Tag: Ansatsuken

Street Fighter VI Devs Talk About Monetization, M. Bison, And The Series’ First-Ever Guest Fighter

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It’s hard to believe that the most famous franchise in fighting game history has never had a guest character before. God of War’s Kratos has been in Mortal Kombat. Yoda was in Soul Calibur. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s roster is now home to more characters from outside the series than from within it. But Fatal Fury’s upbeat denim-clad, city-slicker Terry Bogard (who is also in Smash) will mark the first time someone from another franchise has been playable inside Street Fighter.

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The news was announced at the Summer Game Fest showcase as part of Street Fighter VI’s season 2 reveal. In addition to the return of Street Fighter III’s Elena and series villain M. Bison, the game’s second year will also see Terry Bogart and the ninja Mai Shiranui join as well, the result of a collaboration with SNK that first got underway at back at Evo 2022, the fighting game event’s in-person return following the covid-19 pandemic. Fighting game illustrators Toshiaki “ Shinkiro” Mori and Eisuke Ogura created a crossover “welcome back” sign made up of characters from both Street Fighter and Fatal Fury.

“It was a big hit and it was really exciting,” Street Fighter 6 director, Takayuki Nakayama, and producer, Shuhei Matsumoto, who are now the faces of the franchise, told me in an interview at Summer Game Fest conducted via a translator. Teams from both companies kept talking in the years that followed and it eventually culminated in the decision to bring Terry, essentially SNK’s Ken, to the rival franchise. What’s it like remaking an outside character inside the Street Fighter universe?

“When incorporating non-Capcom or non-Street Fighter guest characters into this game, obviously [we] have to respect the IP and the characters and make sure that fans of those characters will appreciate it,” they said. While Terry and Mai will follow the same rules as the existing roster, the whole point of the collaboration in the first place is to also bring along their unique personalities and fighting game flair.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

Nakayama and Matsumoto demurred when I asked for specifics of what that might mean for their styles and move-sets, but stressed the team has some ideas it’s excited about. “Fatal Fury is a long running series for SNK. Characters like Terry also appeared in other games like King of Fighters, which is also a very long running series. The team who work on Street Fighter 6 are all big fans of fighting games in general, including games like Fatal Fury and King of Fighters. They have a lot of things that they want to incorporate, that people, that they think, that fans of Terry and Mai will like, and that’s something that they’re really putting a lot of energy into.”

But before Terry and Mai arrive later in the year, players will get their hands on M. Bison, the crime syndicate boss who’s been a fan-favorite since Street Fighter II. Ryu killed him at the end of Street Fighter V, but as everyone suspected he’s back and looking weirder than ever. His new grizzled, tattered alt costume, a striking contrast with his traditional imperial uniform, has earned him the nickname “homeless Bison” from some, and a revamped arsenal of moves looks borderline broken.

“In terms of his story and why he looks this way, this is something that you’ll get to learn more [about] when you play arcade mode and see him in World Tour when he’s out,” Nakayama and Matsumoto said. While it’s his comeback to the series, M. Bison’s new kit also marks the return of some old abilities in new forms. One of those is his ultra combo from Street Fighter IV which is now a super art in Street Fighter 6. Other moves play off the story and the crime boss’ new level of deviousness. That includes a back fist combo which plants a psycho mine on the opponent that explodes if M. Bison doesn’t get hit for a while.

“It kind of adds this mind game-type aspect to his gameplay, and kind of forces the opponent to play in a certain way when that happens,” they said. The psycho mine also changes some of the effects and combos of M. Bison’s attacks while it’s active, changing the rhythm of the match as well. He’s also a hybrid charge and command input fighter, meaning some of his abilities require holding inputs while others are just simple sequences. His iconic Double Knee Press attack will now just be a “fireball motion” attack, for example, potentially making him a lot more appealing to more players.

It’s poised to be another neat addition to a game that still feels like it’s in a honeymoon phase with fans. Following the disappointing launch of Street Fighter V, which was marred by numerous complaints and incomplete modes, Street Fighter 6 was a return to form for both the fundamentals and positive mood among fans. Despite being a fighting game rooted in a rich history of arcades and in-person competition, modern Street Fighter is as much a live-service platform as anything else. In May, Akuma arrived in the game by way of an event that was part Twitch Plays Pokémon and part MMO boss fight.

