- Not to be confused with Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, where in Japan it was called "Dash".
Dash is a movement option in modern Street Fighter games, complementing Walk Speed.
Description
Ibuki's forward dash in action
Dashes are a mobility option, available for all characters in the games they appear in. They are very similar to Command Dashes, the major difference is that attacks normally cannot be directly canceled into a dash (with some exceptions).
There are 2 dashes available, a forward dash and a back dash.forward dashes move the opponent forward at a set angle with set motion, once initiated a character will move forward at a pre programmed amount (usually set in line with the character archtype) taking a certain amount of frames (e.g. Abel's forward dash is 16 frames but has less horizontal reach than Makoto).
Back Dashes are little less straight forward. They have some invincibility frames; usually around 8 in the Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken. They tend to have less horizontal reach than forward dashes.
Tactics
While both dashes have the same horizontal reach, Makoto's is much faster than Dhalsim's in terms of time to finish.
Dashes have multiple uses, some dashes are made for mobility, like Makoto who has very slow walk speed but the second fastest forward dash in terms of frames (16), and the furthest horizontal movement. Mobility dashes are not necessarily fast, Dhalsim's forward dash is still faster than his walking speed and has the same horizontal reach as Makoto's but is very slow in the grand scheme.
Comboing dashes do not tend to have too much horizontal reach. Rufus' is one such example as his dash rarely leads to going over a Juggled opponent. These dashes tend to benefit more from Dash Cancels at the cost of mobility. Rose's dash is a hybrid of both, as it still has good horizontal reach but still has properties of a combo dash.
Rufus' Dash combo in action
Back Dashes are usually an escape option. 21 frame backdashes like Chun-Li's, Poison's, and Rose's are desired as they are the fastest available. Many Option Selects do not work on these and they have to be anticipated more, aka "Hard Read". Ibuki has the furthest reaching back dash in IV, with the flaw that it is the second slowest at 28 frames.
Some backdashes are also made for combo ability. Rufus' is made to be used as an alternate in the corner.
Street Fighter V
Abigail's forward dashing in Street Fighter V
Street Fighter V has removed dash canceles, to combat this some V-Triggers have dashes built in. Ken's V-Skill is a command dash that can be used for both pressure and mixups.
Backdashes are generally less effective. Invincibility has been vastly reduced to reflect the game's nature, as offense is meant to be preferred. Crush Counters allow some characters to dash in after a successful hit.
