Introduction
Players to watch, if you want to see practical T.Hawk play:
Mayakon - N.Hawk
Toutanki / Toutanboy - N.Hawk and O.Hawk
K - N.Hawk and O.Hawk
Inomata - N.Hawk
VIPER - N.Hawk utilizes st.jab from max range -> negative edge Typhoon. Definitely unique.
Search for these guys on YouTube.
New & Old Versions Comparison
To play with O.T.Hawk, choose T.Hawk and then press → → ← ← Jab/Fierce, pressing Short simultaneously with the punch button will give you the alt color.
Here's the list of everything different I noticed:
- Obvious stuff: O.Hawk can't tech throws, and doesn't has a Super;
- O.Hawk's Tomahawk Buster(DP) has more invincibility and can go through fireballs;
- O.Hawk has almost all normals with something better. If you want to see by yourself how drastic the changes were take a look at this site, I'll just list the main ones here:
- cr. Jab has a much fatter and a slightly longer hitbox than N.Hawk's.
- cr. Forward has a slighty farther hitbox than N.Hawk's.
- cr. Strong doesn't have a stray hitbox like N.Hawk's.
- cr. Roundhouse is faster than N.Hawk's.
- cr. Fierce has a much bigger hitbox than N.Hawk's.
- st. Short (close) has a larger hotbox than N.Hawk's.
- st. Strong (far) won't miss crouching: Blanka, Guile, Chun Li, Cammy and Dictator.
- st. Roundhouse (far) won't miss crouching Blanka, Cammy and Dictator.
- st. Roundhouse (close) won't miss crouching Blanka and Cammy.
- j. Strong has a larger hitbox than N.Hawk's.
- j. Roundhouse has a larger hitbox than N.Hawk's and can cross-up.
- j. Fierce has a larger hitbox than N.Hawk's.
- O.Hawk's j. ↓+Fierce crosses up leaving opponents in line for some great dizzy/damage combos;
- O.Hawk has a slightly smaller and thinner body hitbox than N.Hawk, it's unknown if it has any relevance. N.Hawks hitbox goes from his feet to his nose, O.Hawk's goes from the feet but only to his jaw;
Basically, O.T.Hawk is a better choice overall, the inability to teach throws isn't big deal since you're T.Hawk, and about the super, it's something to be feared though if you pick N.T.Hawk instead of O.T.Hawk but the normal Typhoon already does enough damage.
--Born2SPD
--Decca
Color Options
New T.Hawk Colors
New T.Hawk's color options in Super Turbo
To choose the "Hold" color, press and hold any button except Start for 2 seconds. To choose any other color, simply tap the desired button.
Old T.Hawk Colors
Old T.Hawk's color options in Super Turbo
Old T.Hawk's input code is RRLL. Pressing Short simultaneously with Jab or Fierce will give you the alternate color.
--Raisin (April 30, 2007)
Move Analysis
Normal Moves
Normal Throws
T.Hawk can throw with Strong, Fierce and Roundhouse.
Strong throw is a one handed toss. Not great to use as it puts opponents further away than optimal.
Fierce is a two-handed neck choke. Not as bad as the Strong throw for distance and holds for multiple hits. But lets the opponents recover quickly for a reversal if you follow up.
Roundhouse throw is an elbow bash. T.Hawks best throw hands down. It's a hold for multiple hits and drops the player right next to you letting you mix up, cross over, tick throw again etc. This is one of T.Hawks most important moves as it can help set up many other traps and keeps people close where you want them.
NOTE:
This throw is somehow made for fighting Shotos (Ryu, Ken and even Akuma), since it's possible to cross-up afterwards, with j.forward or j.d+fierce the last one only works for O.Hawk. If you're a real monster you can hit-confirm the cross-up and then follow up with cr.jab -> cr.jab -> st.jab -> Rising Hawk Jab or Strong version. If the opponent blocks the cross-up just do cr.jab -> cr.jab -> negative edge Typhoon or SUPER.
Walk-under meaty cr.strong -> negative edge Typhoon or SUPER is also a good tactic versus everyone in the cast, except Zangief and T.Hawk since they're both capable of doing a reversal command throw after the cr.strong.
Mayakon does j.forward -> cr.strong -> negative edge Typhoon or SUPER. Requires strict timing.
Specifically versus Guile, Chun Li, Sagat, Fei Long, Claw, Dhalsim (substitute j.jab with j.forward) you can follow up with j.jab -> cr.jab -> negative edge Typhoon or SUPER afterwards.