Nakayama and Matsumoto pointed to all of the data they collect from players and the new ways they’re experimenting with online events to help the game evolve. ”We released this infographic that shows something like 20 billion matches that have happened over this past year, which is very surprising,” they said. “When we did the raid boss event with Akuma in the battle hub that was a big hit. That just made [us] realize there should be more opportunities to get people excited about events like that, that’s something [we] want to explore in the near future.”

When they told me it’s easier than ever to see what players do and don’t like, I asked them if it ever felt like there was too much data and they wished they could go back to days when developers were more walled off from community feedback and behavior. “Honestly, not really,” they said laughing. “It’s really exciting to see everyone really have fun and play the game and seeing what what people are interested in.”

One thing at least some players still aren’t always having fun with is Street Fighter’s aggressive microtransaction model. Every once in a while outrage bubbles up when Capcom asks players to pay for something they feel is particularly egregious, like color variants for costumes. There’s also no way to pay exact amounts for lots of the in-game purchases since players first have to buy arbitrary amounts of Fighter Coins that often leave them with left-over premium currency. Is the team happy with the current monetization?

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

“I mean people seem to be very interested in purchasable content especially that associates with the actual characters in the Fighting Ground Mode,” they said. “And we see a lot of interest towards that so it’s something that we will continue looking into and seeing if there’s any new stuff that we can just…but in terms of the system it’s probably going to be as is.”

Reading between the lines, it certainly seems like a version of what you hear from a lot of companies,which is that while lots of people complain about microtransactions, just as many if not more, grudgingly or even happily pony up the money for them. Perhaps the sea of player data the Street Fighter 6 devs have access to was also helpful in bearing that out.

Despite containing just four new characters, the season 2 fighter pass is $30, half the price of the full game. But to sweeten the deal, the full game is currently 50 percent off to celebrate its one-year anniversary. M. Bison, meanwhile, arrives over the summer. But the most important part of Street Fighter 6’s legacy, and its potential future, may lie in more community experiments like the Akuma online event.

“Street Fighter 6 gave [us] an opportunity to try out a lot of new things that [we’d] never done before in any other fighting game,” Nakayama and Matsumoto said. “With Street Fighter 6 [we] feel like [we] were able to see a resurgence of younger audiences who became interested in the game through alternate areas outside of just the fighting.” Hopefully that means more live events are planned for year two. The social experience of arcades was central to how many people fell in love with fighting games to begin with. Finding more ways to recreate that online could be the key to maintaining them.

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Ethan Gach

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June 17, 2024
10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Playing Street Fighter 6

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Street Fighter 6 has a lot of modes to check out and knobs to turn, to the point where it might seem overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. The sickest of fighting game sickos will likely head straight for the training room to discover the finer points of their preferred fighter and figure out the matchups, but for the rest of us, here are a few tips for getting started, whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just hitting the streets.

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Immediately change your graphics settings

For some reason, the console versions of Street Fighter 6 default to “Resolution Mode” instead of “Performance Mode.” This means the game will prioritize graphical fidelity over framerate in certain modes, like World Tour. So the game might look better, but it will run at 30 frames per second rather than a smooth 60. Any fighting game player will tell you that framerate is everything and it should be prioritized over all else because of just how reactive you have to be, so switch to Performance Mode first thing after you boot up Street Fighter 6.

On PC, meanwhile, there are no pre-set performance profiles and the game defaults to the standard 60fps. However, you can also increase the maximum framerate to 120, which is recommended if your PC has enough power. Also be sure to check the game’s resolution, which seems to default to 1080p even when you have a higher-res monitor.

Give every character a shot before settling on a main

If you’re new to Street Fighter and haven’t picked out your favorite based on past experience, it might be hard to suss out who you want to play as. If you have previous fighting game experience, you might gravitate toward certain characters based on their archetypes. For example, maybe you typically play grapplers and like to get in close so you might gravitate toward Zangief or Manon.

