Frame Data - Part 2

Fighting games have some special cases that really aren't explained too well, so I have included them in my discussion of frame data as they will be of great importance later. 

A combo is defined as a series of attacks, which, after the first hit is unblockable to the opponent if the timing, hit boxes, and spacing is correct.  Several terms are used in the fighting game community, and aren't always explained very well.  Those words are Cancel, Link, Chains(Target combos). 



Cancel: A cancel is an effect that makes your first move's recovery cancel into another move (which usually combos, except for the case of a super jump cancel).  A very well known cancel is Ryu/ken's ability to cancel from a crouching med. kick into a fireball.  If you watch closely, you see a med. kick come out, and when it is supposed to recover, you see the beginning of the fireball animation.  Most combos that use special moves cancel into another move, in addition to the fact that many normals cancel into special moves (i.e. a fireball, shoryuken, tatsu, etc).  With a cancel you can begin the motion for the next move within the startup and active frames of that move.  For example, when you do a crouching Med. kick into fireball, you start be hitting down and med. kick, then you start doing the fireball motion while the med. kick is still out.  Then you hit punch, and the fireball cancels the recovery of the med. kick.

Rapid-fire Cancel:  An addendum to cancels is the Rapid fire cancel.  3 crouching light punches with Ryu/Ken/Akuma can be done slower or faster and both will still combo, but only the slower one will allow you to cancel the last light punch into another move.  This is because 3 quick punches are rapid fire cancels, which allow you to do them fast and combo them, but not have any follow up. 

Link: A link is different from a cancel as you have to wait until the move has recovered before you can input the next move.  In Street fighter 4, there are a lot of combos that use this.  Ryu's ability to do c. Med. Punch, c. Med. Punch, c. Roundhouse is dependant on the move properties and their ability to link.  As you do one medium punch, you must wait for the recovery of that move to end (at which you can do anything at that point) and then input the next move, and then wait for its recovery.  The reason it actually combos is because the frame advantage left after you recovered before your opponent actually allows you to do another move.

A good example is looking at an older street fighter's example.  In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, some characters had the ability to do an overhead into a super - Ken and Chun-Li to be specific.  When they did their overheads, they had to wait until the move had hit and recovered, and then very quickly did the motion for the super.  Because of this strict and unusual timing, some people just considered it a "late" super, but in reality the move properties don't support a cancel.  The frame advantage left by the hit stun allows you to get another move in. 

P-Link: P-Linking or "Plinking" is a technique to ease the strict timing of links.  What you essentially do is hit your attack, followed by the lighter version of the attack milliseconds later.  So if you use medium punch, you press medium punch, and light punch very quickly after.  When heard to the ear, it sounds like a double tap.  This only works for attacks that are higher than the lightest attack - you cannot plink a light punch or kick. 

Chains: Chains are an interesting topic, as they are specialized combos that only work for a specific character using the character's normal attacks.  Ken in both Street Fighter 3 and 4 has had the same target combo, med. punch to heavy punch.  This is more well known as the "Strong Fierce" target combo, and is usually followed by an uppercut (cancelled from the Fierce).  Another example with the release of Super is Ibuki, who's playstyle is predominately target combos. 

Chains, as I said above, are character specific.  So if you try to use Ken's Strong Fierce target combo with Ryu, it won't work.  Chains also operate as a form of cancelable normals that combo.  You are cancelling the recovery of one normal into another normal. Target Combos are usually listed in the command list for Street Fighter 4.