Street Fighter 6 Review: the new heavyweight champion of fighting games
Street Fighter 6 brings the legendary series to Capcom’s fantastic RE Engine and revolutionises the genre with an unprecedented amount of single player content, all while being the most newcomer-friendly fighter I think I’ve ever played.
Capcom’s flagship series – Street Fighter – was fumbling with Street Fighter 5, which despite some great aspects – such as the roster and music – released underbaked, missing core features at launch like an Arcade mode, it was a full priced release that felt barebones by free-to-play standards. The series was losing popularity and even lost out on the final slot at EVO tournaments (one that had been reserved for Street Fighter historically).
Everything about Street Fighter 6 feels like a reaction to Street Fighter 5, that much is clear from the moment you boot up the game. While Street Fighter 5 had mediocre online and solo modes at launch. Street Fighter 6 has so many modes that the game is split up into three segments.
Fighters ready...Engage!
The core game mode of Street Fighter 6 is Fighting Ground which features all of the fighting game fixings you know and love like Arcade, Training ,and Combo Practice. These are bolstered by a a Tekken-style Team Battle mode where you can draft teams of fighters, and Extreme Battle which blends classic Street Fighter with party games like Smash Bros.
But the real meat of the game is the classic 1v1 gameplay and Street Fighter 6’s take on it has officially dethroned Street Fighter 3: Third Strike to become my favourite in the series because of it.
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Street Fighter 6’s central mechanic is the Drive system which houses some of your best moves. Drive Impact is a strong attack which can absorb hits and open an enemy up for combos. Overdrive is functionally the same as EX moves from past games (powering up your special moves) but takes away from your Drive gauge rather than your super meter. Drive Parry will deflect enemy attacks, and perform a slowdown effect if a perfectly timed parry is performed. Finally Drive Rush which allows you to cancel out of a parry or specific moves to dash forward – increasing your combo potential tenfold.
Your Drive Gauge is situated under your health, and is represented by six blocks, with each Drive move using up a specific amount of blocks. Once the gauge is empty you enter burnout and are opened up to be stunned. You can’t use any Drive moves while in burnout and need to wait until it refills. This makes for some intense fights as you measure the risk vs reward of using these powerful attacks.
Zangief's grabs are as devastating as ever in Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)Street Fighter 6 takes some elements from previous entries and blends them together into a satisfying mix of the series' best mechanics. Street Fighter 3’s Parries return in the form of Drive Parry; each character has three unique super moves available – like in the Street Fighter Alpha series – and Drive Impact and Drive Rush feel like natural extensions of Street Fighter 4’s armoured Focus Attack and Focus Attack Dash Cancels respectively.
For those new to the series or keen on picking up a new main, there's the excellent character guides which offer the type of character tutorial you’d usually have to scour the internet for. These teach you the basics such as how to use your specials, while also showing your best pokes, combo starters, enders and a general gameplan.
Meanwhile, there's two new control types: Modern and Dynamic; the former takes the execution barrier out of special moves, replacing them with a button press; while the latter is a total party game mode which throws out attacks and combos for you. While returning players are likely to stick with the classic controls, these additions remove a huge barrier of entry both in terms of the steep learning curve as well as accessibility for those physically unable to perform these complex inputs.
Series newcomer Manon is a new favourite of mine thanks to her unique grappling style (Capcom)While it’s disappointing to see Capcom rely on the original Street Fighter 2 roster for another entry this is the best the cast has felt in ages. In the interest of being fair to the lineup, I spent time with characters I’ve historically avoided, like Dee Jay and E.Honda. Thanks to a slew of gameplay tweaks – such as the global removal of piano inputs – I’d maybe consider picking them up as a main. Plus design-wise the roster has never looked better; just look at Cammy, Ken, and E.Honda and compare them to their Street Fighter 5 counterparts. No more banana hair!
In terms of new faces, Capcom has knocked it out of the park with the roster of newcomers for Street Fighter 6. As much as I love the cast of Street Fighter 3, Luke, Jamie, Kimberly, Manon, Lily, Marisa and JP feel like a true new generation, with none of them feeling out of place like characters like F.A.N.G did in Street Fighter 5. Plus every character is oozing with personality between details in their in-game depiction and the ability for you to pull silly faces while a match loads.
My personal favourites so far include Manon, part Judoka, part Ballet Dancer whose mix of long range pokes and space closing ability make her a monster in the ring – as well as having a banger of a theme song. Then my beloved Zangief who I’ve finally managed to get good at thanks to Street Fighter 6’s new systems.
Destination confirmed!
