Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting/M. Bison

Moves List

Special Moves

Psycho Crusher: Hold Back for at least 2 seconds, then Forward + Punch (Hold 4 for at least 1 second, then 6 + Punch).

Scissors Kick: Hold Back for at least 3 seconds, then Forward + Kick (Hold 4 for at least 1 second, then 6 + Kick). Note the 3 second charge, rather than the usual 2 second charge. This is the only special move in HF that requires a longer than usual charge.

Head Press: Hold Down for at least 1 second, then Up + Kick (Hold 2 for at least 1 second, then 8 + Kick). M.Bison's flight can be controlled to an extent after he stomps on his opponent.

Somersault Skull Diver: After Head Press, tap any Punch.

Match-ups

Vs. Balrog (boxer):

Balrog fears M.Bison's Psycho Crusher, but only if you use it from about half a screen away, and only as long as you have a lot of room after making contact to land afterwards. On the other hand, M.Bison fears Balrog's normals and his headbutt. To win in this fight. Bison needs to stay the hell away from 'Rog and keep moving.

The goal for this fight is simple. M.Bison needs to be at least half a screen away from Balrog and charged at all times. M.Bison can hit Balrog's rushing attacks with s.HK (standing Hard Kick/Roundhouse), but to do consistently is impossible unless you're the CPU, so I wouldn't even try. The reverse isn't quite as difficult, unfortunately: Balrog can reaction c.HK (crouching Hard Kick/Roundhouse)) you out of both your Psycho Crusher and your Double Knee Press from up close, and he can use s.HP (standing Hard Punch/Fierce) from far. So you need to be at least beyond his s.HP range before you even think about flying into him.

Once you're in the right range, you have to know what to fly at him with. If you're not in the middle of the playing field or close to your corner, you can try a Light Punch/Medium Punch Psycho Crusher or a Light Kick/Medium Kick Double Knee Press for pressure/block damage if he's not moving forward. The Light Punch Psycho Crusher should be safe. The Medium Punch Psycho Crusher isn't safe, but it sets up a guessing game that could lead you to a throw. If he blocks the Double Knee Press, you can try a blocked string like crouching Medium Kick, standing Medium Kick, and then perform another Double Knee Press. He can crouching Hard Punch you out of this, but it's tough to do. Don't stay there too long, though, since he is in a much better position of close than you.

If you're near your corner, and Balrog is advancing upon you, use a Hard Punch Psycho Crusher. Balrog will either block it or get hit. He can jump over it, but Balrog's low slow jump makes it difficult to do consistently. Once you fly to the other side and land, re-establish your optimum range and repeat. Scrubby as it sounds, you can get by by repeatedly Psycho Crushing back and forth across the playing field, as long as you do it only when near to your corner, and only as long as Balrog is within half a screen of you (or if he foolishly decides to use one of his charging attacks on you from far away - your Psycho Crusher will go through them all for free).

Vs. Blanka:

Your strategy against Blanka is very much similar as the your strategy against Balrog, but Blanka is much more dangerous: He has a higher jump, very good high priority normals, has a much longer throw range, and an extremely dangerous Vertical Ball that can lock you down in the corner if you're not careful.

The main premise is the same: Stay about half a screen away and be charged at all times. Only use Psycho Crusher's against Blanka, never Double Knee Presses, because when Blanka ducks, he's so low to the ground that the first hit of the Double Knee Press will whiff, causing the move to recover funny (you end up landing closer to the opponent) and make you even more vulnerable to counterattack. Once Blanka is about half a screen away, and you're winthin half a screen of your own corner, use a Hard Punch Psych Crusher. He'll either block it (most likely) for 3 or 4 hits or get hit.

However, Blanka's sprite is curiously wide, such that sometimes he gets hit by the 4th hit even if he blocked the first 3! Also, depending on your timing, it's possible to make Blanka get hit as he's getting up from a knock down by M.Bison's legs during the latter's Hard Punch Psycho Crusher, knocking him down again. You can actually repeat this several times in a row if your timing is right. You can do this against other characters as well, but it happens most easily against Blanka.

Blanka can hit you out of your Psycho Crusher with his standing light attacks, but in my experience, only the CPU can do it consistently.

If Blanka ever does his Horizontal Ball on you and you block it, you can Hard Punch Psycho Crusher him for free. Thus, you will seldom see a Horizontal Ball in this fight.

Your Psycho Crusher can go through his Thundershock, but only if done from at least a few steps away. Your crouching Hard Kick (the slide) will also hit it, but only if done from far away.

Blanka's jumping attacks are extremely dangerous, especially his jumping Medium Kick and his jumping Hard Kick, both of which will take you out of all your special moves and jumping attacks with ease. Don't get into an air war with Blanka, you will lose. Try to avoid being in range of his jumping attacks. If you're in the corner and he's jumping at you repeatedly, try an early jump back Light Punch to get him off you, and then Psyco Crusher when you land to get away.

If you're knocked down in the corner and Blanka is right on top of you, you're in trouble. Among other things, Blanka then has free reign to do Vertical Ball over and over again over your head, and it's hard to get out. The only two ways to get out I know of are: 1) A well timed Hard Punch Psycho Crusher at the last possible moment to hit him on the way down, and using his crouching Hard Kick (the slide) to avoid it entirely. I'm not even sure about the former, though the latter works. It doesn't put you in any advantageous position, but at least it gets you out of the trap.

This is, of course, assuming Blanka doesn't simply jump kick you and then bite you repeatedly when he lands. M.BIson dies to all sorts of stupid stuff when he's trapped in the corner.

