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The Tiger Shot (タイガーショット Taigā Shotto?) is one of Sagat's signature special attacks.

Input
All appearances Arcade Stick QCF+Arcade Button Punch (High)
Arcade Stick QCF+Arcade Button Kick (Low)

Overview[]

Creation[]

The move was created by Street Fighter planner, Hiroshi Matsumoto. Due to Ryu and Ken being shorter than Sagat, Hiroshi noticed that Sagat's punches and kicks could not hit them. Since Sagat was the final boss, he created Tiger Shot, a move that can hit Ryu or Ken reliably while beating out their Hadoken.[1]

Description[]

Sagat tiger shot sfIV

Sagat's High Tiger Shot in Super Street Fighter IV.

Executed by performing a quarter-circle forward motion and pressing either punch or kick, Sagat gathers ki in his hands and propels his fists together forwards in order to fire a vertical crescent-shaped energy projectile (with non-burning flame effects added in the Street Fighter IV series). The speed of the projectile is determined by the strength of the button pressed.

This move has two versions: the "high" version has been a part of Sagat's arsenal since the original Street Fighter, while the "low" version was developed by Sagat after the events of that game, in order to remedy the move's height-based weakness.

  • The "High Tiger Shot" (タイガーショット Taigā Shotto?), which - as its name implies - hits up high. It is executed exactly the same way as Ryu's Hadoken, though the move is easily ducked under due to Sagat's height.
  • The "Low Tiger Shot" (グランドタイガーショット Gurando Taigā Shotto?, Ground Tiger Shot) is a version that hits crouching opponents, but can be jumped over very easily. Some games cause this version to hit low but other games allow the opponent to block it while standing. It is also executed similarly to the Hadoken, but with the kick button used instead.

The EX Special version introduced in the Street Fighter IV launches for both High and Low versions a faster projectile which hits twice (hits only once in Street Fighter V) for more damage, has knockdown and recovers faster.

In past games, Sagat simply yelled out "Tiger!" when firing a shot, while in EX2, EX3 and SFIV, he yells out the whole name of the move: "Tiger Shot!".

Tactics[]

TigerShot

High Tiger Shot in Street Fighter V.

The move is quite spammable and very annoying to foes who lack any projectile-type techniques, part of the reason why Sagat is considered high-tier. The move can be followed with Tiger Uppercut or another Tiger Shot, which greatly adds to Sagat's ground defensive abilities. In the Street Fighter IV series, the low version can be cancelled into Tiger Genocide when used at close range, which is a trait that it shares with the Tiger Knee.

GrandTigerShot

Low Tiger Shot in Street Fighter V.

Its main usage in the games is for zoning and for pushing the opponent back into the corner. It can also be used as a very far punish when Sagat is not close enough and the opponent whiffs a move that has slow recovery. It can also be used to combat and match other projectile users.

In some games, the High Tiger Shot has limited use as an anti-air. Further, the Tiger Shot can be used at high level play at the start of a round to see and analyze how your opponent reacts to them (not necessarily to damage them), from which you can work out their play style (i.e. whether they play offensive/rush-down or defensive/turtle). The fact that the Low Tiger Shot hits low in certain games gives Sagat a powerful form of zoning and slight mix-up packed into one.

Back then in the original Super Street Fighter II, this move was at its most infamous for having low recovery lag and Sagat reaching fairly far to fire the shots, making them amazing ranged pressure-and-zoning tools in one, and cemented that version of him as a bonafide top tier before later version nerfs.

Unfortunately in later games onward, due to the fact that both versions can be easy to avoid (high version can be ducked under, while the low version can be jumped over) added in with the fact that Sagat tends to have some form of notable recovery lag like with most projectile users (especially those that use circle motions for their inputs as opposed to the charge motion-types being free of recovery lag), Sagat can easily suffer from a free counter hit landed on a quick-witted opponent if Sagat fails to properly zone them. Thus, a Sagat player can eat an array of easy-counter hits if they are not mindful of their own zoning patterns.