The Street Fighter 6 World Tour is arguably the biggest new addition to make its debut in the series. It’s an in-depth single player story mode, and plays like an RPG akin to the likes of Sega’s Yakuza series. While it’s a bit basic by modern open-world design it’s also a stealthy tutorial to help players prepare for the real deal.
For the first time in series history you’ll create your own character and travel across the world to learn from iconic characters from the series. You’ll trot your way around the globe while pursuing your former teammate-in-training Bosch, who has gotten himself wrapped up in some trouble, with the player's own quest for strength taking a bit of a back seat to trying to find your pal. Oh, and of course this all wrapped up in a bizarre evil plot somehow
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You'll run into a collection of classic characters in World Tour, including Ken who is now rocking the divorced dad look (Capcom)The mode’s main areas are Final Fight’s Metro City and Nayshall which are both open worlds full of little secrets and nods, while the mode's other countries are far less in-depth, and are home to a small stage featuring their hometown fighter. As you learn from more masters you can mix and match moves you acquire to make your dream fighter. Do you want the extremely busted combo of Dhalsim’s teleport and Zangief's Screw Piledriver? You got it.
The trailers seem to imply that the 18 playable Street Fighter characters will be joining you on this journey, but the truth is there’s only really one who is important to the plot and the rest is filled up with unique characters not found in other segments of the game.
Regardless, the story is still enjoyable enough, and the mode contains some great nods for longtime fans of Street Fighter and Final Fight with out-of-left-field characters like Damnd, Retsu and Carlos Miyamoto showing up. However others who aren’t as into the bizarre Street Fighter lore may get a little less from the mode.
You'll learn from Street Fighting masters like newcomer Lily in the World Tour mode (Capcom)While the mission design can be a bit generic (often becoming “go here, fight / speak to someone, repeat), the mode doubles as a subtle tutorial for the real game. Each fight has their own set of missions which compel you to perform certain actions to get bonuses, whereas a lot of the side quests teach you some of the more advanced techniques the game has to offer.
Flaws aside, World Tour takes things to a new level for fighting game story modes, the same way Mortal Kombat did with its cinematic story mode. It once again represents the antithesis of Street Fighter 5 by offering more single player content than we’ve ever seen in a fighting game. You’ll manage to have a great time with Street Fighter 6 without even interacting with the online modes
Enter the heat of battle, go for it!
The final main mode of Street Fighter 6 is the Battle Hub, where the game's online features are housed.
The Battle Hub is an online lobby for players to take their avatars into. In here there's a ton of arcade machines for matches, you can do battle with your World Tour avatars as well as participate in tournaments and spectate other fighters.
Overall, It’s a fun interface for interacting with the community. You can also ignore it and just queue for Ranked and Casual matches from Fighting Ground if you want, but you’ll miss out on all of the nightmarish creations people have made with the super in-depth avatar creator.
Street Fighter 6's character creation suite is incredibly in-depth, as you can see from this extremely accurate depiction of me (Scott McCrae)To get the most important thing out of the way, the netcode is good. Even playing against people in the west coast of the US I was experiencing a solid matchup, with near flawless matches against players in the UK and Europe. Obviously no netcode will be perfect, but it’s far beyond the shoddy rollback found in Street Fighter 5.
It’s worth noting that there are references to an in-game store and battle pass with free and premium tiers in the games tips menu, and as we saw during the beta there's a normal and paid currency in game, however, these were unavailable during the review period. Any items – such as avatar gear– bought with this currency will be cosmetic only according to Capcom. You can unlock one alternate costume for each fighter during World Tour mode, but I can only assume colours and further costumes will be included in these.
Yeah, I've been waitin' for this!
The RE Engine even allows for small details like your characters becoming bruised and beaten as the match goes on (Capcom)Visually the game is as grand as we’ve come to expect from Capcom’s brilliant RE Engine, the game opts for a more realistic art style than past entries, but manages to keep things as vibrant as ever thanks to great character and effect design. It’s packed with charm thanks to small details like the surprisingly insightful commentary, pulling silly faces on the loading screen, and the soundtrack which finally brings hip hop back to the series.
Street Fighter 6 is the game I’ve been waiting for. I liked Street Fighter 5 more than most, but it was clear it wasn’t all there, and Street Fighter 6 feels like it’s here to send a message that it’s still the top dog of the fighting game genre.
Capcom has been on a roll in recent years, with phenomenal revivals of Resident Evil, and Devil May Cry. Even the niche Monster Hunter series finally hit the big time outside of Japan. And now it feels like Street Fighter is finally back alongside them as a heavy hitter.
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