Breakers Revenge

Title Screen

Introduction

Breakers Revenge is a 2D fighter created by Visco in 1996 for the Neo Geo MVS. It is a small update to the previous game, adding new music and one character, Saizo. Breakers Revenge is notable for its surprisingly good gameplay and gets a decent amount of play online.

Notation

Joystick Notation

F - Forward
B - Backward
U - Up
D - Down
QCF - Quarter-circle forward, move the joystick down, then down-forward, then forward
QCB - Quarter-circle back, move the joystick down, then down-back, then back
HCF - Half-circle forward, move the joystick back, down-back, down, down-forward, then forward
HCB - Half-circle back, move the joystick forward, down-forward, down, down-back, then back
DP - Dragon punch, move the joy stick forward, then down, then down-forward
360 - Spin the stick 360 degrees
720 - Spin the stick 720 degrees
Charge - hold the stick in a direction for a set period of time

Button Notation

LP - Light punch, performed using the "A" button
LK - Light kick, performed using the "B" button
HP - Hard punch, performed using the "C" button
HK - Hard kick, performed using the "D" button
P - Any punch
K - Any kick

Punches and kicks may be referred to either as their button name or their attack type. For example, light punch may be referred to as "A" or "LP."

Descriptors

State Modifiers

j. - jumping
cr. - crouching
st. - standing
cl. - close
f. - far

For example, jumping light punch may be simply referred to as j.lp or j.a. Close standing C may be written as cl.st.c.

Notes on combo notation

xx or XX - cancel into, either with a super or a special.
+ - plus, press both buttons simultaneously.
xn - do the corresponding button press n number of times. For example, cr.lk x5 would mean to press crouching light kick five times. Used as xn denotes to perform the action as many times as possible.

An example of combo notation

j.hk, cr.lk, cr.lk, lp+hp xx super

This means to jump in with a jumping heavy kick attack, do 2 crouching light kicks, press light punch and hard punch together, and cancel the lp+hp with a super. Can also be written as j.d, cr.b x2, a+c xx super.

Game Mechanics

Supers

All characters have three super bars and a handful of supers, at least two per character. To gain super meter you can perform special moves, certain normals, or dash. Getting hit or blocking moves also builds meter. When a hit connects (on hit or block) with an opponent, more meter is gained than if it whiffed. Even supers themselves regenerate small amounts of super meter.

Super/Special/Command Normal Cancels

You can interrupt a normal attack of your own and cancel it into a command normal, a special move or a super move if the move connects (hit or block) with an opponent. Only certain moves are cancelable. Saizo's hair attack is the only special move that can be canceled. Sho has various air moves that can be super canceled even if they whiff.

Tech rolling

Press 3 buttons when your character touches the ground to perform a tech roll. Your character will roll backwards, making them harder to cross up, and they will get up faster. You can and should use this technique to make your opponent's pressure more difficult to perform.

Dashing

All characters except for Condor can perform a dash. To dash, simply tap the joystick twice in the direction you wish to dash. Invulnerability on backdashes varies from character to character. Dashes are typically a fixed length, though some characters run. Some dashes can be interrupted by a jump which will make your character jump farther. Some characters can attack out of a dash, some cannot. Some characters can cancel a dash into a block as well.

Dizzying

All characters can be dizzied after repeated hits. When a character is dizzied, a big cloud is released from their body and a distorted noise plays. To recover from a dizzy, mash the buttons and wiggle the joystick. Upon recovering from a dizzy, your character will be invulnerable while they recover, after which you can block. If you can mash fast enough, you will jump straight into the recovery animation and spend no time in the dizzy state. Since you are invulnerable during your recovery, this can completely negate any effects of the dizzy. It seems that combos done on a dizzied opponent do less damage. If someone becomes dizzy during a combo they will be put in a juggle state and continuing to hit the opponent will knock them out of dizzy. As combos against dizzied opponents do less damage, your combo with a dizzy occurring mid-combo will also do less damage.

