Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise is one of the pillars of the fighting game genre. This summer the franchise has returned with its next mainline installment in Street Fighter VI. From the moment you start the game, you can feel Capcom wanted to make the best fighting game they could with Street Fighter VI. They thoroughly succeed on that front as the game absolutely oozes with style, production value, and nails its presentation.
First, let’s talk about the main draw. Fighting. Street Fighter VI has just as much substance as it does style when it comes to actually fighting mechanics. Each hit you throw from regular punches and kick to signature moves feel heavy and impactful. Then, there’s the new introduction of modern controls this time around. Modern controls simplify the control scheme so you can easily input special and signature easier. Thus, eliminating the need to have to memorize all the different combos to execute the same moves. However, fret not long time players, the classic controls are still available to use and using these controls allow for a character’s full moveset to be accessed.
Then, the biggest new addition in the gameplay department is the drive gauge. This new meter allows for a variety of different special abilities that take a different portion of the meter. From simply being able to easily rush your opponent to providing a stronger parry or providing a stronger version of one of your special moves. Then there’s the Drive Impact which is a stylish move that can be used as a strong attack or an explosive counter if you use it during an opponent’s attack.
The roster for the game is 18 characters with 12 returning and 6 new ones. Each character is engaging and fun to use, and all characters have an “ease of use” so you can choose an easier to use as a beginner and then transition to a harder to use ones. Or, if you’re like me, you can jump straight into a hard to use character and learn the hard way how to master them.
Each character also has their own Arcade mode story that you can play through. While it’s only a few fights, there is some story weaved through the fights and comic book styled cutscenes that happen between the fights.
The Battle Hub is a new take on lobbies in fighting games. While it may seem like a regular lobby, there’s plenty to do and enjoy while you wait for a match to load up. You can wander around and see all the crazy characters people have made in the character creator, and trust me, there’s many wild ones. You can walk up to an arcade machine and play some classic games while you wait. Thus, you have opportunities to have fun and stay engaged in the game instead of just waiting for your next opponent to be found. Then, once you enter a match, there are no real issues there. I never ran into any connection issues or lag when playing online either in the prerelease period or after the game launch and was available to everyone.
The only area where Street Fighter VI isn’t knocking it out of the park is the World Tour mode. While some fighting games like Mortal Kombat or Tekken have gone in the direction of having an engaging single player story mode, World Tour falters in that regard. The idea placing your created character into the world of Street Fighter is intriguing, but the overall execution falls flat. This is mostly due to the story and gameplay of World Tour become bland over the course of a too long game mode.
What could’ve been a concise 8-10 hours, World Tour will easily take double that to complete with most of that time dedicated to a lot of mundane quests. My biggest gripe of the mode is that, for a mode called World Tour, there isn’t much world to explore. Most of your time is spent exploring the main hub area that is Metro City. There are different parts of the world you can travel to, but most of these areas are tiny with few characters and nowhere to actually explore. Then, there’s the main Street Fighter VI cast of characters who really have no bearing on the story itself as they’re there just for you to enroll as their students and learn a few of their signature moves.
There are some things World Tour does well such as the ability to fight near every person you come across from randos on the street to cardboard box wearing gangsters to even refrigerators. Then, the best part is that, since you can become the main roster’s student, you can incorporate and mix and match different fighting styles and signature moves together from each of the characters.
Overall, Street Fighter VI is an incredibly well made game that came out the door swinging and is sure to see support and play for years to come. The game shines in all the spots it needs to with the online Battle Hub a brilliant addition and the actual fighting game mechanics and style of the game being top tier. World Tour may be a bit lackluster, but still has some good moments. Capcom is clearly flying high as one of the best developers in the world right now and Street Fighter VI stands tall as one of their best.
Score: 9 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5