Fighting game of the Year contender Street Fighter 6 takes the gaming world by storm.
The long wait is finally over as Capcom brings to you the sixth instalment in one of the most iconic fighting game franchises, Street Fighter 6. After the initial release of the 2016’s predecessor, Street Fighter V – let’s just call it for what it was, nothing short of a disappointment. However, over the years, the array of improvements and changes made it more respectable. That’s why Street Fighter 6 has pretty big shoes to fill by restoring credibility to Capcom and the faith in the franchise’s most ardent fans.
Street Fighter 6 has gone for a more urban-like theme with bright and vibrant colours, as well as some graffiti in the background and cool soundtracks in the main menu. Street Fighter 6 provides three main game modes: Fighting Ground, Battle Hub and World Tour, which delivers a load of content to surely keep you entertained and satisfied for the long term. And the visuals, locations, and much more are incredibly delicious to a point where you cannot help but stare in amazement.
I sure hope you’ve decided your mains by now because Street Fighter 6 gives you 18 awesome and remarkably designed and play-style diverse characters at launch, ready for battle, including debuting ones such as Jamie and Kimberly and iconic characters like Ryu and Chun-Li.
Some of you may be disappointed, but characters such as the long-time main villain, M. Bison won’t be in the game. The same goes for Fei Long, who was also omitted from the predecessor. And neither character is hinted to be in any of the SF6 DLCs that’ll arrive sequentially. However, with the brand-new names and more characters to come through later this year, it shouldn’t really matter too much.
If you want more life to your matches, there is the exciting mixture of Japanese and English commentary lineup – all of which provide real-time commentary to give players the experience of being in real-life tournaments, including special colour commentary by World Wrestling Entertainment’s Thea Trinidad; widely known as Zelina Vega. Street Fighter 6 allows you to select any from the list to go solo or pair up with each other and commentate your matches – whether in Fighting Ground or Battle Hub.
To enable commentary, you need to go to the ‘Fighting Ground’ menu, then go to the ‘Versus’ tab and select either ‘One on One’ or ‘Team Battle’. Where you see the option ‘Commentary Settings’, click the Y button and select ‘Commentary Lineup’. Select a ‘Play by Play’ commentator. Then you can pair them with a colour commentator or select ‘none’ if you just want one person speaking.
Fighting Ground gives you versatile content with a variety of immersive game modes to enjoy. You have the story mode, versus battles, ranked, casual and custom matches, and a special match called extreme battles, which is a mode that specifically adds more spice to your battles with peculiar rules and mechanics. Furthermore, there’s the traditional practice mode for improving your skills and learning your favourite character’s moves and combos.
This has to be said, but Street Fighter 6’s matchmaking is at its finest and possibly the best you’ve experienced in a fighting game ever. Your setup against other players in battles is remarkably fast, and rematches are even faster. No longer having to wait ridiculous amounts of time just to be assigned with one opponent. Plus, it’s cross-platform.
Street Fighter 6 becomes the first in the series to introduce modern controls. With this new system you don’t have to worry about performing a lot of hand motions to carry out specific moves or combos. In fact, modern controls add more precision to your combat, involving faster executions with simpler button alternatives. And because of that, allowing you to focus more on strategising your attacks.
The control can be used by anyone, pro players are also welcome, but it’s mainly targeted at casual players, those that aren’t great with the classic control system, or players who are new to fighting games. It’s also fitting for players with different play styles, and many players seemingly enjoy the new control mechanism.
Let’s take the iconic character Ken as an example. To perform his uppercut – with classic controls, you have to move the left analog from left or right to down, depending on what side the opponent is facing you, followed by either Y or RB. However, with modern controls, all you have to do is shift the analog stick left or right, followed by the Y button.
With this explanation, it’s very easy to assume that the new control system is child’s play, but they aren’t. You are still very much required to use some hand motions for strikes, combos and so on, just not as much as you would need to on the classic controls.
Furthermore, for those who opt to play with the new controls, you are trading the likes of approximately 20% less damage and lesser move options than you’d have with classic. Therefore, regardless of what mechanic is being used, no one is necessarily at an advantage. The only difference is that more players will be happier because there is now a mechanic that makes them more comfortable.
Now, let’s move on to the combat itself. Get ready for a considerably faster-paced and explosive gameplay that invites creativity or thinking outside the box from the players, whether it’s with the likes of combos or critical art. Street Fighter 6 gives you the freedom to improvise and express yourself. But I insist on speaking on one crucial piece of evidence of this, which is the inclusion of the new Drive System – which involves the drive gauge that takes your fights to the next level.
The Drive System is the brand-new combat mechanic in the Street Fighter franchise that involves five moves: Drive Impact, Drive Parry, Overdrive, Drive Rush and Drive Reversal. The Drive Gauge is the much shorter and thinner meter that consists of six small bars, located right under your health bar and slowly refills each time you use it.
The drive impact is the powerful strike that absorbs most enemy attacks and stuns them momentarily, allowing you to execute your own attack, and this takes just one bar of the drive gauge. But there’s another thing you need to know – whenever you use it, the opponent can respond with their own Drive Impact, and if they unleash it on time, their impact will counter yours and vice versa. Classic Controls – LB or RT and RB at the same time. Modern Controls – RB.
