The Game Awards had plenty of trailers, one of which was surprisingly a look at the next Street Fightermovie. And its appearance there reignited an old, long-lasting grude match against Mortal Kombat.
See, the second Kombat movie is due out in May, but it didn’t make an appearance at the gaming ceremony. By contrast, the Street Fighter cast was there onstage, where comedian Andrew Schulz, who plays the film’s version of Dan Hibiki, threw shade at the lack of Mortal Kombat. “We’re not the only game that appreciates your patronage,” he said. “There’s another game out there, they also flew from around the world to be here because they appreciate you. So give it up for the whole cast of Mortal Kombat II!”
The audience applaused, hoping to see Karl Urban, Joe Taslim, and whoever else also come on stage, but nah, no dice. Schulz said that cast didn’t show because “they don’t care about you. They only care about money. We care about money AND you. Street Fighter FOREVER!” On the internet, social media lit up at the dig, reminding older fans of decades-old beef between the two franchises that first took hold in the 90s and still persists in some form to this day. There’ve been some years where they’ve both had a game release, like Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 releasing back in 2023. While the former is in its third year of post-launch DLC, Netherrealm ceased development on Kombat 1 earlier in 2025 to focus on its next game.
Not everyone dug Schulz’s gag, though. Mortal Kombat II producer Todd Garner wrote that unlike the Fighter film’s star, he “[doesn’t] climb over others to get ahead,” but later added that he hopes for both movies to be “huge.” (He also indicated marketing for his film will ramp up in the near future, which so far has just been that first trailer, a featurette from New York Comic-Con, and footage from that same panel only for those in attendance.) Will that include some dig at the competition? We’ll have to wait to find out.
Tonight at the Game Awards, we finally got a first look at Capcom and Paramount Pictures’ upcoming Street Fighter film, which wasted no time getting down to all the action.
While there may have been some reservations about whether a live-action Street Fighter movie would have the juice to look the part without coming off as too goofy to be legitimately hype, we have to admit, it certainly shut us up a little bit. The trailer was a mile a minute, referencing while showing off its illustrious list of actors and wrestlers in full costumes, and dare we say they looked pretty decent for Hollywood cosplay of video game characters. The trailer itself was mostly a hodgepodge of action with very little hinting toward what its actual story might be, but it’s really there for that at the moment. Let’s watch Chun Li kick fools, Guile do his flash kick, and folks and cars alike get air-juggled.
As far as the last Street Fighter film endeavors go, those being the Jean-Claude Van Damme one and that other one about Chun Li you likely forgot about, this film definitely leaned more heavily into embracing the camp of the games’ nonstop action. Aesthetically, though, the game seems to be taking more pointers from its newest game, Street Fighter VI‘s more neon-drenched urban look. All the better to make Cody Rhode’s Guile hair look just that much more pronounced.
In case the rapid-fire role call of video game characters was too fast for you, here’s the who’s who of Street Fighter and the actors bringing them to life:
Noah Centineo as “Ken Masters”
Andrew Koji as “Ryu”
Callina Liang as “Chun-Li”
Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i as “Akuma”
David Dastmalchian as “M. Bison”
Cody Rhodes as “Guile”
Andrew Schulz as “Dan Hibiki”
Eric André as “Don Sauvage”
Vidyut Jammwal as “Dhalsim”
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as “Balrog”
Jason Momoa as “Blanka”
Orville Peck as “Vega”
Olivier Richters as “Zangief”
Hirooki Goto as “E. Honda”
Rayna Vallandingham as “Juli”
Alexander Volkanovski as “Joe”
Kyle Mooney as “Marvin”
Mel Jarnson as “Cammy”
Time will tell whether the film will have a story mode as raucous as its trailer’s unbridled arcade action. But from this first look, director Kitao Sakurai definitely left a good first impression of what’s to come when the movie hits theaters in 2026.
The new Street Fighter movie has been given a of October 16, 2026. Kitao Sakurai is directing the project and a few generic plot details have been disclosed. The story will be set in 1993, a nod to the year Street Fighter II was released in arcades, and will have familiar characters from the game uncovering “a deadly conspiracy” in the midst of all their street fighting.
