Sweep



A sweep is a term for an attack that for most of the cast refers to their crouching hard kick.

Description
A sweep refers to an attack accessable to most characters in the Street Fighter series where the attack if it connects performs a hard knockdown (soft in Street Figther V) on the opponent when it connects. Some characters such as Hugo have an actual "sweep" with his crouching medium kick as his crouching hard kick is another kind of attack. Dudley doesn't have a traditional sweep. It is a rarity where characters can combo off their sweep with some exception such as Ibuki with her Target Combo 10 or Dudley with his launching sweep. Pre-Street Fighter III sweeps had more defined animations for the hit character (mostly for the females) that reflected their personality such as Sakura quickly flapping her arms before hitting the ground or Cammy landing in a sensual position before recovering.

In Game
As sweeps that connect cause knockdowns, they tend to inherit the pros and cons of how the mechanic is treated in the game. Some sweeps can be special canceled, making them useful for pressure.

Street Fighter IV
Swept characters are knocked down for a certain amount of time. In the Ultra update, the delayed wakeup mechanic was introduced. Making sweep a little less desired as a finisher for Links. Oddly Ibuki's sweep knocks down characters for longer than other sweeps in the game.

Street Fighter X Tekken
 Sweeps can be used normally or part of Cross Rush. Super Charge mechanics benefit characters that can sweep special cancel such as Poison and Yoshimitsu, as on hit it makes a great approach and positioning opportunities and on block the dashing character can be safe. Special Cancelable sweeps used in a part of Cross Rush can still be special canceled with 1 bar of the Super Gauge. Characters hit by sweep can choose to Roll to escape further pressure.

Street Figther V
Sweeps no longer cause hard knockdowns without Counter Hits. They also are much more punishable in terms of Frame Data.