Street Fighter 6 Review – The Best Fight of Our Lives

Despite the many successful fighting game series that bloomed since the iconic Street Fighter II, which brought the genre to unprecedented heights, the CAPCOM franchise continued to be among the most well-known, despite some stumbles in both popularity and quality. Following the release of Street Fighter IV, which rejuvenated both series and genre after the excellent but not exactly popular Street Fighter III, many were expecting Street Fighter V to set the world on fire. That didn’t happen due to the game’s launch issues, including lack of content, gameplay mechanics that did not allow for varied playstyle nor player expression, and a terrible online multiplayer experience. The development team turned things around in the final few years of the game, but the damage was done at that point.

Right from the very first time the game was shown to the public, it looked like Street Fighter 6 was going to be a completely different kind of beast from its predecessor, featuring tons of single-player content at launch, a new approach to online play, and a more well-rounded gameplay that seemed to do away with the heavy rushdown, mix-up focus of its predecessor. After spending tens of hours with the game, between the three beta tests and the final version, I can say that Street Fighter 6 is not only a much, much better game than its direct predecessor but also one of the best entries in the series ever, no matter if you’re a casual or competitive player, setting the bar very high in terms of gameplay, online experience, and accessibility.

In terms of content, the biggest change introduced in Street Fighter 6 over most of its predecessors is the full-blown story mode that mixes the game’s fighting game mechanics with role-playing game features called World Tour mode. In this mode, players will create their own avatar via a rather deep character creator that allows for ample customization, and embark on a journey to discover the meaning of strength where they will get involved in a conspiracy that moves the universe’s story forward as they cultivate bonds with Legendary Fighters, the 18 characters of the main roster, and get to meet all sorts of unsavory individuals.

While the story is, at the end of the day, nothing special, it is very enjoyable, thanks to the goofiness of the whole experience. In the world of Street Fighter, every person is seemingly capable of fighting, so players can challenge almost every NPC they find in Metro City, Old Nayshall, and the smaller, single-screen maps featured in this play mode. These NPCs are also quite different from one another, and some are outright crazy, like the superhero that attempts to protect Metro City at night, the members of local gangs who can be identified with their cardboard boxes on their heads, and so on. The silliness doesn’t stop at the NPCs, as the mini-game-powered side jobs are just as wild and quite fun to play too.

When it comes to both tone and gameplay, the Street Fighter 6 World Tour experience is very reminiscent of that of the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series. As mentioned, this mode features two bigger maps, Metro City and Old Nayshall, and several smaller ones based on the game’s main stages. All maps, both big and small, are filled with NPCs to interact with and fight, shops that sell consumable items that restore health and Drive and grant temporary buffs, gear with which to customize your character’s looks and abilities, and tons of secrets, many of them only discoverable by using Master Actions. These special moves characterize the Legendary Characters’ fighting style that make up the main roster. For example, you can use Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick or E.Honda’s Sumo Headbutt to fly from one rooftop to another, or you can use Blanka’s Electric Thunder to power up devices, or gain an advantage over an aggressive NPC by attacking them from afar with Ryu’s Hadoken or Dee Jay’s Air Slasher.

With the exception of Luke’s Rising Uppercut, which is learned automatically at the start of the campaign, all the other Master Actions must first be learned by becoming a student of the corresponding Legendary Fighter. Once enrolled, the character’s unique action can be used while on the field, and their fighting style will become available. This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to avatar customization in Street Fighter 6’s World Tour Mode.

As the avatar wins battles with a specific style equipped, it will earn experience points and eventually rank up. By doing so repeatedly, you will be able to learn special moves belonging to fighting styles, which can be equipped freely for your character as long as they do not share the same motion input. For example, it is not possible to equip both Hadoken and Sand Blast, as they are both performed with the quarter-circle motion input. You could, however, equip either of them and Guile’s Sonic Boom, for example, as it is a charge move, turning your character into a master zoner. Equip these moves while using Dhalsim’s style, and no one will ever be able to get close to you.

This unique zoning setup only scratches the surface of the possibilities offered by avatar customization. Some special moves interact with one another in unexpected ways, allowing players to come up with powerful combos that can devastate most NPCs and even more powerful characters. None are truly broken, but even if they were, it would all be in the name of fun, as avatars cannot be used to play in any other mode in the game, with the exception of Battle Hub mode, where you can fight other avatars. This great feature will surely push avatar customization to amazing heights.

