That’s definitely more fair, but also a massive change to the way that character has to be played. Now, that only works in the corner, meaning that Mika has to work to get you into that position before she can do any of her trickery. Mika players quickly found out that if you dash backwards to pull the screen’s’ edge towards their opponent, they could get the corner bounce from anywhere on the stage. She has the ability to grab you and Irish Whip you, and if you bump the edge of the screen you bounce off into a devious mixup situation that can be repeated until you’re very dead. Mika, who overall Capcom Pro Tour champion NuckleDu has spent the year using. In fact, it’s massively punishable, so any Chun-Li player who used to spam that move and wait to confirm into a combo from any hit will find themselves in a lot of trouble. Chun-Li’s instant air legs no longer leave her at a frame advantage on black, so she can’t beat you to the punch on any button you dare press. Some characters have received some considerable hits to their moveset in the name of balance. Suddenly, F.A.N.G’s poison and Dhalsim’s V-Trigger are super dangerous tools, while Zangief’s V-Skill is actually something that could become a very risky tactic for a ‘Gief player. It now recovers twice as slowly as before, meaning that if you just sit and block you will find yourself with a massive chunk of damage that could easily be converted into a huge hit to your health if you make a mistake. Recoverable damage, also known as white/grey life, is accrued by blocking attacks and should you take a hit you lose all of it alongside the hit damage. Now, the hit boxes on those moves have been changed so it is much harder to use that button as an anti-air, meaning that blocking or using a much more risky option will need to be used to stop a jump-in attempt.

Necalli has his DP, as does Ryu, but there’s no point using those when you just can press a single button. The funniest part is that most of these characters have a solid, reliable anti-air anyway.

Not all characters had this ability, and it’s no surprise that the ones that did quickly rose to the top. Necalli’s jab auto-corrected the side he needed to face to beat cross ups and even countered Dhalsim’s teleport simply by pressing a button. Chun-Li’s was particularly rude - she could recover quick enough from her longest range attack to jab anti-air someone who made the correct read and jumped in on her. In short, some characters could simply press their jab button and hit you out of the air, dropping you into a position where you’re in a 50/50 throw mixup situation. The anti-air jab was the absolute bane of Season 1.

What is a frame trap street fighter