New Street Fighter games appear on a timeframe that’s roughly in line with the crowning of a new British monarch, but when they do hit the scene, it’s usually with the impact force of an extinction-level asteroid. Street Fighter 2? It was a game-changer in the early 1990s that rewrote the rulebook for fighting games, and led to coin shortages across the world because fans couldn’t get enough of it. Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter 3? Melee masterpieces that pushed the genre to the bleeding edge during the formative years of the fighting game community.
Then you’ve got Street Fighter 4, a game that isn’t just regarded as the definitive Street Fighter game, but also helped pull an entire genre out of obscurity, and paved the way for a fighting game renaissance. As for Street Fighter V?
We don’t talk about Street Fighter V.
Look, I’m joking. The current version, with all of its updates and expansions, is way better than the initial release, which was essentially just a poorly-skinned live service experience. Those were some dark times.
The takeaway from all this is that each new Street Fighter mainline entry brings something new to the table. Whether it be a foundation that all future games could be built on, or a push into fresh graphical territory, a new Street Fighter game has the responsibility of evolving the series and carrying the fighting game genre forward on its muscular back. So what does Street Fighter 6 add to the series?
Growth, because Street Fighter 6 is entering the arena with some of the strongest fundamentals to date.
Street Fighter 6 is a game that expertly balances on a tightrope that many would consider impossible to cross. It has everything that a series regular could ask for, from familiar faces in the roster to well-polished gameplay mechanics. And, at the same time, it’s inviting newcomers into its ranks by evening the playing field.
Sure, you might scoff at the idea of modern controls–scoff to the max even–but this simple option of providing training wheels to less-experienced players is a genius move. I mean, sure, Guilty Gear did it first, but Street Fighter 6 does it better. Modern controls allow for any player to start throwing out combos and special moves like they’re in an Evo championship grand final – but at the same time, it’s not a ticket for automatic victories against seasoned pros.
It’s more of a guiding hand towards adopting the classic controls, a streamlined approach for learning the intricacies of Street Fighter 6, and how to capitalize on those moments when your competition shows an opening in their defense. It opens the doors to a genre that can be incredibly intimidating, because hitting up an online lobby and enduring a series of humiliating defeats can be demoralizing. And honestly, that’s never great for the longevity of a fighting game.
New blood is never a bad thing, and with this new control setup, Street Fighter 6 is more inviting than ever before.
This feeling is only amplified by the new Battle Hub, an absolutely massive lobby in which you can use a custom avatar–or abomination from some of the things that I’ve seen online–to carve out your own online legend. I’m still hoping to see Battle Hub fleshed out with a few more options for matches, especially for those of us who are looking for a quick fix and don’t feel like waiting behind a digital arcade cabinet to get our Street Fighter fix. However, I am loving the sense of community that this mode offers.
Another new mode, for anyone who’s looking for a bit of storytime between face punches, is World Tour. The best way to describe this is that it’s a series of small sandboxes in which you can run around with your avatar and get into random fights. Yes, Capcom basically just made its very own version of Yakuza. It’s honestly an okay addition for some brief single-player fun, and it’s one that does allow me to live out my deepest fantasy: Getting into fights with random pensioners and slugging it out with police officers while facing no consequences for my random aggression. I’m breaking the law and some faces over here!
The thing is, the Street Fighter 6 story mode can get quickly repetitive, and progress is slow. The narrative isn’t exactly going to give NetherRealm any sleepless nights before Mortal Kombat 1 arrives, and there’s a good chance that World Tour will be gathering dust a week after Street Fighter 6 launches. It’s an unessential part of the package, and aside from the chance to customize your avatar in new gear bought with your earnings from beating up random people on the street, nothing of value will be lost if you ignore it.
So let’s talk about those more intricate details of Street Fighter 6: the meat on the bones of this brutal brawler. Cast your mind back to Street Fighter V, and you’ll see a fighting game that had an almost turn-based flavor to its design, with telegraphed attacks and big openings. Street Fighter 6. on the other hand, is all about carpeing that diem, seizing the opportunities that present themselves between chipping away at an opponent’s health bar and using the new Drive system to break open their defenses.
Everything boils down to the Drive Gauge, which has a series of bars that you can spend to create openings and dish out some lethal offense. The most useful feature here is Drive Impact, a comeback attack that allows you to absorb a blow and start generating combos of your own. Executed at the right time, Drive Impact is a game-changing mechanic that can turn the flow of an entire match around. Of course, if you’re too predictable, your opponent can retaliate with their own Drive Impact, putting you firmly in their crosshairs for some explosive offense.
Where to buy Street Fighter 6
Other new systems include Drive Rush, a quick dash that can close the distance before your opponent has a chance to react; Drive Reversal, which lets you perform a counterattack to get you out of tight situations; Overdrive Arts, which are this season’s take on EX Moves; and Drive Parry, which repels an opponent’s attack while refilling your Drive Gauge in the process. Of course, there is a limit to just how many of these moves you can perform, as going overboard will lead to a Burnout state. Burn up your entire Drive Gauge and you can’t use those moves until your bar recovers – which puts you in a very vulnerable position against an opponent that has preserved their energy. This will shift the momentum in their favour, and backs you into a corner as they’re given the chance to start aggressively pursuing you.
Summed up, you have one gauge, five techniques, and an incredibly flexible system to make use of as you creatively clobber your opponent.
But who will you be clobbering? A new Street Fighter game means a mix of new and old faces on the roster, and in this department, Street Fighter 6 doesn’t disappoint. There’s a healthy mix of familiar characters and fascinating new world warriors, with series stalwarts like Ryu, Ken, and Zangief once again throwing Hadoukens and Powerbombs. Representing the new generation of Street Fighter are characters like Manon, a graceful Judo ballerina; street ninja Kimberly who unleashes some colorful attacks on anyone in her way; and a new big bad in the form of…JP. Seriously, that’s the best name that Capcom could come up with? JP? Alright then.
The punctuation point on all of this is some of the best visuals I’ve ever seen in a Street Fighter game. Compared to Street Fighter V, this installment is making its mark on your eyeballs with a visual and audio production that is colorfully confident. Attacks burn with graffiti energy, ultimate moves have a cinematic quality to them that would make Hollywood jealous, and the action flows at the smoothest of frame rates consistently.
You look back at the best Street Fighter games, and there’s a visual identity to each one of them that has stood the test of time. A mix of 3D visuals on a 2D plain can get very easily dated, but I’ve got a feeling that a decade from now, Street Fighter 6 will still be remembered for its vibrant palette and unbridled youthful energy. It is explosively attractive, a tour de force of charm that features Capcom’s RE Engine firing on all cylinders. Muscles pop, facial expressions contort, and psycho energy weaves its way throughout the screen to help cement the game’s personality.
The end result is a Street Fighter game that feels like the full package from day one. Play it from 2 June 2023 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Windows PC.
| Street Fighter 6 review | |
From its single-player RPG mode to its robust online offerings, Street Fighter 6 has set itself up for victory… and it’s only just getting started. |
9 |
| Street Fighter 6 was reviewed on PS5 | |