Ippatsuman - Tatsunoko

"I fight to see evil vanquished and good rewarded!"

TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM BIO:

Ippatsuman is a mysterious hero who always appears just in time to save Ran and Harubou, who work for the highly successful Time Lease leasing company. His special rubber suit protects him from attacks by redirecting the impact. He can also throw the “Ultimate Rainball” projectile weapon and manipulate its direction with his superpowers. 

CHARACTER ORIGIN

Reversal Ippatsuman (Gyakuten Ippatsuman) was first aired in 1982. Time Lease, a business that leases everything you can think of including robots, has been number one for a decade. Skull Lease, a rival leasing company in the same city run by notorious villians, works to discrace Time Lease and take the number one spot for themselves and advance a plan for world conquest. One day a transport robot of Time Lease is assaulted by he villain trio of Skull Lease and Ippatsuman has to save the day.

GAMEPLAY DETAILS

Ippatsuman is a very strong character who can fill a variety of roles. Having very few weaknesses and plenty of strengths, he's a jack of all trades who can feel safe at all ranges and deal impressive damage up close. He is able to flow from attack to attack thanks to the properties of his special moves, and his air grab super lets him hit the opponent with powerful resets. Since he relies on his grab super to deal his greater damage, he usually ends up using a lot of meter passively, and so may sometimes find himself falling behind.

CHARACTER STATS

Difficulty: Intermediate

Style: All-rounder

Defensive power: He has slightly below average HP, and a few tricks here and there to keep himself safe against approaches or get out of tight situations. Approaching him from the air is very risky due to his array of strong Dragon-Punch style attacks.

Offensive power: His attacks and combos can do considerable damage, but his real strength comes from his air grab resets. He is also able to attack opponents who are down by using his Mound Blast.

Approach strength: His mixups at close range are fearsome thanks to his ability to airdash directly after using his light Quick Upper. He can use his Rainball to poke at long-ranged opponents as well as his Straight Fly, which lets him cross the screen and punish opponents instantly. At close range some of his attacks and movements are a little bit slow until he gets going.

Combo ability: Ippatsuman's regular combos can be extended by airdashing after his Quick Upper in many cases, and he can either choose to end an air combo with a reset using his Final Reversal Breaker or continue into a grounded Mound Blast, which can be baroqued to allow him to continue into another air combo.

Meter Usage: In order to pull off his powerful resets, Ippatsuman generally likes to use his meter to perform Final Reversal Breaker.

Key Techniques: Players should learn how to perform his air resets and how to continue his ground pressure by airdashing after a light Quick Upper. More advanced players may want to learn how to use his Gyakuten-Oh hyper to perform ground resets on the switch.

Partner Options: Polimar works well with Ippatsuman.  He can benefit from most types of assist but anti-air assists are less valuable to him. Because his Grand Slam Hyper knocks down, it is also useful as a Delayed Hyper Combination starter into a powerful Hyper that hits downed opponents such as Tekkaman's Super Spinning Tekkalancer.

Special Moves

RAINBALL

   
QUARTER CIRCLE FORWARD + ATTACK

Ippatsuman pitches a rainbow-trailing baseball at the opponent. The button pressed determines the trajectory of the projectile as well as the throwing step. Light causes Ippatsuman to throw the ball straight ahead while jumping backwards. Mid causes him to step in and throw a curveball that arcs slightly upwards. Strong will make him take a step and throw a slow ball which travels across the screen in a wave-like motion. The projectile itself is small but it comes out very fast. All versions other than the strong version can be ducked by most opponents. It can be used in the air too, which will cause the throws to be angled. It's quite a versatile projectile that's well worth using to annoy opponents at range. The Mid and Strong versions have considerable recovery, so it's not worth using these at close range.

QUICK UPPER

   
FORWARD DOWN DOWN-FORWARD + ATTACK

Ippatsuman jumps quickly into the sky with his fist raised, attacking with a bright purple aura. The attack goes straight up, so it has a short horizontal range. However Ippatsuman is able to air dash and attack as soon as the move finishes, making it vital for his fast mixups and pressure game and as a means to extend his combos. The light version goes the shortest distance while the strong version jumps the highest. Generally the light version is used for pressure.

