I've been playing the 4 series on and off since vanilla was released, but I've never been able to take my game to the next level. I've mostly just been using special moves with a little knowledge on zoning, footsies and Ultra setups that I've learned from watching streams all the time. I don't know any combos/ can't pull off any combos, I can't link on the fly, I don't really know how to cancel and every time I try to youtube "Street Figher 4 Tutorials" or something, I get a bunch of Trial run throughs and combo videos. I want to learn these fundamental basics. But I don't know who which character would be best. I'm leaning to towards Dhalsim because I kind of the like the zoning aspect of the character. His matches just feel like a big chess match. Plus, he's not to heavy on the big combos or FADC (which I'm still struggling to pull off). But I've also heard that he plays so differently from other characters, does that mean he'd be a bad start? What even constitutes a good character to learn these fundamentals? Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks folks.

This series has everything you need to know.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?annotation_id=annotation_422412&feature=iv&p=744144A71C67D816&src_vid=1_nS5Jj3pHY

I enjoy playing Dhalsim. I only usually play as him.

Ryu 
 
He can do everything

you might like Guile. He's not combo heavy and you can play him strategically. T Hawk, Honda, Blanka, Hakan, Bison and Zangief are also not combo intensive. Also the in-game trials help you get a lot better with cancels and FADCs.

@Jack268 said:

Ryu He can do everything

Ken. HE can do everything.

@McGhee said:

This series has everything you need to know.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?annotation_id=annotation_422412&feature=iv&p=744144A71C67D816&src_vid=1_nS5Jj3pHY

I actually just found that this morning. Really looking forward to watch it. Glad someone finally took the time to get into the basics that every other tutorial seems to think everyone knows.

I'd say to start with Ryu just to get some basic fundamentals down, spacing, zoning, etc., and then move onto a character you want to learn. It really depends on the type of style you want to play with that can help dictate and point you in the direction of what characters you may like.

Either that, or jump directly into a character that you think has an interesting style, or a style you'd want to learn and just go in heavy and hard with that character.

Dhalsim is one of the hardest characters to play well in my opinion. To sim properly you've really got to know the ins and outs of all his moves, otherwise you'll just get rushed and die very quickly.

Guile's good for a starter. You'll learn quickly and be forced to improve your defense which is probably the most important thing in the game.

@Scooper said:

Dhalsim is one of the hardest characters to play well in my opinion. To sim properly you've really got to know the ins and outs of all his moves, otherwise you'll just get rushed and die very quickly.

Guile's good for a starter. You'll learn quickly and be forced to improve your defense which is probably the most important thing in the game.

Yeah Sim is all about zoning so while you might learn quickly there's also a good chance you'll get rocked and just end up getting frustrated.

For Guile another big plus (as far as improving your overall game is concerned) is that he's a charge character so mashing out uppercuts is not an option. It might help you win against lower ability players but it's a tough habit to shake.

My personal suggestion is Fei Long; he is a well balanced character, has good pokes, easy combos (compared to other characters) and does good damage :)

Since getting caught up in the Evo hype I've been trying to get back into SSF4 a little. I've been maining Cammy, mostly to try and stop myself from relying so heavily on projectiles.

Turns out that without fireballs my attacks tend to revolve around jumping into people, and just asking to be punished, or throwing out ill-timed pokes. In short, not having projectiles has underlined to me how much I suck at this game.

Thanks for posting the tutorial links, I'll definitely check those out.

(My GT is the same as my username if anyone would like some easy sparring practice!)

Balrog is a pretty straight forward starting place as well I feel. He is more limited in scope than some of the other characters, which depending on what kind of things you want to focus on can be good or bad (ie: no cross-ups, poor wake up game, and little to no need for FADC). He can also be played aggressively or defensively and be very effective at both.

I only play Hakan because I'm of the highest grade.

Hakan, because he's fucking Hakan.

You should look up Ultra Chen TV. Its James Chen and Ultra David from the streams breaking down every aspect of fighting games as a whole. They started out on SF4 and ar now onto KOF. I can't recommend them enough and besides you already know their voices if you are a stream monster anyways :P.

I also suggest to start out with Gief because he's not combo heavy, he does great damage for minimal effort, and its not terribly difficult to learn his set ups.