Street Fighter 6 has it all. Graphics, new mechanics, the hub, characters and incredible fighting. While not as fast-paced as Street Fighter V, Street Fighter 6 has set the bar high for all new fighting games coming in the next few years.
While the controls still remain essentially the same, the introduction to the new overdrive moves is bliss. With the new “OVERDRIVE SYSTEM” Capcom has introduced two new ways of encountering your opponent; Drive Rush and Drive Impact.
Both had me thinking about what happened to “V-Trigger” from SFV and how this will affect how I play. What have you done to my boy Luke Capcom? You’ve changed how we play and what we’ve come to learn, is this bad or good?
Street Fighter 6 Review
Well, let me explain. Everyone’s V-trigger has now been incorporated into their moves in some form and Capcom has enhanced what they had in SFV. For example, Luke’s V-trigger from SFV is now his level-one super. No, they didn’t just delete the move that I have come to love, instead, they kept it and modified it to be used in various different ways.
So what is this new “OVERDRIVE SYSTEM”? Let’s keep it simple. Drive Rush can be performed to advance towards your opponent to gain space or extend combos while Drive Impact slams the opponent backwards even if they’re blocking. These moves use your Drive Gauge and importantly, can be countered by an opponent’s Drive Impact.
Everything is overpowered when first introduced and countering will take time to learn but it makes fighting more satisfying. In fact, it puts pressure on players that don’t let go of block and opens up fights to make them much more enjoyable. In my experience, whilst playing I couldn’t help but spam these moves, however, you are forced to learn quickly and play a little smarter as online players including the AI once set to difficulty 6 and above would catch you out and punish you for your mistakes.
The Drive Gauge is Street Fighter 6’s big, new addition and it’s a focus during all fights. By pressing Med Punch and Med Kick you will perform a parry that will repel any opponent’s attack except for throws. Parry will use up your drive gauge and deplete it over time. However, every move that is blocked during parry will also replenish your drive gauge. It’s a delicate balance and see-saw that means you’re always using and replenishing the drive gauge. Be careful you don’t burn out and deplete your drive gauge.
I found that once this happens you are at a major disadvantage and chip damage is real. You also take slightly more damage so managing your gauge is essential in fights. Street Fighter 6 has taken a little something from every Street Fighter and mashed it together. All playable characters have their original moves with some modifications and enhancements making it well-balanced where it wasn’t before. For example, Guile’s flash kick now is an actual anti-air that doesn’t trade attacks with the other players jumping attacks if they both hit at the same time.
The roster is pure Street Fighter and there’s plenty of new and old characters to grab your attention. And learning these characters is a blast thanks to the new additions to training mode. Being able to see actual frame start-ups and frame endings from both characters showcases what is a safe move and what isn’t is perfection.
Being able to see a move in the moves list while it plays a demo video and explains how/what the move is intended for is also perfection. However, Capcom has left one crucial feature out which is in other fighting games. Capcom has not included a pin-to-screen feature in practice where you can pin the moves you want on screen so you can practice them rather than having to keep going into the menu/command list all the time and memorise moves.
This is a simple feature that’s all you need to entice newcomers to play and learn without the difficulty of memorising moves on the fly. I play fighters and am not new to the genre, this feature needs to be implemented at some stage as it stopped me from wanting to learn some new characters because of the constant stopping and starting.
The modern control system is also a perfect addition to Street Fighter 6. It creates shortcuts to special moves without having to input the classic directional buttons, but it’s done in a way where it is not overpowered and restricts players from spamming. Instead, it’s meant for newcomers that want to get into Street Fighter without being overwhelmed with commands and just want to have fun. Yes, this control system can be used in online fights.
Dynamic controls are also a simple one-button input not available online but are available locally for beginners to get straight into it and have fun. More character moves have been restricted so you don’t have access to all moves but it’s a great way to have fun solo or locally with mates in VS battles. Capcom should be applauded for how it has balanced and continued this fighter, yet set the bar for other fighters to be high as well.
If you want to take a break from the head-to-head fight scene you can jump into World Tour. Before you do, you will be prompted at the start of the game to create your own avatar. The creation phase is pretty much endless and impressive. You can create your avatar how your imagination sees fit but be wary that this will affect you because “in-game tips” will prompt you that how you build your avatar will affect how your avatar plays out in either strength, agility etc.
Once you’re done having fun in creation mode jump into World Tour where you will meet Luke as your new coach. You will encounter an open-world / RPG style of Street Fighter that we haven’t experienced before. You can talk to NPCs, engage in fights to level up your character and take on missions by meeting mentors such as Luke, Chun-Li, Ryu and others, and in doing so they will teach you their fighting style which then give you the power to equip any move learnt and create your own fighting style.
How you build your character doesn’t stop there and World Tour gives fighters a break from the Street Fighter we know in a game mode that changes the game altogether. You can have a break from VS and enjoy some alone time away from the masses. Remember to talk to NPCs as much as possible for in-game info and emote/loot unlocks.
With your own created avatar it’s time to go in “The Hub”. The Hub showcases just how big the game will be in the sense that there will be a lot to do before you think you will be moving on to the next game. Creating your own avatar and mingling with other players in real-time left me so excited. Moving around in The Hub being able to verse who I wanted was bliss.
Then when I was finished with fighting I moved on to the next section in The Hub which gives access to old-school retro Capcom games. Who would’ve thought you would be in a virtual arcade hub and could play retro games, go dance on a dance floor with a live DJ and interact with other players all in a fighter? Oh and remember how we told you about being careful with avatar creation? Besides fighting as Ryu and Ken, you take on other people in the hub with your own avatar in a VS bout in the actual Hub. How cool is that?
Street Fighter 6 has a spot in The Hub specifically for tournaments. Now this is a major tick! The tournament will tell you exactly which server it’s being held and 10 minutes before it starts it will prompt you if you have entered to go to that server. When the tournament begins it will automatically spawn you at an arcade cabinet with the opponent you are fighting.
I played team battles against the AI and it was amazingly fun, you can set up the fights with rules and how many fighters per team. I went standard rules with a 2v2 system and it felt like I was in a real match against online opponents. There will be an online feature on full release so get to practising with your mates and let’s go. Ranked is where you rank up and try to work your way to the top with all the pros. Winning will give you a certain amount of points depending on your rank and if you lose, points will be deducted and like ranking up, you will de-rank if you lose too many.
Talk to anyone and mention Street Fighter and I can guarantee they would know one version of it. It’s a game that took off in the 90s and to see where it started and to where it has come makes it stand out above the rest. From simple fights and spamming “Hadouken” to now playing a game where the mechanics have changed so much to feel like a real bout, whilst still keeping the original moves and turning them into a massive damage-dealing combo is mind-blowing.
I’ve always been a Street Fighter fan and with every new addition, the game keeps getting better and better. Every time a new game mechanic is introduced it takes a little practice like any other game but Capcom has a way of doing this that gets you used to it in no time without taking away what you learnt in the previous titles. I spent hours playing through the game modes and trying different characters all of which kept me coming back to see what else I could do and achieve.
If it wasn’t for self-progression it was simply to just play for fun and switch off. At launch, Street Fighter 6 is set to take the fighting game genre to another level and with its major competition like Tekken 8 and Mortal Kombat 1 both on the horizon, the gloves are about to come off.
Street Fighter 6 was reviewed on PS5 using a digital code provided by Capcom.
