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Super Street Figher IV Hakan Character Guide
Nathan Mordecai, [email protected]

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Basic Control Notation

3. Special Moves

4. EX Specials

5. Super and Ultras

6. Special Oily Techniques and Tips

7. Advanced Wake-Ups
a. defending against attacks upon waking up
b. attacking a waking opponent

8. Opponent Techniques

a. Bison
b. Ken/Ryu
c. Vega
d. Guy
e. Guile
f. Blanka
g. Abel
h. Adon
i. Dhalsim
j. Chun Li
k. Honda
l. Zangief
m. Balrog
n. Sagat
o. C. Viper
p. Rufus
q. Fuerte
r. Seth
s. akuma
t. Gouken
u. Fei Long
v. Sakura
w. Rose
x. Dan
y. T. Hawk
z. Deejay
A. Cody
B. Ibuke
C. Makoto
D. Dudley
E. Juri
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1. Introduction to Hakan:

The idea behind Hakan was to have a novel new fighting style added to Street
Fighter IV, and in this, they really succeeded. Turkish oil wrestling is real
in fact! Not how Hakan does it, of course. Real oil wrestlers don't launch
their opponents fifty feet or spin around on top of them a 100 miles an hour.
As one of my opponents referred declared, he's a �clown.�

Hakan is widely considered to be low tier (perhaps very low), and I am in no
position to argue. While I have played top players (top players being
10000+BP), frankly, I've gotten destroyed about half of the time, with only
a few victories. All of that said, I have had success overall with Hakan. I
can beat the average player pretty handily. I'm one of the best Hakan players
on Xbox network (top .1% perhaps?), I think, so if you're trying to get
better, I may be able to help. That said, I have a huge amount of room for
improvement, as there are advanced techniques I will be discussing in here
that I haven't yet mastered.
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. Basic Control Notation:

p=any punch
k=any kick
lp=light punch
mp=medium punch
hp=hard punch
lk=light kick
mk=medium kick
hk=hard kick
s.=standing, as in �s.hp,� or standing hp. (Use this a lot. Good priority.)
c.=crouching, as in �c.mk,� or crouching medium kick.
j.=jumping, as in �j. mp,� or jumping medium punch.
toward=toward your opponent, as in �toward+mp,� or press toward your opponent
and press medium punch simultaneously.
qcf=quarter circle forward, or press down, down-toward, toward.
dpm=dragon punch motion. If you can't do a dragon punch, you probably shouldn't
even try Hakan.
360p=move the d-pad or joystick 360 degrees followed by a punch.
360k=move the d-pad or joystick 360 degrees followed by a kick.
_______________________________________________________________________________
3. Special Moves
*Oil slide: qcf+p (Hakan slides forward on his oil belly, with fists in front).
Oil slide is Hakan's most useful special move. It can be used to dodge, counter
a jumping attack, set up for a throw or can take out your opponent's legs. It's
dangerous for Hakan if not used properly, as the recovery time is not good
after it's blocked. From just the right distance, a blocked oil
slide is relatively safe if followed by a backward dash, for example. Interrupt
it with an EX-focus attack on occasion to keep your opponents off guard. If you
are hit by a projectile at the same time as you hit your opponent, oil up.
They'll be down longer than you. Use oil slides to slide under opponents, too.
This slide makes Hakan one of the more mobile characters, due to it's speed
and how low he gets. Pressing punch a 2nd time after the oil slide will result
in a second attack, known as a body press. This is essential for oil slide to
do decent damage.

*Oil Rocket: 360p. (A short to long range throw; Hakan squeezes his opponent,
launching them into the air). This move does good damage, but it has very poor
range by default. Get yourself oiled up as soon as safely and rationally
possible to make Hakan into a formidable grappler.

