Any other Blanka players?

Jumpy

Just started a few days ago after buying it in the steam sale.

Definitely picked Blanka as my main at this point, but wondering is he a fairly commonly used fighter?

Doctor DooM

He's fairly popular, our own Bush, PPC, HMUYA, and a Northern player called Simon Lau would be well known for picking him. Good cross ups, makes shoto's life difficult with his slide, solid mid top tier character.

EDIT: I forgot poor ol Sagat06/8. He plays a mean Blanka too.

lazlo

how much was it in the steam sale this time?

Jumpy

9.99

L31mr0d

ggs yesterday Jumpy. I'll definitely be up for some more if you see me on Steam. Gives me a chance to work through Akumas move set against Blanka to see what works and what doesn't, rather than relying on my usual boring, empty jumps, bait and punish game against him (haven't played a lot of Blankas as I tend to avoid the matchup due to how much of Akumas zoning game is shutdown by Blanka)

In regards to how common he is, I wouldn't say very. I've encountered only a handful of Blankas compared to how many Ryus, Sagats, Kens and Akumas I've played online. I don't think I have anybody either in my friends list on GFWL that mains Blanka (some of them mess around with him though)

For some light reading, sign up to shoryuken.com and have a look at this forum:

http://www.shoryuken.com/forumdisplay.php?f=252

The stickies would be well worth having a read through, especially the matchup specific stuff.

Dreddybajs

Blanka is definitely on the more popular side of characters.

K.O.Kiki

He's popular.
Yet IMHO, he's also kinda crap.

I mean c'mon, name me one other character who can be reversal-Ultra'd ON HIT?

L31mr0d

Dreddybajs wrote: »

Blanka is definitely on the more popular side of characters.

Yeah, he's not exotic or anything. He'd be in top 50% of characters picked. But he's still fairly rare online (at least in GFWL from what I've played). Not as rare as the likes of Rose, Gen or El Fuerte though.

Dreddybajs

I don't think he's rare online at all, I run into a few Blankas pretty much every time I play.

bush

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

He's popular.
Yet IMHO, he's also kinda crap.

I mean c'mon, name me one other character who can be reversal-Ultra'd ON HIT?

Ye hes not great and has some really bad matchups.

Dreddybajs

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

He's popular.
Yet IMHO, he's also kinda crap.

I mean c'mon, name me one other character who can be reversal-Ultra'd ON HIT?

Gief hitting green hand on Chun

edit: tons of **** actually, especially a lot of crap normals, are really bad and punishable by ultra on hit

L31mr0d

Dreddybajs wrote: »

I don't think he's rare online at all

Ok, fair enough, that's your opinion. I'd personally rank him about 15th on the list of most likely to meet online after Akuma, Balrog, Cammy, Chun Li, Dan, E. Honda, Guile, Ken, M. Bison, Ryu, Sagat, Vega, Zangief, Gouken (not necessarily in that order) Again it's all subjective, someone could go online and play 10 Rose's and 10 Gen's in a row and claim there are a lot of those characters online also.

lazlo

I think he's very common. He'd be one of my players of choice after bison.

Jim

From my own experience I'd say he's possibly the 3rd highest I meet online after Ryu and Ken. Hell, I think I play more Blankas than Sagats these days.

Cunny-Funt

I see more blankas on PS3 than I do on PC. He can be pretty common all right compared to other charge characters.

Dreddybajs wrote: »

Gief hitting green hand on Chun

edit: tons of **** actually, especially a lot of crap normals, are really bad and punishable by ultra on hit

Ah HA! Was playing as chun against a gief the other day and was blocking a good few green hands and felt tempted to try and ultra but assumed it wouldnt work.

L31mr0d

Cunny-Funt wrote: »

He can be pretty common all right compared to other charge characters.

More common than Balrog and Chun li? I've been seeing a rash of both of those 2 charge characters in G2 recently.

Jumpy

Ill be kicking your asses in no time

Doctor DooM

Jumpy wrote: »

Ill be kicking your asses in no time

Come along on Sat and see your competition.

Placebo

Jumpy wrote: »

Ill be kicking your asses in no time

lol sounds like me when i got sf3 for ps2
then went out and bought xbox and sf3 for it plus live.

got my ass handed to me

Azza

Blanka is popular and he's a good character.
I think the last Jap Tier listing had him joint 5th with Zangief.
He doesn't have any terrible bad match ups. He struggles against Sagat (but who doesn't) and Balrog and apparantly Abel but he rocks against Zangief and eats most of the console characters for breakfeast and is solid against the remaining arcade roster.

