Street Fighter 6 takes the iconic franchise to new places, making it accessible to newcomers, while bringing the depth and fun for long time fans. Here’s our full review!
Street Fighter has a rich history and is considered one of the pioneers of the fighting game genre. Street Fighter II, released in 1991, revolutionized the industry with its innovative mechanics, character designs, and competitive gameplay. Its influence and impact on subsequent fighting games cannot be overstated.
Since then, Street Fighter has become a cultural phenomenon that transcends gaming. Its impact can be seen in numerous adaptations, including animated series, comics, and even live-action movies. The franchise has left an indelible mark on popular culture, making it more than just a video game series.
With all that in mind, however, Street Fighter 6 somehow manages to push the boundaries of the series like never before.
The World of Street Fighter Just Got Better
I received a review code from Capcom of Street Fighter 6 on May 16th and have been playing it daily since then. I have put a total of 42 hours into this game, during that time I played all three available modes; Fighting Ground, World Tour, and Battle Hub. My main focus will be the biggest key features, but I will not be spoiling details of the storyline for World Tour, Trophies in-game, etc.
Street Fighter 6 is the definition of what it means to evolve as a series. Since the 1990s, Street Fighter has been making constant changes to the series that have improved with each iteration of the game (for the most part). For the sixth game, they go a step further with the newly added World Tour mode.
Though Street Fighter has an Arcade Story mode for classic players, the main story mode I suggest you play is World Tour. After creating your character and doing a bit of training, you are released to explore Metro City. If the city sounds familiar that’s because it is the same city from the famed series Final Fight. From here you can travel the globe, explore new locations, learn the fighting skills of all 18 launch characters, customize your character with new gear and fighting styles, and even fight citizens and factions to help build XP.
This feature of the game was fantastic. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would play a Street Fighter game with RPG elements, but of course, I was wrong. The character’s customization options were fantastic, with a huge range of styles for everyone. I always try to make my character look somewhat like me, but with the option Capcom offers in this menu, you can make anyone.
One thing I always find funny about games with customization is that if said game has an online mode, you’re gonna see some wild and crazy characters. When checking out BattleHub, I saw some great creations, but I also saw the definition of nightmare fuel! Though some of these creations were crazy, they did make me think I should add a bit more flare to my character!
World Tour features a fantastic story mode that trumps anything Capcom has done before. With wild twists and turns, a large number of side quests, and more exploration than I could ever have imagined, World Tour is the mode to play if you are a huge RPG fan like myself.
I’ve spent a total of 20 hours playing World Tour and I have to say this mode is by far my favorite mode in the game. Yes, I just said an RPG mode in a fighting game is my favorite mode and I stand behind that comment. Capcom knew exactly what they were doing by making World Tour, this mode expands the already massive universe that the game series has built.
Bringing life to the world of Street Fighter as we have never seen. As you traverse the locations around the globe, you run into a ton of characters, explore beautiful locations, find easter eggs, and more. There is also a ton of fighting for you to partake in but at a cost. As you fight in the world, your character will not just automatically heal, after completing missions you will gain currency and with it, you will need to buy food to heal yourself.
You can also find areas of the world with destructible items like crates, barrels, and mailboxes. These areas have a range of items for you to use in the world like bronze/silver/gold nuggets to sell, energy drinks that can fill your life gauge, treats that can boost your damage during fights, and more!
Finding these items in the world is a must and can help you immensely in a tight situation, but once you start running into the main roster character is when this mode takes off. When traveling to these new locations of World Tour, most of these areas come with a new cutscene to introduce you to characters from those world regions. After meeting them, you can learn their fighting abilities if you choose to become their student.
You will also gain XP to unlock new abilities in the character skill tree. This is when you gain a massive edge in the world arenas, you will fight a vast range of characters in these locations that can be high-powered or have teammates that will take you on at the same time. Having these newly acquired skills helped me in these fights more than I knew.
When I started meeting more roster characters, my options for fighting styles and moves became endless. Being able to to use Ryu/Ken’s Shoryuken, then chaining it to Guile’s Sonic Boom, and finishing them off with Luke’s Special attack pushed the games excitement to the next level.
But that is what makes World Tour Special, it’s not just about the Street Fighter Universe, it’s about making you feel like a bigger part of said universe. Creating a version of you, customizing your move sets, and making your impact on the world of Street Fighter.
I was honestly surprised how much was put into this mode, Capcom could have easily just made a create-a-character mode for the arcade mode of the game. Instead, they built this mode from the ground up for fans and it shows how much they truly care for their fan base.
EVERYTHING ABOUT STREET FIGHTER 6 SCREAMS NEXT-GEN
We have touched a lot on the World Tour mode of the game,, but that’s not all. Much has improved since Street Fighter V released in 2016, not only the graphics, gameplay, and controls, but the way you battle your friends. The Battle Hub mode is one of the newest additions to Street Fighter and brings the community together like never before. In the Hub, you can fight casual or ranked matches, extreme battles (PvPvE), play classic Capcom games like Final Fight in the arcade area, spectate others during battles, buy items for your character, or just goof off with other players.
