There are many genres of games to play, but some of the most competitive ones are the fighters. One of the oldest fighters is produced by Capcom. You guessed which one, Street Fighter. Now we have the 6th iteration of this fighting game, which comes with new features that I didn’t see coming.
Thanks to a code provided by Capcom, our written review will focus on the game in its pre-launch state.
Street Fighter 6 Is One Of The Best Fighting Games I’ve Played In Years
Street Fighter has always been a rehash of the previous titles, with more characters in each game. On the surface, this is more of the same, albeit with an improved roster of characters. The golden oldies are all back: Ken, Ryu, and Chun Li headline the roster you already know and love. One new feature is the ability to make your own playable avatar character.
The avatar creation process is pretty in-depth, and I was impressed with it. You can modify your height, weight, muscle structure, arm’s length, and more to make an intimidating character. Of course, This roster will have you searching for the best character to play as you take your fight to the world in Street Fighter 6’s marquee features: World Tour and the Battle Hub.
Street Fighter 6’s new World Tour mode is something to behold. The Resident Evil engine has been used beautifully to allow the graphics in this game to take the spotlight. After creating your avatar, you will begin a story mode, with Luke as your first trainer. He thrusts you into a semi open-world of fighting random enemies, and even some civilians, to help you level up and find your strength. I love everything this does for the Street Fighter experience. The ability to not just fight in a one-versus-one situation makes getting yet another of its titles bearable. Running through an actual city with different areas is an absolute blast.
To Live Is To Fight, To Fight Is To Live!
The initial area is just a spot to learn about the world mechanics. Soon you are past Luke’s opening training tips and on your way to Chinatown to meet with Chun Li. The further you progress, the more masters you will have. The great thing about this is your ability to choose which master’s style you want to use as your own. You can buy food items from carts, go into clothing shops, and more as your character grows. The food helps to restore your health in between battles because your health doesn’t auto-replenish. Clothing stores allow you to purchase gear for your avatar to wear.
The Battle Hub is where you play competitively against other players. It is a domed arena that has different areas to walk around in. In addition, there is a tournament area to sign up for ongoing tournament play while in the hub. In addition to the main stage, you can also play classic arcade games. Your options are Final Fight and Street Fighter II, two solid choices. You can even compete for a high score for a worldwide scoreboard.
No matter how you fight, you can be matched up with anyone from the region you have selected to play in. Unfortunately, I did have a little bit of a slow game connection in the games I played in the region that was best for me. By slow, I mean the fight was almost in slow-mo and felt very off. Hopefully, when more players are logged into the server, it will be more normalized.
There’s A Battle Pass Of Sorts, But It’s Actually Fun To Progress?!
Thankfully, fighting with your avatar can be a lot of fun. There is a Club Fighters Network to join up with old friends or new ones to create a group to play together. Along with having your avatar competing in these events, there is one more thing coming that will help you with outfitting it—a fighting pass.
The fighting pass will encompass a few different things. First, it will involve Fighter Coins and Drive Tickets. Drive tickets are earned in-game only by completing challenges. These will allow you to buy items for your character to use. You can purchase Fighter Coins using real money. With them, they buy characters, items for your characters, emotes, alternate outfits, and more. The Fighting Pass will contain a two-level system, similar to Fortnite and other games, with a similar service. You will have a free tier and a premium tier as well. Going in knowing this will allow you to grind for every level. Thankfully, Street Fighter 6’s game modes and combat system make the fighting pass an enjoyable grind.
Combat feels more evolved compared to past titles. You have the choice of Modern, Classic, and Dynamic control types. Classic controls are as if you are at a game cabinet in the arcade; every button pushed works for your attack combos. Modern controls utilize the R2 button on your gamepad to quickly attack with specials, heavy, and light attacks. Dynamic mode is limited to certain modes in Fighting Ground and allows you to attack based on button automatically pushes. It is excellent for first-time players of the game.
Street Fighter 6’s Combat Is An Absolute Blast
I like the classic mode but have been drawn more to the modern control type as I continue playing. Fighting now includes an overdrive mode with three levels. Each level has a different set of buttons to push and gives you a different special attack that can be activated when the bars for it are filled up. They are filled by landing attacks and countering other attacks.
Fighting Ground is the arena where traditional battles take place. You can join queues for battles and participate in different modes online or offline. There are fierce battles that are fun because you are setting up specific rules in the match. For example, you can summon bulls running or drones flying around that you can destroy. Additionally, playing through the World Tour helps make Street Fighter 6’s single-player experience feel like an RPG. The combination of beating up random people in World Tour with classic Street Fighter gameplay is an absolute blast. There’s even the added challenge on taking on enemies at a higher level, too, for a bigger reward.
Custom rooms are now available to add your friends and others for a more personal experience while playing against each other. For traditionalists, ranked matches return with regular and random ranked matches. One example sees you pick your character, and you’ll fight alongside a random character. This will force you to learn all the characters and their moves to progress into the next tier levels. This makes ranked matching even more fun; I always try to get good at many of the characters in case I need a change, so it resonated well with me.
Wrapping Up
Street Fighter 6, in its infancy, is already a better game than many games I have reviewed in the last two years. It is a AAA title in the best possible way, which makes me very happy. The amount of effort and polish is apparent throughout the entire experience. It gives me a sense of nostalgia for the old titles with a thrill because of the semi-RPG mode of World Tour. It has been a fun ride for the hours I have played against AI or human opponents. I can’t wait for this to launch in full on June 2nd.
Capcom provided a code for this review.
