A feint that consists of simply jumping towards the opponent to make it look like an aerial attack.

The way a character finishes off an opponent in the Mortal Kombat games. These actions, usually very violent, have become one of the trademarks of this licence.

Abbreviation for Fighting Games Community. Used to group together all fans of fighting games, regardless of their favourite title/series.

In the Street Fighter series, and in all Capcom games where fighters have six buttons: the heavy punch (HP).

The method by which a player is knocked out. For example, if it is by using a special move, it is a special finish. Some moves that are meant to knock out an opponent in a spectacular way are called finishing moves. In Mortal Kombat, a finish is the way to kill your opponent after knocking them out, better known as a Fatality. In most games, if you finish your opponent with a powerful move, you will trigger special effects (opponent thrown off the field in SF5, destruction of cities/planets in DBFZ...) Some games offer Dramatic Finish, which are cinematics launched when two defined characters clash and one of them finishes his opponent in a particular way. For example, in Dragon Ball FighterZ, if Goku SSJ defeats Frieza with a big hit or vanish on the destroyed planet Namek, you will then trigger a cinematic replay of the final fight scene between these two characters.

A special move usually used at the end of a match to defeat the opponent permanently.

A move used to start a juggle.

Represents the mechanical laws that two fighters must respect according to their main interest: to beat their opponent.

Often abbreviated to FA, targeted attacks were introduced in Street Fighter IV and are one of the main mechanics that made the game unique. Performed by pressing down on the middle fist and middle foot at the same time, they give players super armor as soon as the attack begins, giving the character the ability to miss the first hit of an attack without having their movement interrupted, unless that attack can break it: this is called an Armor Breaker Attack. Each character has an attack that can break the armour: Ryu's Tatsumaki for example. Some characters also have attacks that hit several times, before the player releases MP and MK (middle punch/middle kick) to counter this type of attack and break their focus (Cody excels in this area). There are three levels of charge for a Focus Attack. The longer you hold it down, the more damage it will do, while making it easier to continue your combo. At level 1, it will leave the opponent vulnerable enough for you to continue the combo, unless it hits in Counter Hit. At level 2, your opponent will be vulnerable and you can follow up with another hit, while at level 3, the Focus Attack will be additionally unblockable. These attacks have a fairly long loading time, giving your opponent the chance to react and counter you before you release the attack. This vulnerability is often used to bait an opponent, and force them to make a mistake. Not all characters have the same range on their focus attacks, the longest being Fei Long, Makoto and Vega while Boxer (Balrog) has one of the shortest.

In SF4, during a focus attack or its recovery, a player can enter the commands of a dash, in order to chain it right after the attack, thus eliminating recovery frames. A player cannot FADC if his focus attack wiffs (hits nothing) but it only has to hit something (not necessarily his opponent) for him to FADC. This term can also designate a player using this technique to extend certain combos, or to make certain special moves safe on guard (the opponent will not be able to retaliate between the special move and the dash, and thus will not be able to punish the attack he has blocked), because for two bars of the super gauge, it was possible to cancel the majority of the special moves in Focus Attack.

A slang word referring to anything to do with mid-range attacks from the ground in fighting game strategy. These are situations in which players can hit each other with a normal move, but are not in range to throw combos. Players then attack each other with safe moves (not punishable if saved), usually medium or long range attacks. The aim of this part of the game is to control the pace of the game, force the opponent to make mistakes and punish them.

In the Street Fighter series and the six-button Capcom fighting games: the middle kick (MK).

A type of fighting game that uses four hit buttons: small/big fist and small/big foot. The best known games of this type are those of SNK and notably the King of Fighters series.

Attributed to Guile in SF2: the lack of delay after throwing a Sonic Boom allowed him to follow up with another attack, making it one of the most difficult and devastating combos in early SF2 history. Perfectly executed, it took away 60% of the opponent's total life. This combo was usually performed when an opponent was dazed, in order to maximise his chances of success. It started with a big fist jump and then followed with a standing big fist, a Sonic Boom and a back fist. Even if there were only three big fists (HP/Fierce), all four attacks could be performed with the same button. The best players could add a Sonic Boom at the beginning of the combo, making it a 5-hit combo that took 70% of the opponent's total life. Frequently this combo would stun the opponent, leaving them totally vulnerable. Ken got a similar combo with the release of Street Fighter II: Champion Edition: his big Shoryuken (Shoryuken performed with the big fist command instead of small or medium fist) would hit twice, and in fact, a big fist jump followed by a big fist standing or crouching and then a big Shoryuken would do as much or more damage than Guile's combo.