But if you don’t have any frame of reference for who you might like, sometimes the easiest way to feel out characters in a fighting game is to just try them out. Street Fighter 6 has a fair amount of tools to give you a taste of how characters play, from an arcade story mode to dedicated character guides. You’ll also be taking pieces from each of their movesets when customizing your character in the World Tour mode. Whatever avenue you choose to familiarize yourself with the roster, it’s always worth giving everyone a fair shot. You never know who you’re going to click with until you try them out, so be open to the experience of testing out characters and matchups before going hard on a specific fighter.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

Change your online character and your control scheme to Classic

One of the big draws of Street Fighter 6 for casual players is it has two control schemes. One is called Classic and features the typical quarter circles and charge inputs of previous Street Fighter games. Then there’s the “Modern” control scheme, which has ultra-simplified inputs—think special moves from a single button press—at the expense of modestly decreased damage output.

If you like the simple Modern controls then you’re probably already set, as the game defaults to them across all modes. However, if you want something more along the lines of past games, as most returning players will, you’ll need to change it before you start fighting, and in a couple places. The first, most far-reaching toggle you’ll need to switch is in the Options menu under Controls, which will let you change from Modern to Classic controls for both players. However, for some reason, Street Fighter 6 doesn’t apply this setting to its online fights.

To change your control scheme for online play, you’ll have to maneuver through some decidedly unclear menus. Start by pausing the game in either the main menu or an online lobby and going to Profile. This will bring up your Fighter Profile, which will default your primary character to Luke. In the bottom-left corner you’ll see an option for “Battle Settings,” and here is where you can change your preferred online character, your matchmaking settings, and your control schemes. Jump over to the Character tab and you’ll see all the characters in the roster. Pick your favorite and that will be the one you use in online battles.

While you’re there you’ll likely want to switch all the other characters to Classic controls, too. You’ll need to press the “Update Character Settings” button for each of them. It’s a lot of button presses and menu scrolling to get there, but if you don’t take the time, you’ll load up a character online only to find none of their buttons do what they’re supposed to do.

Consider disabling the commentators

Capcom touted play-by-play commentators as one of Street Fighter 6’s big features, but while having pros narrate your fights might sound cool, in practice, it can get a little awkward. I tried both a single commentator and duos, and while I don’t think either experience is really worth having someone talk over the fight’s audio cues and banger soundtrack, having only one person narrating the match is the better experience. When you have two commentators, the tracks make half-hearted attempts at banter, but the discussion never sounds natural, and it’s easy to hear the flaws when they’re trying to sound coherent. Character names and moves are almost never called out with any specificity, and the commentary generally feels detached from the specifics of what’s going on in the fight. so the whole ordeal is hollow. It’s a fun idea, but the implementation never quite gets there. Sometimes the matches just speak for themselves better than any pre-recorded commentary can.

Turning off the commentator is easy enough in standard matches, as it shows up in the menu as you set them up. For online matches, you’ll have to open your battle settings and tab over to the “Other” menu. Just swap the Commentary Settings to off, or customize them to see if you can find a pair you like.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

Remember your custom character’s physical appearance affects gameplay

In the World Tour mode, you create an original character whose moveset is made up of special moves drawn from the main fighters’ repertoires. However, while your custom avatar’s equipment, moves, and level will affect how they play, your appearance will, as well. For example, create a shorter character and they’ll have a smaller hitbox, but their kicks won’t reach as far. If you create a giant hulking beast of a fighter, they’ll have more reach but your opponents’ pokes will connect much easier.

I made my character look like me and wasn’t concerned about whether or not he was competitively viable. And really, I don’t think anyone should. Make your weirdest little guy, or make a big beefy lady who can swing Zangief up by his ankles. Or make a character who looks like you. Do what your heart desires, but do keep in mind that your character’s size does affect spacing and other things worth considering in a fight.