Back when it was still online, I was a huge fan of PlayStation Home. Having my avatar, customizing, and jumping into the Home hub felt like Second Life for gamers. Capcom’s BattleHub has already grabbed me the same way PlayStation Home did, chilling in a digital space with other gamers, fighting each other, watching others battle their way up the ranked boards, or just taking selfies just feels fantastic.
With World Tour and BattleHub being the main focal points of SF6, Capcom has proven themselves yet again to be a games company with fans being their main focus and I couldn’t thank them more. I can only hope, as time goes on, Capcom adds more features for fans to BattleHub like community events, livestream sessions of tournaments for fans to watch in BattleHub, and more classic games to play with friends.
BattleHub and World Tour are not the only new features added to this year’s Street Fighter though. First Capcom has added new controls alongside the Classic Controller layout, boosting this game’s accessibility to new heights. These new controller types are called Modern and Dynamic. Modern is for those fighters like myself that can’t always remember or execute combos perfectly. Dynamic is the most basic, easy-to-use control layout for the game. Every button is connected to a move, so no matter if you have never played Street Fighter before you can play like a master!
Another new addition is the Real-Time Commentators! This feature is utilized in Fighting Ground or Online Play. The list of commentators is as follows:
PLAY-BY-PLAY COMMENTATORS
- Jeremy “Vicious” Lopez (English)
- Steve “TastySteve” Scott (English)
- Kosuke Hiraiwa (Japanese)
- Aru (Japanese)
COLOR COMMENTATORS
- Thea Trinidad (English; otherwise known as WWE Superstar Zelina Vega)
- James “jchensor” Chen (English)
- Hikaru Takahashi (Japanese)
- H.E. Demon Kakka (Japanese)
These commentators made the game feel like you were playing at a live event like with the famed EVO. Yes, there were a few times that the commentators would repeat a few lines here and there but for the main portion of each match, it felt as if they were watching in real-time. For any huge fan of fighting tournaments or fighting games in general, I highly suggest you try this feature out!
INTENSE BATTLES, BEAUTIFUL LOCATIONS, AND THE BEST GAMEPLAY IN YEARS
Lastly, I want to talk about Fighting Ground. In Fighting Ground you have huge amounts of content playable. Arcade Mode is back and features the single-player animated style of storytelling we come to love. With each character, you can face off against other main roster characters and even special events like the classic games. Learning the backstory and motivations of these characters is always fun, but having the ability to beat up a semi-truck in the middle of playing puts the cherry on top of the cake.
The classic feel of Street Fighter is back and better than ever. Not just in the story mode, but local couch co-op is amazing. Playing this game with my wife was a huge success and made me have flashbacks of playing Street Fighter II with my brothers in the early 90s. With the newly added locations, characters, skills, and beautiful graphics, Street Fighter 6 is the best Street Fighter game in years!
Switching from normal one on one mode, to Team Battles (which is not Tag, but 2vs2), to even doing the all-new Extreme Battle that has different Rules and Gimmicks was so much fun! Playing these modes with my wife made me realize how much content just this section of the game has to offer fans. You can even jump directly into online battles from this screen (we did not play online mode, outside of BattleHub during the online time frame set by devs) instead of having to go back and enter the BattleHub screen selection.
As said previously, I have played this game every day since May 16th. Though I love fighting all the characters, checking out their new skills and moves, and watching the animated cutscenes, I was mostly blown away by how amazing the game looked with their RE Engine. The characters, environmental details, location backdrops, and full CGI cutscenes are the cleanest, most crisp graphics I have seen in a Street Fighter game to date.
I was instructed by Capcom that Performance Mode was suggested to have the best experience with the game and it did not disappoint. Playing on my PS5 with a 70-inch 4K display made this game look like a truly cinematic experience. What also made the game just feel so alive was the fantastic gameplay and smooth controls.
I’m not just trying to blow steam up Capcom’s ass guys, Street Fighter 6 is as near to perfect as you can get! This game has Fast-Paced, Smooth, Beautiful Gameplay like never seen before. Everything about SF6 screams next-gen and I can say confidently that you need to buy this game on day one!
Rising Dragon Punches and Fierce Global Battles: Street Fight 6 Review
OVERALL
I have played Street Fighter all my life and with every game in the series there is always a cool addition that just sticks with you. Street Fighter 6 though feels like a complete overhaul of what we have come to love. Every mode, gameplay mechanic, and graphical upgrade in this game was a perfect experience from the start. The music, environments, gameplay, cutscenes, and more just look, sound, and feel amazing.
If you haven’t played Street Fighter in some time, Street Fighter 6 is the game that will pull you back. Capcom has accomplished the impossible by making an already successful game franchise go to the next highest god tier level. Street Fighter 6 is a perfect game through and through and I can’t wait to see what comes next to this game!
