Gameplay Systems Overview#

Ryo2005’s characters have pretty standard movement options, with a regular jump, short jump, run, and backdash. This renders his characters easily overwhelmed by MvC or anime characters with more exotic movement options available to them. Additionally, because his characters tend to be pretty footsy-heavy, they are heavily punished by characters that have push-block mechanics, so keep that in mind when assembling your roster.

Ryo2005’s characters are “four” button characters. While they abide by standard SNK two punches and two kicks, a fifth button is used for a “Heavy Attack” with limited usefulness (typically only ground-based with no variations) and the sixth button is used for Dodge Roll. The Dodge Roll mechanic is especially important to even the playing field against characters that have more movement options available to them. Against charaters with high movement and attack speed, you’ll find yourself leveraging the Dodge Roll to great effect.

Earlier I mentioned that Ryo2005’s characters tend to be pretty footsy-heavy. To drive that home, Ryo2005 gives his characters the ability to chain command normals from normal moves. This often opens significant opportunities for trapping opponents down and pressing the advantage through a variety of block strings and follow-up attacks. For instance, Tung has a Command Normal that allows him to stay on the opponent by closing range and being relatively safe on block.

The Heavy Attack and Dodge Roll buttons are used for Guard Cancel mechanics as well. Using the Heavy Attack button while guarding will cost one Power Bar and basically triggers an Alpha Counter type attack. This Heavy Attack Guard Cancel sends the opponent flying to the corner, which allows you to reset the engagement, but it deals minimal damage so it’s not as potent as an SFA2 Alpha Counter, for example. Meanwhile, using the Dodge Roll button while guarding also costs one Power Bar but allows the user to evade/break the block string to get in a potentially advantageous position (for instance, swapping out corner position). Against attacks that have long windowns, you can use this to great effect to land big dammage!

Finally, all of Ryo2005’s characters have a “Rage Combo” mechanic, which is triggered by hitting both Strong Punch and Strong Kick at the same time. Connecting with the Rage Combo attack will allow the user to input a five button combination leading to a six hit combo. In 4:3 screenpacks, the Rage Combo commands are visible on-screen, which is a nice, “very SNK” touch. On 16:9 screenpacks, the Rage Combo commands are off screen, but you’re able to get them to show up if you edit the characters.

Each character has a ground and air variant of the Rage Combination - access the air version by holding up or up-forward as soon as the Rage Combination opener hits. Not only that, but the Rage Combo can be triggered to cancel a normal or Command Normal move to significantly extend combos - doing so will cost one power bar. This latest point makes Rage Combo mechanic very strong: the ground variant typically ends with a final attack that gives the user enough time to set up a juggle afterwards. With a full Power Meter, some of Ryo2005’s characters of “Touch of Death” combos, by way of using the Rage Combo mechanic. Tung’s strongest combos are unlocked by this mechanic and he is a real threat in the corner due to the combo potential he has with this mechanic.

That covers the gameplay systems of Ryo2005’s characters. He has done a remarkable job of creating a huge roster of characters with a homogeneous playset, with a combination of gameplay systems that allows for fun, well paced gameplay and the occasional devastating combo. With that out of the way, let’s talk about Tung Fu Rue.

About Tung Fu Rue#

Tung Fu Rue is not the most popular character in the SNK universe, but he’s been around for quite a while. He made his first appearance in the Fatal Fury 1, and periodically has been brought back - the sprites Ryo2005 used are a mix primarily pulled from Real Bout Fatal Fury 2. In Fatal Fury 1, he was introduced as the legendary master of the style known as Hakkyokuseiken and as the man responsible for training several of the series’ main characters, like Andy Bogard. Throughout his appearances, Tung is always depicted as an elderly man in his late 60s to early 80s and I’ve always found that entertaining. His small stature makes it so that you have to get in-close - Ryo2005 did a nice job of giving him a kit that enables him to do that. Tung doesn’t have a true projectile but he has tools to gap-close, and once you’re in you can inflict quite a bit of damage in fast flurries. His corner combos are particularly devastating. Let’s take a look at the movelist that Ryo2005 gave him.

Movelist#

Gameplay Systems Overview
Weak Punch
Strong Punch
Weak Kick
Strong Kick
Heavy Attack
Throw	/	Throw with leads to side switch
Run
Backdash
Dodge Roll	/
Guard Cancel - Heavy Attack	While guarding,	Costs 1 Power Bar
Guard Cancel - Roll	While guarding,	Costs 1 Power Bar
Command Normals
Kourin Satsu
Ukouryuu
Special Techniques
Chain Combo 1	,,
Chain Combo 2	,,	Final attack knocks down
Chain Combo 3 (unlisted)	,,
Rage Combo		Uses 1 Power Bar when used to cancel normal or Command Normal
Rage Combo - Ground	,,,,
Rage Combo - Air	,,,,,
Special Moves
Shou Ha	,
Sen Shippo		Can be used while running
Ressen Kyaku		Can be used while running
Geki Hou		can be held to further channel attack
Raimeikyaku
Juujiken
Senpuuken
Super Moves
Senpuu Gouken	or	Costs 1 Power Bar; punch version is stationary and kick version advances Tung towards opponent.
Dai Geki Hou		Costs 1 Power Bar
Maximum Senpuu Gouken	or	Costs 2 Power Bar; punch version is stationary and kick version advances Tung towards opponent.
Maximum Dai Geki Hou		Costs 2 Power Bar