It seems safe to expect a fair bit of camp in a Street Fighter project, and that bears out in some of the casting. Andrew Koji will play Ryu; he’s had several past action roles such as Bullet Train and TV series Warrior, so that feels like a solid choice. Noah Centineo is taking a break from his work in Netflix rom-coms (notably To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and its sequels) to play Ken. Newcomer Callina Liang, who only has a few credits to date, will play Chun-li. David Dastmalchian will be filling the great Raul Julia’s shoes (and oversized hat) as M. Bison.
Then things really get wacky. Curtis Jackson (who you know as rapper 50 Cent) is playing Balrog and country artist Orville Peck is Vega. Jason Momoa has been cast as Blanka, while WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes has even been chosen to play Guile. This could be absolute gold or absolute trash or possibly both at the same time.
Legendary has inked a three-year pact with Paramount to distribute its movies, with the Capcom video game adaptation Street Fighter the first out of the gate. The Kitao Sakurai-directed feature now has a release date of Oct. 16, 2026.
The film is currently in production, with Paramount and Legendary releasing the first plot details for the movie, which will be set in 1993, the year the popular game Street Fighter II hit arcades.
Here’s the new logline: “Set in 1993, estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury. But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past. And if they don’t, it’s GAME OVER!”
The Legendary deal, now official, was reported to be in talks on Aug. 18 and comes after its output deal with Sony expired at the end of 2024. Legendary’s former partner Warner Bros. will continue to distribute key franchises such as the eventual sequel to the nearly $1 billion hit A Minecraft Movie, as well as 2026’s third Dune and 2027’s Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.
The Street Fighter movie has a sprawling cast, including Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, Andrew Koji as Ryu, Callina Liang as Chun-Li, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i as Akuma, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, Eric André as Don Sauvage, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog and Jason Momoa as Blanka.
It also stars Orville Peck as Vega, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli, Alexander Volkanovski as Joe, Kyle Mooney as Marvin and Mel Jarnson as Cammy.
“Legendary has built a reputation for ambitious, globally appealing films, and we’re excited to be partnering with them. Street Fighter is the perfect start to our collaboration, which we believe will be strong and lasting,” said Josh Greenstein, co-chair of Paramount Pictures and vice chair of platforms, and Dana Goldberg, Co-Chair of Paramount Pictures and Chair of Paramount Television.
Added Legendary CEO Josh Grode: “Partnering with David, Dana and Josh and their teams at Paramount marks an exciting new chapter for Legendary as we continue to pursue a diversified growth strategy—expanding our output, building new franchises, and creating more films for global audiences. This partnership is an extraordinary opportunity, and we look forward to working closely with Paramount on stories that will captivate and inspire moviegoers worldwide.”
This is just one of many key early moves made by David Ellison’s new Paramount, which lured Stranger Things creators the Duffer Bros. from Netflix, inked a $7.7 billion deal for UFC rights, and signed Will Smith’s Westbrook to a first-look film deal.
Sony recently ended one of its more bizarre pandemic-era side-quests by selling its majority stake in the fighting game event Evo. One of the biggest esports events of the year is now co-owned by talent management company RTS and India-based NODWIN Gaming. That seemed mostly fine, until now.
Yesterday Qiddiya Gaming, which is backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF). announced it was taking full ownership of RTS, making it the second-biggest stakeholder for Evo. Chief strategy officer Muhannad Aldawood called it “a strategic step that will further strengthen our esports business and unlock new opportunities across the broader gaming ecosystem.”
He added, “most importantly, this will enable Qiddiya to keep fueling the continued growth of Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world’s largest fighting game event since 1996, with unlimited potentials.”
The move puts the premier event for Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and other fighting games squarely in the crosshairs of Saudi Arabia’s ongoing efforts to “sportswash” its abysmal human rights reputation and the fact that it’s still ruled by a literal monarch in the year 2025. Other notable attempts include things like merging with the PGA Tour, partnering with WWE, and paying Christiano Ronaldo $700 million to play soccer in Riyadh.
