Hell no, Guile’s sonic boom shouldn’t be that fast
From fighting games YouTuber desk this morning (via Reddit) comes this highly watchable six-minute video of all the ways the CPU screwed you in Street Fighter 2.
It’s super granular, but also super affirmative that you weren’t just imagining things. That cheatin-ass AI recovered from stuns in 12 (!) frames (even faster in Super Street Fighter 2X) and didn’t have to charge powerful attacks, like Guile’s Somersault Kick.
Oh it gets worse, my friend. The CPU can mash buttons faster than is humanly possible, probably because it doesn’t even have fingers and more importantly, it’s the dang CPU and therefore controls all the inputs. That’s how Blanka could do that bath-salts face-eating thing that KO’d you without getting in a word edgewise.
Understandably, this unique blend of nostalgia and resentment has promulgated quite the discussion. “I knew it! 12-year-old me, you are vindicated for breaking your SNES controller because they were totally cheating,” wrote Megaman1981, speaking for us all.
“God damn cheating-ass CPU,” grumbled boobers3. “That damn laundromat owes me some damn quarters & about 30 years of interest.”
“The interest on 20-30 bucks over 30 years probably nets you 50-60 bucks,” wellactually’d julbull73.
Others said watching the CPU pull off one-frame and unblockable attacks left them thinking they were doing something wrong. “For that invulnerable Zangief crouching HK I 100% thought it was me that couldn’t use Zangief as good as the CPU,” said Biurfe.
“It was something I suspected even when I was very young, because the difficulty spike from Round 1 to Round 2 in the arcade or even at times on the SNES could be quite ridiculous,” said MundanePepper. “I feel a lot better about myself knowing it now, and I try to share it with as many people as possible.” (Redditor bradamantium92 chimed in that losing the first round meant an immediate reset, because the CPU fought twice as hard if a human player won a round, making a round three win impossible.)
Desk pointed to this highly technical rundown as an inspiration/reference for the video. The writer says the AI “certainly” cheats, specifically calling out Guile’s standing bladekick that desk illustrates. It’s just the video makes it much more apparent. Capcom needs to send Megaman1981 an apology engraved on an SNES controller, man.
read more at https://www.polygon.com/ by Owen S. Good
Gaming
