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The Hadouken input: Do you struggle with it? Let's help.

Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,329
A lot of people recently have been complaining about being unable to perform the "Hadouken input" due to Terry's inclusion in Smash. For many of us who grew up playing fighting games, this has been baffling as the Hadouken input is considered one of the absolute most basic special move inputs in 2D fighting games.

But rather than laugh at these complaints - and I admit, I've been guilty of this - I thought it better to help the people who genuinely want to learn.

I've long had the thought that most people who can't do it, simply don't fully understand how to do it. But I could be wrong. So please, tell us what's going wrong and let's try to figure it out!

lCZ2Wmu.jpg


The move is performed by moving the stick to Down and in one quarter-circle motion, bringing it around to forward, and pressing the attack button at the same time. In other words, the stick hits down, then passes through down-forward, and ends in the forward position.
 
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Greywaren

Greywaren

Member
Jul 16, 2019
9,892
Spain
The Hadouken input is the only one I can do consistently. The Shoryuken input, though... that's something else.
 
DrArchon

DrArchon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,485
You have to remember that, in the case of Smash, people are doing QCF on an analog stick, which never feels great.
 
Kain

Kain

Unshakable Resolve - One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
7,592
More than 25 years of experience with this makes it as natural as breathing
 
Avis

Avis

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
3,218
A lot of it is just muscle memory and practice. It took me a while to get to the point I am at now with the SRK motion. Started by doing forward and then quarter circle forward slowly.
DrArchon said:
You have to remember that, in the case of Smash, people are doing QCF on an analog stick, which never feels great.
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Yeah this factors into it too.
 
Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,033
Paris, France
Not with hadoken, but Sho ryu ken can be difficult to pull quickly for me. Although I'm more at ease facing right than facing left with it...
 
kirby_fox

kirby_fox

Member
Oct 29, 2017
5,733
Midwest USA
Depends on the game. Street Fighter I can usually do it consistently once I get used to it. Smash it only works on occasion. Not sure if I'm not doing it fast enough or what.

Other fighting moves I can't do it all.
 

Deleted member 17402

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
7,125
This just makes me want to know if there are any good fighting games where I don't execute moves based on using the directional pad or a combination of button presses. The last fighting game I was into was Killer Instinct on N64. I've tried several times since, the last being Street Fighter V, and I just can't do it.
 
Avis

Avis

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
3,218
I will say in smash also I have TONS of problems trying to do a shoryu out of an up air. Going from up to the shoryu motion is pretty challenging and I need to get used to it.
 
MikeProtagonist

MikeProtagonist

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,278
It's also important that the button is pressed as you reach the final direction, not after. I've seen some people make this mistake.
 
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Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,329
TheFallenSaboteur said:
This just makes me want to know if there are any good fighting games where I don't execute moves based on using the directional pad or a combination of button presses. The last fighting game I was into was Killer Instinct on N64. I've tried several times since, the last being Street Fighter V, and I just can't do it.
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Well not quite but there are several that have Smash style inputs such as Power Rangers, Blade Strangers, the upcoming Granblue Fantasy Versus, Fantasy Strike, Pocket Rumble etc.

Characters like Ed in SFV perform special moves by just pressing and holding buttons.
 
random88

random88

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,279
Not US
Why do you struggle with Shoryuken guys? On what kind of controller do you play? If you can do 236 (think of numpad for this notation), you can do shoryu, it's just one extra step, and these days it's even easier since you can do 63236 in most of modern fighting games.
 
Teh_Lurv

Teh_Lurv

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,091
I think when a lot of people complain about hadoken inputs they're remembering Street Fighter 2 and other early fighting games where the timing of the motion and attack button press was much stricter than modern games.

Street Fighter 5 and Smash is super forgiving by comparison.
 
D-Man

D-Man

Member
Oct 25, 2017
378
Seeing a lot of responses saying that the shoryuken motion is hard and I definitely get that. However the easiest trick to remember how to do it (and the way I managed to learn it) is just hold forward and then do QCF/Hadouken motion. If you can do QCF, you can do Quarter Circle Back and Shoryuken motions!
 
rpm

rpm

Into the Woods
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
12,346
Parts Unknown
I don't like doing hadoukens or DPs on an analog stick, I wish Smash had an option to use d-pad for movement, I would partially use the d-pad when playing as Terry/Ryu/Ken
 
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Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,329
Aswitch said:
What's your technique for a game like street fighter etc where the shoryuken input can also buffer trigger a super (that you may not want to do in some situations)?