*Oil Shower: dpm, k, or toward, down, down-toward and kick. (Hakan oils up).
lk oil shower is the safest, but hk oil shower is worth taking damage over (just
not too much). This move changes the game completely. If Hakan were oiled up
all the time, he'd be truly powerful and so much less frustrating. Many moves
get longer range and Hakan does greater damage. Perhaps most importantly,
the oil rocket gets some real range. Once you have range on this, you can start
using "tick throws," (i.e. lp, lp, oil rocket). You can also use block strings
(i.e. c.hp, c.lk. c.hp and oil rocket). Perhaps just as importantly, his oiled
dashes (toward-toward) can be interrupted by his own normal punches and kicks.
No other character has this ability, and it opens up interesting possibilities,
particularly with the focus attack.

*Oil Dive: 360k (Hakan lunges toward a standing or jumping opponent). This move
is damaging and is quite useful once you know how to use it. It's good for
punishing some failed moves, and for countering throws. If timed right, it can,
for example, throw Bison (emperor) out of his Psycho Crusher and Adon out of
his Jaguar Tooth. Much too hard to time, usually. The way to get this in:
you can take advantage of a milisecond stand-to-crouch animation common to all
characters [Thanks to Ultra Dave here], e.g. hit a standing opponent with
toward+mp and buffer into medium oil dive. Better yet, get someone after
they're knocked down, as they have to stand for a split second (except Cammy
and Blanka). We'll get into that later.
_______________________________________________________________________________
4. EX specials (specials where two punch buttons or two kick buttons are used
instead of the usual single button, using up part of your super adding more
power and ability to the move).

*EX Oil Slide goes through any projectile, even kikoshu, and is incredibly fast
when it's oiled. Good against Ryu and Sakura. Not as good against Guile or
Deejay.

*EX Oil Rocket has a split second of invincibility. Good against a jabbing
opponent. Don't use this sparingly. Great against follow-ups to jump attacks
and useful in many other circumstances.

*EX Oil Shower gives invulnerability against certain moves, e.g. fireballs and
psycho crusher. However, it's incredibly slow and uses up super.

*EX Oil Dive has long range, but is as slow as hk oil dive. If you need to
punish an opponent that is far away, this may work. Most importantly, it's
immune to throws and does the same damage as a hk oil dive, more damage
than an oil rocket.
_______________________________________________________________________________
5. Super and Ultras, respectively:

*Flying Oil Spin: qcf->qcf+punch (Hakan dives far forward at jumping or standing
opponents and slides them along the ground, ramming them into the wall, spinning
all the while for no legitimate reason). For most other characters,this would be
a very hard move to land. It's a little easier with oiled-up Hakan. When oiled
up, Hakan's moving focus attack is good for setting this up and his backward
dash is second to none. Combine the two, and our focus attack is not only easier
to land, it's safer to do. The oil spin, of course, has the range to get them
anyway and the backward dash can allow time to verify the hit, so as not to
whiff. Did I mention it goes through projectiles, including Ryu's shinko hadoken
and even Chun Li's Kikoshu? It will also counter Zangief's ultra throw, if done
immediately after. A lot of people use up their super doing the EX oil slide.
But if you find yourself with a full super bar, it can set you up
for a big come back or a dramatic finish.

*Oil Coaster: 360x2 and 3-punch-buttons (Ultra 1: Hakan might use this on his
daughters, hugging them tight, launching them in the air, spinning them around
his body and launching them off to school at a 100 miles an hour. WEEEEEEE!)
This uber oily throw does solid damage and has pretty good range. Try it
following a jumping lk, a blocked toward+mp or after defending a jumping
attack. If you think someone is trying to tic throw you, just spam the move
and hope they don't jump instead. It'll take some practice, but it is great in
many circumstances.

*Oil Combination Hold: down->down->down+3-kick-buttons. (Ultra 2: Hilarity
ensues when Hakan oils up, lies on his back and waits for his unwitting jumping
opponent. His helpless attacker slips, gets flipped over and using Hakan's
crotch as a fulcrum, Hakan spins mighty fast, then holds his now oil-soaked
new bosom friend tight and yells, �Here I come!� and squirts them along the
ground and into the wall. Awesomely disgusting!) While this move lacks damage,
it's easy to get in and is helpful against jump attacks and some special moves,
e.g. hurrican kicks and cannon drills. I tend to use this only against certain
characters, e.g. Akuma and Cammy. Surprisingly, an attempted dragon punch right
on top of Hakan's oil combination hold will result in an immediate slip into
Hakan's waiting arms and some oily man-on-man action. Great fun and pretty
effective. Keep in mind that after Hakan's successful focus attack, an opponent
can disastrously fall face first into Hakan's buff, oily body. Try it! After
Hakan's juggling j.mp, while Hakan can oil slide it, it may be better to finish
them off with the oil combination hold instead.
_______________________________________________________________________________
6. Special Oily Techniques and Tips:

