I’m annoyed. Frustrated. In pain. Tired and drowsy yet worryingly satisfied.

It’s week 2 of my training and I’ve improved. Only ever so slightly, but still improvement nonetheless. I have managed to grasp at least 3 fighters in the form of Ryu, Ken and Fei Long. I can also use Abel, but to be honest…he sucks. It’s probably me, but he’s far too slow for my liking. In any case, Ryu, Ken and Fei Long seem to be fighters that suit my style and I have learned most of the combos for. I can now easily use Supers and Ultras facing either direction – using the d-pad is a must.

Rather than spread my infinite ‘skill’ learning all the fighters, I stuck with a few. I still find the charge moves hard to pull off and that’s partly the reason I choose fighters with the easier combos. The main thing I have learned is to choose attacks wisely rather than go full on with fists flying so to speak. It’s far more effective and you are less vulnerable to counters. Blocking has also become an essential part of my game and there is nothing more satisfying than blocking multiple attacks and then counter attacking with a shoryuken.

The reason I’ve been frustrated with Street Fighter 4 has been trying to do various combos in trial mode. I’m in pain because I’ve spent so many hours trying to do one move on the d-pad that the skin on my thumb has worn away through friction. Typically I get to Trial 3 with any fighter and get stuck. At the moment it’s Ken giving me hassle with the Heavy Kick/Hadoken combo. Seems pretty straight forward and I’m sure most people pull it off, but I have real trouble with the quick combos.

I’ve also been wading through the arcade mode in a bid to unlock some more fighters. I’ve been quite successful so far, but I do find the mode tedious and it’s a real pain to have to keep going through it. I suppose it forces you to get to grips with other fighters though.

Hopefully in the next blog I will have grasped those combos and I will look to venture online to test my new found skillz innit.