Drive Gauge moderation is key

One of Street Fighter 6‘s big additions is the Drive Gauge, which is used for things like Overdrive Attacks (the equivalent to EX moves) and your parry. The Drive Gauge is abundant and will fill up pretty quickly as you parry and block damage, but it’s important to not rely on it so much at the expense of your other tools. Sustaining your parry will nullify most attacks, but it will leave you open for a grab or Critical Art ability. If you run out Drive Gauge, whether by overuse of Overdrive or by keeping parry active, you’ll enter a “burnout” state that will not only deprive you of Drive Gauge skills, but also increase your blockstun and open you up to chip damage when blocking your opponent’s specials. Drive Gauge takes a lot longer to recover when you’re in this state, and you won’t be able to use any associated abilities until the bar is full again. So while you might want to go HAM on all the fun Drive Gauge moves, using them with reckless abandon will inevitably bite you in the ass.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

Don’t rush to your master of choice in World Tour

For story reasons, your character in World Tour will start out with Luke’s moveset. As you meet other characters from Street Fighter 6’s roster throughout the story, you can ask for them to be your master and teach you their fighting style and special moves. As tempting as it might seem to rush through the game to find your main and learn their moves, World Tour mode’s balance isn’t really scaled for you to do that.

As I mentioned in Kotaku’s review, World Tour can be a real grind. Even when you’re leveled up to a comparable level to your opponents, their HP pool will often be higher than yours and their damage output will be, too. If you try to bulldoze your way through it trying to find Cammy or Ryu, you’re going to run headfirst into walls as the story missions escalate in difficulty. I spent more time than I would’ve liked using Chun-Li’s style as my base before finding my main to study under, but putting in that time helped make reaching the subsequent masters easier.

Use items in World Tour

While a competitive player may groan at the notion, performance-enhancing items are baked into how Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode balances fights. These consumable boons range from healing items to damage and defense buffs, and you can use them in World Tour fights with no restrictions. If you want a challenge, you can certainly try and force your way through big fights without healing or buffing your character, but broadly, World Tour scales fights with the expectation that you’ll have items on hand with which to heal and power up. You have to pause the game during a match to use them, so it’s easy to forget about. But get into the habit of buffing up your attacks and healing when you’re in a pinch.

Grinding isn’t just fighting

One of the most important resources in the World Tour mode is Miles, Points you acquire through actions like doing quests and just walking around. These are important because they act as your continues throughout the game. For standard fights you encounter throughout the world, continues might not be necessary, but they’re a godsend in story segments like tournaments, where losing one fight without a continue means you have to restart an entire boss rush from the beginning. Earning Miles through side-quests and walking is another part of prepping for big fights that’s just as important as grinding character experience and buying items.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

Do not sleep on the social elements

I can’t overstate how good Street Fighter 6’s social elements are. Each master you meet has a relationship meter you fill up by using their attacks, facing enemies who also use them, giving them gifts, and doing their dedicated quests. The higher the meter goes, the more special moves you’ll learn. But more importantly, you’ll also unlock new interactions in which each character will tell you about their life, their training, and their future. These exchanges were my favorite part of World Tour, and while the fighting game grind might be what appeals to you most, don’t sleep on the social aspects. The writing is silly, fun, and helps make these characters feel like more than their moveset, which is something Street Fighter 6 excels at.

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Kenneth Shepard

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June 1, 2023
Street Fighter 6: The Kotaku Review

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To say Capcom fumbled Street Fighter V is an understatement. SF5 launched in an incomplete state, going all-in on “esports” to the point that it shipped without even basic single-player modes, and the flat, offense-heavy combat came off so canned, so rote, that it almost felt turn-based. (Also, Ken had bananas for hair.) Years of patches corrected some of this (the bananas remain), but SF5 will always be a wounded animal in a series of apex predators. So Capcom had its work cut out for it with Street Fighter 6.

Thankfully, Capcom’s latest take on the classic fighting series feels like it’s learned the right lessons from the last game’s drubbing. Street Fighter 6 both sets a stellar foundation for the next decade of Street Fighter’s competitive scene and gives the button-mashers among us something robust, if sometimes frustrating, to sink our teeth into.

A return to first-class fighting

Street Fighter 6 is a return to form, but the most pronounced upgrade is in how much it captures the spirit of its characters, both in and out of fights. Personality and swagger practically drip from this game. Consider the bumpin’ intros before versus matches. They create some striking and often hilarious contrasts, such as Ryu stoically walking toward the ring with determination while Blanka does cartwheels down the runway. Each character feels fully realized through their moveset, voice lines, and often-charming win screens—witness newcomer Manon’s, in which the elegant dancer smiles and waves for a photo as she’s deemed the victor. Where oftentimes Street Fighter V could feel sanded down and sterile, Street Fighter 6 oozes confidence, which helps make it as entertaining to watch as it is to play.

