As a fighting game enthusiast, I will be quick to acknowledge that Street Fighter has never been the franchise that has called to me, aside from Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Nonetheless, there is no denying that without the success of Street Fighter II, we likely wouldn’t have fighting games as a genre. There’s also no denying that without the success of Street Fighter IV, fighting games wouldn’t be as popular as they are now. Reviewers of SFIV often said “fighting games are back!” when it launched, a statement which always offended me because I had been playing the Guilty Gears, Tekkens, King of Fighters, and various anime fighters the whole time the genre had apparently “gone away.” In the eyes of the general public, however, Street Fighter IV was the big game that brought back the genre from the abyss. That proverbial abyss was something that the Street Fighter developer, Capcom, had actually been responsible for creating in the first place with an oversaturation of the market, but that’s beside the point.

The release of SFIV was a big shift for the genre and got a new generation of players interested in fighting games. Street Fighter is the big name that was, up until 2015, the franchise to watch when gauging the success of the genre. However, somewhere along the way, Capcom was going through its arrogant downward spiral, making assumptions about how their games would perform based on just the brand and not the effort. As a result, two big fighting flops came out from Capcom within a short span of time: Street Fighter V and Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. SFV was not a total flop. It still sold well enough to get a dedicated fanbase to support it all the way up to 2023. MVC: Infinite, however, lost its footing almost immediately, even though the gameplay wasn’t terrible. Why were these two considered failures by so many, including myself? Both games were released in states that felt unfinished and didn’t even consider the competition. Games like Tekken, Super Smash Bros., and Dragon Ball FighterZ became more popular, along with other sleeper hits like Killer Instinct, Injustice, and Blazblue. And, just a couple years ago, Guilty Gear became the biggest fighting game in the world, usurping Street Fighter’s throne.

You might be wondering why I feel the need to digress so much in this opening section of the review. The main point I want to make—which is tied to an article I wrote a few months back regarding another Capcom game of an entirely different genre—is that Capcom learned from their mistakes. Since the beginning of Street Fighter VI’s production, the developers have been up front with how they’ve taken the criticism of SFV to heart and have been determined to deliver a complete package to fans. I’ve also wanted to point out how much of a climb it is that Street Fighter as a franchise has had to reclaim its title. Having spent some time with the new Street Fighter VI, I think it’s safe to say that the developers have delivered on their promise.

The Short of It

What I’ve Played

40+ Hours
30+ Online Matches
Arcade Mode Completed
5+ Hours in World Tour

Pros

Extremely well-rounded roster of interesting characters
Thorough and useful training mode settings and tutorials to help new players learn the game
New Drive mechanic makes everything faster, more dynamic, and more exciting
Solid art design and presentation
Good soundtrack
Netcode is solid and online matches are relatively stable

Cons

World Tour mode is not the most exciting way to spend your time
Character colors are locked behind a lot of grinding or a paywall
Online matchmaking and interface could be improved
Input commands seem a little too loose; you have a higher chance of getting a move you don’t want

The Rest of It

Gameplay

I normally start game reviews with story, but this is a fighting game in which my least favorite things are tied to the story mode, and I want to start on a positive note.

As I said at the top, Street Fighter has never really appealed to me as a fighter I liked to play, because the rhythm and control of Street Fighter has, traditionally, felt very stiff and slow to me in comparison to other games. The reason I love SF III: Third Strike as the exception is because it moves quickly, has high damage, and focuses on aggression. SFIV and SFV, however, took a much slower and more defensive approach to their mechanics. You might disagree, and I’m open to opposing arguments, but the main point is I didn’t like the overall feel of those games or the focus on comeback mechanics that Capcom’s fighting games had during this era. I’m happy to report that the approach the developers took to SFVI is much different and more in line with what I like about Third Strike.

