Last updated on March 8, 2008
Check out the differences between Canceling, Links and Chain combos. Watch ►
Movie courtesy of Thongboy Bebop
Canceling is when you stop the animation of one move to go into another. For example, if I do Ken's crouching Hard Punch and then throw a Fireball before the animation completes, this will Cancel the crouching Hard Punch animation and throw a Fireball.
A Link is when the hit-stun is long enough from one move to allow you to combo with another move. The catch here is that the first move's animation must have completely ended, unlike Canceling which allows you to interrupt the process.
An example of a Link would be Makoto's crouching Medium Kick into a Seichusen-Godanzuki (Super Art 1, Multiple punches). To properly hit-confirm (confirm your opponent has been hit before comboing with another move) you must wait for the move to completely end then finish the Super Art motion. There's a split-second where you can pull this off before your opponent can block again. Tricky but very effective.
The difference between Cancels and Links seems moot at first, but it's important to note because Cancels are entered as quickly as possible, while Links require strict timing to combo correctly. And there are times when you'll want to use a Cancel move or a Link, depending on the situation.
A Chain combo is when specific normal moves cancel into each other. One popular Chain is Yun's standing light punch, light kick and then medium punch. These moves cancel their animations allowing you to combo with them.
Posted by Nick on January 23, 2008 at 1:24 p.m. #1
I never got why people keep saying crouching Strong (Medium Punch) is a link. It isn't. You can cancel Low Strong into SA3 easily. Seriously, am I thinking of some other move or something? Low Strong with Ken is cancelable, there's nothing tricky about the timing. Even this frame data of Ken says so
http://web.archive.org/web/2004041519...
Posted by Catalyst on March 8, 2008 at 12:23 p.m. #2
Nick, thanks again for the note. I don't know why I brain farted here. I put in a better example.
Posted by Jimmy on August 23, 2008 at 12:44 a.m. #3
How do I know what moves chain into each other? Sometimes it looks like they wont chain but people doing combos and posting them in youtube make it look deceiving.
Posted by Luke on October 1, 2008 at 9:50 a.m. #4
The explanation Video is not working.
Posted by Jabo on January 2, 2009 at 10:24 p.m. #5
to Jimmy ok some chains combos go into cancels and that is one reason why some are hard to tell but one real way to tell is to think about other fighting games such as tekken when they give you ten hit combos in the move list that only that person can do that is for the most part what chains are also keep in mind some other people dont know what chains are and they make videos calling them something that their not,also not every ten hit combo in tekken is a chain just most are.
Posted by SF3 on January 10, 2009 at 8:34 p.m. #6
thx i needed it
Posted by shane on March 3, 2009 at 12:24 p.m. #7
I am a dick. I have spent the last hour attempting Chun Li's 1st combo in challenge 3. Hard kick to lightning kick. I am now bored & cant do it. I have checked the forums & the nearest I can get to how to do it is if I cancel. Obviously not. Any help. Worst thing is wor lass did it by pressing all the freaking buttonsW!! biatch!!
Posted by mike on June 19, 2009 at 11:38 a.m. #8
the kick into lightning kick is easy.
get the H-kick as you are jumping in and keep tapping HK.
But how do I cancel crouching H Punch into M Spinning bird kick?
Posted by saiferoth on September 3, 2009 at 4:49 p.m. #9
having trouble with (SF4) ryu hard trial #2 and yes it is that hard for me hehehe
i can never get that cr. hard punch or whatever....help?
Posted by Ryu_Apprentice on March 9, 2010 at 10:31 a.m. #10
buffer the move
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