Clark Still (Arcade Version)

[t3h mAsTarOth...!]

They already are 1 framers.  I really do like the idea of discussed here about a follow up after the Ex Flashing Elbow (~qcf+P follow up to his throws).  Maybe if it's the regular Flashing Elbow you'd have to [DC] it or something.

didn't know SAB was still 1 frame... thought they toned it down... glad to know... for comboing, Clark imo doesn't need anything else... he already has good hit confirms and solid damage from combos...

if anything, he should get a new air grab to finish juggle combos with instead of j.D... where with the regular version, he will run forward, grab the opponent in the air and slam the opponent down... *kinda like the running three DM animation* and the EX version could slam the opponent down and pick them up for additional follow-up...

i dont know thats a would be a good waste of a bar

ya it is... you can go through anything and punish opponents on the ground/air and follow up with (b~f+A)x2-3, j.D afterwards...

[bigvador]

They already are 1 framers.  I really do like the idea of discussed here about a follow up after the Ex Flashing Elbow (~qcf+P follow up to his throws).  Maybe if it's the regular Flashing Elbow you'd have to [DC] it or something.

didn't know SAB was still 1 frame... thought they toned it down... glad to know... for comboing, Clark imo doesn't need anything else... he already has good hit confirms and solid damage from combos...

as from what i seen he only has about 2 or 3 good solid combos and at least 1 good set up and when it comes to hit confirms im not to sure i guess its just the way i use him i would do a block string into a hop to a SAB but thats just me

[t3h mAsTarOth...!]

he has better hit confirms than ever before... lol... till now his best hit confirm was s.C, f+B for XI... so now you can cr.B, cr.A hit confirm to b~f+A or PPP or SAB... or s.D, d/f+A into SAB or PPP... in all he has better combos than ever before... and he has the same normals as Ralf *besides j.B/D* ...so use those to your advantage... home version auto-guard SAB is a nice buff...

[bigvador]

hmmm i really didnt use him much back in the day plus he had those set ups in XII so i guess to me it is the same

[SAB-CA]

The thing I liked about old Clark, personally, was that he was ALL about throw mix-ups. I also hated this, though; If you didn't master getting into the enemies head + knew exactly what move  or movement to do, to counter each situation, Clark felt like a gimped Ralf.

Ralf fit the combo style of KoF, and had the AB. So many other grapplers seemed like a better take on what Clark wanted to be, for KoF, so the only reason to like Clark was because you liked HIM, lol. I did like his Multi-part throw style a lot, but Mary or Shermie did about the same, but a bit better.

Notice I'm not saying "This is all he was". I'm just speaking for how he felt to me, as a character.

I rather liked him in the MI games, however. In MI, everyone had combo and setup power. He felt as if the game's systems made him a more well-rounded character.

And then we have KoF XII. I didn't like that Clark, the master of throwing, had only 1 real throw here. His multi-branch throws are his trademark, and th only thing that survived was flashing elbow! Also, he had the worse throw range of any of the grapplers. Raiden and Goro had much better hit confirm throws, even Elisabeth did better at grappling than him!

I did, however, like the hop they gave him. At it's best, it should replace the mixup his run-throws gave him. It's too slow to combo with, but fast enough to follow a backroller, and punish them out of that.

In XIII, I feel he's expanded well as his own person, but not as much as I'd like. I think the new Ultra Guardpoint AB should now give him a bit of his old "frankenstiener on wakeup" trickery back, which I'm very happy with, and I agree mAsTarOth, he has better combo options than ever. He also does very nice damage when he LANDS a backbreaker, but compared to the big drive-cancel /HD mode people of the game, he feels like he stops earlier. So while his base combo potential might be higher, I don't know if it evens out, in the end?

Even if they just made him able to attack with some air attacks out of foward hops, as other can out of back-hops, I think that'd return some of the "rushing, mobile grappler" feel to him. I don't ENTIRELY miss the feeling though, since Maxima seemed to almost take the spot from Clark entirely now...

I hope we find some more stuff out about Clark changing on console, though. I would have been happy with 1 press of Super Argentine Back Breaker turning into a running start-up variation, so he could combo/super cancel it after gattling attack juggles... I don't think the combo'n after EX flashing elbow would be too much to ask, either, as I think it'd be a perfect tool if balanced similiarly to Vice, with limited followups.

[bigvador]

I agree with just about everything you said... just like what i said before XIII is really a combo based game so its really hard to see how clark can really fit in and its just like you said maximum pretty much took his place but that hop did give him a good mix up game and you said something about a back hop.....

not to sure how that would work well only if there running away but anyways the XIII or XII clark seems more like a street fighter character to me. just my 2 cents

[sibarraz]

Question, does Clark dash serves a purpose? Is good on something? Or just people don't know how to abuse his potential?

[SAB-CA]

Question, does Clark dash serves a purpose? Is good on something? Or just people don't know how to abuse his potential?

I haven't used it much in XIII myself. Though I hear it doesn't recover fast enough.

