Intro/table of contents
Well, since I've been on the sonic boards for a bit now, I've decided to do a little to actually contribute, lol.
Basically, this is a thread to help you to get better with... well... the basics and get rid of those bad habits. Now, onto the table of conducts.
- KNOW YOUR BASICS
- Lern2Tilt
- The greatness known as the C-stick
- Basic spacing exercises
- Specials, good and bad
- Kill the rolling habit exercises
- Stopping the predictable D-air exercises.
- Matching your moves to the situation
- Recovering variations/practices
- Killing problems?
- Stage knowledge, KNOW IT
- End note/help me make this better
KNOW YOUR BASICS
Cmon people, read the stickies at least? Seriously, there is some GREAT information in there concerning ASC, difference between down-B and side-B and all that good stuff. Know it. You gotta know what your moves do before you can use your character right? So go know the moves. I mean, it would suck if you were just a sonic that didn't know you could D-air cancel... point is, read the stickies. They help... a LOT. And it also gets rid of us having to answer crappy questions about that basic stuff.
Need a place to start reading? To go the Sonic Index Thread by Teh_Umby and there ya go. Part II
Learn to powershield people, VERY important basic skill. Why? Because it doesn't decrease your shield, you get no push back, and you can drop the shield immediately afterwards if you want. That's AMAZING for punishment. It also leads to a key approach against projectile characters. yes, you should know this skill
Another basic skill is the short hop. yes, this magnificent
Oh yeah, learn to fast fall. Also, learn WHEN to fastfall. For example, if your using forward-aerial, you don't want to fastfall if your shorthopping. That will just get you caught in lag. But if you full-hopped and you just hit your opponent with a backward aerial, FAST FALL! Get on the ground and chase them! Fast falling also leads to momentum canceling, an important skill needed by sonics to survive.
Lern 2 tilt peeps
Yes, tilts are a very important basic skill. Now you may be thinking, PSH, nawwww, tilts are weaksauce. Well, what are you expecting? Your ftilt to kill? We're not Ike or Snake FFS, lol. However, our tilts do provide valuable coverage for some weaknesses. For example, our Ftilt is actually decent in priority/range so if you learn to space, the Ftilt can help you a lot. Also, Dtilt is very useful as it can actually be like a mini-tilt-chain. (anyone wanna dig up magnum/KID's threads on dtilts for me?) The utilt, although lacking in horizontal range, has a little disjoint up top so if you find the situation for it, it adds decent percentage. Basically, use your tilts, they're there for a reason. They're your tools too. Use them, and it'll surely improve your gameplay.
The greatness known as the C-stick
Oh aerials, so hard to space right? No, not at all. Just learn to use the C-stick. If you use the wiichuck like I do, then use the D-pad as the c-stick. It's really a great tool to help spacing. Now, why is that so? Because first, you don't HAVE to jump forward to do a forward air. Nope, you can simply just Jump->F-air. No movement. :O Yes, if you want, you can even do a retreating f-air. The B-air suddenly becomes much easier too. Instead of moving the control stick forward and backward, limiting your momentum, and taking more time to execute, simply jump forward, and hit C-stick the opposite direction. =) So yes people, use the c-stick for aerials, it's a great idea. At first, it feels weird, but eventually, you'll get used to it and it'll really help. A simple exercise for getting used to this would be to play people. :O Yeah, lol. Eventually, you'll get used to it, and then, your game will be stepped up. Of course, I'm expecting this to be basic stuff... lol...
Ideas from this paragraph brought to you by the Stryk Raishou foundation.
Basic spacing exercise
To get better at spacing, I suggest using Tenki's suggested idea. I found it really helpful. All you have to do is stop using the B-button for a while. That's right, no specials. Only use them when your recovering. Go play some friendlies without it, you'll see the change. To me, I think it could also get rid of that bad habit of trying to SDR(spin dash roll) to get closer to your opponent like SDRing 1/2 of FD(final destination). It gets you to be better with those aerials too and makes for a more balanced playstyle. Thank you Tenki.
Specials, good and bad
Mkay, so like I stated previously, specials are meant to be used under certain conditions or used in certain ways. For example, as Tenki stated, you don't abuse HA(homing attack) against people who know how to fight Sonic. That's just jumping into ****. Nor do you use SDR from across FD. No, instead, you could just try the simple run->shield->grab option. It's very nice, as grabs are your friend.
Also, don't just use ASC(in the air down->B)->SDR all the time. Mix it up, god. You can shield cancel that stuff. You can even shield cancel your side-B. But this goes into more mindgames, lol. Point is, don't jump into **** by spamming your low-priority specials against someone who will punish the hell out of you. Killing the rolling habit basic exercise
First off, why do you need to stop rolling? I mean, it gives you a chance to retaliate, it had invincibility frames, and it's fast, right? Meh, not really. It doesn't really allow you to retaliate as much as it allows your opponent to see that predictable roll coming and punish you some more. It has invince frames, but not at the beginning nor end and both can be punished, and so what if it's fast? Your sonic, you don't need to roll out of trouble, just run from it, lol. You can cover Final Destination in under a second, think your roll can do that? No, so if you need to step out for a bit, just run. Now, to stop the habit of always rolling, take Greenstreets advice, turn that shield off for a bit. I think this could help because heck, if you can't shield, you can't roll. It might also help with spacing because you don't want to be punished especially without a shield. The down side? You might forget about your shield button for a little while after because your so used to playing without it. Remember,
=/ You can always have it there and just not use it for a few matches.
