Street Fighter 6 – Capcom's bold new entry is poised to be a GOTY contender
I was invited by Capcom to play a work in progress version of Street Fighter 6 ahead of its launch on June 2, 2023, and I've somehow left the session even more impressed by what was already my most anticipated game of 2023. I was able to take a look at Street Fighter 6's two offline sections – Fighting Ground and World Tour – including every mode, and access to all 18 of the characters available on the base roster.
The main section of Street Fighter 6 is Fighting Ground; this is where the classic Street Fighter gameplay and modes you know and love are housed, like Arcade, Training and – of course – 1v1 battles. As I mentioned I was able to check out the entire 18 character launch roster – which was by far my biggest fear going into the game as none of my favourite characters like Alex, Cody, or Birdie are returning for this entry.
I was also trepidatious about the overreliance on Street Fighter 2's cast once again. After the absolute disappointment that was Street Fighter 4's newcomers, and the hit or miss nature of the Street Fighter 5 batch, I'm so happy to say Capcom has knocked it out of the park with the new generation.
We've had access to Luke, Jamie, and Kimberly before now in the Street Fighter 6 closed beta, but this preview is the first time I've been able to check out Manon, Lily, Marisa, and JP, each of which somehow already feel like they've been part of the game for years. Some – like Lily and Kimberly – are fresh spins on existing characters like T. Hawk and Guy. Whereas others bring fresh new styles like Marisa's hard hitting MMA or – my personal favourite character so far – Manon's ballet-infused grappling moveset.
Manon's ballet-infused grappling has made her my favourite newcomer in Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)Even characters from past entries have been given new tricks; E. Honda has the intense new Sumo Dash stance; the madmen gave Blanka a projectile, as if he wasn't tough enough to deal with already, and – biggest of all – the devs gave Zangief trousers.
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By far the best part of the character roster is how hard Capcom went on the new designs. Classic characters like Cammy, Zangief, and Ryu look the best they ever have, while the newcomers all look fantastic, and unlike anything we've seen from the series before.
Even outside of the World Tour story mode (which I'll get to, don't worry) Street Fighter 6 gives you so much to do from the get go. Arcade Mode returns with hand drawn intros giving you the rundown of each characters story. That shouldn't be a shock, but after Street Fighter 5 was missing it at launch it's worth noting. We were allowed to play up until the bonus stage which pits you against the classic Street Fighter enemy – a car – so we can't speak about it fully, but from what we played it's a fun take on the classic mode.
Elsewhere in Fighting Ground you have combo trials, training mode and tutorial which will all teach you specific elements of the game. The most impressive of the training suite for me are the Character Guides, which not only teach you the basics of each character – like how to perform specific special moves and combos – but also gives you the rundown of appropriate times to those moves and a general battle plan for each character. While fighting game tutorials have been getting better and better over the years, It's refreshing to have the type of thing you would normally have to look up outside of the game included in the package.
What a wonderful world
As I mentioned, I also got the chance to play the first three chapters of the brand new single-player mode World Tour, which represents the wildest direction the series has possibly ever taken. In World Tour you create your own Avatar with the super in-depth character creator that not only lets you create an accurate representation of yourself, but also an accurate representation of your soul – which is a total monstrosity in my case.
You can create the character you've always wanted to be in Street Fighter 6's avatar creation suite (Scott McCrae)You start off the story by training under Street Fighter 6 poster boy Luke, as a trainee at Buckler Security Services. After meeting your rival Bosch, you're let loose on the streets of Metro City (originally featured in Final Fight). The best way to describe World Tour is Street Fighter x Yakuza, in which you prowl the streets having a scrap with anyone and everyone. Pizza vendor? He's up for fight. Street-performing mime? He will also fight you. Someone's gran? You better watch out.
Like any RPG you'll also get hostile NPC's who will chase you down. These can be spotted via the cardboard boxes on their head. As you can tell, the game revels in the absurdity of it all.
The main driving force behind the story is your player character learning from a series of legendary fighters, to become the best fighter they can be. During the preview I got to train under Luke and Chun Li; to start off they'll teach you their moveset and a couple of special moves that you can mix and match. So for example, you could have a character with Luke's core moves, a Hadoken from Ryu, Zangief's Piledriver, and Chun Li's Spinning Bird Kick.
What's most interesting is how these moves affect the world. Not only is World Tour essentially a fighting game RPG, but it also has Metroidvania elements as your player learns each character's Master Action. This not only lets you get the jump on opponents by uppercutting them in the overworld, but it also offers up new traversal options, like using the Spinning Bird Kick to helicopter yourself over a gap. As I only met Luke and Chun Li over 90 minutes, I'm expecting this campaign to be fairly lengthy, as trailers have shown off several other locations.
I haven't even mentioned some of my favourite parts of the game, like the soundtrack, visuals (once again the RE Engine is an absolute wonder), the goofy faces on the VS screen, and the commentary, to name a few. But I'll sum it up by saying don't sleep on Street Fighter 6.
Even if you're not typically a fighting game fan, Street Fighter 6 is packed with accessibility options to lower the high barrier of entry you'd usually run into in the genre, as well as an unprecedented amount of stuff to do – without even touching the competitive multiplayer mode.
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It's been less than two weeks since I played Street Fighter 6, and I'm already desperate to play some more.
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