It’s hard to believe Street Fighter V originally released in 2016, but yet here we are seven years later with the release of Street Fighter 6. With an emphasis on urban fisticuffs, could Capcom’s overhaul of their veteran fighting icon possibly pay off with a worthy game? Our Street Fighter 6 review will explain how it does this, and more.
Fantastic Look and Feel
Capcom’s RE Engine is an absolute workhorse. Street Fighter 6 looks so damn good, it makes you appreciate the times we’re living in. Heck, the intro to the game’s World Tour mode mentions something about this, using the fact that we have self-driving cars and are planning to send people to Mars as evidence that we’re living in exciting times. What this had to do with the overall story, I’m not sure. But damn did it look slick as the ideas were presented. Street Fighter 6 maintains a buttery-smooth frame rate, which in a fighter as technical as this is critically important.
Beyond the good looks, Street Fighter 6 also sounds great. All characters are voiced pretty well, though many cutscenes simply include exclamations from the character while you read whatever it is that they’ve “said.” The soundtrack is a mixture of arcade tunes and hip-hop-like songs that fit the urban setting of Metro City. The music does mostly sit in the background, but it helps to set the mood of this overhauled look and feel.
Anyone Can Play
What’s more, Street Fighter 6 is immensely accessible. While the classic control scheme is alive and well for diehard fans to pick up and run with from the outset, the modern layout gives newbies some hope. Combos that usually require several button presses have been distilled into just a few, and there is even the option of holding R2 to continue combos, if your hits land that is. See, while combos are now much easier to perform, the rest of Street Fighter 6’s tactics have not changed. So, control scheme becomes irrelevant if you don’t know when to perform those fancy moves. Indeed, spamming a combo will leave you wide open to all sorts of attacks, so it must be used carefully.
There are three main modes to choose from in Street Fighter 6: World Tour, Battle Hub, and Fighting Ground. World Tour is where you create a custom avatar and make a name for yourself in Metro City, the name of the open-world like area that you can freely explore. It’s not an overly-large map, and you always have a waypoint ushering you into the next stage of the story. But there are minigames and side activities to partake in, which can earn you various rewards such as money or gear for your character. It kind of feels like a lite version of a Yakuza/Like a Dragon game, and I mean that in the best way. It’s a great distraction while also serving as another way for Street Fighter 6 to be more accessible, as the difficulty slowly ramps up.
Grind the Day Away
One area which also slowly ramps up is your character’s progression. Initial levels can easily be climbed, but before too long level ups become separated by a ton of experience points. This is, of course, par for the course most games with RPG elements, but it is something to be aware of. Better hope you like the shorter format of the fights on offer in this mode, because you’re going to see a lot of them!
Battle Hub was one area of Street Fighter 6 that we unfortunately could not test out due to scheduling issues. As you may have guessed, Battle Hub is the online mode. This is of course the section in any game which can have the most varied performance depending upon your individual setup, so of course your mileage may also vary here. But, I can take this opportunity to inform you that Street Fighter 6 allows you to play all the rest of its modes completely offline. Yes, that’s right, a 2023 fighting game that doesn’t require an internet connection to even move beyond the title screen has arrived!
Classic Offerings
Fighting Ground is where you’ll find all the usual modes you might expect to see in a fighting game: a story mode for each character, a classic arcade mode, a comprehensive training mode, various two-player modes, and even a couple of online modes as well. When you’re in the mood for classic fighting game options, the Fighting Ground is where you want to be.
Roster-wise, Street Fighter 6 has things nailed down pretty well. There is a robust selection of new and returning characters to choose from, each with signature moves that complement the fighter’s style. Custom characters can use move sets from any “Legendary” characters they become students of, which means your repertoire of moves is ever-expanding. Setting up custom combo lists kind of feels like Tony Hawk, of all games, and more choice is rarely a bad thing. It’s tough to say how well-balanced the new characters are, but it’s safe to assume we’ll see some balancing patches drop from Capcom after the game has been out for a bit.
A Great Return to Form
It feels like the stars have aligned in Capcom’s favor this time around. Barring a shaky online performance, it seems the franchise is back on top of the fighting game genre. Every time I picked up a controller to play a few rounds of Street Fighter 6, by the time I was done I had a smile on my face. This is pure, unadulterated fighting, with nothing too complicated yet with the depth the hard-core fans crave. Street Fighter 6 is an easy recommendation for fans of the series as well as fighting game fans in general.
Street Fighter 6 is a contender for fighting game of the year. Between the plethora of game modes to choose from, a story mode that’s actually pretty entertaining, and what should hopefully be a robust online mode, players are spoiled for choice with this well-rounded package. Some of the grinding inherit with leveling up your character might annoy a few people out there, but considering the method to doing so involves simply playing through more excellent fights, you can’t really complain too much.
Score: 9.5/10
Pros:
- Fantastic graphics and slick presentation
- Entertaining story mode
- Accessible controls which don’t confer much of an advantage
- You can play completely offline!
Cons:
- World Tour can be kind of grindy
- Tough to say how online will perform at launch
Street Fighter 6 review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.