Throws

Throws are performed by pressing forward or backward and C. Some characters have air throws, and some characters have kick throws. Check the character section to find out about your character's throws. You cannot throw an opponent that is currently in hit or blockstun or that was very recently in hit or blockstun. Throws cannot be performed on recently-risen opponents and opponents just landing from a reset.

Damage Scaling

Damage dealt is slightly randomized and also scales based on the length of a combo. The amount of life your character has left compared to the amount of life your opponent has left can also greatly change damage scaling. If you are low on life and your opponent has a full lifebar, your combo or move will do a great deal more than if you both had full life. The bigger the difference, the more damage the losing player will deal.

Chip Damage

When you block a special move or super move, you will receive chip damage, typical of a fighting game. However, special move's chip damage will kill you, and super move's chip damage will not kill you. It is generally a good idea to block super moves if they try to "chip" you to death if you are low on life.

Juggle System

The juggle system in Breakers Revenge is very simple. The general rule is that once an opponent is airborne, they can be hit with a normal, then a special, and then a super. The trick to juggles in Breakers is is that once an opponent becomes airborne, they will slowly start to flip backwards, and then be reset standing. If they do flip, you cannot combo them with anything but a super. Generally, for the first few hits of a combo, all normals used against aerial opponents will cause a flip and all specials will cause a knockdown. After a few hits (it seems to change based on the moves used) a player will be unable to be juggled with anything but a super.

For example, if Sho uses his cr.C to anti-air Tia, he can cancel it into his flame kick to combo. If he waits too long, and Tia starts to flip before being hit by the flame kick, the flame kick will whiff completely. If Sho does cr.C, and then performs a super after Tia has flipped, the super will connect.

Following the rules of juggling, a theoretical combo would be Sho anti-airing with cr.C, flamekick, st.a, j.lp x4, land, super. However, this is impossible. The reason is that because the opponent has been airborne for multiple hits, the st.a places them into a knockdown state and they can only be hit by supers. They cannot be hit by specials either.

An example juggle is, vs an aerial opponent, Tia st.a, j.lk, qcb+k, land, super. This follows the basic rule of juggles, normal -> special -> super.

Breakering

Banana Tia performing a breaker with her backdash against Strawberry Sweet Tia's B+D. Note the green circle.

"Breakering" is a term coined just for this game. Breakering is a feature in Breakers Revenge where the tail end of hitsun and blockstun can be canceled out of by the person being hit by doing just about anything. Only certain combos can be breakered, and these are called "fake" combos. Combos that are unbreakerable are "real." It is important to know if the combos you are doing are real or fake, especially if your opponent is adept at breakering.

Breakering can be done only on the ground with jumps, normals, specials, supers, and backdashes. When a breaker is performed, the combo gauge will be reset back to zero. However, if you breaker without an invulnerable move you will probably just get hit again, so try breakering with a dragon-punch type move with invulnerability, or Condor's grabs, or even backdashes. Upon breakering successfully with anything but a jump, your character will have a green circle underneath their sprite for 9 frames.

Several multi-hit moves are breakerable in between. In the picture shown to the right, Tia's B+D, an overhead kick, is two hits. You can breaker in between the two hits with anything you like. If you choose not to breaker, the two hits will combo and the combo meter will go up to 2.

In-depth strategies for using breakers will be discussed in the strategies section.

Reversals

Reversals can be performed in a very large window as you are reset from the air or getting up from the ground. This is notable as the window is much larger than it is in other games. Upon reversing, the green circle you get from breakering will appear. This does not mean you have breakered, but this is because all breakers are reversals, they get the green circle as well.