Image: Capcom / Kotaku

It would be easy to dismiss that confidence as style over substance, but it also bleeds into the way Street Fighter 6 plays. The game is flashier than ever, but its new mechanics make old characters feel fresh and new ones feel like meaningful additions. The most fundamental change comes in the new Drive Gauge system. Now the Super meter is just for your powerful Super Arts, and the Drive Gauge governs everything else. It fuels a number of tactics and maneuvers both old and new, and is central to every fight.

For example, you can spend your gauge on a wind-up blow called Drive Impact, which is great for creating openings, and has armor to push out of endless corner combos. Drive Gauge also fuels Overdrive attacks (the new term for EX moves), which are more powerful versions of special attacks, like a fireball that can beat other projectiles or a faster lightning kick. You can also perform a Drive Parry, Drive Reversal (like an old Alpha Counter), and Drive Rush (cancel moves to extend combos). The Drive Gauge regenerates over time, but be careful not to let it fully drain, as that puts you in a devastatingly vulnerable “Burnout” state.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

On paper, the Drive Gauge making so many strategies universal—in contrast to the hyper-specialization of SF5’s V-Triggers—might sound like a flattening of Street Fighter’s diverse roster. For example, Ryu and a small handful of other warriors no longer have a monopoly on parries. Instead, I found it freed up design space for the aspects of each character that actually make them special to rise to greater prominence.

The new characters are fresh, and so are the old ones

I’m a long-time Ryu main (I’m a sucker for the beard, okay), and his Street Fighter 6 incarnation has the most filled-out moveset in quite some time. Changes like Hashogeki (a close-range, energized jab) no longer being tied to a counter, or the Denjin Charge (which powers up his fireballs distinct from any use of meter) opened my mind to new strategies after playing the character for years. Even after hundreds of matches in Street Fighter 6, I’m still learning new things about my main, and how foes I’ve faced plenty of times in other games are now different, and often more dangerous.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

On top of reimagining old faces, Street Fighter 6’s new additions are all forces to be reckoned with, some of whom I’m curious to see how the community reacts to in the coming months. Manon’s grappler moveset is complimented by a mechanic which makes her grabs more powerful with each successful use. (As you’d expect, you’ll want to keep your distance and rely on ranged attacks, lest you end up being used as an unwilling dance partner.) Kimberly’s a student of Guy, and not only is her spray-paint-enhanced ninjutsu playstyle vicious and agile, she’s a style icon who I want to be like when I grow up. JP, who steps into the main villain role now that M. Bison is gone, commands a fight with space-manipulating moves. While I’m still getting used to facing him, I always feel like I’m playing defense and reacting to how my opponent uses his incomprehensible magic to attack me from all angles.

This is the kind of game I want to take online for months or even years to come, and thankfully, Street Fighter 6‘s online has been an effortlessly enjoyable experience thus far. Running around lobbies as my custom avatar, sitting at cabinets with friends, and welcoming passersby to join our queue makes online feel like as communal an experience as you can get in a digital space. Getting in and out of matches is pretty simple, and you can make menu-based private rooms with friends rather than entering the 3D public lobbies if you don’t want to deal with a rando interrupting you and your friend’s sessions. It’s also easy to spectate other players’ matches, and watch replays of the greats. Between both the beta and the final game, I’ve put over 20 hours into Street Fighter 6 online without much of a hitch. I had a few matches against players with worse internet than others, but broadly, my experience online has been pretty great.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

I can’t wait to watch pro players take advantage of these new characters and max out their potential, but I’m also interested to see how casual players take to them, because Street Fighter 6 does a lot to try and court the casual audience, from a simplified “modern” control scheme (specials come out of single button presses, at the cost of lower overall damage) to a surprisingly deep RPG-like mode that gives you a story to go along with all the punching and kicking. However, I’m not sure just how much a casual player who button mashes their way through arcade modes will jive with what the game has to offer unless they’re willing to put in time for the grind.

