The Tiger Knee (タイガー二ー Taigā Nī?), also known as Tiger Thrust, Tiger Crash or Tiger Knee Crush (タイガー二ークラッシュ Taigā Nī Kurasshu?) in Street Fighter IV, is one of Sagat's special attacks, introduced in Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting.
| Street Fighter II series Street Fighter Alpha 3 (X-ISM) |
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| Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Ultra Street Fighter II All other appearances |
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| Street Fighter 6 (Classic) |
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| Street Fighter 6 (Modern) |
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Description
- "Leap forward while striking with the knee. Hit with the very tip of the knee to move before your opponent."
- —Street Fighter 6
Executed by performing a 'Shoryuken' motion (or in early Street Fighter II games, a half-circle up-forward motion) and pressing kick, Sagat jumps forward and rams into the opponent with his knee, hitting twice at close range.
The EX Special version introduced in Street Fighter IV has virtually no startup time, hits two times at its apex (allowing the full move to score up to three hits) and recovers faster. In Street Fighter V, this attack is renamed to Tiger Knee Crush. If the EX version is used, Sagat performs a jumping knee strike. He ends the attack with an enhanced Tiger Knee.
In Street Fighter 6, the input for this move is changed to performing a quarter-circle forward motion and pressing kick (or pressing Special Attack for Modern Control). His heavy Tiger Knee hits opponents during startup. If OD is used and Sagat hits the opponent during startup, he knocks the opponent further away with a second kick.
Origin
The move is based on an actual Muay Thai move (Flying Knee) and, in the original Street Fighter, it actually resembled a realistic Flying Knee attack.
Tactics
Artwork of Sagat performing the move in Super Street Fighter IV.
It can be used as an anti-air, combo ender or as a far punish. In Street Fighter IV, it has armor breaking properties and is projectile-invincible on startup; it can also be cancelled into Tiger Genocide for a powerful combo on a stunned or crumpling opponent. However, if the opponent evades or blocks the move, Sagat may be left wide open for counterattack (especially since smaller characters can duck underneath it if spaced from Sagat properly).
In Street Fighter X Tekken this attack is still useful for spacing. Learning the ranges of each version forces the opponent to respect Sagat as getting hit by this attack can get the opposing character in the corner rather quickly. Care has to be taken against Armor such as Zangief as it loses armor break in this game.
The EX version is multi-hitting and wall bounces the opponent. This attack was made to be -3 on the 2013 version, making it vulnerable to characters with 3-frame attacks or such specials like Ibuki's Raida (2-frame startup). Further more this attack can be predicted and punished with attacks such as Agemen, Nina's anti-air, and Law's anti-air.
In Street Fighter V, the EX Tiger Knee has a tremendous amount of corner carry. Sagat can push his opponent into the corner by ending combos with EX Tiger Knee. Like in previous renditions, it is used to create spacing and to push the opponent back. This allows Sagat to continue zoning out his opponent with fireballs or mid-range normals.
Trivia
- Despite Sagat himself having no use for this, the original motion of the move proved in other fighting games to be a command bypass/exploit, especially for moves that could be done in midair; by performing the midair move's command (especially if it's a circle motion of any sort) in the style of the Tiger Knee, the user would use their attack rather close to the ground for more variety of usages, thus through this, the term "Tiger Knee'd" (abbv. as "TK'd") is often a term coined to "TK" a midair move in order to use it as close to the ground as possible. However, this tactic won't often work on moves with height restrictions.
- Characters in the Street Fighter series themselves can make use of TK'ing, such as Cammy with her Cannon Strike (only in SFIV and SFxTK or the EX/VT powred up version in SFV where it does not have height restriction).
- This technique is also present in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where it is used by Ryu, Ken, and w:c:snk:Terry Bogard. Terry's version of it allows him to a more powerful version of his Power Dunk, while Ryu and Ken are able to perform a rising version of their Tatsumaki.
- Keeping with Sagat's tiger motif, the move's motion is possibly akin to a tiger's pounce.
- In Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, the Megazord/Mega Mecha, ZyuohKing 1*5*4 utilizes this move.
- This is the only attack that a boss character acquired from the transition of World Warrior to Champion Edition. Balrog, Vega, and Bison only got attacks modified.
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