Critical Art

Sonic Hurricane (and Sonic Tempest) ,

Sonic Hurricane (and Sonic Tempest): Guile rears back and hurls an enormous stationary Sonic Boom that takes up space for almost a full second. Sonic Hurricane hits from about 25 percent of the screen away from Guile’s center of mass to about 60 percent of the screen’s distance. So Sonic Hurricane itself covers just over 35 percent of the middle of the screen, a big chunk of prime real estate. Sonic Hurricane starts up six frames after activation, with one pre-freeze frame and five post-freeze, with the first five frames being invulnerable for Guile. It’s possible to get hit on the frame during which Sonic Hurricane becomes active but still get the Critical Art off. (Surely, getting hit on purpose in this situation, so Guile recovers faster but the attack still starts hitting, will be featured in combo videos online very shortly.) The wide gap between Sonic Hurricane and Guile’s “pushbox” at his center, which dictates how much foes can overlap with him without being pushed out, makes him susceptible to high-priority, point-blank attacks that start up just as he releases Sonic Hurricane. The ideal use for Sonic Hurricane is thus not as a close-range reversal, but as a mid-range, reactionary footsie tool. With a charge ready, you can react to all sorts of mid-range actions and projectiles with Sonic Hurricane to blow them away. It also works to cap off combos with a Critical Art. Sonic Hurricane connects from both Sonic Boom and Somersault Kick and can painfully juggle floating opponents, like after launching with Guile High Kick. It can also be used to finish combos from huge ranges when pushing victims away with strings of Sonic Break projectiles during Solid Puncher.

During V-Trigger, Sonic Hurricane becomes Sonic Tempest, an amplified version. The main characteristic is greatly enhanced coverage. Sonic Tempest whirls between about 20 percent of the screen from Guile’s center to 70 percent of the screen away. The total horizontal ground coverage is about 55 percent of the screen’s width. This makes Sonic Tempest even better at all the things Sonic Hurricane is good for, and a lot less likely to get Guile nailed by something that came from too close/too far during Critical Art startup. Sonic Tempest also does 364 damage on a full hit compared to Sonic Hurricane's 328.