Ibuki attacking Ling Xiaoyu with a corner enabled combo in Street Fighter X Tekken.
The corner is a major aspect of fighting game design and a key component in the Street Fighter series.
Description
In many fighting games, most stages have a boundary that the characters are allowed to move laterally. Upon reaching the edge of a stage, known as a corner in most contexts, a character is unable to move any further, meaning that attacks with Pushback on hit and block have their effects lessened or nullified on a cornered opponent.
Tactics
The corner serves as a tactical point for players to utilize in their gameplay. Grapplers and rushdown characters favor pushing the opponent to the corner due to its offensive purposes, namely removing or weakening defensive options such as backwards dashing or jumping backwards. By removing these options from their opponent, they can push a stronger mixup and maintain the offense with less risk. By contrast, zoning characters don't benefit as much from the corner, though it is still beneficial overall due to the reduction of mobility.
Certain combos are possible against cornered opponents due to the reduced pushback from attacks. Corner combos can allow for links from moves that would normally be impossible to perform otherwise, as well as juggles that do not push the opponent as far away in the air, greatly increasing damage and okizeme. The benefit of corner combos vary from character to character, as some can simply link another attack while others can add multiple hits to their standard combos.
Due to the usefulness of the corner, players tend to utilize combos with good "corner carry", or combos that move both the player and the opponent further towards the corner compared to other enders. Side Switch options are also used by players that are either near or in the corner, allowing them to counter an opponent cornering them and shift the momentum of a match.
In rare cases, a character on the defensive can use the corner to their benefit. Two examples include Zangief and Makoto and their respective command grabs. Under normal circumstances a successful Spinning Piledriver moves Zangief far from the opponent with little time for him to dash in and continue his mixup. However if Zangief himself is in the corner and performs the grab, the reduced pushback the corner gives him allows Zangief to stay closer to his opponent. Similarly, Makoto's Karakusa often leads to a Standing Hard Punch to a Hayate, but in cases where Makoto is around the edge of the corner and the opponent is around the center of the screen, she can instead Super Cancel to Abare Tosanami, leading to her devastating stun combo capable of KOing opponents from a single command grab.
Though often a universal mechanic in fighting games, there are various exceptions and variants. Rival Schools, as a 3D game, does not utilize corners at all, having an "infinite scroll" effect for levels and instead only allowing two opponents to be a screen-length apart from each other. Tekken, from Tekken 4 onward, allows players to physically push opponents into walls and potentially break them, turning them into its own set resource for players to use in their combos. Virtua Fighter has both walls and set rings, where knocking a character off the side is considered an instant round loss.
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