In the most recent games, the EX Low Tiger Shot can be used to juggle a falling opponent if timed correctly. Not to mention, his recovery is also someway less laggy, only it can still be quite punished. Remy has a similar tactic, Light of Virtue, where he can fire his projectile low, similar to how Sagat can fire low Tiger Shots

Trivia[]

  • Keeping with Sagat's tiger motif, the way he puts his two fists forward may be akin to a tiger's two paws reaching out.
  • Several games have changed the color of the projectile many times, with the original colors being blue-to-orange, up to pure orange-flame colors.
  • In the 1987 original Street Fighter, in which Sagat is the final opponent and a non-playable character, the Tiger Shot is capable of depleting two-thirds of the player's health bar with just one hit, making it one of the most devastating attacks in the game.
  • In Muay Thai terminology, Sagat's Tiger Shot have a close resemblance to The Hanuman, a classic yet very situational technique. The Hanuman involves the user quickly ducking beneath the opponent's attack with their upper body before quickly retaliating with a twin fist punch aimed upward at the dead center of the foe's chin. It is not considered a standalone technique but counts as a variation to the uppercut but with a significant advantage in that the practitioner of the Hanuman can use both arms to leverage vs. the defender's guard upward during the performance, effectively bypassing most blocking power while striking at the vital, often match-ending area.
    • Sagat's towering height, however, would make this technique very hard or ineffective for him to perform in real life. Due to this, it is presumable that Sagat not only has quicker reflexes than a normal fighter, but is also very agile and flexible despite his intimidating size while also repurposing the technique into the Tiger Shot.
  • Tiger Shot is one of the most toned down attacks in Street Fighter history, when it debuted it beat the Hadouken 1 on 1, and did more damage than the mentioned fireball-type projectile. In its second appearance in The World Warrior, it could be canceled out by Hadouken and all the projectiles of the playable cast, but it still did more damage and had the fastest recovery in the game, faster than Sonic Boom. When Sagat became playable in Champion Edition, the projectile was further nerfed with higher recovery and less damage.
  • In The World Warrior, Sagat was able to hit a crouching Balrog with a high fireball. Furthermore, Balrog's jump was angled to evade the fireballs of only the playable cast, giving Balrog no real way to deal with High Tiger Shot. This was due to the bosses being unselectable, thus never being fully balanced against each other. Another oddity can be seen when M. Bison is hacked as a playable character and uses Head Press against another unplayable boss, where Bison goes off screen rather than his usual followups.
  • In the Street Fighter IV series, High Tiger Shot only incidentally whiffed on crouching opponents before Ultra Street Fighter IV, as all characters before then were just short enough when crouching to avoid it. With Hugo's reintroduction, High Tiger Shot had to be changed to truly go over crouchers so Hugo could also avoid them. This also had the side effect of making most crouching moves invincible to High Tiger Shot where they were not previously (such as Ryu's crouching heavy punch).

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Sprites[]

SvC Chaos: SNK vsSvC Chaos: SNK vs Street Fighter Alpha series, High Tiger ShotStreet Fighter Alpha series, Low Tiger Shot Street Fighter II series (console ports), both versions

Videos[]

World_Warrior_Sagat_Fireballs-0

World Warrior Sagat Fireballs-0

An example of Tiger Shot's power in The World Warrior.

  1. "The last boss Sagat is the only enemy character to use his special technique. Is that a hint to find a special technique that was a hidden technique?" (ラスボスのサガットは敵キャラクターで唯必殺技を使ってきます。あれは隠し技だった必殺技を見つけてもらうためのヒントなんですか?) Matsumoto: "Sagat is a tall character, so if you try to fight with only punches and kicks, you won't hit the short Ryu or Ken. Since he has to be strong as a boss, I attached a technique called Tiger Shot." (松本: サガットって背の高いキャラクターなので、パンチとキックだけで戦わせようとすると背の低いリュウやケンに攻撃が当たらないんです。ボスである以上強くしなきゃいけないので、タイガーショットという技を付けました。) from Takashi Nishimyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto interview from SF25: The Art of Street Fighter page 435.
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