Oily Hakan is much more dangerous than dried Hakan. Weird. His toward+hk, for
example, has much longer range and will purportedly automatically result in
teching out of throws. More exciting than that, oily Hakan has more and better
combos, e.g.:

lp, lp, mp.

lp, lp, toward+lp.

Or better yet:

instantaneous focus attack (mk+mp held for a split second, as opposed to one
where the buttons are held down), dash, c.mk, oil slide, body press. Again, we
see Hakan interrupting his dash while oiled. A powerful technique that can
really spoil you.

toward+mp, EX focus attack, dash interrupt, toward+mp, mk-oil-slide, body
press.

*Oiled-up EX oil slide goes all the way across the screen. This is a must have
against some opponents. Against Ryu, for example, it's butter to your bread. It
goes through projectiles, by the way. Seriously.

*Oily toward+mp goes much further and with the increased oily range of the oil
rocket, Hakan can throw jumping opponents from behind by dashing (either
inadvertantly missing an attack or purposefully). Extremely useful. This is one
of his best anti-air techniques. As an anti-air technique, it's rarely used
by the average Hakan player.

*toward+mp buffered into a hk oil dive can do major damage to a neutral jumping,
standing or even an opponent trying to crouch and is a bit slow. Do this, if
they start to avoid your oil rocket follow-ups.

*A j.hk, if landed deep enough on a standing opponent, whether they block or
not, can result in an almost guaranteed hit by the lk oil dive. It's tough to
defend against. Of course, as always, the c.lp or c.lk can protect them as can
shoryukens and the like. That's why we use "mix ups."
_______________________________________________________________________________
7. Advanced Wake-up Techniques (Thanks to UltraDave's Youtube video for this):

a. After getting knocked down, if Hakan is not oiled up, he's very vulnerable.
If he is oiled up, however, he's got some nice weapons at his disposal:

*Upon Hakan waking up, Zangief, for example, might use a c.hk. Respond with an
instantaneous-focus-attack, dash and a combo, e.g. toward+mp, oil slide.

*Upon Hakan waking up, an opponent like Ryu might try a series of crouching
jabs. A backward dash might be risky but oily Hakan, for a split second, can
interrupt his backward dash (only in the first 10th of the move; the rest of
the backward dash can't be interrupted, unlike the forward dash). Use a c.lk
combo, for example, to make Ryu pay for trying to lightly punch you in the
mid-section.

b. After knocking down an opponent, Hakan has some mean techniques he can use:

*After an oil slide/body press, try using lk oil up and then an oil rocket. The
timing works out great. Yessssss!

*Use a deep j.hk (requires very good timing) on a standing opponent followed by
a lk oil dive.

*If you're already oiled or feel like gambling a bit, try this technique, which
takes advantage of a split second animation in almost every character:
as an opponent recovers from a fall after a body press (how long an opponent
stays down depends on what you used to knock them down... thus, this technique
works for a particular knockdown!), get ready to oil dive them upon wake up.
This will probably be the most oft used method of landing the oil dive. The
timing is difficult, but Capcom was friendly to the timing impaired player.
Try, for example, a c.hp as you stand up and use a lk oil dive. More
advanced players will use a c.lk to duck more quickly so try using a focus
c.hk on them, or an oil rocket. Also try backward dashes and focus
attacks, as they get more aggressive in trying to avoid your wake-up game.

*Similarly, knocking an opponent down with a c.hk sets you up for an oil dive.
As you stand, do a dash and a hk-oil-dive. Easy to time, but a bit risky. One
might also try a s.hp, lk-oil-dive.

