Hiya!

I do have to apologize for the somewhat misleading title. This is generally a matter of opinion as some people prefer doing quarter-circle motions when executing special moves. I don’t. It’s not like I hate twirling the joystick around to throw a fireball or anything of the sort. In fact, I am firmly acknowledging I’m in the minority of the fighting game community who prefers holding down-back on the D-Pad or joystick or whatever, holding this position to “charge” up the special move and then going the opposite direction with the attack button.

However, when it comes to picking characters in a fighting game in general, I generally gravitate towards the ones who use charge motions simply because I play better with them. Sadly, charge motion characters are quickly dying out, with perennial stalwarts such as Street Fighter‘s Guile adding quarter circle motions to his special move repertoire. I actually dread a future when even Guile follows Chun-Li and Blanka‘s footsteps and become more of a hybrid of quarter-circle and charge motions in future entries of the Street Fighter series. They’re basically a dying breed at this time.

Before I explain why I’m on the side of charge motions instead of the more usually preferred quarter-circle moves, let me talk about the downsides of the former and why I understand why most in the fighting game community prefer the latter. The biggest complaint against charge characters is the fact you cannot perform the special move whenever you want. This isn’t the case for those who do quarter-circle motions.

For example, if Ryu player wants to toss out a fireball, he simply has to twist the D-Pad or stick with a quarter-circle forward motion with a punch button. He can do this at any time he wants. Now, for someone like Guile, who does have a projectile called the Sonic Boom, he has to hold back for around a half a second or so first. Once you do that, you then have to push forward on the D-Pad or stick with the punch button to launch the Sonic Boom. The mere fact you have to stop your offense or the idea of not being able to move at all to toss out the Sonic Boom or whatever charge motion can be rather irksome to a lot.

There’s also the timing element to performing a charge motion special move. There’s no visual indicator showing you if you have held the charge motion the right amount of time. This makes it difficult for some to figure out where the messed up the input. Did they not hold back for the right amount of time or did they just not push the button at the same time as when they pushed forward? This isn’t the same with quarter-circle motions as you can generally “feel” where you made the input error. There are many more problems but I believe these are the most prominent ones as to why there is a general distaste for charge motions in fighting games.

While I get all the complaints, I still prefer charge motion characters like Guile. Why? Well, for one thing, I’m not super aggressive on offense. I prefer to hang back and let the opponent come to me in general. Basically, I’m more of a defensive player, which is weird because my reactions suck. Still, there’s that weird feeling of just holding down-back on the controller and, for some reason, you’re in control of what’s happening!

When you play a character like Guile, who’s main special moves are a forward moving projectile which can control horizontal space well and a super great anti-air kick which controls the vertical space, it makes the opponent think twice on how to approach. While games like Street Fighter 6 have applied ways to close in quickly like Drive Rush and the like, seeing a very stoic Guile just patiently waiting for his opponent to just try something, some way to close the gap, can cause them to sweat. It’s threatening without having to do anything actually threatening!

I’m also of the mindset of charge moves being easier to do on reaction when compared to those pesky quarter-circle motions simply because, mathematically, they are simpler. We already talked about Ryu being able to throw out a fireball at any time because he uses quarter-circle forward with punch. Well, a quarter-circle motion has you doing 3 directions in quick succession: down, down-forward and forward with a punch button. Guile’s Sonic Boom, on the other hand is just back to forward with a punch. That’s 2 directions! It may not seem like much but that does mean you have 1 less input to perform and, in a game where a single frame can be important, that can mean the match!

There’s also the matter of overlap when it comes to motions which is less of a problem for charge motion characters. As mentioned before, Ryu can move around and toss fireballs at any time. The problem is one of his other moves, the Dragon Punch, uses almost the same motion as the fireball, which is why a lot of newbies are taught to try walking forward and then do the fireball motion to perform a Dragon Punch. This overlap can cause a Ryu player to accidentally do a Dragon Punch instead of a fireball and vice versa in the heat of battle. This isn’t a problem with charge characters as, even when holding down-back, there are ways to mitigate execution errors, such as hitting down-forward to ensure you toss out a Sonic Boom while still holding your down charge.

Finally, just because you have to hold down-back for most of the match, that doesn’t mean you can’t move forward and still do your charge motion special attacks. You just have to be a little more tricky when to start storing the charge. The simplest way is to jump forward and, the instant your charge character starts sailing through the air, you can start holding the charge immediately. I do believe most charge characters also have built-in movement options wherein you can store your charge while still moving forward. An example would be Guile’s Knee Bazooka which is done by doing back and the light kick. This has him do a short hop forward with a jumping knee and, since it’s done with a back motion, you can hold the charge while he does this move. So, you can still have Guile move forward while having the Sonic Boom charged up.

I do get the distaste for charge characters in fighting games because it does seem you have to change your entire playstyle if you’re used to those quarter-circle motions. You simply cannot go Unga Bunga and go all aggressive all the time with them unless you’re really creative with when to hold your charge. However, the more patient player, such as myself, do prefer the idea of controlling the opponent by simply hanging back and waiting for them to try go get it. It’s not for everyone… but it’s perfectly fine for me.

Byee!

Do you prefer charge motion or quarter-circle motions in fighting games and why? Let me know in the comments section below!