He is a very tricky character to deal with particulary for newcomers who don't know his tricks, he's got a lot of feints and baits tactics plus a strong mix up game. He's got some unique gimmicks, like holding charge with hops, cross over hops, a really fast jump and a gimmick 50/50 ultra set up. Blanka has a very strong defense and his hard to crack when he turtles up. Getting in at when he is turtling is next to impossible and his wake up options are pretty good.

The down side to Blanka is his low damage output and a ultra you won't land outside of a reversal which means low comeback potential. He's offense isn't particularly safe and some characters can punish hard even when he hits.

Jumpy

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Come along on Sat and see your competition.

I dont think I would be able to plug my keyboard in Plus Im in Limerick.

animaX

Placebo wrote: »

lol sounds like me when i got sf3 for ps2
then went out and bought xbox and sf3 for it plus live.

got my ass handed to me

and you were surprised because.......

bush

That last tier list was a joke in fairness. He isnt anywhere near top 5, lol. He doesnt really own zangief either, its 6/4 max. Out of the console characters cammy and fei long own him, 7/3 i think. Hes an alright character, not the worst but far from being great.

chopperbyrne

Jumpy wrote: »

I dont think I would be able to plug my keyboard in Plus Im in Limerick.

There's buses every hour from Limerick.

Azza

That Tier list was the last Arcadia magazine tier list which most use as the offical Japanese tier list.

Ask the Gief players and they will tell you they get owned by Blanka.

I know Cammy's tough enough but I can't imagine that match up being any more than 6:4, but Fei-Long what can he possible do?

bush

Azza wrote: »

That Tier list was the last Arcadia magazine tier list which most use as the offical Japanese tier list.

Ask the Gief players and they will tell you they get owned by Blanka.

I know Cammy's tough enough but I can't imagine that match up being any more than 6:4, but Fei-Long what can he possible do?

I thought that tier list was from some wikki?. I didnt think arcadia did console characters.
Cammy is deffo 7/3, no doubt about it. Fei long can punish balls on block and up balls on bock or hit and his rekkas are safe. Once he gets you into the corner your effed. Maybe not 7/3, but at least 6/4.
Im only basing this off one fei long player, starnab on xbl. Ive never had any problems with any other fei long player but him. Its just other fei longs dont play the match properly. I think he even said himself the match was 7/3.

chopperbyrne

bush wrote: »

I thought that tier list was from some wikki?. I didnt think arcadia did console characters.
Cammy is deffo 7/3, no doubt about it. Fei long can punish balls on block and up balls on bock or hit and his rekkas are safe. Once he gets you into the corner your effed. Maybe not 7/3, but at least 6/4.
Im only basing this off one fei long player, starnab on xbl. Ive never had any problems with any other fei long player but him. Its just other fei longs dont play the match properly. I think he even said himself the match was 7/3.

That guy is French national champion isn't he?

chunkis

chopperbyrne wrote: »

That guy is French national champion isn't he?

Alioune is the french national champion. His user name on xbox live is Violent Alione.

Xinkai

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

He's popular.
Yet IMHO, he's also kinda crap.

I mean c'mon, name me one other character who can be reversal-Ultra'd ON HIT?

Oh Ciaran you just haven't mained him... yet

Jim

As a average Cammy player I have to say I have no problems at all with average Blanka players. Just as long as I don't do anything stupid. Its hard to get in on him, but once you block a ball you just s.arrow and take it from there, same with lightning as well. Only problem I have with him is his cross up really. Hops can be c.spike'd.

And, as always, airthrow out of Ultra

Sagat06

Might aswell weigh in on this one.

If I had it all over again I wouldn't pick Blanka. He is ideal as an easy pick up and play character but if you are considering taking the game seriously and maybe trying to become competitive then pick someone else - Sagat maybe :cool: also I've been playing a lot of other characters lately and they are actually more fun to use than him.

His shennanigans can be good and his mix up quite effective but as soon as you come up against an experienced player all of your gimmicks are shut down, and you're then relying on his footsie's and they are not that good. He has no reliable bock strings (in ssf4 his elec will push further back so this will probably get rid of his lp elec blockstring ).

His specials arent that special, his backstep roll is only good for escaping a corner (you will need this for Cammy and Fei Long) . His normal roll can be ultra'd on block by several characters and be hit on hit by others. EX upball is probably his most effective as an anti air or a wakeup escape. Coward crouch meh!

His Ultra sucks, you will see people whining about the damage it does, but let them pick Blanka and actually catch someone with it and see how long they complain. It can be combo'd into with a cr.mk but thats a 1 frame link, I'm playing Blanka since the game came out and I can do it about 80% in training and about 10/20% in a match - so no not an effective strategy. His super is quite an effective anti air though.

@Azza Gief players are getting much much better at this match. It used to be Gief players would stand on the other side of the screen scratching their heads which is where you want them but now they are attacking and not letting Blanka build meter, which is pretty important in this matchup.