I remember that Sagat had such a reach with his legs that if you charged him at all he could just keep you at bay with a kick
On the flip side, Vega was my dude and I’d consistently beat the game perfectly (i.e., never get hit) with him. I got good in varying amounts with the others but never as good as I got with Vega.
I was also very good at player vs player with Vega but it’s not as though I was playing competitively. Just a bunch of chumps in the dorm lobby with quarters to waste.
I never played MK1 (MK3 was the first for me) but every discussion I’ve ever seen has always put Sonya as the top-tier character in MK1. Something about having an infinite leg grab combo, a very fast, wide-hitting unpunishable sweep kick, and her crouch block actually making her lower than jabs can hit.
Also, wasn’t she immune to Johnny Cage’s groin punch?
Those were the earlier versions of the game, and not one that would have been produced widely. They took out the infinite leg grab, though you could still do it if the other player wasn’t paying attention. Her sweep was a bit faster, but again it could be blocked, but she was able to counter sweep against the other characters.
That’s just how I saw her though, and from what I remember other people playing as her. I only ever remember one person who liked using her, then again I don’t remember anyone ever using Kano.
Oddly enough Cage was immune to Cage’s nut punch, not sure what that says about Cage. I’m trying to remember if the glitch that allowed cage to knock a head off then do the nut punch worked on Cage and Sonya. I’ll have to look and see if I can find one of the older FAQs, or just go home and try it myself.
If I could get my fingers right, I was unstoppable with Dhalsim. Unfortunately, I rarely got into that zone and I spent most fights with him fruitlessly sweeping up the D-pad but not generating a Yoga Fire. Ryu always seemed kind of cheap because you could just jump at people with strong kicks all day and there was little or nothing they could do about it.
Sonya was totally useless. If I was using her, I was basically praying I could foot sweep the opponent to death. Kano was even worse. I always liked playing as Sub-Zero because I liked the character, but his moveset was just too hard to pull off reliably. Scorpion’s harpoon was much better in that regard. Ultimately, I normally used Liu Kang because his moveset was the easiest to pull off, but I didn’t like the character.
Ken was less agile than Ryu. The point of the basically identical character set was that Ryu was faster and Ken did more damage (which is why he had the double tomenagi throw).
Just from observation:
SF2 original: If you wanted to kick butt, Guile was the man. End of discussion. Range, Sonic Boom he can flick out like a playing card, destroy-everything Flash Kick, reach on nearly everything (my lord that backhand punch), and the ability to chain everything into a rain of doom. I’m not even going to talk about those glitches, ye gods. Yeah yeah, I’ve heard that Dhalsim can dominate him. I never once saw it. If you were fighting a competent Guile player, your strategy was to get on board first with a lucky shot and go into a defensive shell…and pray really hard that you don’t slip up and he turns the tables and flattens you.
SF2 Champion Edition/Hyper Fighting: The difficulty curve for this was so astronomical that it’s hard for me to pick a best. Ken seemed to be the most popular, and his ability to rack up hits was a plus with damage so severely toned down. Vega was pretty popular, and Blanka was a close third; speed kills.
SF2 New Challengers/Turbo: No favorite. Uphill battle no matter what (in the case of Turbo, like climbing Everest).
Capcom really made a commitment to balancing after this, so no one was the “best”.
MK1: While no one really stood out as overpowered, Sub Zero was by far the safest choice, i.e. the man who can beat anybody. Want an easy win over Goro? Sub Zero. (I have no idea how Edward the Head got a double flawless…care to elaborate?)
MK2: Kitana…my god, Kitana. Two words - fan lift. She flat out OWNED the game with that move. Just get the poor sap in the corner, lift him, and casually punch him into hamburger while he’s powerless to do anything but flop around like a fish. It even worked against Kintaro and Shao Kahn. Midway had to do an update just to fix this, and even then the fan lift could set up some nasty combos. Second was Shang Tsung, mainly because he had so many options and you could really put the hurt on with those double and triple fireballs.
MK3 original: Cyrax is Mr. Versatile here; you could set up some real spectacular comobs (and do some major damage) with his net and bombs. Sub Zero is toned down but still very good.
No one struck me as dominant in MK4, and it pretty much evened out afterward.
Don’t really remember how I did it, and it’s possible that I’ve done it a few times since. Most of it, at least for me, has to do with luck. Jump kick in, throw fireball, jump away, jump back in. Missing a fireball, which I tend to do more then I’d like, is what lets Goro get a shot in.
I did just watch a video for some guy going for a high score in MK1, he jump punched Goro then spear him, got a double flawless no problem it seemed. I tried it and had the same problems I normally do.