We all live in a Street Fighter world

One of the headline features of Street Fighter 6 is single-player World Tour mode, a story mode that lets you create your own character, interact with the primary cast, and run around its silly little world solving silly little problems. As far as fighting game stories go, it’s no Mortal Kombat or Injustice, but I can’t deny I was absolutely sucked into Capcom’s attempt to make Street Fighter feel like a world that actually exists, rather than just backdrops you fight in.

World Tour’s character creator is one of the most robust I’ve ever recreated myself in, and as a short king, I loved how it let me not only be that in the game, but recognized it mechanically. My character’s a little guy, which means my kicks don’t have as much reach but my hurtbox is smaller. More often than not, character creators can feel like everyone’s dressing up the same two mannequins, but Street Fighter 6 really commits to letting you create who you want and letting them take up real space, literally and figuratively. You can create some real weirdos and the game doesn’t bat an eye, but you can also faithfully recreate yourself and have it be recognized.

Street Fighter 6

BACK-OF-THE-BOX QUOTE

“Ryu Street Fighter gave me his number. Do you think he likes me?”

TYPE OF GAME

2D fighting game with a Yakuza-style story mode that lets you make some weird little guys

LIKED

Reimagines the Street Fighter formula to bring the best out of its fighters, great online play, captures the personality of its characters and world, the social elements in World Tour are delightful

DISLIKED

World Tour mode’s fights feel grindy and tedious

PLATFORMS

PS5 (played on) PS4, Xbox Series X/S, PC

PLAYED

30+ hours in the main game, 16 hours in the beta

The actual story World Tour is built on top of is pretty light fare; you get your anime fighting rival and there’s some drama and talk of what “strength” means. That’s all fine and well, but I was genuinely surprised and delighted not by the story, but by the social elements in the gaps.

World Tour lets you meet and train with each character in the main cast, and on top of learning their moves and grafting them together to make your own moveset, there are also social elements that let you develop a relationship with them. Straight up, this is the best part of World Tour. Some of my favorite Street Fighter 6 moments have been listening to Ryu recount old stories and learn how to text (he didn’t know smartphones were a thing). In general, most of the characters don’t have a ton of involvement throughout the main story, but the smaller stories that I passed through remain highlights of World Tour given that I’m not really enamored with its structure beyond that. (After you complete the story, there’s still side-quests and leveling up to do so you can take your character online, but getting to that point feels like a bit of a chore.)

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

Rise and grind

For a while, I found World Tour frustrating because I was naturally trying to play it like a fighting game. You can run around a small open-world area and meet NPCs with their own problems and missions to send you on, but you can also challenge them to fights, and that part is where World Tour goes from a fun jaunt through the streets to a weird, often grindy and tedious exercise in button mashing. While World Tour’s fights are real-time action affairs they’re heavily governed by RPG-style stats. There are levels to gain and stats to juice, but even when you’re at or around the same level as a major boss, they still have more health and hit harder than you can.

Whereas playing as the main cast online offered balanced fights that were quick affairs of outsmarting one another, World Tour fights often felt like wars of attrition in which I would have to laboriously wear down enemies who had bigger life bars and could cut mine in half with a quick combo. Instead of playing to my character’s strengths, I was spamming hadokens just to chip away at their giant health pools. The stakes often feel high, as retries are limited and only replenished by spending time walking through the world, making them a precious resource. You can use items to boost your power and heal during these fights, but it sure sucks if you burn the precious items and then lose anyway.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

Across the board, World Tour’s combat felt arduous, whereas it felt effortless and rewarding in any other mode. I loved putting myself into Street Fighter’s world and interacting with characters I’d loved for years, but every time a big story moment came I dreaded having to confront another OP boss. World Tour contains some of my favorite things to come out of Street Fighter in years, but the unfair-feeling fights felt like vegetables I had to power through to get back to dessert.

It’s a shame that the actual fighting is the worst part of World Tour, because it has so many cool ideas. Making a customized moveset full of different character’s attacks (à la Ace from Street Fighter EX3) feels like I’m keeping pieces of the people I’ve met throughout my journey. I love the idea of players creating their own builds and pitting their avatars against each other in the online lobbies, I just feel like World Tour leans so hard into the RPG framework that it loses a lot of the skill-based satisfaction that comes with getting better at a fighting game.

