakki Shuu, P
-> Hyakki Goujin	During Hyakki Shuu, K
-> Hyakki Gousai	During Hyakki Shuu, LP + LK when directly on top of opponent

Super Arts

I	Messatsu-Gouhadou	D, DF, F, D, DF, F + P	2 stocks
I	Tenma-Gouzanku	In air, D, DF, F, D, DF, F + P	2 stocks
II	Messatsu-Goushouryu	D, DF, F, D, DF, F + P	2 stocks
III	Messatsu-Gourasen	D, DF, F, D, DF, F + K	2 stocks
III	Messatsu-Gousenpuu	In air, D, DF, F, D, DF, F + K	2 stocks
any	Shungokusatsu	LP, LP, F, LK, HP	MAX required
any	Kongouko-kuretsuzan	D, D, D + PPP	MAX required

Strategies

Basically when playing akuma you want to use his supirior zoning ability in order to control your opponents options, and at the same time minimizing the risk of yourself being hit.

It is very important to note, if you haven't noticed already, that akuma has THE WORST defense rating in all of 3S. He also is tied with remy for having the smallest stun bar in all of 3S.

Also you should note that akumas supers are all the same length and he has no ex moves at all. All this was basically done to counter balance his increadable offense and mix ups. Many people are turned away from akuma because they see him as being to inconsistent due to his stamina but I hope to assure you that by making smart disicions during the match akuma has no holes at all in his stratagey.

Akuma has the basic shoto mixups that allow him to confuse and knock down his opponent again and again. If your not sure on what these mix ups are (eg: tick throw, high/low, kara throwing) please consult the ryu section for those basics.

For offense you want to use akumas air fireballs as a safe window to get in on opponents and start guessing games. When using air hadouken on someone who is standing always and I mean ALWAYS option select parry before throwing the fireball. Akuma cannot attack after the fireball has been thrown so you want to do it as late as possible, a good way to know is if you can throw an air hadouken at a standing opponent late enough so that they can't counter hit you even if they parry. Akuma is very safe after a late air fireball even if it's parried, you only need to watch out for stuff like reversal shippu or hugo/alex SAI as stuff with 1-2 frame start up will still be able to get you. The option select parry is there to protect you from any early anti air attempts. If the parry is sucsessful do a meaty fierce in the air and link a standing fierce into either short, or roundhouse tatsu depending on if they are standing or crouching as short tatsu wiffs on almost everyone crouching.

Another offensive option from mid range to get close is to cancel hit or blocked low forwards into akumas deamon flip. Akuma has a fairly good deamon flip mixup game that works well as long as its not used more that a few times in a match, if you become predictable with it your opponent may be able to punish you. The input for this is (forward, down MK, downforward and any kick). The kick pressed determines the distance of akumas flip. Use the short one to keep the pressure on with dive kicks and use the other two for his throw.

Once akuma scores a knockdown he is extremely dangerous. he can hit confirm his close standing forward into his B&B juggle. He also can confirm marginal damage starting low without a super with this combo (crouching short, cr. jab, cancel into roundhouse tatsu. If in the corner cancel into forward tatsu and juggle with an extremely early strong shoryu, which can addtionally be canceled off the first hit into messatsu go hadou if you have built enough meter). If you have super akuma is usually better off starting low with cr.short,cr.short,super hit confirm.

A note on akumas B&B juggles. If you hit a close standing forward do not immediatly cancel into messatsu go hadou, instead cancel into lk tatsu if your oppenent is not crouching when hit. Akumas standing jab reset into messatsu go hadou is much better, although it can be parried akuma recovers well before his opponent has finsihed parrying all 6 hits and can dash in and attack to screw up thier timing. This almost allways does more damage than his link. Only link the close standing forward into messatsu go hadou if they are crouching or if it will win you the round. Another juggle that people often overlook and deam as being "too hard" is his jab reset into kongoku-kuretsuzan. This is his absolute BEST combo, as it is insane damage and is completely inescapable after the first hits of the combo connect. This reset cannot be parried and this super usually does more damage than a deamon. This combo really only needs to be practiced for about a week before its second nature, an important thing to look out for is to do the jab as early as possible as it often determines wheather or not there is enough time to link the super.

If you dont have meter akumas best option is usually to juggle with a semi late fierce shoryu. You can also try to reset them with a standing fierce and cancel that into his forward deamon flip and continue to pressure. If you have already tried canceling into forward deamon flip, instead cancel the fierce into the short deamon flip and just let it finish into the sweep. Akuma is usually safe after this sweep from the right range and that set-up puts you in the right range to block after against most characters. Agian watch out for supers with quick start ups before excecuting this attack.

Another one of akumas great strengths that absolutly needs to be mastered is his asura senkuu or his teleport. This move completly ruins the game plans of characters like denjin-ryu, urien, and hugo. It can also be used as a way to run away from genei-jin although when doing this you must be extremely careful. Reversal teleport is absolutly manditiory for high level akuma play as it allows him to get around his terrible stamina. Use it to go through meaty denjins and escape agis unblockables.

The last important tactic for an akuma player to know is also his most imfamous, deamons. Akumas raging deamon puts akumas mix up game on the same level as Makotos, and almost as good as dudleys. It is important to only use this super in much the same way hugo uses his gigas breaker super. Only use this super at absolute point blank range or as kara, if it is not done at point blank range any scrub will know enough to jump and avoid it, however if it is done point blank, like other grab supers need to be, they cannot escape by that method. In fact it can help to ignore that the deamon travels any sort of distance at all. Be careful when kara canceling the deamon though becuase during those first few frames that gain extra range akuma is not considered in the deamon animation therefore he will not pass through opponents attacks. Only regular deamons are reliable for there invincibility frames. akuma has a few basic ways to land his deamon. These setups are: dash-deamon, dash-kara deamon, tick kara-deamon, empty cancel deamon flip into kara deamon, and even wake-up deamon. Dash deamon is performed by hiding two jabs in the dash then simply fnishing the command. Kara deamon is the same as his kara throw (towards strong) but finishing the command instead.

Akuma has a couple of not so hot setups for deamons that should be avoided. I sometimes see beginners use these setups but they are not safe. They are his low roundhouse blocked canceled into deamon, and his juggle fierce reset, wiff short tatsu while hiding 2 jabs in the tatsu then finishing the command at point blank. The reason these setups dont work is that they are easy to see coming for an expirianced player. Most experianced players will jump back when they see these set-ups done by an akuma with maxed super.

(Lately I have been experimenting with a very good, but extremely difficult deamon setup that when done correctly can really add to akumas deamon mix up. It is very possible, although very difficult, to hide to jab inputs inside the two low short inputs in a blocked version of akumas low short hit confirm. If the short, short, is blocked akuma can then cancel into an imediate kara deamon if the imputs were done correctly. It must be kara deamon as the 2 shorts push akuma too far out of point blank range on block. The command for this is to hit cr.short and hold then immediatly hit cr.jab during the short animation and hold then release cr. short to negative edge the second short and almost at the same time negitive edge the second jab by releasing jab, then cancel into kara deamon. If done correctly akuma will release two low shorts without releasing a low jab. The timeing for the button presses is similar to kara canceling yuns standing short into jab dash punch if you have any experience with yuns juggles.)