Strategy

On Breakers and Breakering

Upon picking up Breakers Revenge most players would not realize the existence of the breakering system. If one player knows about this system and the other player does not, it puts the knowledgeable player at a higher level. Learning how to breaker and deal with breakers is crucial to stepping your game up. What the breakers system does is that it makes having tight combos and pressure strings a necessity at high level, but it makes combos possible for newer players that cannot chain their attacks as tightly. What the breakers system does not do is force you to get hit for attacking. If this is happening to you, then you need to use different moves or strategies to make your combos unbreakerable.

Breakers are also used in punishing unsafe moves more effectively. Some moves are only punishable with breakers at the end of their stun.

How to Breaker

Learning to breaker is very important, and learning when you can breaker will help you learn what not to do when you're playing. Every single character in Breakers Revenge has at least 1 move they can breaker with. A good breaker is a breaker that will hit almost immediately with a small amount of invulnerability (like Tia's Rising Upper) or take your character out of danger (like Tia's backdash). A general rule of thumb is that is if a link looks like it is really tight, or that it shouldn't work, or involves a fireball, or if a combo or string is spacing-dependent, it can more than likely be breakered. Additionally, a lot of 2-hit moves such as Tia's LK+HK and LP+HP can be breakered in between as seen in the picture above.

Punishing with Breakers

Some moves are only punishable by breakers. Easy examples of this are combos or strings that end in a fireball. On hit or block, Dao-Long's bread and butter combo, cr.A xn, cr.B, A+C, Fireball is punishable by Saizo using his Combo Super unless it is spaced really far away.

Examples of Breakering

For this example, it is Tia vs Sho. Tia has just scored a knockdown and crosses up Sho with a j.B, cr.B x2, A+C which Sho blocks. Sho can flame kick in between the 2 hits of Tia's A+C. This is an extremely basic breaker. Even if the A+C hit, Sho would still be able to breaker unless Tia canceled the first hit of A+C into Rising Upper or a super(which is her basic combo).

Continuing this example fight, Sho has just knocked down Tia with a flame kick and is pressuring Tia with a LP fireball that he is dashing quickly behind. Sho repeatedly pressures Tia with dash f.st.C xx LP Fireball. Although f.st.C xx LP Fireball, dash f.st.C will combo, it is so spacing dependent, it involves a fireball and really looks like it shouldn't work. Tia can LP Rising Upper after the fireball and smack Sho's f.st.C very easily. Sho can stop short and throw another fireball or just block as a bait in this example to stuff Tia's rising upper, but a breaker is possible if he goes for a f.st.C.

So Tia is on the offensive now and attempts to cross up again just like earlier with a j.B and does cr.B x2, A+C which is all blocked once again. Sho sees this and begins mashing out flame kick. However, the motion for flame kick is qcb + K, and if Sho mashes this then his kick super comes out. In this example, the kick super does come out and is smacked by the second hit of A+C. This is an example of a failed breaker.

Breaker Reference List

The following list of breakers is not the only moves that the character can breaker with, it is only a list of a characters best possible breakers. There may be more, but these are the most often used. This list covers breakers used to break out of strings, not breakers used for punishing. Any move can punish as a breaker, provided it will hit.

Alsion III

Backdash - This has full invulnerability until he is reappearing.
Teleport Drop, qcb + K - This has invulnerability until he reappears at the top of the screen. This can really confuse people, and it leads to a combo into super.
Anubis, qcf, qcf + P - This does have invulnerability but it isn't as good as his Combo Super for breakering.
Combo Super, qcb, qcb + P - Invulnerable until it hits and it hits incredibly fast.

Condor

Tamahoo, A+B+C - Not his best breaker but it works.
Any normal throw - Only REALLY close.
Spinning Piledriver, 360 + P - This throw was practically made for breakering. It works great because it hits so fast, but if you mash too hard you'll get his grab super. That isn't bad either though!
Tamahoo Super, qcf, qcf + P - This does slightly less damage than the grab super, but moves Condor forward.
Grab Super, 720 + P - Same use as SPD, does more damage. If you whiff this move, it wont take any meter at all but he will do his regular SPD whiff animation.

