Fighting Game Glossary

Fighting games have their own vocabulary, and a lot of it carries over from arcade classics to modern titles. This glossary defines the common terms you will hear in the genre and then explains exactly how each concept shows up in Super Stick Hero, so a newcomer can read a strategy guide anywhere and know what it means at the controller.

Offense

Poke

A poke is a quick, low-commitment attack used to nudge the opponent, control space, or interrupt their plan without over-extending. In Super Stick Hero your primary poke is Left Punch (Q), the fastest normal in the game, which you can throw out at range to check an approaching enemy before committing to a slower, heavier option.

Startup

Startup is the number of frames between pressing a button and the attack actually becoming able to hit. Lower startup means a faster move. In Super Stick Hero the four attack buttons are tuned along this axis: Q Left Punch has the shortest startup, while S Right Kick is the heaviest and slowest to come out.

Recovery

Recovery is the time after an attack finishes during which your character cannot act again. Long recovery is what makes a whiffed heavy attack dangerous. BecauseS Right Kick has the most recovery of the basic normals, missing one leaves you open long enough for an enemy to punish, so it is best saved for confirmed hits.

Frame Advantage

Frame advantage describes who gets to act first after a move connects: if you recover before your opponent, you are "plus" and can press again safely. In Stickman Fighter, landing a fast Left Punch (Q) on a blocking enemy generally leaves you close to even, which is why chaining light punches into a heavier follow-up is a reliable pressure pattern.

Guard Break

A guard break is an attack that defeats a held block instead of being stopped by it, forcing the defender to eat damage or get opened up. Super Stick Hero has a dedicated Guard Break performed as a simultaneous input, W+S, which crushes an enemy's block outright and is your answer to a turtling opponent.

Overhead vs Low

The classic high/low mix asks the defender to guess whether to block standing (against overheads) or crouching (against lows). Super Stick Hero simplifies this into a single block, but it preserves the spirit with the Sweep (→A), a low that causes a hard knockdown, paired against throws and guard breaks that punish players who just hold block.

Defense

Block / Guard

Blocking is holding a defensive stance so incoming attacks deal reduced or no damage rather than a full hit. In Super Stick Hero you block by holding Shift, which cuts incoming damage by roughly 70 percent; it is your default safety tool but it is not a free pass, since several attacks are designed to beat it.

Chip Damage

Chip damage is the small amount of damage that some attacks deal even when they are blocked, punishing pure defense over time. In Super Stick Hero a held block absorbs most of an attack but still lets chip through, so you cannot simply hold Shift forever against a determined attacker and expect to stay at full health.

Throw / Grab / Throw Tech

A throw is a close-range grab that ignores blocking entirely, which is what keeps defenders from turtling; a throw tech is the defender's escape from it. In Stickman Fighter the Throw is a short-range unblockable input, Q+A, that opens up an enemy who is committed to holding Shift. Bosses have grab immunity during their attack animations, so they can only be thrown in their idle frames.

Anti-air

An anti-air is a move used to knock an opponent out of a jump before they land an aerial attack, discouraging careless jumping. Super Stick Hero's Uppercut, a sequential input A,W, is the dedicated anti-air; timed as an enemy descends on you, it stuffs the jump and can start a juggle.

Reversal

A reversal is a defensive move performed the instant you recover from blockstun or a knockdown to interrupt an attacker's pressure. In Super Stick Hero, spending meter on Energy Dash (→→S), which carries invincibility on startup, acts as a reversal to blow through an enemy who is crowding your wakeup.

Movement

Dash

A dash is a burst of fast horizontal movement used to close distance or reposition quickly. In Super Stick Hero a dash is a directional input, double-tap ← / →, and you also get one air dash per jump to adjust your aerial approach and cross over an opponent.

Dodge / i-frames (Invincibility Frames)

Invincibility frames are windows where your character cannot be hit, usually attached to a dodge or roll so you can pass safely through an attack. Pressing double-tap ↓ in Super Stick Hero performs a dodge roll that is invincible for its active window, letting you slip through a projectile or a swing and come out on the other side.

