Super Street Fighter 4 Profiles: Cody

In part four of our Super Street Fighter 4 Profiles series, Capcom Special Advisor Seth Killian gives us the inside scoop on Cody. What does the Street Fighter expert like about the jailhouse scrapper, and what does he think are the warrior's big weaknesses?

On what he likes about Cody:

Seth Killian: Cody has always been an unusual character for me, but what I like most about him is his sort of hurricane punch, where he raises this mini-typhoon on the screen. I don't know [if it's right] to say you like the "hit box" on a move, but I really like that one's hit box. [Laughs] It hits low on the ground but hits all the way up to the middle.

You can't just throw it out — you have to be able to make contact with your opponent, because otherwise you're going to be vulnerable. But it's really cool. It does this uppercut move that creates this dust storm that can really trap the opponent. And if you've got him in the corner, you can string a few of those together to create pressure; you can use them in combos….

Some of my favorite moves in Street Fighter are creative moves, where there are different ways to use them depending on your play style. If you want to knock somebody down, you can use it that way; you can use them for defense, you can them for offense….

So for me, that's one of my favorite things about Cody. I try to base my whole game around it. He's just a fun character. I know people have been waiting for the Final Fight guys to come back, and anyone who played him in Alpha 3 will be in love with this move, because it's one of his best. It's a great move here, again.

On the troubles Cody might face:

SK: I think he's going to have a hard time with — I don't want to call them turtle-y characters, but guys like Guile who can sit back and remain relatively defensive. Cody can generate a little bit of offense in that situation by throwing rocks. I don't know what that's about [laughs] — he can pick up rocks and throw them.

But he can't really win a fireball war with that. It's more of a gimmick than a strategy. You're not going to beat somebody by just throwing rocks at them — it's not fast enough.

So I think Cody's going to have a hard time against defensive characters like Guile, to try to get inside and break their guard. He'll have to work harder than most to get in close because he's most effective from close to middle-close range — that's where he does the most damage. So Guile, who has long-range kicks and a good projectile will be able to keep him off.

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Also see: T. Hawk, DeeJay, Juri, Cody, Guy, Adon, Ibuki, Makoto, Dudley, Hakan

Note: Killian's comments are based on Super Street Fighter 4 as it stands today in its development cycle. Keep in mind the game may go through balancing tweaks leading up to its April 27, 2010 release, so his opinions are subject to change.