A stage in the animation of the game. Talking in frames allows us to break down and give a time order to a particular sequence of the game; for example Ryu's HK (high kick) stand in Street Fighter 4 is broken down into 33 frames, of which 9 are startup frames, 4 are active frames and 20 are recovers frames. It should be noted that the number of frames per second depends on the game, most often 60 frames per second (FPS) for the most recent games.

A frame advantage action is one where your recovery time is less than the opponent's, either their hit stun if they take the hit, or their block stun if they block your attack. Attacks with a frame advantage on hit are used to make combos, and those with a frame advantage on block are used to poke the opponent and try to open his guard.

A table that lists the number of frames for all of a character's attacks.

A move that allows the guarding opponent enough time to start a counter-attack but not enough time to hit before your next move.

Also known as Dokamademo Cancels, this term often refers to the MAX Mode mechanic in The King of Fighters 2002, and gives the player the ability to cancel normal, commanded (move + direction, see Command Move) and special moves by turning them into other commanded or special moves. They work like this:

          - Each normal attack can be cancelled and transformed into some special moves (example: Kyo long D standing in Dokugami)
          - Each normal, commanded or special move, which hits or is blocked, can be cancelled and transformed into some special moves (example: Kensou jump C in Ryuu Sougeki)
          - Each normal move, commanded or CD (see Blow Away Attack), can be cancelled and transformed into certain special moves (example: Ramon CD standing in Tiger Road)
          - Every commanded move can be cancelled and transformed into some special moves (example: Benimaru's Flying Drill into Kuuchuu Raijin Ken)
          - Many special moves can be cancelled by other special moves (example: Maxima's Double Bomber into Vapour Cannon).
          
          Each time a Free Cancel is used, the fighter has a white flash and loses some energy on the MAX Timer. Free Canceling an attack into a controlled attack or (HS) DM (see Desperation Moves) is not possible (unless that attack is cancelable under normal circumstances). You cannot free cancel a special move, with the sole exception of moves that can be made both on the ground and in the air. One of the advantages of Free Cancel is that a player can cancel moves that might otherwise lose their properties.

Fully crouched. TC posture.

A special super attack that requires an energy gauge to be filled before being launched.

This term has different definitions depending on the game and can refer to offensive or defensive techniques.
          In 3D games such as Virtua Fighter or Tekken, it is a defensive technique performed when the defender maintains his guard while pressing down quickly, then releasing with a particular timing. If the timing is right, when an attack hits the defender, the game automatically chooses the correct guard, creating an Option Select while allowing the defender to block both high and low hits.
          In 2D games, Fuzzy Guard can refer to both an offensive and defensive technique. For the offensive side, the attacking player must force the defender into high guard using an overhead, then follow up with a high-low mix-up, where the high attack would normally miss a crouching opponent. As the defender is stuck in the block stun animation, the second attack will connect and hit the defender if he has gone into low guard. Fuzzy Guards are often mixed with instant overheads, but can also be used with double jumps or other aerial moves.
          As a defensive technique in 2D games, Fuzzy Guard is a method of switching between high and low guard at the right times during an opponent's block string, to defend against high-low mix-ups. If the defender knows the timing of the high and low moves in the opponent's block string, he can defend against each of them without having to react to the attacker's decisions. The attacking player can get rid of this guard by changing the timing of his attacks, for example by delaying a low blow to hit an opponent who would then have prepared for a high blow. This is one of the techniques that uses the defender's knowledge of the opponent's attacks and their timing, reducing the need to react to his mix-ups. Other Fuzzy defensive options are the Fuzzy Jump, which protects against catches, Fuzzy Abare or Fuzzy Poke, which let the defender interrupt the opponent's offense with quick attacks, and the Fuzzy Backdash, which is used to escape a press or avoid a throw.