In XII, I would use it to punish rollers and back-hoppers, and to quickly cross-under people who were corner-pressuring with full jumps. Also, it was one of the nices tools for his CC combos (He was able to do (df+a) loops by using the hop in CC mode. Also, it was a great way to jump in and capatalize off Counterhit spin in XII; He could hop in and throw/combo before they recovered.

That's the way I'll try to use it in XIII, but since CH spin is gone, and more character can attack out of retreat-hops now... along with it having no use in HD in arcade version (dunno about console yet..)... we'll just have to see what happens :|

[t3h mAsTarOth...!]

The thing I liked about old Clark, personally, was that he was ALL about throw mix-ups. I also hated this, though; If you didn't master getting into the enemies head + knew exactly what move  or movement to do, to counter each situation, Clark felt like a gimped Ralf.

Ralf fit the combo style of KoF, and had the AB. So many other grapplers seemed like a better take on what Clark wanted to be, for KoF, so the only reason to like Clark was because you liked HIM, lol. I did like his Multi-part throw style a lot, but Mary or Shermie did about the same, but a bit better.

In XIII, I feel he's expanded well as his own person, but not as much as I'd like. I think the new Ultra Guardpoint AB should now give him a bit of his old "frankenstiener on wakeup" trickery back, which I'm very happy with, and I agree mAsTarOth, he has better combo options than ever. He also does very nice damage when he LANDS a backbreaker, but compared to the big drive-cancel /HD mode people of the game, he feels like he stops earlier. So while his base combo potential might be higher, I don't know if it evens out, in the end?

see a perfect example is XI Clark... he is the best Clark of the series to date... next best one would probably be 2K2:UM then 97... the reason he was so good in those versions was cause of his normals and mind games... hit confirming wasn't even a question... it was all or nothing at all times... pure mind game and rush down... his normals were the only thing he could really relied on for anything that was safe either defensively or offensively...

for XIII i feel that aspect of his gameplay changed... they gave him hit confirms... they gave him actual combos rather than ??? XX SAB... so from that point of view, they actually re-made Clark like they remade Ralf... Ralf lost ALL of his unsafe invincible stuff he had and now he plays like a solid striking character with safe defensive and offensive tools... as for Clark, he still has most of his specials that he had in the past.. the only difference is, he HAS to actually rely on them now... cause they ARE useful now and they all have their purpose... he doesn't even have 1 special that is NOT worth using...

while all this is true, Clark should have become a really good character... but he is the worst grappler in XIII... imo SNK didn't go wrong at all by changing the way Clark did... they intended for his gameplay to be more defensive now... and tone down the high risk factor... the only problem here is, his defense without meter isn't really that good... due to his normals not being as good as XI, he can't rely on them as much to keep rush down characters away... also frankensteiner is gone (lets hope auto-guard SAB will be almost as good)... on top of this his offensive options aren't the best either... opponents aren't scared of Clark like they were in XI... even when they know that IF they get hit they'll loose a lot of life... why is this? it's cause XIII Clark's pressure game is not as strong as before... a very simple fix to this would be 2 simple things...

1. improving his command hop (make it actually worth using)
2. giving him a running air throw (looks the same as his normal run)

those 2 buffs would suddenly put INSANE fear in the opponent of Clark ever approaching them... and cause them to retaliate in all sorts of dumb ways and Clark then would just rip them apart for their mistakes...

[bigvador]

come to think about it clark seem the same as ralf now (combo wise) but when you look at clark in XI i believe they took away the gatlin attact which imo made him the some what simular to ralf kinda (i think i lost my train of thought)

[Ashspiralingblood]

I'm surprise that clark doesn't have the option to follow death lake drive after light/hard volcan punch, I really wish death lake drive was its own command move for ex ( say kyo was about to do a jumd d, I could see doing    /  would make an ok anti air, just throwing some ideas out there, I could see ex death lake drive causing a ground bounce similar to Iori ex command grab), I like what they did for Mai on the console, wish Clark could get some of the loving mai is receiving, his guard properties on his B SAB is a good start, at least give the tools he have more purpose

[bigvador]

I'm surprise that clark doesn't have the option to follow death lake drive after light/hard volcan punch, I really wish death lake drive was its own command move for ex ( say kyo was about to do a jumd d, I could see doing    /   would make an ok anti air, just throwing some ideas out there, I could see ex death lake drive causing a ground bounce similar to Iori ex command grab), I like what they did for Mai on the console, wish Clark could get some of the loving mai is receiving, his guard properties on his B SAB is a good start, at least give the tools he have more purpose

well the death lake drive isnt a command move its just a regular air throw there for no ex he really only needs a command air throw cause i dont think there is anyway that he can use HD maybe besides gatling attack to vulcan punch

[Rex Dart]

Great Clark on display here:

2nd match especially.

At 4:07 he pulls off an impressive 16-hit combo. Can anyone actually notate this combo?

EDIT: Sorry, link should work now.

[Demoninja]

Link doesn't work for me.

[bigvador]

i got the 404 code and couldnt see it can u post up the name of the video