Street Fighter 3: 2nd Impact/Akuma

From SuperCombo Wiki

Introduction

Akuma is perhaps the best character in 2nd Impact, there's no doubt about it, no character in this game causes people so much frustration and establishes this much dominance over the cast as much as Akuma does. With a toolkit that allows him to do whatever he wants, he's the most versatile and complete character in 2nd Impact, from rushdown to zoning. Inarguably top 1, and a character with a billion tricks up his sleeve, this character is a surefire way to get the opponent to hate everything about you.

Moves List

Normal Moves

Standing Normals:

stLP - Quick Jab, cancellable

clLP - Another Quick Jab, also cancellable

stMP - Awesome poke, useful for multiple purposes including anti-airing. You'll be using this to beat things out clean. Cancellable and links after clMK

clMP - Not as useful, great if you wanna combo into something but you have clHP for that

stHP - this is a POKE and a half, not cancellable but you just stop sign the fuck out of opponents with this sometimes

clHP - This is great after divekick because holy shit if this hits you either cancel into fierce DP and it does 60% stun, or you cancel into L.Tatsu and you get corner carry and the most fucked up 50/50 of your life. Do not ignore this normal at all! It's super good, pushes you back a billion miles away. -4 but can be spaced so that you're not punishable by supers, Divekick into clHP as late as possible will cause Sean SA3 to not punish. It's -4 and even it doesn't even matter sometimes.

stLK - It's something you can press if you feel quirky and dont want to use stLP?

stMK - Another awesome poke, not cancellable

clMK - You can use this as a meaty, links into stMP which leads into a combo. Cancellable on its own as well

stHK - REALLY FAST AND GOOD NORMAL. You'll be using this for meter build sometimes since it recovers so quickly. Combos into demon on standing opponents since it causes backturn, there's a reason this got a close variant in 3rd Strike.


Crouching Normals:

crLP - Quick Crouch Jab, cancellable, exists.

crMP - Awesome poke much like stMP, cancellable as well. Great for meter build!

crHP - Sick anti-air, cancellable too, Probably won't be using this as much as his other normals but its still a fantastic normal, extended kara window that allows you to kara cancel much easier for some reason.

crLK - Low short, good, links into another Low short, which goes into a super.

crMK - It's Shoto crMK. this shit is a great poke. Cancels into whatever you want, and safe on block typically. Make sure to cancel into something on hit. Kara cancels into demon, somehow.

crHK - Shoto sweep, don't be stupid with this move because it's hella minus. I understand you might need a knockdown though. Your main low kara cancel into demon.


Jumping Normals:

jLP - The "I fucked up air fireball" jumping normal. It's fast and not super active. Not really remarkable

jMP - Long jumping punch, fairly active, not actually bad!

njHP - Diagonal chop, respectable air to air but you have njHK

jHP - FAST, shits out hitstun, great air to air too at closer ranges, your air reset normal.

jLK - You are almost never using this one, it's fast and exists

njMK - Strong normal, but njHP is better at doing what this normal does, and so does njHK. You probably just want something faster though.

jMK - Crossup normal, really good, but this is also the "I fucked up divekick" normal, context matters I suppose.

njHK - "Get The Fuck Off Me" the normal, Awesome as a fuck you neutral jump air to air.

jHK - "Get The Fuck Off Me" but Straight To DVD, jump back jHK is great. Extended hitbox so it's difficulty to be beaten by other air normals.


Command Normals:

f+MP - Overhead, It's not throw invuln like in 3rd Strike unfortunately, but it does do a lot of stun as well as serves as your most easy way to Kara Demon. Not as useful, but still strong

j.d+MK - Divekick, Once you start using it, you'll never stop and that's for good reason. It's extremely fast and has insane an insane hitbox, beating almost everything clean or trading at the very least. It does not end there though, it's also extremely plus on block and if timed right, safe on parry, but don't rely on the second part as much, most of the time you're getting punished on parry. The fact it's plus on block means that this is going to be the backbone of your pressure, as well as your combo starter for anything. It does insane stun and links to anything Akuma can do. You are not playing Akuma if you are not using divekick, be prepared to never be punishable for the rest of your life. It's also an overhead so if they crouch block they are dead.

This is the best move in 2nd Impact, be thankful they toned this shit down in 3rd Strike.


Other:

UoH - The other really good overhead, airborne so it evades throw and plus on meaty so it ticks into throw. Does respectable stun and links into supers.