There have also been big shifts into gaming as well. This has included investing billions across everything from Nintendo and Capcom to Electronic Arts and Nexon Gaming. Earlier this year, it bought Pokémon Go and other Niantic-developed mobile games for a whopping $3.5 billion. It even bought all of King of Fighters and Metal Slug publisher SNK Corporation, taking the company private and seemingly forcing the developers to put Ronaldo in this year’s Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
But the push has been even more apparent in competitive gaming. It purchased major global tournament organizer ESL FACEIT in 2022, and snagged a 30 percent stake in Chinese esports company Hero Esports in 2023. And it just wrapped up the 2025 Esports World Cup, an attempt to astroturf a new major competitive gaming event into existence through massive prize pools never before seen, even in the esports bubble years of the late 2010s.
While some communities have boycotted the event, others have been happy to lean on the publicity and money at a time when pro gaming is struggling. A documentary promoting the 2025 EWC was released on Amazon earlier this year, but the version streaming in Saudi Arabia stripped out players talking about LGTBQ+ issues and concerns.
“We are disappointed to learn, upon your request for comment, that the Saudi broadcast of Esports World Cup: Level Up has been altered to remove images of our Pride jersey, as well as important parts of our Co-CEO Steve Arhancet’s story as a gay man in esports,” Team Liquid, which fields players in League of Legends, Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, and more, wrote at the time.
Saudi Arabia’s investment fund is still only a minority investor in Evo, and it’s unclear how the change in ownership will impact the event moving forward. At the very least, it’s hard to see Saudi Arabia not being added to the list of countries that currently host annual Evo tournaments. How pro players respond also remains to be seen.
Fighting games have always been unique within esports. With a legacy that dates back to the early arcade days and communities built on local, grassroots connections rather than corporate branding exercises, Evo has always had a special place within competitive gaming. It’s now one that will have to confront the moral calculus of co-owners currently accused, among other things, of a recent surge in extra-judicial executions.
You want me to WHAT? RANK all the STREET FIGHTER GAMES!? Bro there’s like 20 of them! I gotta start training for something like this! Gotta take a page outta Ryu’s book and really get my sets in for my fingers. This is gonna be a lot of typing.
21. Street Fighter 1
(capcom)
Hush now purists, I know you’re angry. Shhhh … easy, boah. EASY! Yes, I did just say that the OG Street Fighter is the worst game. I will concede defeat in a pushup contest with M. Bison but not in this take. Street Fighter 1 is a wonky mess. It’s clunky. It’s confusing. It’s challenging in a hard to play way and not in a fun way. The only good thing about it is that it paved the way for …
20. Street Fighter 2: The World Warriors
(Capcom)
NOW we’re getting somewhere. Street Fighter 2: The World Warriors was cultural landmark of a game. It singlehandedly ushered the world into a glorious new era of fighting games. Multiple characters and complicated combos? Thank this game for that. It would be a long time before these games got “good” in a modern gaming sense, but this game paved the way.
19. Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition
(Capcom)
Okay so Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition is basically the same thing as Street Fighter 2: The World Warriors except for one VERY important distinction. You know how in Super Smash Bros. you unlock playable characters by defeating them? Champ Edish rewarded everyone who played World Warriors with the ability to play as the game’s four bosses. Vega. M. Bison. Sagat. Balrog. First you wanted to defeat them. Now you want to BE them.
18. Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting
(Capcom)
If it hadn’t been for bootlegging, we wouldn’t have had glorious Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting. It’s literally just Street Fighter 2 but FASTER. Bootleggers made illegal copies of the game that allowed players to move quickly, so Capcom got wise and upped the gameplay speed to compete. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
17. Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers
(Capcom)
Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers decreased this speed of the game from what it was with Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting, but made up for that unfortunate decision by giving us four new characters and shiny new graphics. It’s a trade that the gaming world was willing to make.
16. Ultra Street Fighter 2: The Final Challengers
(Capcom)
Ultra Street Fighter 2: The Final Challengers, if the title didn’t clue you in, introduced NEW challengers into the Street Fighter 2 ring! Including an EVIL RYU. So cool! Pair that with the game’s cool retro-modern graphics and you’ve got a winner on your hands. The problem? It’s a Nintendo Switch exclusive. Share the love with other platforms, Capcom. Wtf.