Movelist Highlights#

Crouching Weak and Strong Kicks		/
Crouching Weak Kick is a starter for Tung’s best Chain Combo. While the last hit of the Chain Combo knocks down, it can be skipped to instead chain into a Command Normal, leading to large combos. It is slightly preferable to Tung’s other Chain Combo that requires a Close Standing Light Kick to start. Crouching Strong Kick offers a hard knockdown, but will also often fit Tung under high or even mid hitting attacks.

Far Standing Strong Kick

This attack has surprising range, propelling Tung forward into a spinning kick. It can be used to punish whiffed attacks in lieu of a jump-in. It takes a bit to come out, but when you get good at weaving this attack into your pokes, you can use it to great success. Importantly, Tung can link light normals on hit, leading to huge combo potential. For instace, Tung can link from into ,,, Rage Combo activation , ,,,,, into Senpuu Gouken dealing nearly half of your opponent’s lifebar for two Power Bars.

Jumping Strong Kick

This is Tung’s best normal attack, and it’s not even close. The hitbox on this is huge and it actually has great priority. You can easily use this as a cross up as well. It often beats out other air normals, and it will trade with some anti-airs. It’s his best button - use it. It’s also very positive on hit, leading to very lenient timing on combos. You can hit an opponent relatively early and land into a Close Standing Light Kick to launch into a chain combo. If you are not contested on your jump-in, this will lead to a blockstring at a minimum.

Kourin Satsu

This command normal has a big hitbox and makes Tung take a step forward. This can be cancelled into a special move or super as appropriate. An interesting property of Kourin Satsu is that if it is not cancelled into a special or super, Tung will actually step back into the position he originally executed the move from. You can use this to great effect by delaying the timing on the cancel, or flowing back into a second blockstring with Crouching Light Kick, for instace.

Shou Ha
Tung’s only charge move, but the charge period is very short (maybe one second?). The light version is short range and actually a decent anti-air if the enemy is telegraphing enough. However, the strong version is completely different, with a longer wind-up period and full screen range. Use this to punish or keep your opponent honest if they’re doing some shenanigans thinking they are safe.

Sen Shippo

Sen Shippo is Tung’s famous lunge punch attack. It has a small start up window that still allows it to be combo’d into. It can be used to punish whiffs in neutral. As a matter of fact, Senshippo make Tung tkae a tiny step back during the startup animation which can actually lead to your opponent’s attack that might have been at max range to now whiff, with proper timing. Senshippo knocksdown and typically leaves Tung relatively close to the enemy, leading to good pressure options.

Ressen Kyaku

This special move has good priority against all jump-ins but it lacks invincibility frames, therefore making it a poor reversal option. Frankly, the lack of reversal options on wake up is probably Tung’s biggest weakness. Back to Retsusenkyaku, it is an important move for countering jump-ins but also as your best option as a follow-up to the ground Rage Combo, which can lead to Tung’s most devastating combos. Notably, the light version can be followed up by the heavy version in the corner, leading to big damage even without meter to spend.

Trials#

As a way of giving back, every character creation spotlight on my website will be accompanied by a Trials definition file to be used with the Ikemen GO Trials Mode module. I’ll do this no matter how new or old the character I’m spotlighting is. Tung has some pretty cool tech that can turn the fight in your favor in a hurry, especially if you have meter to spend. If you want to give it Trials Mode a go with Ryo2005’s Tung Fu Rue, take a look here. You can watch me struggle through Tung’s Trials (that I created, mind you) below.

Final Thoughts#

Ryo2005’s characters are some of my favorite Mugen creations ever. I like the simplicity of the gameplay systems and the hybrid approach to remixing existing systems and characters while also remaining relatively grounded. Ryo2005’s Tung Fu Rue is a great example of this character and gameplay design philosophy, where the key strengths and weaknesses of Tung have been preserved, magnified, and tweaked to provide a compelling experience. The implementation is tight, the controls are quite good, and Tung is a really fun character to use.

That said, there are some flaws. For instance, the lack of a reversal move, or a sufficient input window on wake-up, really hampers the use of Tung in some rosters. Without meter to use one of his Guard Cancel techniques, he simply cannot deal with characters that put on constant pressure. But, don’t let that steer you away from this awesome character.

Ryo2005’s characters in general are awesome, and Tung is a good example of his work. He is a straightforward character with a lot of interesting options in neutral, some cool combos, and tools that allow him to navigate most situations.