*There are many things you can try on your opponent waking up. Be creative.
_____________________________________________________________________________
8. Opponent-Specific Techniques (or just some general tips in cases where I
don't have great character-specific techniques).

a. Bison: Bison was especially difficult when I first started with Hakan, but
I've figured a few things out against him. J.mk, for example, will beat his
psycho crusher and scissor kicks. His toward+lp will do a little damage against
a blocked l. scissor kick. The EX oil shower will allow a psycho crusher to
pass through you. Hakan's toward+hp will beat a psycho-crusher, if done in
time. Hakan's oil dive will also beat a psycho crusher if timed correctly.
Furthermore, don't play too defensively; try to tie his scissor kick with
toward-mp or use fade-away j.mk. Also, dash or use toward-mp to get under his
headstomp and throw him.

b. Ken/Ryu: Hakan's toward+hp is good against fireballs from the right range.
Get oiled up, so you can focus attack through a fireball, dash and hit with
whatever works, depending on what their reaction is. A hk oil-up that is
interrupted won't last as long as one that's uninterrupted, but if you're going
to take a hit for an oil-up, make it a hk oil-up. Even better, from mid-range,
tie a fireball with an oil slide. Ryu will stay down long enough for Hakan to
oil shower. Sweet! I tend to choose Ultra 2 against Ken and Ryu, as they like
to jump and use hurricanes. If nothing else, this will keep them from rushing
you down so much. His j.hk is good against fireballs and can be followed by
c.mk, oil slide. Again, be patient. Don't oil slide all the time and always be
prepared to do an oiled-up EX oil slide against a fireball. Mix your oil slides
up against a retreating opponent and perhaps even focus attack, dash, lk to
simulate a parry from SFIII. It may come in handy.

c. Fighting Vega can be fun, once you have the timing down for
down+3-punch-buttons. When oiled, you can easily duck under Vega's specials and
oil slide him or worse. Be prepared to use Hakan's focus attacks against Vega's
standing normals and remember to neutral jump over his s. normals occasionally.
Remember that Vega doesn't take hits well, so you may come back if behind. Try
to tie his hits, especially when Hakan is oiled and more damaging.

d. Guy's elbow drop can be obnoxious. Just slide underneath it with toward+mp
and throw him. Don't be too aggressive with jump attacks, especially when he
has super. Against a more skilled opponent, using a toward-lp against his
jumping specials may be warranted.

e. Guile is tough, but if you've got some advanced techniques down, you can
mitigate Guile's advantages. As with Ryu and Ken, get oiled up, use the focus
attack and dash past projectiles or try to tie them, allowing for an oil
shower. Against Guile, toward+hp will beat his c. hk, for example. Also try,
once past the projectile, toward+mp and an oil rocket. If he does a c.hk on
you, on the 2nd hit, instantaneous focus attack, dash, interrupt the dash
with a damaging combo. Try to get Guile to miss flash kicks and punish him
with your oil slides or combos. Make use of Hakan's sliding focus attack, while
oiled. It helps.

f. Blanka: You can't use your oil dive on a knocked down Blanka as well as
others, as he has a different animation. Choose Ultra 2. Counter every �Blanka
Ball� with an oil slide, except EX version. Hakan's j.mk comes in handy against
Blanka, similarly to Bison.

g. Abel likes to throw after his rolls, so feel free to lk-oil-dive as he comes
out of it on occasion. J.mk counters his annoying kick special as does toward-
mp. Get oiled up early, so you can counter his kick special with an oil rocket
after a successful block.

h. Adon: With good timing, you can oil dive against jaguar tooth. Air throw
his other specials, when you can. Don't be afraid to back-dash. It helps.

i. Dhalsim: j.mk again comes in handy. Oil slide works against Dhalsim's j.hp
but not against s.hp. Counter a successfully blocked s.hp with oil slide, when
you're about half the screen away or closer. Try to anticipate his fireballs.
Always use Ultra 2 against him, as it negates his barely-off-the-ground
teleport. Just keep tapping down to be instantly ready.