Thanks Greenstreet and Tenki. Stopping that predictable D-air habit
To stop that ridiculously predictable habit of always going Up-B->Dair(down air) or even not canceling the D-air, play on stages with platforms. Remember, a D-air cancel onto the ground so your less vulnerable is good, but predictability is bad as you'll get punished easily. Tenki says Battlefield should curb this habit and it has for me.
I think Yoshi's island is good too with that giant platform in the middle. Delfino too, I hardly D-air on delfino with its awkward platforms. Again, thank you Tenki. Matching moves to the situation.
Yes people, this is like, must know knowledge. I mean, it is one of the most important things in Brawl. Don't just randomly throw out moves thinking it'll win, you gotta use the correct one and think. Tenki's quiz thread is a GREAT place to learn this stuff. Why is this so important? Well come on, think about it. If you use a u-tilt while they're on the ground but out of its range, your asking to get punished. If you use a spindash from 1/2+ of FD, your asking to get punished. If you use Fair when your right about to land, your asking to get punished. Seriously, know your moves and when to use them. Also, know when to grab please. Sonic has goooooooooooooooooood grabs, so use them. Oh, but don't running grab, that's asking for punishment. Instead, Shield grab or Spindash cancel grab, so yes. Grabs are amazing. D-throw=tech chase, U-throw=damage+juggling possibilities, [(3+)U-throw]+F-throw=KID combo=amazing=mind game. B-throw=chained Back throws=BoxoBthrows=Amazing. So yeah, I shall conclude this section by finding you Tenki's thread since you probably won't search for it. http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=191797 There ya go you lazy bums.
Recovering, there's more than 1 right way
Having trouble recovering safely? Well, STOP BEING PREDICTABLE. Sonic has one of the best recoveries in the game. Learn to use it well. He can use spinshot(side B or down B and press A/Cstick up or down/jump right after releasing), Side-B+jump cancel, ledge jump(like on FD), and his spring has invincibility frames. He can also use his homing attack if he's in the range of it and save his spring. Mix it up people. Heck, sometimes, you can even just double jump and spin dash back onto the stage. Use these options so you WON'T get grabbed out of spring or pedicted and get hit out again. How do you practice this? Well, the best way would be surviving in friendly matches with good DI(hey, practice DI?) and using these recoveries. I'm not recommending getting hit at high percents though, but in case you do. Another way could be training mode, be player 2, have a friend be player 1 and have him hit you away. :O Practice DI and recovery while your friend tries you kill you. =/ Hey, it could help. Thanks Kinzer
Having trouble killing? Landing that smash hit but they always come back? STOP USING YOUR SMASHES AS PUNISHERS!
First, let's look at Tenki's percentages for kills
Yeah... So as you can see, our kills are at pretty high percents... Of course, charging up your smashes help, but come on, even that is high. Think of you trying to kill with a stale move too. >_< A stale move has less damage AND less knockback. Want to know how to do this? Don't punish using your smashes. There's always a better way. Well... except for spotdodge, if you dsmash while they spotdodge, that's good sometimes. Aside from that, you should NOT punish using smashes. Instead, switch your style into using Tilts, they're very good and try to use grabs too. Very effective as you can pummel to help refresh your moves(maybe smashes) and you can always do the handy U-air to B/Uair combo. Also, F-tilt can shield poke and has good priority /range so it's safer than a whiffed F-smash. D-tilt can be used to string along into a U-tilt, or it can trip them. A trip means.... JAB LOCK. Which means FREE SMASH. Don't punish with smashes people, use them to finish. As a rule of thumb from DJbrowny sometime ago, try to stick to 3-5 f-smashes per game.Tenki said:
Cmon people, know your stages.
Also, you should have experience on all stages that are in the counterpick/starter section. Easy way to do this? Play on them silly. Even if it's against cpus, just put the stages at random and play them. It's not match up experience your trying to gain is it? No, it's stage experience, so even mediocre opponents are good. Just as long as you can get used to the stage. However, be informed about the stages though. There are some good stage discussion threads on the sonic boards. Read them, and find which to ban against characters and which to counterpick.
End Note.
Now, this is an incomplete guide so guys, point out all the mistakes, all the new training ideas, and all the bad habits you can. Let's make this thread a way to improve our basics, get rid of bad habits, and become better sonic players overall. Some good exercises for prediction and punishment would be greatly appreciated.
Also note, as a sonic main, you need steak. Steak is delicious and it is your god. Steak.