Never before has it felt so good to play Street Fighter. Characters move well and play well. Combos connect in ways that are easy for new players to perform, but more experienced players are able to extend and optimize. There are a ton of tools to help new and old players get familiar with the new mechanics and begin mastering their favorite fighter. Even without these tools, the way everything feels is the best Street Fighter has ever been. It’s not perfect, however. I and many others have noticed that the game is a little too forgiving for input commands when it comes to special moves to the point that is somewhat a detriment. There have been plenty of instances in which the command inputs I performed led to an entirely different special move than what was intended. This is a common issue with modern fighting games, as the developers try to make it easier for players to get the moves they want, but I definitely feel that it’s more common with SFVI than other contemporary fighters. It’s not a deal breaker, as you can play around it, and I think the developers will take action to fine tune it over time; it’s just something I noticed.

Speaking of modern, Capcom has made a concerted effort to make the game more accessible to newcomers with the implementation of Modern controls. It’s caused a little controversy in the community because it gives certain characters a distinct advantage, but I think it’s still a great addition. Fighting games are tough for new players due to all the command inputs that have been a part of the genre for generations. But Modern controls are meant to alleviate it by reducing the number of buttons a player needs to use. For one thing, special attacks and super moves are assigned to a single button with Modern controls. This has made the control scheme a powerful tool for certain characters that require a lot of motion inputs like Zangeif, but there are some aspects that keep it from being the only logical choice. It’s a new thing, but it will get balanced out over time and I think it’s a great way to get more people into the genre.

Regardless of which control scheme you choose, once you start playing, you’ll have trouble putting it down. The movement, attacks, and mechanics of SFVI make it feel new, but familiar. It’s still Street Fighter, but it’s not nearly as stiff as some other entries. All of the original world warriors from Street Fighter II are in the roster along with other returning characters like Dee Jay, Cammy, Juri, and Luke, as well as six other new characters that all play very differently. A criticism I used to have for Street Fighter in comparison to other games like Blazblue or Guilty Gear was how repetitive the roster was, with a lot of characters doing similar things. However, the moveset of the fighters and the mechanics of this game allow the characters to be unique in their style. With such a diverse roster, there’s a character for everyone in this game.

Finally, there’s the online experience. Now that we’re in the post-Covid era of fighting games, fighting-game developers have been taking their netcode seriously, and Capcom is no different. Unlike the initial launch of SFV and SFIV that had some terrible online netcode, SFVI has been consistently okay. I have had dozens upon dozens of matches with people online, both on PC and through cross-play to consoles around the world. That being said, I have encountered a few hiccups with the rollback, and some inputs were eating for moves that I’m used to doing. Nonetheless, the connections with people from Japan were relatively pretty solid with at least 3 bars in an stable LAN connection. And since the game is new, there are tons of players ready to go online with you, so wait times are extremely short. I’ve never had to wait more than a dozen seconds to get into a new match with someone, but I’m also not that good. As you get to higher levels of Ranked online matches, you’re more likely to run into the same people again and again, according to the YouTubers and streamers who are leaps and bounds better than I am. If you’re new to fighting games or just a casual player however, there are plenty of others just like you on this game right now.

Mechanics

Like many other fighting game fans, I’ve spent a ton of time in training mode to get a better understanding of all the characters and how they operate in SFVI. Much like Street Fighter III: Third Strike and very much unlike the two main sequels that followed it, SFVI is a game that focuses on rewarding players for being aggressive and expertly exploiting opportunities, without relying on comeback mechanics. Let me explain what I mean.

