Introduction

A member of a secret elite military team, Charlie co-piloted a special mission into Thailand along with his long-time friend Guile. The mission backfired, and Charlie and Guile were captured. After escaping the jungle prison, Charlie now seeks the force behind the unrest in Thailand.

Players to watch: OCXRIDAH, Blaze, Sketch

Charlie has an incredibly good defense and offense. He has alot of good thing going for him and a few bad, so we will start there.

Pros:

AA monster, high priority normals for anti-air (s.mp, s.mk, s.hk) as well as lk flash kick which beats anything and his AA cc.

Great projectile, though its not as good as guile's in other games, not giving frame advantage like guile really, but come out fast and has good speed and trajectory and does allow for combos when thrown from afar.

C.mk is universal poke with far range and is really annoying

Cons:

Easy as hell to CC thru his AAs, and due to him being so solid, alot of people will try jump-in CC.

Outside c.MK his normals are so-so, f+FP is so slow, and other normals are more for AA.

ACs arent all that great with them being slow and sometimes missing.

CC isn't damaging like other characters.

Move Analysis

Normal Moves

STANDING

- Just a normal standing lp, nothing too special about this, can AA sometimes and you can s.lp walking pressure on whoever cant duck this.

- A really good anti air, he does a quick uppercut. Cancel this ino a sonic boom to keep up pressure. I usually cancel into a lp boom if I AA with this.

- A straight punch that I havent really found much use for.

- A quick kick to the shin. use this rarely, seems to have decent priority but no range.

- Another great anti-air when your opponent jumps in fram afar, such as Sagat jumping in with rh. Can cancel into specials.

- Ugly angled kick which is good or anti-air, same uses as s.mk with a little more power behind it.

CROUCHING

cr.- This is your combo starter. Combo's easily into sonic booms, flash kicks, supers.

cr.- Limited anti air ability, better to stick with your other choices IMO. Good to cancel into sonic boom for pressure or use in combos. Seems to have ok priority, seems slow to me compared to other characters c.mp's.

cr.- Probably top ten useless normals in A2: It has ONE active frame. Looks like Guile's godly c.fp from other games but gets beat by everything. I fucking hate this move.

cr.- I like this normal, cancels easily into booms and supers. Decent range, I like to walk up and poke with this.

cr.- His best ground all-purpose poke. Great range, speed, hits low, and has great recovery. Quite annoying when playing a Charlie player because this move can very effectively keep you out due to its range. Seems to leave you on even frames, maybe very slight frame advantage.

cr.- Eh. This move doesnt really suck but really isnt great. Slow coming out and heavy recovery. I really dont use this at all, unless Someone whiffs a dp, etc from afar.

JUMPING Jumping (Neutral jump)

nj.-

Jumping (Diagonal jump)

dj.-

dj.- This move is dope, hella priority, speed, and if done close you get the throw. Best air-to-air period.

dj.-

dj.- GREAT range on this jump in and amazing cross up, use to punish fireballers, and dont swing if you think a dp is comin, cc their ass on recovery. great jump-in.

dj.- Great jump-in too, good priority and awesome angle.

Command Normals

/ + - Jump Sobat. Slow ass overhead which I'm pretty sure leaves you at negative frames. Use at MAX distance to be safe, I usually will do it after a boom.

/ + - Step Kick. This is his forward moving hop kick. Good range, but slow in this game. Very useful for moving forward after a sonic boom.

+ - Spin Back Knuckle. This normal is best used as a anti-jump. Good in the corner when doing Sonic Boom pressure, toss it out if you think they will jump and it will hit them.

Normal Throws

/+ - German Suplex, does slightly more damage than kick throw

/+ - Press any button rapidly for more hits

(In Air)/+ - Same damage as punch throw

Special Moves

Charge , + - Sonic Boom. The best fireball in terms of release speed and recovery, and a key part of zoning and pressure with Charlie. This is very hard to punish and with good charging techniques you can keep up a while vs. Ryu's. This isn't as good as later games since at point blank it doesn't leave you with much if any frame advantage, but still allows combos from certain ranges.

Charge , + - Somersault Shell. Probably the best AA in the game, easily beating jumps in with the LK version, and easily beating ground moves with MK version.

:

Super Moves

Charge , , , + - Sonic Break. Press Punch rapidly for more hits. Very useful super since it seems the first sonic boom comes out no matter what, which means at worst it will trade making it a very reliable AA. As far as chip goes, I would just CC. Good to push opponent back, you can delay booms by spacing the punch input. Good AA, but I would CC instead.

Charge , , , + - Crossfire Blitz. This is the super you want to combo into, decent damage and combos off light attacks at any level, safe on block.

Charge , , , + - Somersault Justice. When comboed you usually miss hits making it weaker to combo into than Blitz after a cross up, but looks better. Unless going for chip or style points, stay away from this super unless comboing from a jump in (Which gets all the hits).