--Jedi.10 07:25, 24 July 2007 (UTC) --Decca
Command Normals
Special Moves
- Typhoon: (360 + punch)
T.Hawk's bread and butter. Picks the opponent up and jumps in to the air spinning them to the ground headfirst. This can be used with a multitude of ticks, Jab, Strong and Forward being his best. This is great move as it can be used with T.Hawk's negative edge 360 for safe Cyclone attempts. Prove to be able to land it at a moments notice and it will stop a lot of people from trying to hard to get close and crossup/wakeup game on Hawk. Again this can also be negative edged while getting up to be safe. Thats whats makes it so dangerous if done correctly getting up: while down, hold all three punch buttons, start at downback, while getting up do a 720 ending at downback and release all 3 punch buttons piano. Either Super to the face or blocked wakeup move. This can also be done from back on the stick to back to stop Ryu and other overheads etc.
- Tomahawk Buster: (→↓↘ + punch)
Acts similar to a Dragon Punch but does not go straight up. It moves diagonal up from the jumping point. Can go through fireballs if time correctly and the Fierce version has a long range. Jab version works well for AA if done late.
- Condor Dive: (In Air, Jab + Strong + Fierce)
T.Hawk dives diagonally from where the move was started towards the ground. This move can only be performed on the way UP during a jump. Once T.Hawks reaches his apex the move cannot be performed. Extremely good move for punishing fireballs. Good for closing distance after a mid screen Cyclone. This move does not have great priority and can be punished easily if blocked by Honda, Boxer, Dic, Blanka and Dhalsim. Also be careful as Ryu and Ken can jump immediately after blocking and j.RH if blocked high on their hitbox.
It can be extremely useful but can get a lot of inexperienced players in loads of trouble if used too much/incorrectly. It covers a lot of ground very fast. You can use it to punish fireballs by jumping and Condor over them. Remember though that if you don't connect, or it's blocked, you hit the ground and "slide" a bit. Now you can be punished by sweeps and/or certain combos at this point. But, this can also be a useful tool against a scared/slow opponent. In your slide you can Tomahawk Buster(DP) or Typhoon while sliding at the end. You can deceive a player thinking your going to connect and bounce back and if they don't react to you hitting the ground you can punish. Again be careful with this move. Can be a big help or a big hindrance.
- Characters not to hit with Condor dives unless your sure they will not be able to block: Dhalsim, Ryu, Ken, Sagat, Guile. Dhalsim the most as he can punish easily with multiple normals. Sagat can punish with fireballs. Now Ryu, Ken and Guile are safer as they have to time an immediate jump after the block and RH. If they do it too late and miss it can leave them in a horrible position(good for T.Hawk). Remember also that Guile is extremely hard to punish for Sonic Booms as he recovers very quick compared to Sagat, Ryu and Ken.
- Characters not to hit with Condor dives unless your sure they will not be able to block or you know they do not have charge: Dictator, Boxer, Blanka, E.Honda. All four can punish with charge back->forward + Fierce.
- Characters that cannot punish after blocking a Condor dive: Chun Li, Gief, Cammy, Dee Jay, Fei Long, Hawk, Claw.
--Decca
--Jedi.10 07:40, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
Super Move
- Double Typhoon: (720 + punch)
T.Hawks super arts hits like a freight train. Can be used after ticks, on wakeup and CANNOT be wasted. If you see T.Hawk start the Super Animation that means it going to hit for sure. Also can be negative edged on wake up and after tick for safe attempts. Extremely hard to do after most ticks though as Hawk gets off the ground fairly fast.
The easiest way to do this move consistently, is by starting from d/b with cr.jab then b, u/b, u, u/f, f, d/f, d, d/b, jab press and hold fierce~strong, b, u/b, u, u/f, f, d/f, d, d/b + release fierce~strong. From my experience it's the easiest way to avoid jumping when you attempt it. You can setup his SUPER this way by cross-up j.forward, cr. jab x 2 SUPER as mentioned above. Furthermore after a Roundhouse throw, you can either walk under the opponent or cross-up j. forward and use above mentioned technique for a safe SUPER attempt.