j. Chun Li: Spinning oil rocket works against kikoshu. Use focus attack against
her cross up kick, dash backward and interrupt a combo, when oiled. Remember
to block against her, and if she keeps block-string/throwing you, use an EX
oil dive to deter this technique. Lure into wasting her EX spinning bird kicks.

k. Honda: counter a blocked head ram with hp oil slide. Fade-away j.mk is
good against head rams as well. Try to lure head rams with interrupted focus
attacks. Do not try to counter a blocked EX head ram. Fail. Use dash or toward-
mp to get behind him on his jumping attacks, including his specials.

l. Zangief: his spinning pile driver is quicker than the oil rocket. Be
careful. Use jumping attacks to avoid his throws and j.hk to damage. Use your
wake up game after knocking him down with your oil slide and use your oil dive
more generously on wake-up. That'll avoid his throws. Beware his wake-up game
and remember to use focus attack or dash backward.

m. Balrog: lure him with a focus attack cancel into his turn punch and oil
rocket after a successful block. Practice against the computer or record-dummy
in training mode to defend against his special punches. You must learn to focus
attack against them, too and punish him mightily with oiled up focus attack
combos. Be quick with your oil rockets, and you can catch him as he dashes
toward you. Choose Ultra 1 against him. You'll need it. LP oil rocket has the
best range, so it's not a bad idea to use that in some circumstances.

n. Sagat: His projectiles are fast. You must master the focus
attack/dash/interrupt technique discussed above. Your oil slide will easily
deter high tigers. Don't be too aggressive against him, or you'll get crushed.
Use your jumps but don't always swing. Hakan does enough damage that a safe jump
can pay off, allowing you to avoid the tiger uppercuts and combo or throw him.

o. C. Viper: Use focus attacks and c. defense. Also, use your sliding focus
attack, dash against her ground pound technique. Get oiled up using hk, being
willing to take a hit. It's worth it. You'll need your oil. Don't play too
defensively. Use your offense creatively.

p. Rufus: He'd be no problem, if it weren't for him spamming that diving kick.
Choose Ultra 2 to help deter his spamming as well as toward-s.lp. Use focus
attack fakes to lure him as well. Practice against his moves against the dummy.
He's a real punk, isn't he?

q. El Fuerte: the oil dive is more effective against a running El Fuerte. Also,
use your toward-mp and j.mp combos. While difficult to hit, he can't take hits
well, so take what you can get. Don't play too much defense against him and
don't hesitate to back dash.

r. Seth: again, as with El Fuerte, your hits count. As with Dhalsim, punish
a blocked mid-range s.hp with Hakan's hk-oil-slide. Punish his missed
ultras/supers with your super. Your j.hp may be useful against his unusually
high jumps.

s. Akuma: Use your focus attack technique, but not when he's got a raging demon
waiting for you and don't be afraid to slide under his air fireballs. Just
don't always slide the same distance. In close, use a retreating oiled-up focus
attack and try to hit against the second hit of his s.double-hk-combo. Some
opponents can be lulled to sleep. Don't be too aggressive for a while, and when
they get overconfident, use your best techniques.

t. Gouken: his projectiles are fast; try to tie them and knock him down with
oil slide or find another way to get oiled up. Be prepared to block and counter
with EX oil rocket. When jumping in, purposely miss him with a jump strong and
throw him upon landing. If he does jump, the strong will set up for an oil
slide. This will avoid his counter. Use oil slide under his jump specials to
avoid them but not necessarily hit him, simply as an irritating deterrent.

u. Fei Long: Punish his missed dragon kicks with oil slides. Jump away and
attack on occasion. Remember that Fei has a special throw, with which he'd
like to punish you, particularly if he has an ultra or super. After a blocked
cross up jump attack, particularly when he has an ultra or super, try an EX oil
rocket.

v. Sakura: Her j.hk is tough against the oil slide. Use his priority, e.g.
his s.hp, j.mp/oil-slide-combo and c.hk. Use focus attack and interrupt with a
backward dash
to set her up.

w. Rose: Don't jump at her recklessly, when she has her ultra... either ultra.
Her slow fireballs allow for you to oil slide into a tie or EX oil slide.
Hakan's sliding focus attack will come in very handy here. Her slower fireballs
may cause problems with timing. Don't fight her like you would Ryu.