Cross-up

A cross-up is an aerial or dashing attack that hits an opponent from behind, reversing which way they must block and creating a guessing situation. In Super Stick Hero you set these up with the jump and double jump (Space) or an air dash to sail over an enemy and strike from the far side.

Neutral & Spacing

Neutral

Neutral is the state before either fighter has the advantage, where both players jockey for position, bait attacks, and try to earn the first hit. In Super Stick Hero neutral is most of every wave: you are managing distance with movement, checking approaches withQ, and waiting for an enemy to over-commit.

Footsies

Footsies is the ground game of poking, walking, and spacing at the edge of attack range, trying to hit the opponent while staying just out of theirs. Super Stick Hero rewards footsies because the AI coordinates rather than pure gang-rushing, so patiently spacing with your fastest normals beats mashing into a crowd.

Spacing

Spacing is the deliberate management of the distance between fighters so that your attacks reach and theirs do not. In Super Stick Hero, understanding that Left Punch (Q) is fast but short while Right Kick (S) reaches farther but is slow lets you pick the right tool for the current gap.

Whiff / Whiff Punish

A whiff is an attack that misses entirely, and a whiff punish is hitting the opponent during the recovery of that missed swing. In Super Stick Hero, baiting an enemy into whiffing a slow attack and answering with your own fast Q before they recover is one of the cleanest, lowest-risk ways to open a combo.

Zoning

Zoning is controlling space at range, usually with projectiles, to keep an opponent out and force them to approach on your terms. In Super Stick Hero you zone with Ki specials like Ki Blast (↓→Q) and the piercing Power Blast (↓→W), throwing out ranged pressure to wall off an approach.

Projectile / Fireball

A projectile, often called a fireball, is a ranged attack that travels across the screen independent of your character. Super Stick Hero's projectiles are meter-driven Ki attacks: Ki Blast (↓→Q) is the basic shot, while Power Blast (↓→W) pierces one enemy and Super Beam (↓↘→A) pierces and stuns.

Meter & Specials

Meter / Gauge (Ki)

Meter is a resource bar you build during a fight and spend on stronger moves. In Stickman Fighter this is the Ki gauge, which fills as you deal damage (×0.5), take damage (×0.3), and block damage (×0.2), plus a passive +2 per second, or much faster by charging.

EX / Special / Super

Specials are motion-input moves stronger than normals; supers are the biggest, meter-hungry finishers. Super Stick Hero ladders its Ki moves by cost, from Ki Blast at 25 percent up to Dragon Fist (↓←→W) at a full 100 percent gauge, the ultimate you save for a decisive moment.

Charge

Charging is spending time to build meter directly instead of earning it through combat, a calculated risk since you are vulnerable while doing it. Holding E in Super Stick Hero charges Ki at +15 per second, but you are immobile and take 1.5x damage during it, so you charge only when you have created space.

Combos & Juggling

Combo

A combo is a sequence of attacks strung together so the opponent cannot recover or block between hits. In Super Stick Hero combos are built by chaining normals and specials, and the on-screen combo multiplier climbs from 1.0x toward 3.0x as you extend a string.

Combo Multiplier

Some games reward longer combos with bonus scoring rather than extra raw damage. Stickman Fighter's multiplier does exactly that: it scales your score, not the damage of the hits, so long combos are worth chasing for the leaderboard even though each hit deals its normal amount.

Bread-and-Butter

The bread-and-butter, or BnB, is your reliable everyday combo, the one you can land consistently in most situations. In Super Stick Hero a dependable BnB opens with a fast Left Punch (Q) confirm into a Launcher (↑W) and a short juggle, giving you a repeatable route off almost any opening.

Cancel

A cancel is interrupting one move's recovery by immediately starting another, letting you link attacks that would not otherwise connect. In Super Stick Hero you cancel normals into Ki specials, for example flowing a grounded hit into Ki Blast (↓→Q) before the first move fully recovers.

Launcher

A launcher is an attack that pops the opponent into the air, opening them up for an aerial juggle. Super Stick Hero's Launcher is ↑W; landing it lifts an enemy off the ground so you can follow with additional hits before they fall.

