Introduction

Pro wrestlers cower before his Piledriver. Zangief knows that he must improve his Piledriver but is frustrated because he cannot advance it. A sudden storm sends Zangief spinning to earth head-first. He drops to the ground with a great thud. Seconds later, great laughter breaks out across the land; Zangief has found his inspiration!

The big russian grappler who everyone loves to fight like he has aids. Gief is very good in Alpha 2, being able to tick very good unlike other incarnations. He is high tier, right below the top 4. This is the only game outside of the SF2 series where Gief is pretty much going to pile drive you when he gets close.

Pros:

Grabs are very damaging and pretty much free when close in some cases
PPP Lariat is an awesome anti air, KKK Lariat is great vs ground moves up close
Damaging normals, solid pokes
Jumping attacks have ridiculously good priority
Longest ranged Valle CC in the game

Cons:

Gigantic hurtbox
Sloooooooooow
Can have trouble getting in on some characters

Movelist

Normal Moves

STANDING

-

CROUCHING

cr.-

File:Zan cr.forward.png

cr.-

File:Zan cr.hk.png

JUMPING Jumping (Neutral jump)

nj.-

Jumping (Diagonal jump)

dj.- Same as nj.

dj.-

dj.- Same as nj.

Command Moves

+ -

+-

Jump++-

nj+ +

Normal Throws

/+ -

Alpha Counters

+- Punch AC- Pretty much only to be used against ground based attacks and very deep jump in attacks up CLOSE to gief. Very quick and good damage. If opponent gets AC'ed into corner you should be able to follow up with magic grab. Do not use this move against multi hitting attacks such as akumas dp ect as it will get beat.

+- Kick AC- His best option for anti air and most ground attacks. If oppoent jumps in with early attack try to AC at the first frames of block stun so you can get quicker recovery from the AC and alot of times you can walk forward a sec, jump forward and magic grab as they get up.

Special Moves

+- Spinning Pile Driver. This is Gief's signature grapple. He grabs you, spins high in the the air, and comes down crasher you on your head. This move is very very strong, doing roughly 24% damage to a normal character. The fp version has very good range and jab version grabs the farthest. This is the move to use when close since it grabs characters on their first frame, thus the "Magic grab" more on this later.

+ (close)- Russian Suplex. Gief will grab and do a suplex then slam, this grab iirc does more in other games, but in A2 does less than a SPD, approximately 23% life. No reason to use this grab midscreen since the range isnt good and does less damage than the SPD. This grab, however, is awesome when it is done when opponent is near the corner.

+ (far)- Running Bear Grab. Gief will do a walking grab, the walk being actually slow. If it grabs, Gief will flying power bomb the opponent for about 12% life. Not much use for this outside the corner.

/- Lariat. His main anti-air is while is very useful vs ground moves, counter cc's, and to build meter. Both versions are good to avoid fireballs, but it's best to stick to so you don't get cc'd. For best result, duck right before a lariat to get a clean hit.

:

+- Banishing Flat/"Green Hand". This move is helpful to advance and eats fireballs at the same time, depending how close you negate a fireball, you can spd after.

:

Super Moves

+- Final Atomic Buster. This move at lvl 3 is very worth it, other lvls, not so much. Gief will do a a couple slams (depending on the lvl) and end in a SPD. Lvl 1 is not worth it at all, since a SPD does pretty much the same damage and it just as guaranteed and a lvl 1.

+- Aerial Russian Slam. Worthless, at any lvl, except maybe 3. I've got this once. I would really like to see the grab hitbox on this cause you can be right up on someone and not grab. Horrible super. Best forget you have it lol. Use it as a anticipation tatic or you are sure you have your opponent beat.

The Basics

Tick/SPD stuff

Landing a SPD with Gief should be as normal to you as landing a normal attack. Good ticks for a SPD are jumping forward knees or fierce splash into SPD (his bread n butter).

Meaty c.mk/smk SPD, c.lp x2 into SPD, c.lk into SPD, these are the most common and useful. Meaty long low forward or low strong , standing forward, standing short all work as well. I tend to not tick too much against higher skilled opponents as its common to be reversed so use sparingly.'