Vs. M. Bison (dictator-self):

This is the stupidest fight in the game. M.Bison fears his own Psycho Crusher, and if it is used at the correct time, he has no answer for it. When fighting M.Bison vs. M.Bison, there is an algorithm that one can use, and whoever deviates from the pattern first loses.

The pattern is simple: Jump back into the corner repeatedly while pressing Hard Kick (Roundhouse). Once the other M.Bison moves to winthin half to one-third of a screen's distance from you on the ground, use a Hard Punch (Fierce) Psycho Crusher. Since the other M.Bison is walking forward, he will be unable to use any special moves on you. And unless you're fighting the CPU, he will be unable to reaction boot kick you (Hard Kick/Roundhouse) you out of your Psycho Crusher. He will either be forced to block it, get hit by it and subsequently knocked down, or jump over it, taking no damage. You get the advantage on all 3 scenarios. Once you recover from the Psycho Crusher, continue to jump backwards into the other corner and repeat.

The weakest part of this pattern is as soon as the round starts. At this distance, both M.Bisons need to guess what the other is going to do. Both want to establish the pattern, but neither wants the other to start it either. Whoever guesses correctly at the start and damages their opponent first will win.

For example, 1P M.Bison thinks that 2P M.Bison is going to jump backwards at the start, which is what he wants to do, so 1P does a HP Psycho Crusher immediately to hit 2P M.Bison on his way back. 2P M.Bison anticipates this and performs a MK Double Knee Press instead which, at that distance, will beat the Psyco Crusher cleanly. 1P M.Bison is now knocked down and is behind on life. 2P M.Bison is now free to jump backwards and establish the pattern.

There also needs to be care not to perform the Psyco Crusher against another M.Bison unless your backed up in the corner and when he's within one-third to half a screen away from you. If you perform the Psyco Crusher too far out in the open, you'll recover too close to the other M.Bison when you land, and you can be more easily hit/thrown. If performed when your back is in the corner, you'll travel nearly the entire playing field, and will be too far away for the other M.Bison to damage you in any real fashion.

After the initial jockeying for the pattern is established, whoever has the lead on life when the pattern is started will win. It is *tremendously* difficult for M.Bison to come from behind against this pattern. At that point, it's pretty much a matter of skill and experience rather than any set strategy.

Vs. Sagat:

This is a very bad match for M.Bison, though he has a chance of victory. If Sagat gets M.Bison into the corner, he will lose. If M.Bison can stay a full screen away from Sagat, he has a chance. Unfortunately, all Sagat has to do is jump at Bison two or three times with blocked strings and he's in the corner, which is death. At close range, Sagat can randomly hit standing Light Kick (using the single hit version only, not the two-hit close version) which will beat every attack M.Bison has on the ground, including the Psycho Crusher and the Double Knee Press. With his back against the wall, M.Bison has no way to escape a Light Kick attack assault. If M.Bison tries to jump out, he will eat Tiger Uppercut, plus Sagat is free to cancel any connected Lick Kicks into Tiger Uppercut, or walk up and throw randomly. If he gets pushed back too far, he can Tiger Knee back in, which will also beat all of M.Bison's attacks if done up close. So M.Bison must avoid the corner at all costs. It is not in his favour though.

Out in the open, M.Bison has a few more options, especially if Sagat is throwing Tiger Shots at him all day (only if the Sagat doesn't know what he's doing). M.Bison can Psycho Crusher over low Tigers Shots from any range, or he can Double Knee Press over them from the right range. M.Bison can use crouching Hard Kick (the slide) against high Tiger Shots, though it's risky, and very punishable if his slide is blocked. If Sagat is in the corner, M.Bison can use the Head Press on him to try and cross him up - it has a good chance of stuffing or avoiding his Tiger Uppercut, and M.Bison can ambiguously land in front or behind and throw/go for more pressure.

But as noted, these tactics aren't likely to come into play if the Sagat knows what he's doing. All Sagat needs to do is jump with Hard Kick a few times in a row against M.Bison to force him back into the corner - the long range and havy priority of Sagat's jumping Hard Kick will beat all of M.Bison's ground attacks, and has a good chance of hitting him if he tries to jump as well (Sagat can always press the button early if he sees M.Bison try to jump after him). Once in the corner, it's all standing Light Kick abuse that M.Bison has no answer for.

Vs. Zangief:

There is little M.Bison can do in this fight except die. It is by far his worst match, and one of the worst mismatches in the game. With only a few moves, Gief can completely shut Bison down. His PPP/KKK Lariet will stop his Psyco Crusher and Double Knee Press clean on reaction, his PPP lariet nullfies his long range standing kicks, and his splash (down + Hard Punch in the air) will stuff every attack in Bison's arsenal.

Gief's algorithm in this match is very, very simple: All he needs to do is walk forward and PPP lariet anything that moves. Once he gets to within about half a screen, he can then jump and do splashes repeatedly. A blocked splash will lead to a ticked SPD. Repeat until death. There is nothing M.Bison can do about this. He lacks an instant high priority/invincible reversal, so Gief is free to splash him and tick into SPD all day long without fear of reprisal. His SPD range makes it virtually impossible to reverse throw Gief after any blocked sequence unless Gief screws up. Bison can't mount any offense from either close (splash or Lariet will beat everything) or from far (headstomp can be blocked all the time without fear since it does no block damage, or Gief can do his aerial headbutt [Up + Medium/Hard Punch in the air] to counter). All he can do is roll over and die.

There are some things you can do: If he does his PPP Lariet, you can do Double Knee Pres from far away so that only the second hit connects, or you can crouching Hard Kick (slide) him from far. If he does his KKK Lariet, you can walk up and standing Hard Kick him. You can also try and cross him up if you managed to knock him down. But none of these tactics are reliable. Your only chance of winning against Gief is if Gief screws up repeatedly.