If you’re the type who loves a grind and enjoys the prospect of wailing on a bunch of civilians to make numbers go up, this mode has that. If you want to play through some really fun stories featuring your favorite Street Fighter heroes and villains, that’s one of World Tour’s biggest draws. But if you’re interested in a tight, satisfying fighting game experience, World Tour isn’t quite that, and it sucks because a mode geared toward people who don’t want to be FGC experts shouldn’t so often feel frustrating and insurmountable for reasons that go beyond how fighting games typically play. I wonder if World Tour will put more casual fans off at least as much as it draws them in.

Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku

Despite my frustrations, I left World Tour with a greater appreciation for all the best parts of Street Fighter 6. It’s a sublime fighter that makes smart changes that honor what makes the series great. It’s also a full, complete game from the start, that won’t need to be fixed and extended with endless updates later. The game’s energetic street fights, bolstered by a filthy visual flair that feels down and dirty in a way the series hasn’t in years, makes it as fun to watch as it is to play. It’s style and substance. It’s depth and spectacle. Street Fighter got its soul back, and I can’t wait to see where Capcom takes it as the next generation of fighting games kicks off.

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Kenneth Shepard

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May 30, 2023
Street Fighter 6 Will Let You Fight A Refrigerator

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As a series dating back to the 1980s, you normally expect a new Street Fighter game to play it safe. Sure, every generation or two there might be a visual shift, but Street Fighter is Street Fighter, it began as a 1v1 fighting tournament and shall forever be one. Until, that is, Street Fighter 6 came along.

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I’ll note before we go any further that I’m nor a serious fan of this series. I played the shit out of the second, I admired the third’s graphics from afar and have had little to do with it since, since I’m both terrible at fighting games and not really that interested in them.

But I am very interested in Street Fighter 6, because it’s fancy new ‘World Tour’ mode looks like everything you could ever dream of when a developer decides its time to shake things up. While we’ve known the vague outline of what this new game mode would entail for a while, a new showcase released today goes into huge detail about what we can expect.

It’s basically an open world RPG mode. For, you know, Street Fighter. Don’t believe me? Look at this screenshot, which is for an upcoming game in the Street Fighter series:

Image: Capcom

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Incredible. You can also customise your appearance, which I think we already knew, but what I love about it here is that it’s not just cosmetic; because this is an RPG mode your choice of sneakers or boots will have an impact on your, uh, kick strength and, um, vitality:

Image: Capcom

Also incredible is the fact you get to fight a fridge, which I know I spoiled in the headline and top image, but I’m going to post the same gif here again because I like it so much:

I cannot stress how good this all is. I love this as much as I loved Yakuza’s pivot to turn-based combat, which while not proving a universal success, was at least a brave and fascinating attempt to breathe new life into a long-running series. Developers in charge of historic game franchises, please take note: it is greatly appreciated every time you try something new.

If you want to watch the whole showcase, you’ll find it below (and if you want to play the game, there’s a demo out/coming very soon for PlayStation, Xbox and PC):

Street Fighter 6 Showcase

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Luke Plunkett

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April 20, 2023
The Internet Reacts To Street Fighter 6’s New Cammy

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Image: Capcom / Kotaku

Yesterday during Sony’s State of Play showcase, the fighting game community witnessed three character reveal trailers for Street Fighter 6. I say three, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, the only street fighter who’s on anyone’s mind is one Cammy White. So let’s count the many ways that Cammy’s reveal left gamers smiling.

Capcom

As you can see from the trailer above, Street Fighter 6’s roster will include the stalwart standby Zangief, a newcomer named Lily, and the aforementioned Ms. White. Although the general look of these road combatants has been common knowledge for a while on account of the game’s leaked character art hitting the interwebs, many Cammy appreciators both old and new are saying the leaks didn’t do her new threads enough justice.

Instead of rocking her vintage twin tails and green leotard, SF6 Cammy is sporting a short bob, Union Jack jacket, and yoga pants. While deviations on an iconic look typically ruffle gamer feathers, folks online absolutely adore Cammy’s new digs. Twitter user UltimaShadow X pointed out how Cammy’s SF6 streetwear is yet another example of video game character designs ‘[getting] hotter” when they get extra articles of clothing.

