The Street Fighter 6 demo CAPCOM released last week on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 is now available on PC (via Steam) and Xbox Series S|X for download.
The Street Fighter 6 demo includes a sample of what fans can expect from the fighting game when it launches on June 2nd. The tutorial lets players learn the game’s basics, a small slice of the World Tour mode allows them to glimpse the brand new single player mode, and they can also practice moves of series legends like Ryu and Luke. The Street Fighter 6 demo also comes with the overhauled character creator, and the characters are then transferable to the full game.
After the disappointing release of Street Fighter V, CAPCOM seeks to redeem itself in the fighting genre with this new installment. So far, long-time aficionados like Francesco De Meo have given a convinced thumbs up to Street Fighter 6 after checking out the beta.
Having spent more time with this test than I could with the first, my opinion of the game has further improved, and I now feel Street Fighter 6 has an excellent chance of becoming the best entry in the series since Third Strike.
Spending more time with Street Fighter 6 made me realize how genius the Drive mechanics are. Managing meter in a Street Fighter game is nothing new, but it has never been as important as with this upcoming entry. At the start of a round, both fighters start with a full bar. Still, it doesn’t take long for it to get reduced, as all maneuvers using Drive are extremely strong. Most players will use them often to create openings, catch the opponents unaware or punish bad habits, such as stringing together attacks that are not real blockstrings.
This creates a tense and exciting neutral game. Overly aggressive players who use a lot of Drive to overwhelm the opponent are likely to end up in Burnout state, while those who are way too defensive will end up losing a ton of Drive, as it gets depleted by blocking, and risk Burnout themselves. There isn’t a proper way to manage Drive, as players need to adapt to the situation and the opponent. With Drive Impact capable of punishing many moves and all normals being easy to whiff punish as well, it is clear that the days of mindlessly pressing buttons are gone.
One more thing that spending more time with Street Fighter 6 made me realize is how all characters play great. In the first beta, I only spent time with Ryu, but in the second closed beta I started out with Ken and then moved on to Luke and tried out Guile and Jamie a little bit. After some Training Mode time to get comfortable with their normals and learn some basic combos, I jumped into some real matches, and I felt that those I only tried out could somewhat work for me with more training. In Street Fighter V, it took me a long time to settle on a character I felt comfortable with, and I never truly felt like learning other characters until late Season 3. Street Fighter 6, on the other hand, makes me want to learn all characters even before release, another testament to the amazing work CAPCOM is doing in character combat design.
Needless to say, the jury is still out when it comes to the final verdict. It’s not long now, anyway, with the game due to release on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X with full cross-play in just over a month. Until then, you can practice with the Street Fighter 6 demo.
