Explanation and use of Cancels, Chains and Links: Street Fighter 3 Third Strike
Check out the differences between Canceling, Links and Chain combos. Watch ►
Movie courtesy of Thongboy Bebop
Cancels
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.
Links
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.
Chains
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.
