My personal (wordy) thought process for starting any fighter.
When I played Tekken 3 and then for 3rd Strike, which now I do in 4...admittedly, I do not play 4 as much as I did the other 2 in back then.
First and foremost, the obvious, practice makes perfect and it takes a lot of practice.
Step 1.
Fine the character that appeals to you the most.
You are going to spending a lot of time with them.
Start in practice mode, run through the moves and buttons. Get used to them, their overall timing. By that I mean simply knowing/understanding the pros and cons of how long a move takes to start-up, how long it is "active" and how long it takes to recover, so you can do the next move.
Step 2.
Check out the advanced moves. i.e. Fireballs and uppercuts, super, etc... Get used to inputting them, make sure you can execute said move when you want. Note how they are/maybe/can be similar. Shotos for example, if you cant do a quarter circle...you cant to much. Practicing the simple will make the "complex" easier.
Now we know what we can do and how to it.
Practice until confident.
Step 3.
Some time I try to practice through the usual arcade version of the game. If you feel for some reason it is too hard and you cant do anything...cant practice if you cant do anything...make the difficulty easier. Increase the difficulty every time you beat it. Goal is to be able to do what we want, when we want; with predicable results.
Basically, practice until confident vs the ai.
And the reason I mention arcade mode, because games like Injustices story mode change the game rules and stuff. Arcade is usually the basic, default, tourney, what everyone-plays-rule.
I am not saying you have to beat it and go all the way up to the highest ai now,but over time. Just be in this mode/rules until you feeling the next step.
At the same time, if you beat it and want to keep going...beat it again and again.
Step 4.
Back to practice mode.
Figure out how moves combo, link, etc.
Part of the success to these are knowing and understanding the timing stuff mentioned in Step 2.
Again, practice these combos. Be able to pull of the ones you want, when you want.
Step 5.
Back to arcade mode...go again. Just start with the difficulty you left off on and keep going up when you beat it.
Playing VS the AI will also help with remembering other character's animations.
Step 6.
Expand.
Play other characters in the same manner. Find other characters. This will only aid in being able to recognize your enemies movements. Thus being able to counter them.
Back with Tekken 3, I could nearly block any combo. It felt like the game was in slow motion back then. ha.
Play Random.
Again Tekken 3, I could say I was able to play Mokujin like I picked the character like 85% of the time.
I enjoyed playing Random in 3rd.
I hated how 4 didnt have Random in the start.
Step 7. Or when ever you want.
Play others people.
Dont worry about losing. Learn from a lose.
I got dirted for an hour every morning in 3rd Stike, by the dude whom owned the machine when I first interned at the place I work, for like a year. Over time after that...few years...only a hand only a handful posed a challenge. Online, lag aside, I certainly did way better than have yet to do in 4...again do not really play it much. I need to find peeps locally.
At least I have gone from losing on the first few rounds when I first got 4 -to - I can beat it with a few characters on the highest setting. ---- Seth's teleport into grab.
