His Tornado Throw and Marceaux Roll combination can play lots of head games with your opponent. Because of his mobility and a few tricks up his sleeve, Abel is capable of staying on his opponent and not letting off.

• Strengths •
+ Great mobility and speed, for a big guy.
+ Powerful character, moves take off a lot of damage.
+ Can juggle with his Ultra move after a Crouching Hard Punch.
+ Change of Direction is a great attack against mid-level and worse players who don't know how to block it consistently.
+ High stamina (defense) ranking, he can take a beating before he goes down.
+ Great rush down game with his EX-Change of Direction and Marceaux Roll into Tornado Throw.
+ His EX attacks are really, really good.

• Weaknesses •
- Can have a difficult time consistently getting in against turtle characters.
- His anti air options are not good.

Special Moves

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• Change of Direction (Quick Combo Grapple) •
Think of this move somewhat like Fei Long's Rekka Ken. If the first or second hit lands of the Punch version, any subsequent Punch attacks will combo.

Pressing a Punch button after you do the initial move will do an Overhead Attack, and a Punch again will attempt a high grab.

The Kick versions on the 2nd and 3rd hits must be blocked low and are mostly there to throw your opponent off if they're attempting to block high.

Keep in mind, Kick attacks used at any point with Abel's Change of Direction will NOT combo, but you can combo with a Punch on the third attack after you land a Kick on the second hit.

Also the third hit whether you do it with Punch or Kick is an armor breaking move.

This is a really good attack, but if blocked, any part of this move is open to counter attack, so be very careful with it.

The strength of the button pressed controls the range and damage of the Change of Direction. Hard versions do slightly more damage and have a bit more range, Light do the least damage and have the smallest range.

Also when using this in combos, start the Change of Direction with Medium Punch, because the Hard Punch version has a delay that will often keep it from comboing after other moves, like Crouching Medium Punch.

• Wheel Kick (Flip Kick) • *Armor Breaking*
Abel does a flip and sticks his legs out, this must be blocked high. You can cancel into this from some of his normal moves to perform a combo. This move is pretty safe from counter attacks if blocked.

Since Abel's anti air options are limited, this will be one of the main ways you'll be knocking the other fighter out of the air. You need to anticipate the jump in from your opponent though because the animation for this move doesn't get to a hittable state until 20-27 frames after you execute it, and it's only active for 7 frames.

Still, it's priority against jumping characters is very good, and once you learn the proper range and timing, it's effective.

The Kick button pressed determines the distance and power of this attack, and also how many start up frames of animation it has.

• Marceaux Roll •
This is most similar to Ken's roll in Alpha 2. It's pretty quick and it can be used to confuse your opponent. This goes through some moves, but you can be thrown out of it.

And being thrown out of it will be your main problem. You have to use this somewhat sparingly and in the right situations, or you'll be tossed all day long. But this works great to slip through some moves and come right out into your Torando Throw.

The Kick button used determines the distance Abel travels. Light goes the shortest distance while Hard travels a bit beyond sweep distance.

Some people think this is the best move to use to get behind (cross up) the other fighter, because it comes out so quickly.

A popular cheese tactic after a successful Tornado Throw is to take a step forward and do a Hard Kick Marceaux Roll as the other fighter is standing. You'll end up on the back side of your opponent and in good position to do some more damage.

• Tornado Throw (Head Twirl Toss) •
A very, very good command grab, although the range on it kind of bites. The Light Punch version has the most range, but does the least damage, Hard Punch is the most damage, least range. Medium Punch is a mix of the two.

Coupled with Abel's Marceaux Roll and Dash, you can cover a lot of ground very quickly to get inside on your opponent and repeatedly throw them.

In Street Fighter 4 a character can be thrown after they've been knocked down the moment they're on their feet after getting up. This is unlike previous Street Fighter games where there was a few moments of invulerability to throws.

This gives characters with command grabs a whole new set of tricks to pull out, and it makes Abel one powerful rush-down character.

• Sky Fall (Air Grab) •
Abel will grab an aerial opponent who's close to him and slam them into the ground. Note that Abel's feet do not leave the ground when performing this move.

This works great in combination with his Crouching Hard Punch (Elbow Launcher), easy combo, good damage.