If you hit your opponent with a Typhoon and your SUPER meter is nearly full, jump and do Condor Dive mid-air, upon landing press d/b, b, u/b, u, u/f, f, d/f, d, d/b cr.short~fierce~strong, b, u/b, u, u/f, f, d/f, d, d/b + release fierce~strong. You can substitute the cr.short with cr.jab, however I find using cr.short much more consistent, since you won't accidentally attempt a Typhoon.
You can use the above-mentioned method as well when safe-jumping. j.short, j.jab or j.D+strong upon connection press d/b, b, u/b, u, u/f, f, d/f, d, d/b cr.short~fierce~strong, b, u/b, u, u/f, f, d/f, d, d/b + release fierce~strong. Cr.short makes it a lot easier from my experience.
There's yet another option. If you walk up to your knocked down opponent and perform a meaty cr.strong ~ press fierce and hold both strong and fierce then buffer 720 starting at d/b and ending at d/b + release strong~fierce.
--Jedi.10 07:46, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
--Decca
The Basics
Get close. This is a lot easier said than done but T.Hawk has some tricks. Once your in, Hawk has a ton of mix-ups/tricks to stay and punish with Typhoons.
General strategy is to pick your spots and inch forward. This may take some time or a mistake by your opponent but you'll get there. If you don't, your most likely going to lose in a slow agonizing fashion. Don't get greedy though and go for it wildly. Most characters, if not all, have some way to punish T.Hawk for jumping in late, too soon etc.
Your main goal should be to get in and stay in at all costs. Use whatever you can to get there. Sometimes a sweep knock down is all you need to turn a almost perfect loss into a win. Never give up with Hawk, be patient, you'll get in and when you do...punish.
Hawk has some good range normals: st.RH reaches far and can trade with fireballs favorably. st.Forward has decent range but in close it's used for a tick and to combo T.Hawks DP. Jab is T.Hawks most important normal. Whether it is cr.Jab. Which is used for ticks into Typhoon a lot. Also stops, Hondas headbutt, Blankas ball roll, Boxers dash punch(careful with his low hitting one) and Bisons Psycho Crusher if timed correctly. These can also trade unfavorably. j.Jab(See Below). cr.Fierce can be used for anti air, but its not great.
Jumping Jab is your friend. Probably T.Hawks best friend as it has insane priority above an opponent and great priority almost all the time. Great for stuffing most characters normals and good for tick setups used with a safe jump on down opponents. Can cause some serious frustration in the mind games department, which, is about all the advantage you have playing T.Hawk most of the time.
j.Jab->cr.Jab->Typhoon is the main setup.(can use cr.jabx2 if close enough to mix up)
T.hawks main game is the tick setups for Typhoons. Once your in on an opponent you can get to business. cr.Jab->Typhoon is a simple yet Hawks most powerful tick throw. Use it whenever the opportunity presents itself. Coupled with other mixups, cr.Strong->Typhoon, st.Forward->Typhoon, cr.Jabx2->Typhoon, you can be devastating and end matches in seconds. Remember though opponents CAN reversal these ticks on wake up, in between some ticks and right before the Typhoon if they are quick/skilled enough. So be careful and mix up your timing as much as needed/necessary.
This is where T.Hawks equalizer in close comes into play. T.Hawk has an amazing negative edge tick that is completely safe to reversals if done correctly.(except an opponent throwing you when you miss) Hard for them since you can usually jab again if needed and if you space yourself correctly it will make it double hard. The motion is this: start at downback->tick(jab, strong etc.)->now hold down all 3 Punch buttons as the tick goes out and do a 360 motion ending back at downback, and release the punch buttons piano style. At this point you get 1 of 2 things if done correctly:
1: Typhoon grabs the opponent and spikes him.
2: Nothing comes out and you are blocking in case of a reversal.
Safe. An opponent, say Ryu, either gets thrown after the tick OR you miss and he gets his DP reversal out but you block since you never actually hit a punch button, just released them. This, coupled with mixups, is how T.Hawk can win matches even though he is usually outmatched on paper.
T.Hawk's great Typhoon should be attempted as much as possible as long as you do it the safe way. If you whiff a Rising Hawk or land a little too close with Condor Dive, always attempt some negative edge Typhoons. There is literally no harm in trying, so go for it whenever possible.
--Decca
Zoning
Mixups
Advanced Strategy
Walk-in Super
Unlike Zangief, even if you use macros to do a perfect timed super, T.Hawk will jump out of it. This happens because T.Hawk has less pre-jump frames, meaning he jumps earlier. It's still possible to do the super without ticking or jumping by buffering part of the motion in a normal move and i'll explain here how to do it.