x. Dan: Don't lose. It's humiliating. Punish him with oil rocket after
blocking.

y. T. Hawk: Slide backward away from his throws. Let him condor dive, block
it and counter with oil slide. This guy is tall, isn't he? It's tempting to hit
him at the height of your jump, isn't it? Don't do that. Hit him lower in your
jump, or he'll destroy you. Use EX oil dive against him on occasion. He's
guaranteed to try to throw and EX oil dive is guaranteed to make him miss. It
also takes huge damage.

z. Deejay: Don't jump in recklessly, when he has super gauge. Keep track of
when he has charge-down and use that to determine when to jump at him, e.g.
he just missed with his projectile or he is walking forward. Keep luring and
avoiding his ultras and super as the highest priorities. Oil up and focus
attack through projectiles, dashing and interrupting the dash with normals.
Use your toward-mp to get in closer and get oiled up to take more damage.
You'll need it. Use your dash and lp oil rocket for great throw range.

A. Cody: This guy is tough if he rushes you. Counter his criminal upper with
your quicker moves and don't jump too much. Be careful of his
bad-stone->ruffian kick, and use your crouching defense to the point of
paranoia at mid-range. Lure him into using his charge move knuckle and punish
him with an oil rocket. Get oiled up before that, as alway, as the oil rocket
range is terrible otherwise.

B. Ibuke: A tough matchup. Advance patiently, and use the right oil slide
and not just the hp oil slide all the time. She has little life. Be patient and
just get hits when you can. Beware her speedy neck breaker, as it beats oil
slide. Jump a lot and try to irritate her when she retreats by being patient.
You can slap her knives away, by the way.

C. Makoto: Tough inside. She has a special throw, so try using the oil dive
against it. Use your quick moves inside. Use your jumping backward m. punch to
counter her jump attacks and oil up. Use focus attacks against her at mid range
and fake your focus attack as well. Your s.hp will come in handy as will
your backward dash.

D. Dudley: Oil up and counter his machine gun with oil rocket or just block and
let him miss his uppercut attempt. Use s.lp, toward+lp and s.hp. Use your wake
up game, once he's knocked down. Be careful of his EX uppercut follow up to
machine gun punch. Block after the machine gun punch, if he's got super or
his ultra ready for you. Occasionally dash in and use an oil dive or a lp oil
rocket. Counter his jump attacks with oil rocket on occasion.

E. Juri: Don't dash forward too much. Walk toward her and be very ready to
block and counter. Lure her into her ultra 2, when she has that and make her
miss. Her projectiles aren't very good against Hakan, so if she uses them,
oil slide her well, particularly the oiled-up EX oil slide. Be patient and get
hits when you can. Be careful when she has EX, as she may spam her specials
repeatedly.

A bit about me:

I've been playing SF a long time, since SFII in the arcades. I've had a bit of
bad luck picking my characters, though. My main was T. Hawk in the old Super
SFII Turbo. Low tier. Now Hakan. I also liked Remy in SFIII. I decided to write
this FAQ, because so many people are so terrible with Hakan. I never owned
"vanilla" SFIV, but after Super SFIV came out, I bought an Xbox 360. That may
be why it's taken a while for me to get to 5600 BP. I'm sure it would have gone
much faster had I been playing SFIV and getting used to focus attacks and such.
If you think I suck, that's my excuse :). Otherwise, I figure I'm doing very
well for a relative newb. That suggests my Hakan strategies are pretty good, if
you ask me.

For this FAQ, I did some research on Hakan and read up on a few techniques with
him and made up a couple of my own, e.g. the post-body-press-s.lp, toward-lp,
mk-oil-dive-timing-technique. I hope people get some use out of this,
particularly the toward-mp-under-jump-attack, oil-rocket-from-behind after
avoiding a jump attack, advanced wake ups and focus attack techniques and
combos. These are way underutilized. Feel free to improve on these, and I'll be
watching you in replay perhaps. I'll get some better ideas to win with this
clown. Good luck with your Turkish man-on-man, bare chested, oiled up action!