Street Fighter IV as El Fuerte and Abel

Capcom included a lucha libre wrestler in Street Fighter IV, but he doesn’t handle anything like Zangief. El Fuerte’s moves start with him charging forward by doing a quarter circle forward motion. Once he starts running you can select attacks like a mid-air body slam. Running also opens El Fuerte up for attacks since it’s easy for the other player to counter with a fireball or even a weak attack. I found using El Fuerte’s sweeping kick and diving wall spring more useful since the other player didn’t expect to see these attacks. I didn’t even know what to expect from El Fuerte, but he’s definitely one of the more technical characters to learn.

Abel is more my style because his Marseille Roll is an excellent move. The roll is similar to Vega’s spinning claw attack, but Able doesn’t roll as far. He can go under fireballs and land a kick to the groin though. I didn’t the Wheel Kick useful initially since the aerial kick doesn’t have a lot of horizontal motion. However, the mid-range arc is useful for knocking someone who just flew past a player with a Hurricane Kick. Abel’s most useful move, and the trickiest to pick up, is the anti-air throw called the Falling Sky. This move grabs a jumping player from air and slams them to the ground, a really useful tactic to countering players who start combos by jumping in to attack.

Starting tonight Street Fighter IV will be playable at Comic Con. Take this opportunity to shake up Ryu/Ken players with Abel.

Images courtesy of Capcom.