Juggle

A juggle is a combo that keeps the opponent airborne with successive hits so they cannot block or fall out. In Super Stick Hero you start a juggle from a Launcher (↑W) or an Uppercut (A,W) and extend it with quick follow-up attacks while the enemy is still rising or hanging in the air.

Gravity / Juggle Resistance

Juggle resistance, often implemented as scaling gravity, is a system that makes an airborne opponent fall faster the longer a juggle goes, preventing infinite loops. In Super Stick Hero gravity rises over the course of a juggle so infinites are impossible, and bosses carry extra juggle resistance, dropping out of long strings sooner than regular enemies.

Reset

A reset is deliberately ending a combo early to return to a neutral or mix-up situation, trading guaranteed damage for a fresh chance to open the opponent up. In Super Stick Hero you might drop a juggle to land instead and threaten a Throw (Q+A) or Guard Break (W+S), forcing another guess rather than spending the combo out.

Knockdown & Okizeme

Knockdown (Soft / Hard)

A knockdown puts the opponent on the ground; a soft knockdown lets them recover quickly while a hard knockdown keeps them down longer, giving the attacker more time to set up. In Super Stick Hero the Sweep (→A) produces a hard knockdown, buying you the space to reposition or start a wakeup game.

Wakeup

Wakeup is the moment a downed fighter gets back to their feet, a vulnerable transition the attacker tries to exploit and the defender tries to survive. After scoring a Sweep in Super Stick Hero you can position for the enemy's wakeup and threaten your next opening the instant they stand.

Oki / Okizeme

Okizeme, shortened to oki, is the pressure you apply to an opponent as they wake up from a knockdown, forcing them to guess between blocking, escaping, or attacking. In Stickman Fighter, following a hard knockdown you set oki by hovering at the enemy's wakeup with a fast Q or a Throw ready to catch whichever option they pick.

Meaty

A meaty is an attack timed so its later active frames overlap the opponent's wakeup, beating out most defensive options and giving you frame advantage on hit or block. In Super Stick Hero you approximate a meaty by pressing an attack so it lands right as a knocked-down enemy rises rather than before, keeping the pressure airtight.

General / Meta

Hitbox / Hurtbox

A hitbox is the region of an attack that can damage the opponent; a hurtbox is the region of a character that can be damaged. In Super Stick Hero these are driven by the move data, so each attack's reach and each fighter's vulnerable area are defined per move rather than by the drawn sprite alone.

Mix-up

A mix-up is an offensive situation that forces the defender to guess between two or more options they cannot all cover at once, such as strike versus throw. In Super Stick Hero the core mix-up against a blocking enemy is Guard Break (W+S) to crush the block versus Throw (Q+A) to grab through it.

Punish

A punish is a guaranteed counterattack landed during the opponent's recovery after they whiff or use an unsafe move. In Super Stick Hero, catching an enemy at the end of a big committed swing and confirming into your bread-and-butter is textbook punish play.

Buffer / Input Buffer

An input buffer stores your inputs briefly so a command still registers if you enter it a hair early, smoothing out execution. Super Stick Hero buffers sequential commands within roughly a 0.3-second window, so moves like the Uppercut (A,W) still come out cleanly even if your two presses are not perfectly on time.

Command Types

Fighting games recognize inputs in a few shapes: a single button, a directional (direction plus a button), a sequential chain, or a simultaneous press of two buttons. Stickman Fighter uses all four: single normals like Q, directional moves like the Sweep (→A), sequential inputs like the Uppercut (A,W), and simultaneous inputs like the Throw (Q+A) and Guard Break (W+S).

Weapons

Some fighters give characters equippable arms that change their range and move set. In Super Stick Hero you can cycle between the Sword, Staff, and Nunchaku by pressingR, each altering your reach and the feel of your normals to suit different matchups.

Ready to put the vocabulary to use? Read the beginner guide for a structured walkthrough of the fundamentals, study the combospage for concrete routes and bread-and-butter strings, and browse the full move list to see every input, property, and Ki cost in one place.