16. Street Fighter V
(Capcom)
Street Fighter V is a solid game. So why is it ranked so low? Because, like a skeleton, it’s solid but totally bare bones. It only has a small roster of fighters to choose from, along with a totally tepid story mode. Worst of all? The game’s famous arcade mode is completely absent. Faux pas, Capcom, faux pas.
15.Street Fighter Alpha
(Capcom)
Street Fighter Alpha earns points for its story, exploring how the world of Street Fighter transformed between the first and second games. It’s not groundbreaking by any means, but it’s cool to see the lore fleshed out. The game also scores points for the introduction of the three-tiered combo meter, a staple of later games. Well done, Capcom.
14. Street Fighter 3: New Generation
(Capcom)
Street Fighter 3: New Generation was a bit of a mixed bag. Capcom made the bold-but-wrong decision to eliminate most of the recurring cast of Street Fighter and introduce a slew of entirely new characters. Listen, we love new characters, but give us the old ones back too. The game made up for it though with beautiful retro graphics and a whole mess of new mechanics like the parry and the dash. Would Street Fighter be the same without them? I think not.
13.Street Fighter Alpha 3
(Capcom)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 made a bold choice with the introduction of the ISM system. What’s that? It’s a gameplay setting that lets you choose between three different play styles. It either plays like other Alpha titles, like SF 2, or an insane third way that lets you spam infinite game breaking combos. The last of the three options is naturally hit or miss. However, the game has seen quite a bit of love in the competitive circuit. Even if the third gameplay style generally isn’t allowed.
12. Street Fighter 3: 2nd Impact
(Capcom)
Street Fighter 3: 2nd Impact took Street Fighter 3: New Generation and just made it all around better. The best part of the game is the improved mechanics, which allows you to perform cool new styles of special moves, including one that allows you to escape from being thrown by a foe. The game also added two new characters, an arcade mode featuring bonus stages, and the famous “Parry the Ball” mini game stolen straight from Tekken.
11. Hyper Street Fighter 2: The Anniversary Edition
(Capcom)
Hyper Street Fighter 2: The Anniversary Edition is exactly NOT what’s written on the tin. Think it’s just Hyper Street Fighter 2 with new graphics? Wrong. It’s a walk down memory lane! The game lets you choose between characters from previous Street Fighter games, and those characters keep the mechanics of the old games too. Meaning you get to see how Ryu from Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition would fare against his incarnation from Hyper Street Fighter 2. It’s a science experiment!
10. Street Fighter Alpha 2
(Capcom)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 is easily the best of the Alpha series. It maintains all cool new mechanics of the previous game, like three-tier super combo system and alpha counters, but it also introduces a custom combo system that lets you chain your moves together in ways that were impossible in other games! Hooray for combos!
9. Street Fighter 4
(Capcom)
The advent of 3D fighting games in the early 00’s nearly KO’d the Street Fighter series, whose latest installment was mere 2D. Street Fighter 4 brought Street Fighter into a staggering FOUR—I mean THREE dimensions. Well I guess it has a timer so it is in four dimensions already?
8. Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition
(Capcom)
Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition took the barebones skeleton of Street Fighter 5 and helped it pack on some much needed muscle. Fans who were perturbed by Street Fighter 5‘s lack of arcade mode were disperturbed (I’m making that word up) by Arcade Edition‘s inclusion of the famous mechanic. The game also included a cool new story mode too, which was all but absent from the previous rendition of SF5.
7. Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition
(Capcom)
Capcom continued to repent for its Street Fighter 5 sins with the addition of Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition. It’s essentially the best version of the game’s fifth installment, with a string of new characters and all of the DLC content from SF5 seasons past. Couldn’t you have just given it to us like this the first time, Capcom? Was it too much to ask?
6. Super Street Fighter 4
(Capcom)
It’s just Street Fighter 4 but super better. New stages. New announcers. New online gameplay modes. And TEN, count ’em, TEN new characters. And what’s this? Each character gets not one, but TWO Ultra Combos? Christmas has come early this year!