While veterans of the series will surely enjoy the possibility of finally being able to mix and match special moves of iconic characters and catch the many references to both the Street Fighter and Final Fight franchises in the story, World Tour mode has been clearly developed as a learning tool for newcomers, and I have to say that it is a most effective one. All of the main game’s basic mechanics are introduced gradually during the course of the story, and some side missions provide even more guidance on how to use mechanics like Drive Rush and Drive Impact, Critical Arts, and so on. While this does feel a little limiting for those who have been playing Street Fighter for a long time, once the training wheels are off, even veterans will have tons of fun in World Tour mode, which has to be the best piece of single-player content ever seen in the series, towering over any other offering, including Street Fighter Alpha 3’s own World Tour Mode.

While World Tour mode might have been enough as a learning tool, Street Fighter 6 features a few others that make the game the most accessible entry in the series. Unlike the basic character guides seen in the previous entries in the series, the ones in the new game go quite in-depth, focusing not only on the characters’ general game plan but also on their special moves and their nuances, which can be put in action in the trials, which are divided depending on their overall difficulty. Surprisingly enough, some of them are not easy to complete at all, highlighting how the development team took the criticism regarding the low execution barrier in Street Fighter V to heart and gave a little something for those who love performing difficult combos during real matches, even if they are not exactly optimal in terms of damage.

When it comes to accessibility, Capcom went the extra mile in Street Fighter 6 by introducing two additional control options alongside the classic six-button scheme that has been in the series since the days of Street Fighter II. Dynamic Controls, which are only available for offline play, have been designed for casual play, as they allow players to perform all sorts of moves and combos by pressing a single button. Modern Controls, on the other hand, can be used online, and they are already the topic of much-heated discussions, as they allow not only for special moves to be performed by pressing a single button but also for auto-combos, with only a slight damage penalty compared to Classic Controls and the inability to use certain normals. While some feel Modern Controls are a bit like cheating, I don’t mind them. I have played close to 70 hours between the three betas and the full game at the time of writing, and there hasn’t been a single time I felt I was at a disadvantage for using Classic Controls, though, to be fair, at high Platinum, Diamond ranks very few players used them.  Ultimately, making the game accessible and welcoming new players to the community is, in my opinion, far more important than some perceived unfairness, so I definitely support the introduction of new control types.

This would matter very little if the launch characters were boring to play, but thankfully that is not the case. Unlike Street Fighter V, where all characters felt like they played almost the same, the Street Fighter 6 characters all feel very different and are incredibly fun to play.

While the returning characters, such as the World Warriors, Cammy, Dee Jay, and Juri, all retain the fighting styles of their previous iterations, they have been updated considerably and in some very funny ways. Ryu, for example, can use Denjin Charge to power up his Hadoken, Hashougeki and Supers for more combo possibilities and damage. Ken can use his dash lifted from Street Fighter V to power up his Shoryuken, Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, and Dragonlash Flame, or even cancel the animation of certain normals to perform some intricate combos. Blanka now has a very unique back jump divekick and the ability to use Blanka-chan Dolls to have access to a ranged attack that can also be used to extend combos. Dee Jay’s basic fighting style has been expanded with feint moves that can confuse him deadly. Zangief’s array of target combos helps him whiff punish, and strike knockdowns to put the opponent into a dangerous fifty-fifty situation. E. Honda has a sort of command dash that makes him more than a straightforward defensive character, and so on.

The new characters introduced in Street Fighter 6 are as interesting as the returning characters are, offering even more unique playstyles. Luke may not be as deadly as he was in Street Fighter V, but he is still a force to be reckoned with, with his excellent normals and deadly Flash Knuckle combos. Marisa is able to break through the opponent’s attacks with her armored special moves and counter, making for a very unique playstyle. Kimberly and Manon bring plenty of unpredictability with their mix-up-oriented playstyles, while JP brings the zoning playstyle to new heights with a complex moveset that can trap the opponent to the opposite side of the screen if used properly. Rounding up the new characters are Lily, who is likely going to be a big problem with her huge normals and special moves that let her get close to opponents easily, and Jaime, with his unique drink mechanics that power him up and let him access more special moves in the middle of the fight.

All of Street Fighter 6 characters’ unique traits require plenty of practice to use them to their full potential, but the universal gameplay systems make it so that even without complete mastery of the characters, the game can be tons of fun. The Drive system, which gives access to Drive Parry, Drive Rush, Drive Reversal, Drive Impact, and Overdrive versions of special moves, is the one system that dictates the pace of the match. At the start of each round, both fighters start with a full gauge, which is depleted by using any of the techniques listed above. While the gauge gets restored automatically, with recovery being faster by engaging the opponent, it doesn’t recover quickly enough to unleash a barrage of Overdrive Moves and Drive Impacts, so players will need to manage the gauge to the best of their abilities. Once depleted, a character will enter a Burnout State, making them susceptible to chip damage and stun if hit by a Drive Impact in the corner while also making their frame advantage worse on block. This creates incredibly tense matches where players can either go all out or be conservative, creating some great moments in the neutral game where just one mistake can be deadly against an opponent with full Drive.