I can never do it without doing a super instead (when i have the meter for it).
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That shouldn't happen because a super is two qcf and a Shoryuken only contains one. Turn on the move input display and check what you're actually inputting.
 
androvsky

androvsky

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,498
The thing I've always wondered is does timing matter? Do you just move through the directions ASAP or do you have to make sure there's enough time at each position for the game to register it?

MikeProtagonist said:
It's also important that the button is pressed as you reach the final direction, not after. I've seen some people make this mistake.
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That's super handy to know, thanks. It's the little details like that where people are most likely to struggle with fighting game inputs. Saying "just do this diagram" doesn't help a lot, since that's about all that's in the manual or guides.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,590
Yes. Since the dawn of fighting games I've always mess up the quarter circle.
 
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Devil

Devil

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,650
Doing the fireball motion on an analog stick is a lot weirder than doing it on a dpad or arcade stick though. As a Ryu player in SF5 I have no problems doing hadoukens. In Smash though, I just hate using the motion inputs with Ryu and Ken which is why I simple don't play them. It feels so unintuitive to do it with the Gamecube analog stick.
 
Rotobit

Rotobit

Editor at Nintendo Wire
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
10,196
I'm fine with the hadoken and other quarter circle moves

it's things like this:

YWhAaWB.png


and long chains that usually make me give up playing fighting games. My brain basically interprets them as complex mathematics
 
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Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,329
androvsky said:
The thing I've always wondered is does timing matter? Do you just move through the directions ASAP or do you have to make sure there's enough time at each position for the game to register it?


That's super handy to know, thanks. It's the little details like that where people are most likely to struggle with fighting game inputs. Saying "just do this diagram" doesn't help a lot, since that's about all that's in the manual or guides.
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You have to do it quickly yet make sure it registers each direction. However you don't want to do it too fast (more likely to get an unwanted input or miss a direction). Once you do get the timing down - and the timing of the button - it will feel totally natural.
 
rpm

rpm

Into the Woods
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
12,346
Parts Unknown
Rotobit said:
I'm fine with the hadoken and other quarter circle moves

it's things like this:

YWhAaWB.png


and long chains that usually make me give up playing fighting games. My brain basically interprets them as complex mathematics
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That's still basically a quarter circle move but with one extra input at the front, it's forward then quarter circle forward
 
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Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,329
Rotobit said:
I'm fine with the hadoken and other quarter circle moves

it's things like this:

YWhAaWB.png


and long chains that usually make me give up playing fighting games. My brain basically interprets them as complex mathematics
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This is trying to tell you to:
Move the stick forwards, then down, then forwards. In other (better) words, it's forwards, followed by the Hadouken input. That's how you do a Shoryuken!
 
Booki

Booki

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,865
Brooklyn
I have no problem with QCF, QCB, SRK, and all that, but my inputs are sloppy as hell in Ultimate. It's a headscratcher.
 
Rotobit

Rotobit

Editor at Nintendo Wire
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
10,196
rpm said:
That's still basically a quarter circle move with one extra input at the front
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Jaded Alyx said:
This is trying to tell you to:
Move the stick forwards, then down, then forwards. In other (better) words, it's forwards, followed by the Hadouken input. That's how you do a Shoryuken!
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Yeah it makes sense when explained that way, it's just very very few games go the extra mile and just throw something that looks impossible on the screen and assume you know what it means

really should play that Under Night tutorial I guess
 
Morrigan

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,294
Wut? I'm rubbish at fighters and even I can do the hadoken input easily, it's the shoryuken that's a mess.
 

Deleted member 15440

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
4,191
i can manage it but i never played enough SF-style fighting games to get used to it and i've always thought that style of command input was bad design anyway.
 

mclem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,419
Transistor said:
Nope, never had trouble with it. I have more trouble with the Shoryuken.
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This. Hadouken lends itself to a simple natural roll of the stick/the thumb on the pad - the third ability idea I learned after the charge-based ones and the 'just hammer one button repeatedly' ones whereas Shoryuken suddenly ups and goes in a wildly different direction.
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 28, 2017
26,374
You know the only place I have trouble with 236+P motion? On switch, playing smash, because it won't let me use the d-pad, it makes me use the analog stick.

Just...let me use the god damn dpad for movement nintendo. Christ. I'm trying to mash out Terry's BustaWoof and I'm just crackshooting all over the place.
 
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