5. Ultra Street Fighter 4
(Capcom)
Street Fighter 4 couldn’t possibly get any better, could it? O ye of little faith … it CAN. Ultra Street Fighter 4 is the pinnacle of the Street Fighter 4 experience. This game has a 44 person character roster complete with different versions of Street Fighter characters from games past. Pair that with even more online modes and the ability to use your two Ultra Combos AT THE SAME TIME and you have a champ on your hands.
3. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
(Capcom)
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike is to Street Fighter what Super Smash Bros: Melee is to Super Smash. While not the most modern installment of the game, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike is seen by many as the pinnacle of the Street Fighter art. It has tight, fluid controls that reward surgical precision, and the game’s addition of the Guard Parry make it the definitive version of Street Fighter 3. It’s a game for the hardcore fans, the true dyed in the wool Street Fighters.
2. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
(Capcom)
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo is hailed as the definitive classic Street Fighter title, and some would say that it’s the best game in the entire series. Street Fighter 2: The World Warriors may have ushered in a new era of fighting games, but Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo perfected them. Like Hyper Street Fighter, the game lets you choose your preferred play speed and is also the first Street Fighter game that allows you to use Super Combos. It’s heralded by amateurs and pros as a jewel in the series’ crown.
1. Street Fighter 6
(Capcom)
Street Fighter 6 is not only the best Street Fighter title, but one of the best fighting games of the 21st century. It did to Street Fighter 5 what Street Fighter 2 the original Street Fighter—built upon the foundation to completely define the game. Like Walt Whitman, Street Fighter 6 contains multitudes. Its Battle Hub system brings players back to the 90’s arcade games of yore, while its Modern Controls setting makes it accessible to new fans of the series. It may just be the most technical fighting game on the market, transforming the fighting game medium into a full fledged competitive sport.
The Mary Sue is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
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.
The Week In Games: System Shock, Street Fighter 6, And More
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.
The streets are empty for Danny and Michael Philippou.
The Australian twin filmmaking duo behind last year’s surprise horror hit Talk to Me are no longer working on Street Fighter, Legendary’s feature adaptation of the classic video game from Capcom.
Scheduling is partly to blame, according to sources. Legendary and Capcom were hoping to begin sooner than later. The Philippous, however, shifted focus to Bring Her Back, which reteams with their Talk to Me studio A24. That project, which will star Sally Hawkins and Billy Barratt, begins shooting later this month in Australia.
StreetFighter is one of the more enduring fighting video game franchises of all time. It began life with the 1987 arcade game Street Fighter, and set a high water mark for arcade fighting games with Street Fighter II. The game, released in 1991, was the first to offer a choice of characters and fighting techniques, revolutionizing one-on-one play.
Street Fighter II became a phenomenon, with Capcom unleashing countless special editions and remakes. In all, the franchise has sold 49 million units worldwide, with a new installment, Street Fighter 6, came out last year. The franchise was adapted into a 1994 movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, while a 2009 feature Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li starred Kristin Kreuk.
Yep, Super Turbo takes the Street Fighter crown, at least in our book. Truth be told, this is highly subject to personal opinion, and I think any of the top six or seven games in our rankings could easily be number one for someone else. Perhaps for you…and that’s cool. Since Super Street Fighter II Turbo is our top pick, I’ll try to convey why it rules.
For starters, it ended up being the ultimate evolution of Street Fighter II, the single most important fighting game the genre’s known. Capcom made two more attempts to follow up Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but as you’ve perhaps read by now, they had their own issues. This is the entry that stuck, and the one everyone still enjoys today.
Super Turbo was the logical culmination of the journey Capcom started in 1991, incorporating everything its designers learned from The World Warrior, Champion Edition, Hyper Fighting, and even the underwhelming Super into one final, excellent game. It also brought its own innovations, like meter-fueled super combos, throw softening (“teching”), and even rudimentary air juggling.
Characters, too, gained crucial moves that completed their movesets. Imagine Fei Long without his chicken wing, Ryu without his advancing fierce and overhead, Chun without upkicks, Gief without green glove, Honda without oicho. (You don’t have to, because Super exists.) The character balance wasn’t perfect, but was good enough to create consistently fun match-ups, and it was exciting when someone went on a streak with a low-tier like Cammy or T. Hawk.
(And let’s not forget series mainstay Akuma debuted here, becoming the first tournament-banned character in FGC history.)