Alpha Counters

+

Sends the opponent flying almost fullscreen. This is good for ground normals or specials as trying to Punch AC a jump-in won't work due to the active frames coming out after the opponent lands freely.

+

Causes closer knockdown than Punch AC, but it's not only guaranteed, but it's the preferred button between the two. It's good for ground attacks and acts as an anti-air. Depending on the situation and the playstyle, will depend on what AC is better suited.

The Basics

Play Style

Charlie can be played aggressively or defensively, 99% of the players you see will be the latter. Though Charlie can be very effecive defensively, a well rounded player will learn how to use both, thus making it harder to adjust to your play style. Some players are mostly offensive (S4v is an example) while some can go hardcore turtle (Me, guilty). But the problem with that is if you can't play him both ways you are bound to run into some problems. So best to try to balance both.

Charge Techniques

This section is important to learn fo any SF game, if you use a charge character. This is quick charging, the most effective way to maximie your charge time. Perform every sonic boom in this way:

charge b-f-b+p

Instead of the normal motion you execute the sonic boom ending in back+punch. This allows you to start harging for the next boom immeadiately after throwing he next one.

Sonic boom, SOMERSAULT!!!

This way of performing a sonic boom allows for the execution of a flash kick about a tenth of a second later after throwing the boom. You can actually flash kick while the boom is on screen. Perform it in this way:

charge b-f-b-db-d-df+lp

So after charging you go foward, back, then roll to down foward+lp. Hit up and kick a tenth of a second later and a flash kick will come out. neat huh?

Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom, pause Sonic boom...

Using the quick charge technique explained earlier, this can be very effective versus some characters. As soon as they block a boom throw another one, use different speeds. Just keep booming as fast as possible, you are doing it right if as soon as a Sonic Boom is blocked, one is coming out. this builds meter very quickly and can force your opponent to jump, eating a CC. When they get jump happy, ocassionally pause, if they jump, CC, normal AA, or Flash kick. Rinse repeat.

Patternizing: A no-no

Alot of Charlie players I noticed will patternize a hell of a lot more than with other characters. 80-90% of them will boom after a c.mk. Don't do that shit. Mix up your poke string as well as you can, otherwise you are gonna get countered easily. Ever play someone and kick their ass, but about 3-4 matches down the road you are having a hard time or losing? You are probably doing a lot of patterns they caught on to. Like in the corner, you throw a sonic boom, most people follow up with a c.MK or c.RH. They almost always do. They other options they had were:

Throw another sonic boom
nothing, punish jump attempt or cc a dp atempt
walk up throw
f+fp to punish jumpers
Jump-in and start another poke string.
f+rh to punish mashers

Now the situation is gonna dictate the action, but its better than just c.MK or c.RH. You are just gonna get AC'd. Mix it up.

Combos

All these can be done after a cross up MK:

cr.LP x2, cr.LK xx Sonic Soom
cr.LP, cr.LK xx MK Flash Kick
cr.LP x2, cr.LK xx any level Sonic Blitz (or Somersualt Justice)

Advanced Strategy

Counter CC

Now like I mentioned earlier about jump in CC's, Charlie gets that done a lot to him because his solid ground game. If you suspect your opponent plans on this, or patternizes by always doing this, save your CC to counter CC, free damage for you. Some matches I would just sit back and boom and just wait for the CC to counter it.

Custom Combos

Level 1

cr.HK xx LK Flash Kick, HP Sonic Boom xx HK Flash Kick
cr.HK xx HK Flash Kick x2

For chip and/or block:

This CC is really good because you can walk behind these unlike other chip ccs. Walk behind these and go for a counter hit, overhead, or throw. Make sure to start out with c.rh, cause if they do get hit they get juggled.

cr.HK xx lp sonic boom x4

Level 2

cr.HK xx hk flash kick x 3

Level 3

cr.HK xx LK Flash Kick x3, MK Flash Kick, HK Flash Kick
cr.HK xx LK Flash Kick, HK Flash Kick x3

Anti-Air Custom Combos

Now these are very important, specifically to punish people who look to jump after a sonic boom, also allow you to walk after a boom and punish hard, since they arent worried about a charged flash kick. Now in most cases they can jump to where if you try to AA you will get beat, mainly wen theyare looking to jump immediately after a boom. That when you hit'em with AA CC.

