![what is a frame trap street fighter what is a frame trap street fighter](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/A1gI95OycTA/maxresdefault.jpg)
I know that to some degree the entirety of VGJunk is a paean to nostalgia, but this is of a deeper kind, one that’s tied up in childhood memories of happy multiplayer games with friends and play-fighting with my brothers while shouting “hadooooken” at each other. As for me, just looking at it is making me feel nostalgic. If you took a silhouette of this sprite and used it as the logo for a category of games or something, then most people who play videogames would immediately know what to expect. And it is iconic, in an age where that word is overused, because I think it could and perhaps does stand as an icon for fighting games in general. It is pronounced “rye-oo” or “ree-oo” or what? Do he and Ken fight in exactly the same way? Will anyone ever defeat Sheng Long? All questions that have since been answered, but none of that detracts from the iconic look of Ryu’s idle stance. Where else could I end but with Ryu himself? Ah, I can already hear the faint and distant arguments of years past. As Blanka didn’t appear in Street Fighter V I’m just going to assume he’s living with his mum and enjoying a peaceful, contented life. He’s just so goddamn jaunty, but if you cover his legs and just look at him from the waist up he looks he’s responding to a shocking accusation in an exaggerated manner.” Go on, try it and tell me you can’t imagine Blanka saying “You saw me creeping to the chambermaid’s quarters in the dead of night? How dare you! The very thought!” Actually, what’s the status on Blanka being able to talk at the moment? Is Dan Hibiki still the only one who can understand him? You know, it doesn’t matter. “What seems to be the problem? Well, I can’t stop thinking about this jungle-dwelling beastman and his mid-air poses. There’s no rhyme or reason to it and it certainly doesn’t indicate that I should visit a healthcare professional. Look, sometimes things get stuck in your head and you can’t explain why. I’ll be honest, this frame of Blanka’s jumping medium kick it what got me thinking about writing this article in the first place. It’s not that old boxers were averse to nutting people, it’s just that they didn’t usually leap into the air while doing it. Well, until you use his jumping headbutt move, anyway. Later Street Fighter games would introduce Dudley as the fair-fighting, honourable boxer of the cast, but Balrog definitely has a touch of the old-school about him at this point in the Street Fighter series. There’s something old-school about Balrog’s poses, perhaps because of the way his idle stance has his gloves up by his chest. That’s something I noticed when looking back on Balrog’s Street Fighter 2 sprites – they don’t seem to quite match up with his characterisation as a dirty, below-the-belt fighter.
![what is a frame trap street fighter what is a frame trap street fighter](https://storage.googleapis.com/media.tiltingatpixels.com/tilting/FCG2_CammyFrameTrap.gif)
This could almost be a 16-bit version of an illustration from a Victorian book, a pixellated take on The Gentleman’s Guide to Pugilism Under the New Queensberry Rules, Third Edition. I’d say that Balrog’s early appearances have something of the classical about them, though. Looks painful, doesn’t it? It makes sense that a character “inspired” by Mike Tyson would possess a devastating uppercut. Let’s begin with Balrog and his mighty uppercut. I thought it might be nice to look back at a few of my favourite animation frames from Super Street Fighter II, which now I’ve written it out twice seems like a strange topic for an article but hey, I’ve already taken a bunch of screenshots so I guess I’m going with it. So, Super Street Fighter II stands as a graphical high-point of the 16-bit era to me, even if other people would probably disagree. They do look great, of course, but between the lack of nearby arcades and the scarcity of SNK’s home console (I’ve still never met anyone who owned a Neo Geo during its “heyday”) those games only existed as pictures in magazines to me. The outliers are SNK’s fighting games like Fatal Fury. It felt like most other fighters were either aping Mortal Kombat’s visual style, or they were trying to copy SFII and simply not being as good at it as Capcom.
![what is a frame trap street fighter what is a frame trap street fighter](https://mmosumo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/alex___street_fighter_v_by_zeref_ftx_d9urce6-fullview.jpg)
I’ve never much liked digitised graphics and I’ve always thought the Mortal Kombat games are kinda ugly. The Street Fighter II series’ cartoonish but not too wild style always appealed to me far more than its competitors’ did. For a long time, it was probably the best looking fighting game I’d played, although I’ll grant that’s down to both personal circumstance and aesthetic preference. That’s fine by me, I like looking at Super Street Fighter II. I’ve been thinking abut Super Street Fighter II for the SNES recently and how it’s probably the fighting game I’ve spent most time playing, and consequently the most time looking at. The title of this article sums it up, really.