All of the above, combined with the return of Hyper Fighting’s blessedly fast action, worked together to create short, intense matches largely devoid of gimmicks, instead focused on the 2D fighting basics of neutral, footsies, and zoning. Super Turbo was both fun as hell, and an excellent teacher of fighting game fundamentals.
When I play Super Turbo with a similarly skilled opponent today it’s like we’re engaged in an alternate form of communication, a hidden language composed of attacks and retreats, reads and feints. Sometimes words aren’t needed, because our hands are saying everything through the screen. I’m always chasing that mental “zone” feeling in video games, and at its best, Super Street Fighter II Turbo gets me there like few others.
While I’ve played and enjoyed most of the Street Fighter games, Super Street Fighter II Turbo is the one I’ll always go back to. I hold it in the same esteem as Doom, Super Mario Bros. 3, R-Type, Dark Souls…masterpieces that always remain relevant, and always have more to offer. — Alexandra Hall
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.
Why Mario Strikers: Battle League Could Be Nintendo’s Next Multiplayer Hit
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.
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.
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 Tourleans 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.
Legendary and Capcom are working on a Street Fighter movie, and it seems like they may have found their directors. Although it might seem like a weird fit, those directors are the duo behind the festival horror hit Talk to Me, Danny and Michael Philippou. For those not familiar, Talk To Me is an Australian horror film about grief and seancés. It blew up on the festival circuit and quickly got picked up for A24 for distribution. Apparently, some influential people are taking notice.
Street Fighter has been adapted before. Steven E. de Souza directed the 1994 release, which starred Raul Julia and Jean-Claud Van Damme. While it did pretty well at the box-office, critics absolutely hated it. Of course, it didn’t feel very close to the source material, and it was extremely campy. That being said, it’s something of a cult classic at this point. It’s unlikely that the Phillippou brothers are going to lean into that vibe.
The Phillippous are extremely hot right off of the release of Talk to Me, and it’s said that they were approached by different agencies all night at Sundance after screening the film. They eventually decided to sign with WME. Since Sundance only happened at the end of January, they must have been working quickly.
As of now, there’s no real timeline for what the production schedule looks like. There also aren’t any indications as to what the plot will be, but there are tons of possibilities on the table. This will be the third Street Fighter movie to date; the first, in 1994, starred Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile and Raul Julia as Bison. In 2009, a reboot arrived called Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, with Kristin Kreuk in the title role, and Chris Klein in a performance that became the stuff of internet legend.
Bad Movies That People Love
These “so-bad-they’re-good” films are incredibly popular with audiences.
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.
Why Mario Strikers: Battle League Could Be Nintendo’s Next Multiplayer Hit
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:
Indacloud’s Biggest Sale Ever Celebrate 420 and replenish your stash by taking 42% off everything sitewide at Indacloud.
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.
Today Capcom streamed a new “Capcom Spotlight” event on Twitch and YouTube. While the cat was already out of the bag on its biggest news—a Resident Evil 4 demo, out today—there was plenty more to see, too.
If you’d like to watch it yourself, you can find the stream archived here. That said, here’s everything we saw in today’s Capcom Spotlight stream.
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection
Capcom
Capcom kicked off by showing off Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection again, which includes all 10 mainline entries in the Game Boy Advance’s fun strategy-tinged, chip-collecting RPG series. Director Masakazu Eguchi, presenting himself in the guise of “Mr. Famous,” explained the new Buster “MAX” mode and how the collection will include digital versions of the 499 previously physical “Patch” cards that interact with the later games in the series. The online play sounds robust, too.
This Legacy Collection, split into two volumes, is hitting Switch, PS4, and Windows on April 14.
Street Fighter 6
Capcom
Street Fighter 6 made its customary appearance and revealed its fourth and final in-match commentator, Japanese actress Hikaru Takahashi. With her addition we now have two Japanese and two English announcers. (We also saw muscled helmet enthusiast Marisa beating the crap out of my main grappler, Zangief. She seems cool.) Street Fighter 6 is due June 2.
G/O Media may get a commission
Capcom Town and Capcom ID
Capcom
Apparently Capcom is working on a “digital theme park,” called Capcom Town. Let’s let the video explain. It also announced a new “Capcom ID,” a login that will be required for online play in some future games. Hooray.
