Fighting Games 101: Character Selection

About a year and a half ago, I thought I was awesome and an expert at fighting games when Street Fighter 4 came out. After all, I had played nearly all the previous games and except for a few people I thought that I was king of Third Strike. How could I possible suck at Street Fighter 4? Well, surprise, surprise, I did, big time. After continuous losses and great amounts of frustration, I wondered 'why was that?' Because I wasn't using strategy or even trying to understand how this particular game worked differently from previous titles in the series.