Hammer Kick in action (SFIV)
Hammer Kick is one of Ibuki's Unique Attacks in the Street Fighter III, Street Fighter IV and in Street Fighter X Tekken.
Description[]
Ibuki jumps into the air and performs a relatively slow bicycle kick. She ends the sequence by landing on her feet. In all of its appearances it's startup until after the actual kick puts Ibuki in an airborne state and the kick is also classified as an aerial attack.
In the Street Fighter V series this was replaced with Kobekudaki, which is visually similar attack with similar usage.
Tactics[]
Ibuki hitting an airborne Cammy with Hammer Kick that knocks her back to the floor.
Hammer Kick by itself is not an effective overhead, as it is rather slow it will likely be blocked by players with reasonable reactions. This overhead makes up with this shortcoming with it's relatively strong utility.
Hammer Kick is capable of avoiding attacks. Unlike it's SFV successor it can also avoid mediums and some highs (as well as lows and other overheads) at the apex of it's height before going down for the hit. It also has near instant aerial frames which can make it a good wake up option against Grabs and Throws as well as Command Grabs. Timed well, this overhead can be used to avoid some wake up reversals or purposely take an air reset to punish the opponent when they come down. When comparing Hammer Kick to Kobekudaki, Hammer Kick leaves a much more favorable spacing for continuing combos and also is more useful against aerial opponents, as Hammer Kick slams opponents back into the floor in the Street Fighter IV series or starts a Juggle in Street X Tekken.
An added bonus is that in SFIV this attack is +2 on block, leaving Ibuki able to continue pressure if it is blocked. In SFXTK more care has to be used since it is -4 on block. Thus punishable.
Target Combo 7 and Hammer Kick have a similar relationship that Kobekudaki has with Sasanaki in that the Target Combo version end with a similar looking overhead that does not combo from the original hit. Like Sasanaki the Target Combo version of Hammer Kick will have even better frame data on block and hit than the base version (+4 on block on Street Fighter X Tekken).
Trivia[]
- In Street Fighter X Tekken Ling Xiaoyu's own overhead, Cyanide, and Cross Cancel recycle the animation for Hammer Kick but are much faster.
Gallery[]