Build meter no matter what. Any moment you have to build meter you should. Mostly by kick lariets and jab gloves and even if you get hit while building by sonic booms, fbs, ect. I will gladly eat a few projectiles in order to build a bar or so of meter because his CC is the equalizer and its sometimes worth taking those hits to gain it just don't get overzealous and get dizzy from it.

Advanced Strategy

The MAGIC Grab:

This is a big reason of why Gief is so good. It allows him to grab his opponent the first frame out of block stun or get up. When done right you can do this on your oppoents wake up and they can hold up and they still get grabbed. This can be done with SPD or Russian Suplex or Running Bear Grab which can allow for another set of mixing up. With that being said there are few characters that are STUCK into eating a SPD for free damage if they have no super meter, Rose has no wake up reversals without meter, nor does Sakura, Birdie, Sodom, or Rolento. Bison and Dhalsim don't either other then their teleports. So against them do this FOR free when they have no meter. It is hard to reverse and can lead to big damage. Here are some things you can do:

c.rh or df+rh, jump, land, SPD

point blank c.mk or s.mk, SPD

c.lp, s.lk x SPD

any jump in, SPD

c.rh or df+rh (close), SPD on wake up

Corner:

If your opponent is cornered it is possible to land the TRIFECTOR on your opponnent. Knock opponent down, time it so that you do a SHORT RBG(does not toss gief back as far as other kick variations) as they are getting up. the RBG will grab them throw them back in corner, land take brief walk forward and jump towards them, you should land right next to them on their first frame of getting up(different timings for different characters wake up times vary) do Russian Suplex (close one) the 2nd part of this grab will put Gief into the corner and therefore removing his normal push back that normally happens allowing Gief to recover then jump back toward opponent a 3rd time as they're getting up and be in range for a punch spd, and even after THAT 3rd spd you COULD throw in the run up CC into spd for quads. lol. bunch of variations. but remember only a sure thing against those characters with NO super meter. All this stuff can be reversed (though hard) with wake up specials etc. but thats where the fun starts because if you know your opponent is good and will try to wake up DP your spd attempt just let them and block, then activate CC for max damage or spd them if no meter.

Fun thing to do against Gief opponent is to do repeated short RBG's in corner, Gief cannot get out of this other then to wake up spd as a reversal. A2 infinite of some sort.

Lk Running Bear Grab, walk forward then jump, Russian Suplex, FP green glove or jump/land, SPD or lvl 3 FAB (character specific)

Custom Combo to tick:

One thing you can do when the opponent has no meter is to cc withing range and s.mk, then s.lks, SPD when cc ends. This is very good vs opponents with no reversal, especially for the kill.

Note that SPD in CC counts as a hit so if your opponent is attacking it will grab.

Style Points

Knock opponent down with c.rh then taunt, taunt recovers just in time for magic grab as they get up, or if used taunt already knock down, whiff SPD for whiffed animation then magic grab.

Custom Combos

There are 2 variations of Zangief's custom:

df+rh xx jab glove xN, PPP lariet ender

This is his best version cause the massive range for the valle cc and is very damaging.

c.mk xx fp glove xN, SPD ender

This cc hurts like a mofo, but c.mk has no range and must be done close, but damage is well worth it. End with Russian Suplex in the corner so you can get a magic grab SPD after the cc. Ouch.

AA CC:

KKK lariet, jab gloves xN, PPP ender

Yeah, good damage XD

Gief: any lvl: df+rh xx lp gloves xN, ppp

any lvl: c.mk xx fp gloves xN, 360

aa cc: kkk, lp gloves xN, ppp

Match-ups

Vs. Adon:

Vs. Akuma:

Vs. Birdie:

Vs. Charlie:

Vs. Chun-Li:

Vs. Dan:

Vs. Dhalsim:

Vs. Gen:

Vs. Guy:

Vs. Ken:

Vs. M. Bison (dictator):

Vs. Rolento:

Vs. Rose:

Vs. Ryu:

Vs. Sagat:

Vs. Sakura:

Vs. Sodom:

Vs. Zangief (self):

**Street Fighter Alpha 2**
Characters
Adon - Akuma - Birdie - Charlie - Chun-Li - Dan - Dhalsim - Evil Ryu - Gen - Guy - Ken - M.Bison - Rolento - Rose - Ryu - Sagat - Sakura - Sodom - Zangief