EX Moves

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• EX-Change of Direction (Quick Combo Grapple) •
The EX-Change of Direction can blow through one hit from your opponent and still let you land the resulting attacks. And this fact alone makes this move NASTY.

Most players you fight against will like to throw out random pokes to try and keep Abel off of them. He's always such a threat to get inside and throw them it's usually a smart idea to get some moves out there to impede his progress.

But when you start to see a pattern to your opponent's random pokes, simply blow through them with an EX-Change of Direction to score a 3-hit combo.

This will help keep them more honest and open up more holes in their defense for you to get through and abuse them with.

Also keep in mind this move is much like the normal version in that it can be punished if blocked, so don't overuse it.

• EX-Wheel Kick (Flip Kick) • *Armor Breaking*
This move goes through projectiles and it comes out much faster than the normal version, so quickly in fact you can use it on reaction to through fireballs.

Also hits overhead. If your timing is good, you can also use it as an anti air attack. One of Abel's best moves to help him deal with an onslaught on projectiles.

• EX-Marceaux Roll •
This is much faster than the regular roll, and has some frames of animation that are invincible.

• EX-Tornado Throw (Head Twirl Toss) •
This attack offers a few frames of invulnerability and has better priority than the regular version, so it makes for a great getting up move. It also has the same range as Abel's regular Light Punch command grab.

But it does less damage than the Hard Punch Tornado Throw, and you'll be spending an EX bar to use it — so you should be careful when and where you throw it out there. But this doesn't mean it's a bad move. Quite the opposite actually.

Those few frames of invulnerability and better priority allow you to grab the other fighter out of moves you normally wouldn't be able to.

This can be key in all too many situations as you deal with pokes and pressure tactics from your opponent. Being able to grab them out of almost any attack — as long as you time it correctly, is huge.

Learning how and when to use this attack as a counter will make you a much better Abel player.

• EX-Sky Fall (Air Grab) •
This does more damage than the normal version and has a bit more range. Some players claim it has some frames of its animation that are invincible as well.

Super and Ultra Moves

• Mushin (Multiple Punches and Head Twirl Throw) • *Armor Breaking*
You can cancel into this move from the first punch of the Change of Direction. Abel will run at his opponent and hit him with his fist multiple times and finish off with a twirl grab and slam.

Considering how good Abel's EX moves are, you'll rarely use this.

• Muga (Ultra Head Twirl Throw) • *Armor Breaking*
Abel runs up to his opponent, punches them, proceeds to do a series of grappling moves and finishes by slamming the other fighter into the ground. This move does a lot of damage, but there's a few frames of start up animation which means that it won't hit instantly after you execute it.

This does go through fireballs though, so you can use it against projectile-happy players.

Combos

• Jumping Medium Kick, Crouching Medium Punch, Cancel into Change of Direction 3x •
An easy yet damaging combo. A great way to punish the other fighter for a missed move.

• Level 3 Focus Attack, Dash Cancel, Crouching Hard Punch, Cancel into Sky Fall (Air Grab) •
You need to Cancel Abel's Crouching Hard Punch on the 2nd hit to land this combo. You can also sub in an EX-Sky Fall which has a bit more range and is not as strict on the timing.

• Jumping Medium Kick, Crouching Medium Punch, Cancel into Medium Punch Change of Direction, Focus Attack Dash Cancel, Crouching Hard Punch, juggle with Ultra •
A pretty good combo, and a great way to land Abel's Ultra.

Normal Moves

Note this is not a complete list of all of Abel's normal moves, just the ones we think are noteworthy.

• Elbow (Launcher) •
An elbow attack that results in two hits with the second one launching your opponent up into the air where you can combo them. It's a lot like Urien's elbow in Street Fighter 3, and can be a solid anti air option if timed correctly.

You can also cancel out of this move on either hit, including into his Super or his Ultra, but the timing is tricky on the latter.

• Towards + Medium Kick •
This is a good attack for putting pressure on your opponent. You can Dash out of it without using a Focus Attack Dash Cancel, and it allows you to close the gap between you and your opponent and potentially hit them with an Elbow Launcher into Skyfall, Tornado Throw, etc.

It's fast, has good range and can be used to punish as well. This is one of Abel's best normal moves.