Dao-Long

Dragon Kick - charge d, u + K - Either version will work, but the LK version has more invulnerability. The HK version may get you hit as it has less invulnerability.
Backdash - Dao-Long has a decent backdash, but the lag time on the end is horrible.

Maherl

Genie Super qcf, qcf + P - One of his only invulnerable moves! It has a pretty big startup, though.
Balloon Grab, 360 + K - An excellent breaker because it hits so fast, but the range is not that good.

Pielle

Thunder Riser, qcb, qcb + P - Great if done up close, this is Pielle's only decent breaker attack.

Rila

Upkicks, charge d, u + K - Upkicks can work, use the LK version mainly due to its invulnerability until it hits. The HK version has invulnerability as it starts, but loses its lower-body invulnerability by the time it hits.
Backdash - Not the best backdash for breakering, but it is kind of fast.
Cat Super, charge b, f, b, f + P (hold P to delay) - This move hits really fast!

Saizo

Hair, qcb + P - This move is unsafe on block but allows for combo options no matter what state the opponent is in while they get hit. It has invulnerability on start and huge range.
Backdash - One of the better backdashes for breakering, it is only vulnerable at the very end.

Sho

Flamekick, qcb + K - Mainly use the LK version
Backdash - This can be pretty safe
Kick Super/Punch Super, qcb, qcb + K/qcf, qcf + P - These supers have strange invulnerability and are very situational. You can be hit out of both of these if done at the wrong time.

Tia

Rising Upper, dp + P - Great all-around breaker. Full invulnerability until it hits and deceptively massive range.
Backdash - Fast backdash where Tia travels pretty far.

Dealing with Breakering - Throws

Learning how to deal with breakers can be extremely hard. At first, it may seem that throws as a mixup are completely ruined by the breaker system. This assumption may be true on a low level of play, but throws can still be an excellent mixup once you've learned to bait and punish failed breakers. If your opponent is leery of mashing out breakers then you can begin to mixup with throws. Making throws work is all about baiting.

An example of a throw setup belongs to Tia. Tia has a really obnoxious pressure string with cr.A and st.A and repeated dashes. With some characters it is extremely difficult to get out of, but anyone with an uppercut that they time correctly can breaker free. Tia, however, can change up the timing on her cr.A's and st.A's to make the timing difficult for her opponent's breaker, and also block at any time during her dash. Dashing in and chicken blocking, then immediately throwing can be extremely good.

Basic strike vs throw mixups are very possible in this game. Saizo simply doing cr.A, waiting, and cr.A again or doing cr.A, walking and throwing, is the same mixup as it is in every fighting game. Breakering does not change this base mixup, but the defensive player does have slightly more options in Breakers Revenge than in other fighting games. Be careful on how often you use throws and vary your setups or you'll get breakered.

Dealing with Breakering - High/Low

In most 2-d fighting games, high/low/throw mixups exist. In Breakers, this mixup of high/low/throw exists but not every character has great overheads. In fact, a lot of command overheads are 2-hit moves that are breakerable. Setups for overheads mid-blockstring are typically extremely telegraphed and not the best idea.

Still, doing overheads as a mixup can be great. Pielle can use his Butt attack with B+D to effectively mix up, but it has a pretty long startup. Jamming it inside of a string is asking to get breakered, and doing it on an opponent just getting up is probably the best bet. Spacing and timing are key for using overheads right. As long as you use you don't use your overheads really often or really obviously then you will mostly avoid getting breakered.

But still, 2-hit overheads should rarely be used, if ever. The fact that most 2-hit overheads are breakerable in between or completely lack combo options after the overhead hits makes them wholly worthless.

Just like with throws, the mixup with overheads is still existent in Breakers Revenge, but the defensive player has a larger advantage. You can't use overheads the same way as in other games, but used very sparingly they can dish out some extra damage and catch your opponent off guard.