The highly anticipated gameplay trailer for Street Fighter 6’s Ed has finally released today as Capcom revealed both the trailer as well as a new stage for the psycho-powered boxer’s release, both character and stage featuring a flexing of their graphic and design teams as we meet the Neo Shadaloo leader in the Crumbling Laboratory accompanied by a German rap theme, reminiscent of Ed’s Street Fighter 5 rap theme.
For those who have played Ed in Street Fighter 5 you’ll be pleased to note that many of his moves from that game have returned including his Snatcher, his Psycho Knuckle, and of course his iconic Flicker (though he appears to no longer shout “1-2-3”) as well as a brand new Sway. Many who have analyzed the gameplay say that Ed’s new direction hearkens back to the design of Yamazaki from King of Fighters, though the better comparison would be Steve from Street Fighter x Tekken with segmented flickers that can hit low or anti-air possibly from a stance. This is amazing as Street Fighter x Tekken featured many well loved character gameplay designs that we haven’t seen in over a decade.
Those same people who played Street Fighter 5 might wonder how Ed plays, as in Street Fighter 5 Ed had a Modern control scheme before Modern controls were introduced in Street Fighter 6, though as explained in this gameplay blog from Playstation they have standardized Ed’s Classic moveset with his more tradition Modern moveset:
We’ve seen comments asking how Ed will work with Modern Controls since his inputs were already simplified in Street Fighter V. We decided to keep his simplified inputs and incorporated them in his Modern Controls while creating expanded inputs for his Classic Controls. Ed now has quarter-circle and dragon-punch inputs for his special moves in Classic.
As we said, this new stage is the Crumbling Laboratory, a mix of Street Fighter 4’s Secret Laboratory and Street Fighter 5’s Lair of the Four Kings. Some very notable background details featured here would be the numerous cloned bodies of Street Fighter 4 villain Seth inside giant test tubes as well as series villain M. Bison’s iconic hat resting on the throne featured center stage in the background, an interesting lore callback since those are the two that created Ed to begin with. Though the name is an apt description, as between rounds it will collapse and the old statues and monuments of past villains will begin to crumble and the lab itself begin imploding, meaning that this will be a stage with different effects depending on what round it is.
Street Fighter 6 players have been starving for new content for several months now, and it’s a very good sign that Ed’s gameplay, a normally slightly divisive character, has been met with near universal praise. If you’re excited to play the young Neo Shadaloo leader then look forward to his release in Street Fighter 6 on February 27th.