Exoprimal
Capcom
The team-based dino-battling online shooter Exoprimal appeared again, this time showing more story scenes. Looks cool. Despite apparently not being a live-service game, the game seems riddled with optional extras, including a season pass, pre-order bonuses, copious character costumes, weapon skins, etc. It’ll be interesting to see if the fatigue for this sort of cruft we’ve just seen with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will surface here too.
Anyway, it’s coming to all the major platforms but Switch on July 14, and will be on Xbox Game Pass day one. A two-day open beta test will start on March 17.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Capcom
We got another peek at the HD remaster of the Nintendo DS cult hit Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. I’m sure fans will dig all the little bonuses it’s getting, and it’s coming June 30 for Switch, PC, Xbox One, and Windows.
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak
Capcom
Monster Hunter Rise’s Sunbreak expansion has a release date: April 28, 2023. Love that iconic theme music. Capcom will also be holding another digital event in April to talk about the next major update, ver. 1.5.
Resident Evil: Death Island (CG movie)
Capcom
Finally, Resident Evil time. A brief glimpse of the upcoming CG film Resident Evil: Death Island looked suitably creepy; it turns out I don’t care for undead swimming crawly things. Not ashamed to say it. Hopefully I’ll be prepared come its summer release. Jill’s in it too, by the way.
Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Demo
Capcom
Ah, the main event. The big news? Resident Evil 4’s demo is out today. Unlike many modern game demos, the Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Demo will not be time- or launch-limited, so you can go nuts in that iconic starting village scene as much as you like. The demo’s out on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Steam.
So, my take? Nothing mind-blowing, but a pleasant showing for sure. I’m looking forward to some of these, though none on the level of Dragon’s Dogma 2. What did you think?
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.
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.
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.
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.
G/O Media may get a commission
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.
One of Europe’s biggest fighting game tournaments, the Ultimate Fighting Arena (UFA), wrapped up on November 13. The three-day event in France was populated by big-name competitors like Goichi “GO1″ Kishida and Victor “Punk” Woodley, but it was teenage mad lad EndingWalker who ended up making waves by not just taking first in Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, but rushing offstage immediately after. It looked hilariously disrespectful, but EndingWalker said he was just “overwhelmed” by it all.
EndingWalker is a fresh face to the competitive fighting game scene, having only been competing since around January 2021. In the nearly two years since he hit the circuit, EndingWalker has participated in copious online Street Fighter V tournaments, typically placing in the top 10—if not outright winningas the relatively unpopular character Ed, a B-to-C-tier fighter known for his hit-and-run combat style. The UFA Street Fighter V tourney, only his second “offline” event, is his latest and most prominent win to date. Having pummeled folks like Punk and five-time Capcom Cup qualifier Amjad “AngryBird” Alshalabi, he’s clearly a dangerous new competitor.
Fighting game news site EventHubs reported EndingWalker won every single match set he played in, losing only one round to Dhalsim main Nathan “Mister Crimson” Massol. After tearing through the competition, Walker found himself facing Chun-Li player and Street Fighter coach Valentin “Valmaster” Petit.
Major footsies ensued, with each competitor gauging the other’s combat style before going in. EndingWalker gave Valmaster very little room to breathe, constantly stunning him and punishing his whiffed moves. It was brutal to watch. But what was most devastating about the match-up was the way he exited after winning the tourney.
Capcom
My dude straight-up said, “I’m out,” and just…Walker-ed off the stage, casually bypassing his first-place trophy. The crowd went wild for the victory, sure, but what sent me were the commentators, who couldn’t believe what they just saw.
G/O Media may get a commission
“Stay on the stage, young man,” one of the commentators yelled. “He just walked off,” the other said before concluding that the mad lad was “amazing.”
Walker eventually did return to the UFA stage to claim his trophy, later tweeting that he was “a bit overwhelmed in the end, which is why I left kinda quickly after winning.” He thanked everyone for the congratulations, said he had “a great time,” and mentioned this tournament was his second-ever offline event. The kid’s got a bright future in the FGC if he keeps this up.