The implementation of these mechanics, in conjunction with some other changes, also made it so that Street Fighter 6 is not the rushdown madness that was Street Fighter V. If you want to rushdown in this game, you will have to spend bar, as most normals are negative on block, and only become plus if canceled into Drive Rush, which takes three bar of Drive gauge. This, coupled with the slightly slower speed of the experience and the multiple defensive options, also makes Street Fighter 6 a game that is easier to follow and understand. I have lost count of how many times I raged at Street Fighter V because I lost a single exchange and was carried to the corner with few defensive options. In Street Fighter 6, I haven’t because the reason I lost had nothing to do with failing to guess what my opponent was doing over and over.

The more relaxed time I have been having in Street Fighter 6 is also thanks to the online experience, which is ahead of its predecessor in every possible way. The rollback netcode of the game is, simply put, some sort of magic. In my 70 hours, the only matches that weren’t perfect were those played against opponents very far away, though that wasn’t always the case, as I managed to play a few almost perfect games with opponents on the East Coast, and I’m in Italy. I even managed to get a somewhat playable match against a player living in Japan, which was completely unexpected. Matches with European and North African players, on the other hand, were flawless, so much so that it was easy to forget that those were online matches. Unfortunately, the game still features the input delay increase which can change between one round and the other, but these changes were far less aggressive than they were in the betas and were not a problem at all. For the purpose of testing, I have even tried playing on a Wi-Fi connection (don’t ever do that!), and matches were great most of the time, although less stable for obvious reasons.

Alongside the usual Ranked and Casual Matches, the Street Fighter 6 online experience offers the best digital transposition of the arcade experience with the Battle Hub. Controlling the avatar created for World Tour mode, players can sit at cabinets to train and wait for other players to join in, play Avatar Battles at the center of the hub, enjoy Extreme Battles with different conditions with other players, and interact with others with emotes and text messages. This innovative hub system is a far cry from that seen in Street Fighter V and in every other fighting game, highlighting how the arcade feel is still central to any fighting game experience. However, it might have worked better if there was an option to head into the character select screen after a match or a set and not have to leave the cabinet altogether to switch characters.

Even when it comes to other offline play modes, Street Fighter 6 delivers in full. Alongside the aforementioned Character Guides and Trials, the game features an excellent Training Mode, complete with options that let players practice many of the basics, such as anti-airing and whiff punishing, an Arcade Story Mode with some additional story content, Extreme Battles, which make the game lean more into a party game type of experience, Versus, and Team Battle modes. While offline play against the CPU cannot compare to playing against a real human opponent, CAPCOM did an excellent job developing the AI, as CPU Level 8 is incredibly competent and attempts to do things a human player would do to win, such as baiting throws.

When it comes to visuals, Street Fighter 6 also delivers in full. All characters are incredibly detailed, the stages look vibrant, and the kind of hip-hop-inspired aesthetics, which I wasn’t really keen on when the game was announced last year,  work great in motion, although the color splashes of Drive Impacts, for example, do feel a little excessive sometimes. The PC port is also extremely competent, featuring multiple graphics settings to tweak to achieve the best possible performance. Refreshingly, the game doesn’t suffer from any performance issues like stuttering, running extremely well on my system (i7-10700 CPU, RTX 3070 GPU, 16 GB RAM), although the frame rate can become kind of unsteady during some World Tour mode fights. Thankfully, none of this happens where performance truly matters, such as in regular online and offline matches. World Tour also suffers from some texture loading issues, which happened at both 1440p and 4K resolutions, so they are likely caused by a bug rather than the somewhat low amount of VRAM of my graphics card.

Back when I tried Street Fighter 6 for the first time during last year’s first beta, I had the feeling I had played something special, and the final version of the game only confirmed these feelings. With its excellent play modes, attention to accessibility, almost flawless online experience, and incredible game and character design, Street Fighter 6 is not only one of the best entries in the series but one of the best fighting games ever made, a game that is more than worthy of a perfect score.

PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

Street Fighter 6 is the culmination of the experience CAPCOM introduced to the video gaming world back in 1987. With extremely solid gameplay mechanics, a wealth of excellent single-player content that teaches the basics in an extremely fun way, flawless online experience, amazing character design and attention to accessibility, Street Fighter 6 is in a league of its own, and one of the best fighting games in decades.