Throws:

f+MP/HP - Seoi Nage: Punch throw leaves you incredibly close to your opponent afterwards, great for oki and pressure!

f+MK/HK - Tomoe Nage: Kick Throw flings them all the way across the screen, great for keeping them out! If you do this on hugo, you can OTG him with a super as well.

Special Moves

Gou Hadouken (QCF+P): The typical Shoto fireball, his grounded fireball is a good way to make your crMK pokes safer as well as control ground space, nothing too special ultimately.

Zankuu Hadouken (Air QCF+P): Air fireball, it's really damn good in this game and he can play a disastrously strong keepaway game because of it, jump-back air-fireball is a good way to establish space control, and this can also be used as a meaty with forward jump air-fireball

Shakunetsu Hadouken (HCB+P): Red Fireball, used less in this game as a result to how Akuma is played, but due to it being a multi-hit fireball, you can get some nasty parry setups off it, especially involving Raging Demon :)

Gou Shoryuken (DP+P): Shoryuken, invul on startup so is his main reversal and a solid anti-air, can be cancelled into his supers, really unsafe on block though so be careful. Shits out stun in combos though, especially with fierce shoryuken.

Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku (QCB+K, AIR OK): His tatsu is really hard to punish on block for a lot of the cast unless they have something really fast and far reaching, light and heavy can whiff on crouchers, L.Tatsu starts your corner vortex and launches the opponent. Incredibly useful special, do not sleep on this.

Zenten (HCF+K): I forgot he had this until I started writing the wiki and to be quite honest with you I'm gonna forget about it after I'm done writing the wiki. It's a fucking garbage shoto roll. I've never used this move and I do not think I will be using this move afterwards.

Ashura Senkuu Forward (DP+3P/3K): Forward Teleport, really good for getting out of mean setups and the corner, can be punished with supers though.

Ashura Senkuu Backwards (RDP+3P/3K): Backwards Teleport, really good for cornering yourself, potential crackhead setups, and running away like a bitch. Also punishable by supers.

Super Arts

SA1 (QCFx2+P, AIR OK): His fireball super isn't very good in this game unfortunately, while there's a utility aspect to it and the same sort of setups you can go for in 3S exist, in juggles and combos it is very underwhelming and honestly kind of bad, at least compared to his other supers. Air fireball is actually pretty good though so maybe you'd still want to use that. It also has actual startup frames which is not like his other supers.

SA2 (QCFx2+P): The Turkish Akuma's favorite super, This SHITS out stun and damage and grounded combos into it hurt like a motherfucker. Juggles into it absolutely suck however and there's no utility aspect to it. Super minus on block and does bare chip.

SA3 (QCFx2+K, AIR OK): The Tatsu Super. This super's garbage in 3S but in this game it's actually really good, it has a vacuum effect and a very wide hitbox, and also hits behind akuma. Crackhead anti-air and air to air as well. The real reason to use this is that it's amazing in grounded combos AND juggles, while it might do less hits depending on juggle potential, you will always get the proper knockdown unless you fuck up really badly and in the kind of fashion I've never seen before.

Raging Demon (LP -> LK HP): Raging Demon! Yeah this super is fucking AMAZING in this game. It's hitconfirmable in this game (Divekick, stHK xx Demon on a standing opponent) and you have a billion kara setups that are incredibly hard to avoid. The reward for landing this is sick and you will be landing it often if you know how to use it right. This is kind of the reason you'd pick a super for Akuma.

USE: SA3

TRY: SA1, SA2

Combos

Target Combo - MP~HP: Useful if you wanna deal with parry OS and the likes, I don't actually use often though.

He has no EX Moves so most of his stuff is meterless, It's gonna be messier than the Urien Wiki unfortunately but because he doesn't exactly care about character specifics and you don't need to know too many routes, Here's a basic list of supers, treat this as a blueprint and see if you can find more. Anything that you can use divekick for, you can replace with air fireball. Sometimes you can link divekick after meaty air fireball, but below is what I will use in matches and like going for:

Divekick, stHP xx H.Shoryuken (xx Super) - Shits out a billion stun, if they guess wrong on the next hit they die.

crMK xx Fireball/Shoryuken (xx Super)

crMK xx L.Tatsu, H.Shoryuken (xx Super) - The Classic.

crMP/crMK xx M.Tatsu - Doesn't Whiff On Crouchers

crMK xx H.Tatsu - Corner Carry.

crLK, crLK xx Super - Sure.

Divekick, clMK, stMP x L.Tatsu, H.Tatsu, jHP - Yeah that shit links.

