« Street Fighter Vacations Part Deux »

You ever feel like you keep grinding it out but can never get over that hump? Well you're probably not the only one who is in this rut. We have all been in this situation and have all made it over this bump in the road. The real question is, what are some actions to get out of the gutter.

It has been three and a half months since the release of Super Street Fighter 4. Over the past several weeks I have noticed a good amount of competitors not having the drive to keep grinding it out. I have complied a list of ways to get your mind in a state to go back and excel.

Take a break – This is the most obvious answer but the time you spend while taking a break will be the most important decision you make. You don't want to take too long of a break because you still want to keep the muscle memory in your fingers. A good time frame is a couple days up to a week. Any time after that of not playing you will start to loose your mix up game.

Play a different character – Sometimes taking a break is not the best answer. Learning another character can help you out with your overall execution. Go back to your basics and sit in challenge mode to learn your bread and butter combos. This will also get you excited about the game again because you get to play a whole new play style. You might not win a bunch of games with this new character but you get the feeling to learn new flashy combos that we all love so much.

Play another game – This idea might seem more counter intuitive, but this will also put you in different mind set. Try playing another fighting game to pick up different play styles or if you dare, Starcraft 2.

Go out for a night – Since there are not too many arcades around these days to sink all your quarters into, we are able to spend that time at home playing games while saving a little money. Go see that movie that everyone is talking about on face book. Go out and have a couple drinks with your friends. What ever you choose to do just make sure it is something to take your mind off of thinking why you are in a rut.

Watching your old replays – You know that little annoying replay channel that we love so much. Well this is why they have put this feature into games. Go back and look at what you are doing wrong. Are you mashing buttons when not needed? Are you blocking the wrong way? Are you not doing the right option select when needed? What is the other player doing to defeat you? Theses are a couple questions you should be asking yourself when watching your replays. If your don't have any replays saved up, go into the world replay channel and watch a couple other people go at it and pick up some ideas.

Make a sandwich – This is my favorite out of all the choices you can make. It is more of a quick fix for when playing online matches. It only takes one scrub to beat you to get into your head and mess with your overall game play. Just take a break and go make your favorite sandwich. This method has been scientifically proven to prevent rage quitting and we all play better on a full stomach.

Watch your favorite show – We all hate to admit on how many hours we can dump into a game. Because of that we tend to fall behind on our favorite shows. Take this moment to catch up. If your already caught up maybe try picking up another show with plenty of seasons that you can crack out all night and watch. If you are already caught up on all your shows, a couple good shows that I recommended are Entourage, Avatar: The last Air bender, House, or maybe just some random anime you have been hearing good things about.

STREAM MONSTER! - If you are at home with nothing else to do, jump online and see what streams are out there. Streams are becoming more and more popular with all events these days. If you are running a event and do not have a stream for all the stream monsters in the world, you need to make this happen. You can take all this in and watch what other play styles other players have and take this in and apply it to your game play. A good stream to watch every week is Wednesday night at the Starbase Arcade streamed by iPW. Top players come out and show the world how to body people.

All these decisions can make or break a player. If you are in this situation give one of theses many ideas a chance. This will help you improve your game in the long run. If this does not improve your game, well at least you had a good sandwich to enjoy.



Check out Street Fighter Vacations Part One written by Crackfiend!