Eagle-eyed fans have also noticed a nifty new anime reference. Twitter user Fighting-Games Daily spotted a new, knee-breaking throw in Cammy’s arsenal, and the wince-inducing new move is actually a reference to the same throw she did in the 1994 anime film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

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Elsewhere, other fans seem thrilled to hear that Cammy’s English-language voice actor, Caitlin Glass, is once again supplying the deadly Brit’s lines.

One last brief snippet of Cammy’s SF6 trailer that’s been making the rounds on Twitter doesn’t depict any of the special forces agent’s killer kicks, but a particular idle animation, specifically her very exaggerated back stretches. Horndog bait for sure, and potentially the start of a new trend à la the Guilty Gear Strive “Jack-O challenge” that swept Twitter back in 2021. This one looks a bit easier, at least. Fan art is already starting to proliferate:

All told, the UK gal’s revamp has left a very positive impression on the Street Fighter community. Though the real test of her influence will be if Cammy mains in the States start putting gravy on their chips.

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Isaiah Colbert

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February 25, 2023
Street Fighter 6 Drops In June With Cool 2v2 Mode

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Screenshot: Capcom

You may have already seen, but Street Fighter 6‘s June 2, 2023 release date leaked late in the day on December 8. Apparently Sony, whether accidentally or intentionally, published the date on the PlayStation Store, alongside three different editions that will be available come launch. Now, during Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards, Capcom confirmed the date is in fact real. Mark your calendars, folks: Street Fighter is coming back next year.

Street Fighter 6 – Pre-Order Trailer

The Game Awards dropped a new trailer for Street Fighter 6 during the pre-show, where we saw fighters travel around the (digital) world: France, Italy, the United States, and the like. There were also some minigames, including bottle chopping, board breaking, and basketball blocking. Weird stuff. We also saw some new characters, such as the capoeira fighter Dee Jay and the gladiator brawler Marisa, alongside a cool-looking 2v2 mode where a player-created fighter and Ryu battled against two other fighters on the same screen at the same time.

Street Fighter 6 is looking wild.

The June 2023 release date slip-up was spotted on the PlayStation Store by Twitter users bestprosplay3 and SurpriseBum. It then proliferated on gaming forum website ResetEra, with preorder pages allegedly corroborating the date. There appear to be three editions of the game: Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate. The Standard Edition will apparently come with the base game, one outfit color for six unspecified characters, and “special titles and stickers.” The Deluxe and Ultimate versions feature the same stuff, with the only difference being the Deluxe packages the Year 1 Character Pass, whereas the Ultimate houses the Year 1 Ultimate Pass. Prices for these editions weren’t disclosed at the time.

Read More: Street Fighter 6 Is A Fighting Game Newcomer’s Dream

More than seven years after Street Fighter V came out in February 2016, Street Fighter 6 is Capcom’s latest entry in the long-running fighting game series. It’ll feature all the usual characters—Chun-Li, Guile, Ken, Ryu, etc.—as well as some new faces, such as the fire-fisted Luke and (my personal fave) the kunoichi Kimberly. There are some new elements introduced in the upcoming entry, too, including the combo-breaking Drive Impact move, a robust character creator you can use in the single-player open world, and the incredible training mode that actually teaches you fighting game lingo. It’s an exciting release I’m stoked to get whooped in.

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You don’t have to wait long to get your hands on the game. Yes, it does drop in June 2023, which is about six months away. But if you were part of Street Fighter 6‘s first closed beta, you can check out the second one that runs from December 16 to 19. Even if you didn’t get an invitation to play the first beta, you can still submit an application to get in on the second one through the game’s website. Two caveats here, though. The first is you must have a registered Capcom ID account. The second is that account must then be linked to whatever platform you’re applying to play on. Once you meet that criteria, and should you be selected, you will gain access to Street Fighter 6.

If you weren’t lucky enough to be picked for access to the game’s second closed beta, however, you will just have to wait until Street Fighter 6 launches in full on June 2, 2023. The game will land on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam.

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Levi Winslow

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December 8, 2022