HF Zangief playthrough
Zangief is a well-known character in the Street Fighter Series. He represents the wrestler and the large, bulky character that is very strong but slow. Hailing from USSR, he was often seen as a rival to Guile, since he is American, but later game in the series doesn’t take this into account anymore. In games that, story wise, takes place after 1993, USSR is changed to Russia to reflet the current history.
Zangief is a motion character, along with three punches move. His infamous screw pile driver moves debuted in the game and is very devastating because Zangief doesn’t need to be very close to his opponent and is unblockable. His second move, the Lariat, allows him to avoid all projectile, except Sagat low tiger shot. Zangief also have a wide variety of throw and hold, including crouched throws, which is unique to him. In total, he has 6 regular throws and three hold. He also has a unique headbutt he can perform in the air which results, in most cases, as an instant dizzy. Lastly, he has a flying body press that his is only way to do a cross-up and perform combo that might stun his opponent.
In Hyper Fighting, he gains a quick Lariat variation. Unlike the regular move, this one makes him invulnerable to all ground-based move (and Sagat low tiger shot) at the cost of only being active for a second. However, it can be spammed over and over.
Zangief still stay very strong against the CPU, but he can’t spam his Screw Piledriver anymore. His Lariat, however, is actually stronger and immediately start, preventing many cross-up attempts and evading projectile at the same time. His lariat, as well as his regular throw, is very useful to start his flying body press chain. In Hyper Fighting : his quick Lariat is best used to get close to crouched opponents or during a combo, but his regular Lariat comes more to play when fighting against the CPU.
As a side note, CPU Zangief has 2 abilities the regular player can’t do. He can get out of a stun states immediately (to the point that it is barely possible to see him dizzied). His three holds can also be near impossible to escape until 60% of damage is done. This is commonly seen at the highest difficulty.
TAS tools were used to make this high quality playthrough video.