First you must know how the 360 motion works in this game, as i've explained in the Zangief article, the SPD (or in this case, Typhoon) motion isn't a 360, nor a 270 but the four main directions (→,↓,←,↑) in a row, meaning that the diagonals aren't actually needed. With this in mind you can understand why you can do a super with 4 main directions in a row twice (which results in a 630-degree motion).
The exact motion i use for this is (left side, for right side just flip it): →↘↓↙← Jab ↖↑ (walk a bit if necessary) →↘↓↙←↖↑ + punch.
Now the explanation: First, i do a normal walk-in typhoon command with pressing jab earlier, i do this to prevent T.Hawk from Jumping. Note that the ↗ isn't needed here as i explained above. At this point you can walk a bit to get closer if needed. The window is very small though so you must continue the motion (with a normal walk-in Typhoon) or the first part of the rotation will vanish from the motion buffer.
--Born2SPD
Combos
O.Hawk:
Cross Up j.D+FP->st.Forward->Tomahawk Buster
Universal:
Cross Up forward -> st.forward -> Rising Hawk (jab or strong) Note: Versus T.Hawk, Fei Long, Boxer, Sagat, Zangief, Dhalsim and Cammy use the fierce Rising Hawk.
Cross Up forward -> cr.jab -> cr.jab -> Typhoon attempt if the jab's were blocked / st.jab -> Rising Hawk (jab or strong)
Match-ups
You may notice that some matchups comments may look out of place after reading them. Thats because I classified them with this diagram in mind, while leaving the author comments unchanged. I've put the factors as well, which can also contradict with the comments below it, personally I don't agree 100% with that diagram, but that was made by the top Jap pros so it can be considered the definitive diagram for ST, agreeing with it or not.
--Born2SPD
Serious Advantage Match-ups
None!
Advantage Match-ups
None!
Fair Match-ups
Vs. Balrog (boxer):
- Minor Disadvantage (4.5 - 5.5)
Your going to have a lot of trouble here if you cannot standing SPD or negative edge on wakeup. Once you have him down though Balrog is very easy to pressure with safe jumps as hit Buffalo headbutt takes 13frames (this may be incorrect checking) to hit. This allows you to jump in on wake up fairly easily. Once the tick is out if you can negative edge 360's your almost completely safe from counters in between ticks.
This by large is not a good matchup though for Hawk as it is very hard to get on top of a good Boxer with Hawk.
j.Jab works very well. cr.Jab to stop some rush punches (not very safe) cr.Forward to stop some rush punches (fairly safe) cr.RH is very good at dominating the ground against Boxer. Hits twice, has huge range and is out for a long time (which can be good and bad, if he guesses right or is out of block range your gonna eat a jump in).
--Jedi.10 06:36, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
Vs. Chun-Li:
- Minor Disadvantage (4.5 - 5.5)
Vs. Ken:
- Minor Disadvantage (4.5 - 5.5)
Vs. T. Hawk (self):
Vs. Zangief:
- Minor Disadvantage (4.5 - 5.5)
Disadvantage Match-ups
Vs. Dhalsim:
- Clear Disadvantage (3.5 - 6.5)
Dhalsim has an incredible throw range which can be annoying, however if you're using the correct ticks he can't throw you even when he doesn't block to intentionally throw afterwards. J.forward -> cr.jab is something I've been using instead of j.jab. Make it hit late for the correct spacing.
--Jedi.10 06:36, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
Vs. E. Honda:
- Clear Disadvantage (3.5 - 6.5)
Vs. Guile:
- Clear Disadvantage (3.5 - 6.5)
Vs. Ryu:
- Disadvantage (4 - 6)
Vs. Sagat:
- Clear Disadvantage (3.5 - 6.5)
Serious Disadvantage Match-ups
Vs. Blanka:
- Serious Disadvantage (3 - 7)
Vs. Cammy:
- Serious Disadvantage (1.5 - 8.5) Totally outplayed i would say
Vs. Dee Jay:
- Serious Disadvantage (3 - 7)
Vs. Fei Long:
- Serious Disadvantage (3 - 7)
Vs. M. Bison (dictator):
- Serious Disadvantage (3 - 7)
Vs. O. Sagat:
- Serious Disadvantage (2.5 - 7.5)
Vs. Vega (claw):
- Serious Disadvantage (3 - 7)