Street Fighter Alpha 2/Charlie

Introduction

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

• s.LP - 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.

• s.MP - 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.

• s.FP - I straight punch that I havent really found much use for.

• s.LK - A quick kick to the shin, I use this rarely, seems to have decent priority but no range :(.

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

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

CROUCHING

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

• cr.MP - 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.FP - Probably top ten useless normals in A2. Looks like Guile's godly c.fp from other games but gets beat by everything. I fucking hate this move.

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

• cr.MK - 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.RH - 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

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

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

• j.HK - Great jump-in too, good priority and awesome angle.

Command Normals

Jump Sobat (b or f + MK) - 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 (b or f + HK) - This is his foward moving hop kick. Good range, but slow in this game. Very useful for moving forward after a sonic boom.

Spin Back Knuckle (f + HP) - 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.

Throws

Dragon Suplex (b or f + MP or HP) -

Knee Gatling (b or f + MK or HK, Press any button rapidly for more hits) -

Flying Buster Drop (In Air, Back or Forward + MP or HP) -

Special Moves

Sonic Boom (Charge b, f + P) - 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.

Somersault Shell (Charge d, u + K) - 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

Sonic Break (Charge b, f, b, f + P, 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.

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

Somersault Justice (Charge db, df, db, uf + K - Better in A3. 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).

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

Match-ups