Divekick stHP xx L.Tatsu, H.Tatsu, jHP - L.tatsu whiffs on crouchers, and on some characters you don't get the jHP air reset, requires you to be near the corner. jHP air reset starts your insane corner oki.

Divekick stHP xx L.Tatsu, H.Tatsu, Air Tatsu xx SA3/SA1 - Fancy but scales like shit.

Divekick stHK xx Demon - Only on standing opponents.

Air Tatsu, stHP - You can go for more, but typically whatever you can do after L.Tatsu, works with Air Tatsu, but be careful of juggle if you did it as an air to air. I recommend just going for the reset.

The Basics

lmao do whatever the fuck you want with him.

Honestly, whatever you feel like doing, might genuinely work. If you want to be ultra aggressive. Just learn to divekick and know what combos you can do after divekick. You can mix in tick throws, air fireball oki and cruel 50/50 your opponents have to eat on wakeup. As long as you're maintaining aggression and shitting out damage in the process, you are basically playing the best character in the game.

Defensively, use your pokes a lot more, air fireball is an amazing defensive tool, grounded fireballs not so much, but you can play an infinitely more reserved and cowardly game with your air fireball and teleports, just be careful that other supers can your teleport by removing its invulnerability.

The super you use will not exactly matter in the grand scheme of things but ultimately I would just recommend SA3 because of its versatility, SA1 is good of utility and SA2 is awesome for damage and stun but SA3 is more useful and finds purpose in infinitely more situations than either. At the end of the day, once you're good enough to shit out demon setups and know how to confirm into demon on a standing opponent, you'll probably be using your supers on demon (the latter scales like shit though).

Do NOT learn how to Kara Demon or go for it if you can't play neutral or know how to play this character at a basic level, looking cool is only awesome when you're actually winning, it's not necessary and it's only useful when you're actually good with Akuma, not really at any other point.

Just do whatever and as long as you're not unsafe as fuck, you're probably doing the right thing with Akuma.

Advanced Strategy

True Kara Demon:

You can kara cancel into demon with f+MP, crHK, crMK and the likes. Let's focus on crHK/MK and f+MP though for now. So the idea is you want to complete the demon input before the move you're cancelling it from is active. This takes practice but it's thankfully really easy in this game because of demon being four inputs instead of 5

With f+MP, you're going to input it as f+MP~LP~DF~LK~HP

The Down-Forward counts as a forward input to satisfy the demon input so keep that in mind.

with crHK/MK, the same principle applies, crHK~LP~DF~LP~HP, this is infinitely easier with crHK than crMK so focus on that more.


Alternate Kara Demon:

You can buffer a LP from anything you do and then complete the rest of the demon, this makes your kara demons more telegraphed but also easier to execute. So you can do divekick, and during divekick you can do the first LP of demon, as soon as you go for your kara all you need to do is complete the rest of the motion.

So f+MP~LP~DF~LK~HP turns into

f+MP~DF~LK~HP


The Akuma Corner 50/50:

If you land a cancel into L.Tatsu, at any point, you can go for a H.Tatsu, and then a jHP reset. That jHP reset will lead into a high/low mixup. Whichever one you do, as long as the opponent is standing and you hit them, you can repeat this corner 50/50 repeatedly, this is insanely tricky and will make dealing with Akuma in the corner fucking frustrating to deal with.

So for an example, I do: Divekick ~ stHP xx L.Tatsu, H.Tatsu, jHP

After that jHP, I can go for a high or low, whichever happens, if they guess wrong, they are most likely getting stunned and losing the round. On some stages this can be done from round start so you can just two touch the opponent the moment the round starts if they just guess wrong, This is insanely strong and a massive part of why Akuma is extremely strong in this game.

And yes, you can add a kara demon onto that mixup if you want to be an absolute fucking twat.

Players

Name Color Location Contact Status Notes
Hokuto Hokuto Mexico Twitter Sort Of Active 2nd Impact Gouki/Sean Main, Winner of 2X:The Impact and Return Of The Impact.
LordBBH BBH United States Twitter He's Typically Down If You Ask Him For Games Gouki/Sean Main, 3rd Place of 2X:The Impact and 2nd Impact of Return Of The Impact. Also plays Alex.
A.D.H.D A.D.H.D The World Twitter Active Urien Main, but plays Gouki as well. Writer of the Wiki.
Cahit Cahit Turkey Active Lobby dweller, plays other shotos as well.