MOUND BLAST

  
QUARTER CIRCLE BACK + ATTACK

Ippatsuman punches the ground, creating a surge of purple energy all around him. Has some startup, but it covers his entire body, making it an excellent defensive tool. It will also hit opponents who are down, making it a key combo extender in the corner. The button pressed determines the size of the explosion, startup and number of hits. It is punishable on block.

STRAIGHT FLY

   
CHARGE BACK, FORWARD + ATTACK

Ippatsuman quickly tackles the opponent, flying across the screen in a similar manner to Ken the Eagle's Bird Shoot special. Useful for getting out of tricky situations in the corner. It closes the distance VERY quickly. The button pressed determines the distance traveled, with light being the shortest. Even if blocked it usually allows Ippatsuman to get past the opponent with relative safety.

FLYING KNEE

DP + Attack (during dash)

Ippatsuman jumps at the opponent with a knee attack, covered in a purple aura. Useful to quickly cover the gap when engaging opponents who like to jump around and shoot projectiles a lot. Other than this, it can't be used in combos without baroque, so it's uses are limited to mobility. It's fast, so it makes a decent surprise attack.

Hyper Combos

GRAND SLAM ATTACK

     
HALF CIRCLE BACK + ANY TWO ATTACKS

Ippatsuman takes out a baseball bat before hitting a cloud of baseballs at the opponent in one swing. This super tends to have rather random damage since the projectiles are so scattered, but it can be treated like a shotgun blast in that it does more damage up close. It's an OK attack, but meter is best conserved for his much more powerful Gyakuten Breaker. Each one of the balls causes knockdown, so it can be useful for Delayed Hyper Combos from across the screen.

FINAL REVERSAL BREAKER

   
FORWARD DOWN DOWN-FORWARD + ANY TWO ATTACKS

Ippatsuman flies into the air at a 45degree angle. If he comes into contact with the opponent, he grabs them and then slams them into the ground. This is an air grab, meaning it is completely unblockable. This move is the reason why Ippatsuman is so fearsome. Due to it's angle and unblockable nature, he can use it to perform some powerful resets at the end of his air combos by setting it to go off just after the combo has ended, meaning that the damage dealt is completely unscaled.

COME FORTH, GYAKUTEN-OH

    
BACK, DOWN, DOWN-BACK  + ANY TWO ATTACKS

Ippatsuman jumps up into his super robot, which then initiates a sort of mini-game until his meter completely runs out and he turns back to normal.

While piloting his robot, Ippatsuman can make it do attacks by pressing buttons. This is the only time in the game where opponents can be juggled with multiple wall bounces in the same combo. The list of attacks are as follows:

Light attack - Left hook:

Swings the robot's left arm across the screen. It's an overhead and must be blocked high. If it hits it will wallbounce the opponent.

Mid attack - Right hook:

Same as the left hook, but from the other side of the screen.

Down + Light attack - Left Fist Hammer

Slams the ground with his left fist. It must be blocked low. If the opponent is standing anywhere on the ground at the time, they'll be popped up high into the air.

Down + Mid attack - Right Fist Hammer

Same as the left, except it hits on the other side of the screen.

Up + Light attack - Sword Sweep

Takes out a giant sword and sweeps it across the lower portion of the screen. Totally unblockable but can be avoided by jumping or super jumping.

Up + Mid attack - Sword Attack

Same as Sword Sweep, except it slices across the middle of the stage. Can be avoided by staying grounded or super jumping.

Hard attack - Obliterator

Charges up a huge beam for about 10 seconds, then unleashes it for a completely unavoidable full-screen attack. Utterly useless since the opponent can just hit the glowing jewel to stop it at any time.

This Hyper needs to be used with extreme caution. It drains all of Ippatsuman's meter and doesn't stay around for long. Due to the very short startup time it is possible to combo into this super and then continue the combo. Using this method it can also be used to set up unblockable resets.

Assists

Assist

The same animation as Justice Liner. It's a fairly speedy advancing assist that's useful for some characters, but it doesn't open up many combo opportunities and is otherwise uninteresting.

Variable Counter

Variable Hyper Combination

When called in to do a Variable Hyper combination, Ippatsuman will use his Gyakuten Home Run hyper.