Street Fighter 6 review: Capcom made the ultimate fighting game toolbox

Learning a fighting game is like learning how to play an instrument. First, you need to understand the basics of how to hold it, where to place your fingers, and what it can do. With practice, you learn chords and melodies, and develop the skills to achieve the sounds you want. Fighting games require a certain amount of dedication, especially when played at a high level. You spend dozens of hours learning combos, how to use the space between yourself and your opponent, and how to punish rival fighters for their mistakes.

street fighter 6 There is no difference. It’s a work with complex systems and mechanisms that are intricately intertwined, so you may be confused when you play for the first time. You’ve been playing Street Fighter games for 35 years, so you might already know the basics. But a new addition to the series, the Drive System, adds a unique bar that allows you to parry, perform powerful moves, and even more deadly special attacks, creating mind-boggling depths. bring.

On the other hand, you can also play street fighter 6 Hit the button casually and hit your friends. It’s a lot of fun. However, if you dig deeper than the surface, you will be rewarded.

street fighter 6 Developer Capcom has put a lot of effort into giving players the tools they need to get better. World Tour is an all-new single-player mode where you can create your own fighter, level it up, and unlock moves while exploring different parts of the world, and it’s a great tutorial masquerading as story mode.

World Tour starts with the basics and lets the masters guide you along the way. It will send you on missions and quests set in the semi-open world of Metro City, where you’ll meet new characters, buy fancy clothes, and fight anyone who gets in your way. No one is safe: mimes, old ladies, punks with cardboard boxes on their heads for some reason. World Tour is part tutorial, part comedy adventure, with progressively more difficult combat.

What makes the World Tour so great is that you’re given fewer tools at the start: punches, kicks, and maybe projectiles and uppercuts. You learn not just Street Fighter, but through fun mini-games like making pizza that sneak you through standard Street Fighter motion inputs until they become a part of you. Secondary missions and challenges are fairly straightforward, requiring you to defeat your rivals with specific attacks and moves, but reinforce the concept of learning without the frustration of being trampled by other players online. and get rewarded. Other fighting games just throw in the wolves and expect you to figure it out.

A world tour comes with caveats. Many of the locations are bland dioramas with set backdrops, the dialogue is often cheesy (to say the least), the exploration is pretty limited, and the overall story isn’t all that interesting. But it’s the first time in the Street Fighter series that his complete 20-hour campaign will entertain players while teaching them the basics of an elaborate combat system.

Image: Capcom

Beyond the world tour mode, street fighter 6 offers various offline and online modes that allow you to test what you have learned so far to continue your progress on your never-ending journey of perfecting your instrument. Robust training modes, trials, individual character guides with helpful tutorials, and even the option to watch friends and strangers play while viewing frame data in real time are invaluable.

The Battle Hub acts as a new social area where you can meet other players, sit in your arcade cabinet and wait your turn to fight. The sight of a group of strange-looking avatars gathering around an arcade cabinet and trying to defeat the winning player is reminiscent of the heyday of arcade fighting games. It may take him a minute or so to expand all the available options, but some aspects like how to change the control scheme could be presented in a more intuitive way. But this hub reminds me of his now-closed Sony PlayStation Home. I mean, in the kindest possible way, with its engaging presentation and limited but fun way of interacting with other people.

Image: Capcom

Based on my limited time experience during beta testing and review of the game, online matches feel smooth even when playing against players from other countries. Joining a match is quick and easy. More importantly, the rematch takes just a few seconds, so it’s an improvement that makes you want to fight just one more time.

street fighter 6 We took a step in welcoming new players by rethinking the basic controls. As an alternative to Street Fighter’s long-established 6-button control scheme, Capcom has introduced a new streamlined, modern and dynamic control scheme.

The modern control reduces the layout of six buttons to three, effectively adding one dedicated “special” button. There’s also an ‘Assist’ button that helps you perform combos that can be finished with Super Moves without breaking a sweat. Simple indeed, but you lose a number of options and strategic resources that are important to your fighter.

These streamlined controls allow new players to learn the character and enjoy the feel of combat without the need for dexterity to perform a double quarter circle advance or dragon punch move. . When starting a new fighting game, learning about reach, footsie, situations where you can punish your opponent, and other elemental aspects is far more important than learning long combos and difficult inputs.

Image: Capcom

Dynamic schemes, on the other hand, are designed for players who just want to have a good time. Regardless of distance or the button itself, just press the attack button and the game will do the rest. This contradicts the idea of ​​getting better in the long run, but it’s great for those who want to play a few quick and dirty games at a party. (Dynamic controls are only available in offline battles.)

All of these features are useless without a great cast of playable characters. Capcom knows that too. At launch, with his 18 unique fighters that look and play distinctive, including a roster of new and familiar faces, this is arguably the strongest lineup since. street fighter 3 3rd strike.

Highlights include JP, a charming Russian old man who attacks from range with unnerving tricks and grabs. Marisa is a Roman giant with an intimidating armored attack and powerful punches that can break opponents’ bones. Manon is a beautiful French dancer with an amazing balance between long-range kicks and powerful grabs. Classic fighters like Chun-Li, Blanka, Zangief and E. Honda round out the roster with some of the most powerful designs ever, each armed with a rich roster of moves, combos and specials .

Image: Capcom

everything in it street fighter 6 From the breathtaking animations of the characters performing their most basic moves, to the funny gestures on the battle screen, to the style of the menus, to the hip-hop tunes that play during combat, it looks and sounds incredible.

street fighter 6‘s developers have gone to great lengths to provide spectacle, familiarity, robust tools and tutorials without limiting the game’s possibilities. You’ll find a deeply layered combat system that doesn’t limit player expression. Rather than trying to keep things simple by reducing character movements and options, you’re given a wealth of information, all of which is correctly explained and presented to encourage you to discover yourself.

In an age where there is an overwhelming amount of content in all kinds of media, it’s hard to suggest that someone spends a significant amount of time on a fighting game and struggles for weeks, months, or even years. It almost seems silly. But for players who want to try it out, learning how to create their own music in the form of Digital Street Fight can be as satisfying and rewarding as few things in life. street fighter 6 It’s the biggest and friendliest package of the franchise to date, waiting for you with open arms.

street fighter 6 Released on June 2nd PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows a computer and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on his PS5 using a pre-release download code provided by Capcom. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn a commission on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.