Dodging:

I should have mentioned this technique found only in SNK games plus the Capcom VS. SNK games (CvS). This was in the early KOF games from KOF 94-96 I imagine. Basically what it was is that you pressed A and B together (WP + WK) and you would dodge to the "side". You actually went into the background avoiding all attacks. Much like the roll, it had it's drawbacks. The main one is recovery time. However you could "counter" attack which is a regular attack you do which only happens as you are going back "into" the foreground, back into play. This had been replaced by the roll I mentioned earlier. Perhaps it was the fact that the dodge kinda slows down gameplay, not to mention it was not as effective as some people may think. The fact that you stay stationary leaves much to be desired, especially as using the "dodge" as a form of avoidance of multi hitting attacks (Ralph's Vulcan Arm or just someone pressing jab repeatedly) what results is that you're still stuck in the same place and eventually coming back into the opponents attack whose job was made easier by you dodging.

This technique is still present in KOF 98 called "Extra" mode and CvS1/2 because you could choose what type of "groove" you want (Groove is a mode of fighting you pick which I'll explain later).

Parrying and Just Defense:

These are relativly newly popularized conventions of video-gaming. It presents a really large jump in trying to speed up gameplay and making characters more offensive and defensive oriented. Parrying was first introduced in SS series (Samurai Shodown). Since it was a weapon based combat game there were some neat features that SNK innovated (even pioneered). Such as Super attacks (if they hit the person) would destroy the opponent's weapon, or the ability to actually lose your weapon on the field. One of the more interesting concepts, fully derived from kool ass ninjas, is when you are weaonless. The ability to do a command and then at the right moment "catch" your oppoent's weapon during an attack and counter with your own attack. This was one of the first versions of parrying to appear since it created two concepts related to parrying:

1. Doing a command other than "blocking" as a form of defense and *not* sustain damage in anyway.
2. Being able to immediatly attack after your opponents attack that you've stopped.

What differs parrying from rolls or dodges is specifically point #2. The indirect point number 3 is that there is a more element of risk when performing parrying or just defense (JD). In somecases to consistently parry/JD properly, you have risk more and anticipate more. You're parry/JD command has to be almost exactly when the attack comes, not something that lasts for a few seconds or forever such as rolling or blocking respectivly. You could see how this can greatly sped up gameplay due to how there are great rewards to take an intiative and anticipate your opponent's moves. But to explore in more depth I'll describe Capcom's "Parrying" and SNK's Just defense".

Parrying:

Parrying is Capcom's latest feature in their latest SF series SF3. Basically how it works is that you tap forward (for high/standing attacks or even in the air) or down (for low attacks) just at the moment an attack will hit you and you will 'parry' a single attack. This means that the attack would be nullified. Usually your character would flash and be in their parry animation when you sucessfully parried. The good thing about parrying is that effectively makes all attacks useless short of throws (you cannot parry throws), you gain super meter power, *and* you stand in the same place in where you parried (you usually get pushed back when just blocking). The better thing is that you can attack right after you parry, unlike blocking which you get pushed back and get locked into blocking animation.

This opens up an entirely new world of hurt since you parry once and unleash a combo from hell. Fireballs effectively have become null as far distance attacks since they can be seen a mile away and parried with the greatest of ease. People who relied on simple combos over and over again must adapt to different techniques in order to mix up which combos to use. It's great to use especailly when you are down to a sliver of energy, a single blocked fireball can do you in (specials and supers cause block damage, small damage you incur regardless of you blocking), and you parry in order to keep your life from draining to a KO.

But as you can see, this also becomes the problem as well as solution. Often at high levels of play, this results in players doing *nothing* greater than a Jab or Short because they are usually very hard to parry let alone anticipate. Mind games are more prevalent where someone would jump, and the other opponent is expected to parry, but instead the jumping character just does nothing also expecting to parry. What happens is the domination of who is able to thorw the best or the first person to make a mistake and pay dearly for it. As you can see, these matches could get quite boring, but the good thing is, we all aren't experts so we won't be getting to that high of level.

The downside to parrying pratically speaking is that it's quite hard to do. For quick multiple attacks (such as Chun-Li's lightning kick special) it's often hard to parry let alone worth it to parry. You have to parry every single attack! Fireballs take some pratice to learn how to parry, and the very big element of risk. Granted you have somewhat of lee-way on when to exactly parry, but the fact remains that you are performing a joystick movement that is counter-productive to the regular defensive habit of holding back or down-back for blocking. Afterall you are pressing "towards" or "down" in order to prevent an attack. Failure would result in damage or a big ass combo. I have managed to parry well, but it's because of the endless lines of Ryus, Kens and Akumas that gave me the ability to parry most of those characters basic attacks at a rookie level.

Just Defense

SNk's version of the parry. First appeared in Garou: Mark of the Wolves (herein referred as MOTW), a future set sequel of the Fatal Fury series (only a few years 2008 or soemthing). It's waaaay more convinient and somewhat less abusive than Capcom's since you could really only do specials and S/DM's after the JD, not every attack under the sun (I think). What makes it much more convinient is how it's actually set up. As opposed to promoting offensive tatics, MOTW has the exact opposite tactics of Capcom's parry. Instead of pressing toward to JD an attack, you instead tap back (or back-down I think for low attacks) at the exact moment the attack hits and then JD'd it. The added safety to this is that you actually gain both super bar power *and* health back for JDing!! Not to mention that even if you fuck up, you still end up in block animation anyways! Although if you do screw up for multiple attacks, then your joystick movement back to neutral would probably result in you getting hit. So this somewhat promotes a very defensive type of tatics since in someways you could recover your entire health bar with just JDing. Problems associated with this is also outlined above with Capcom's parrying.