Drive parry enables you to deflect incoming attacks, and the drive replenishes when executed perfectly. You will have to perform it right before an opponent strikes you, allowing you the opportunity to deliver your own attacks. Classic control – LT or Y and B. Modern control – RB. Also, you can hold the aforementioned classic and modern control buttons to stay in the parry stance, but it drains your drive gauge, so you have to use it quite sparingly.
Drive rush is the ability to execute a fast rush forward that usually starts from a drive parry or a cancelable normal strike. And drive rush can also be used while performing combos. The drive rush from a parry will take one bar, and with a cancelable normal strike consumes three bars.
Classic control – exact methods to perform a parry stance or a cancelable strike, followed by depending on which side the opponent is on, you shift left or right with the analog or directional. Modern controls – same way to execute the parry stance on modern, and also left or right, depending on which direction the opponent is facing you.
The overdrive (or OD/EX) requires clicking two of the same button type at the same time to perform a special move, and it will consume two bars. However, the buttons vary because each character has their own button functions to execute an overdrive art, so you’ll have to try to find them out yourself.
However, I will give you Ryu when he executes the overdrive Shoryuken as an example. Classic control – depending on where the opponent is facing you, follow it by clicking at the same time either X and Y, X and RB or Y and RB. The Modern controls – depending on which side your opponent is, click left or right, RT and Y at the same time.
The Drive Reversal is another method of countering attacks. It’s not the most devastating, but it is a very useful get out of jail free card for whenever you sense you’re being cornered. Plus, it takes two meters. Classic Controls – While holding the parry trigger (LT) shift the analog or direction left or right, depending on where your enemy is facing you and RB and RT at the same time. Modern Controls – same way with the analog and directional, hold RB and click LB.
But what happens when you’ve used all six bars from your drive gauge? You’ll enter the burnout stage, that’s what. You’ll know this is happening when your meter turns grey and your character’s colour fades. When you go through this predicament, it happens for a number of reasons ranging from overwhelming the drive meter to taking heavy damage from your opponent.
But the nightmare doesn’t end there – far from it; although you can still fight, your attacks will inflict slightly lesser damage and your blocks become weaker. On top of that, the worst-case scenario is that if you’re close to the end of each side of a stage, and your opponent strikes you with their drive impact, causing you to collide with the walls, you’ll end up being in a dizzy condition leaving you completely and utterly vulnerable. In case you were wondering, your gauge will refill even when in the burnout state.
The Battle Hub is an online community-based mode that involves meeting, friending, and even establishing rivalries with other players from around the world. You will need to create an avatar in order to match up against other players or communicate with them, play retro Capcom games such as Street Fighter II, join tournaments and much more. But most importantly, you’ll have fun doing them.
You’ll have to interact with one of the many arcade machines in the hub, and another person has to do the same with a machine that is right opposite the one you’re on to have battles with your favourite character. Or, after some sweaty fights, you would rather enjoy the show; you can spectate battles on machines that are accompanied by both players. Want to know another cool thing you can do? Join the avatar battles where you fight against other players with their own avatars – and of course you can also spectate.
If you would like to give your avatar some swagger, there is the Hub Goods Shop, where you can trade for great prizes such as gear, accessories, and much more. Moreover, the shop has limited-time items that are added occasionally. That’s why it’s best you visit the shop regularly to check for updates on certain goods.
Keep in mind that you’ll need to purchase the items with either Fighting Coins – which you can purchase with real money or Drive Tickets – which players are rewarded for completing challenges in all of Street Fighter 6’s three main modes.
Street Fighter 6 also becomes the first game in the franchise to introduce the open-world action-adventure story mode experience with World Tour – where you take your custom character and explore 3D environments, as well as engage in main and side quests in Nayshall.
Players will be faced with an abundance of trials and challenges, street fights, levelling up, and much more to make a name for themselves. But more importantly, on your journey, you’ll have to discover the meaning of strength. Also, worth mentioning that Street Fighter 6’s cover star Luke is your mentor. Also, you can take your custom character to Battle Hub as your avatar.
With that being said, despite World Tour’s potential, the execution didn’t really match it. World Tour is somewhat enjoyable for now but doesn’t have sufficient features to motivate me into grinding, and I can’t image myself playing this nearly as often as Fighting Ground and Battle Hub.
This goes without saying, but Street Fighter 6 is the major redemption to the iconic franchise that makes the predecessor look like a thing of the past by delivering an astronomically superior successor in virtually every way possible. Whether you’re a long-time fan or new to the series, from top to bottom, you are guaranteed the best experience from a Street Fighter game ever.
Not only does it restore faith from the fans, but there’s no doubt that Street Fighter 6 will be a significant factor as to why the fighting genre will most likely dominate the gaming world for the next few years or so. And obviously, there’s no surprise if it wins the Fighting game of the Year – despite Mortal Kombat 1 inevitably coming for that crown.