Activate:

s.MP if they are higher up (into any level ground CC)
cr.LP if they are lower to the ground (into any ground CC)

Now hit them with this a couple times and Im sure they will think twice about jumping

Charlie: lvl 1- c.rh xx lk fk, hp sb, hk fk

lvl 1- c.rh xx hk fk x2

lvl 2- c.rh xx hk fk x3

lvl 3- c.rh xx hk fk x2, lk fk, hk fk

lvl 3- c.rh xx lk fk x3, mk fk, hk fk

Match-ups

Adon-

Akuma- as for akuma’s air fireball, try jumping straight up and hitting akuma with forward or fierce. you should be able to s. shell his jump in fierce. if you want to do more damage, try doing cc that goes something like s. strong, repeated short s. shells. it does good damage. you can also custom through his air fireball(also ground fireball if you have at least lv. 2). charlie has lots of anti airs like standing strong, standing forward, standing roundhouse, or jump up fierce. if you try to punch alpha counter with charlie, make sure the jump in isn’t really deep. otherwise, the alpha counter will whiff. i like to use standing forwards and roundhouse as anti air. and another thing, watch out for smart opponent who like to jump in custom. they will try to mistime their jump to tempt into s. shell so they can custom through and hurt you. if you smell a custom, let them waste their whole meter.

Birdie-

Charlie- (self

Chun-Li- Chun vs. Charlie is what you call a total mismatch. Charlie can’t jump against Chun, he gets out projectiled, don’t even compare CCs, and Chun li can jump in on Charlie when he sonic booms from fair distance without being punished. Basically Charlie is going to get owned even by a decent Chun li player. You can try forward shell kick to beat her ground moves and never jump on her. Against Chun, you should try to build up to level 3 so you can CC through her Kikoken. I cannot stress enough not to jump against Chun. She will keep you away with kikokens and if you do jump, just jump straight up or just block. You are going to lose if you keep jumping against her because she can and will counter you cleanly everytime by low roundhouse. If you want a good anti Chun(not really since she really has no bad matchup), try Ryu, Ken, Sodom, Rose. I’ve seen those characters do pretty well against her. I personally like playing Ryu against her. Other than these characters, Chun is pretty much unstoppable if you play her correctly. Of course you could play Chun vs Chun which is perfectly even but really

Dan- against shotos, just sit back and throw sonic booms all day and try to hit them with sonic break super when they fireball . if they do close fireball, just block and alpha counter it to push them back. if you manage to kick ac, always follow up with jump forward cross up into a combo/throw attempt. sometimes if you see a fireball coming from long range, jump in with roundhouse. it has a long reach…charlie loses when either he starts jumping carelessly or if you let shotos cross you up all over. so just keep them out!

Dhalsim-

Gen-

Guy-

Ken- against shotos, just sit back and throw sonic booms all day and try to hit them with sonic break super when they fireball . if they do close fireball, just block and alpha counter it to push them back. if you manage to kick ac, always follow up with jump forward cross up into a combo/throw attempt. sometimes if you see a fireball coming from long range, jump in with roundhouse. it has a long reach…charlie loses when either he starts jumping carelessly or if you let shotos cross you up all over. so just keep them out!

M. Bison (dictator)-

Rolento-

Rose- The way Charlie can counter Rose’s low strong is either kick AC or push CC after Rose misses…I think CCing her whiffed low strong is the key. Rose doesn’t have too many ways to reverse AC except her soul spark super. How standing forward is resilient towards a lot of ground based kick ACs such as Ryu’s and Charlie’s because when she does her standing forward, she is off the ground(similiar to Birdie’s low forward).

Rose can basically stand at Charlie’s face and absord sonic booms or punch AC when Charlie sticks out something. Or she can just low strong when she wants to play conservative. If charlie jumps in, Rose can low fierce xx lv. 1 aura soul throw. Or push illusion and as Charlie jump in, do her slide so that Charlie lands on it then low fierce into roundhouse drill. Ouch?

Obviously, this is a fight where Rose is clearly at an advantage. There are some thing that Charlie can do.

CC her whiffed low strong. This is hard but this will greatly increase your chances. Or simply walk within her range and try to kick AC her. If Rose just sits there, Rose is probably waiting for a chance to punch AC…a throw attempt might be useful at close range. You must try to beat the low strong which is difficult for Charlie.

Jump in with CC through her low fierce.

Sonic break super when you think Rose will try reflect so that she gets hit by 2nd sonic boom. If she ever misses a reflect in close range, CC her immediately.

kick AC her illusion powered drill on the last hit. then try for a cross up combo/cheap. if you do it too early, you will trade hits.

Ryu- against shotos, just sit back and throw sonic booms all day and try to hit them with sonic break super when they fireball . if they do close fireball, just block and alpha counter it to push them back. if you manage to kick ac, always follow up with jump forward cross up into a combo/throw attempt. sometimes if you see a fireball coming from long range, jump in with roundhouse. it has a long reach…charlie loses when either he starts jumping carelessly or if you let shotos cross you up all over. so just keep them out!

Sagat-

Sakura- against shotos, just sit back and throw sonic booms all day and try to hit them with sonic break super when they fireball . if they do close fireball, just block and alpha counter it to push them back. if you manage to kick ac, always follow up with jump forward cross up into a combo/throw attempt. sometimes if you see a fireball coming from long range, jump in with roundhouse. it has a long reach…charlie loses when either he starts jumping carelessly or if you let shotos cross you up all over. so just keep them out!

Sodom-

Zangief-