Everything in SFVI is built around the Drive mechanics. The Drive gauge that sits just below the health bar of your fighter is your most important resource for both offense and defense. There are only six pips of energy in the bar, which can be quickly drained if you’re not careful. A drained Drive gauge, called Burnout, is a position you do not want to be in for a number of reasons. So, what can you do with Drive? Here’s a short breakdown with the costs:

1/2 a pip - Parry: Parrying negates all damage from incoming attacks. You can hold down the buttons to parry, and the gauge will slowly drain until attacks are deflected. If an attack is deflected, it will then then refill the meter by half a pip. If you parry an attack at the exact right moment, you can get also Perfect Parry, which then gives you a frame advantage on the attack and allows you to punish the opponent in most instances. Any attacks performed after a Perfect Parry, however, are heavily scaled to reduce the damage so it’s not an overpowered tool experienced players can easily exploit.
1 pip - Drive Rush: After hitting the buttons to parry, you can press forward twice in quick succession to initiate the dash called a Drive Rush. This is probably the most important tool in the kit. Activating a Drive Rush sends your fighter across the screen quickly, allowing you to close the distance against your opponent in ways your regular dash cannot. In addition, regular attacks you use during Drive Rush are given additional properties. Your attacks get a frame advantage, which allows you to link attacks together that you normally would not or extend block strings to keep pressuring your opponent. Drive Rush attacks also allow you to hit airborne opponents with attacks that wouldn’t normally juggle. Some characters have better Drive Rushes than others due to speed and attacks, so not all fighters are equal in that regard.
1 pip - Drive Impact: Pressing the Drive Impact buttons starts a flashy attack with many colors and graffiti designs around your fighter. It’s a move that Street Fighter IV fans will recognize as something very similar to the Focus Attack. While the Drive Impact is active, your fighter has three hits of amour. If the opponent is hit in a neutral state (they are not attacking), they get sent backwards through the air and part of their Drive gauge is consumed. If the opponent is attacking while they’re hit, they go into a crumple state that gives you several seconds to follow up with your own damaging combo. If your opponent happens to start their own Drive Impact after you attempt yours, however, you will quickly find yourself in the crumple state. While near a wall, Drive Impact gets even scarier, because even if you block the Drive Impact, you are sent against the screen’s edge into a splat animation, which allows the opponent to get an extended combo. And finally, if you happen to be in the Burnout state when splatted into the wall, your fighter goes is stunned for several seconds, which lasts even longer than the crumple and the splat states.
2 pips - Drive Reversal: Similar in animation to the Drive Impact, this is a move that can be activated while blocking. The attack is relatively safe and is meant to immediately push the opponent away to give you some breathing room.
2 pips - Overdrive Attacks: All of your special attacks can be enhanced using the Drive gauge. Just like the enhanced EX attacks of previous Street Fighter games, these moves have additional properties that make them ideal for extending combos or setting up advantageous situations. Since this is tied to the Drive gauge, using your enhanced moves does not drain from your super meter, which is a big change for the franchise.
3 pips - Cancelled Drive Rush: The most expensive use of the gauge, this is essentially the same thing as a regular Drive Rush. The big difference is that you can perform regular attacks that can be cancelled directly into a Drive Rush. Why is it so much more expensive? Because regular Drive Rush is already really good for the reasons mentioned above, and having the ability to just go directly into it while attacking the opponent is extremely powerful. It only takes two cancelled Drive Rushes in a combo of these to completely drain your meter, so knowing when to use it is vital to winning rounds.

How each fighter can make use of these abilities depends on the player’s style and the design of the character. There are some fighters on the roster who are utterly dependent on the Drive gauge to pose a serious threat. There are others that are strong enough without it, or who are even designed to chew through their opponent’s meter. Some characters like Dee Jay and Juri have extremely good Drive Rushes that zip across the screen with their attacks in comparison to characters like Manon or JP. Regardless of who you choose, one thing is universal: you do not want to be in Burnout.

Burnout occurs when your Drive meter is empty. This can happen if you use up all the resources yourself. This can also happen if you’ve been blocking, or if you have been hit by moves like the Drive Impact or super attacks. Once in Burnout, your meter will slowly begin to replenish. During this time, your fighter takes on a fatigued appearance and a gray sheen. During this time, you are susceptible to chip damage from special attacks. Your attacks are also given a frame disadvantage, meaning that attacks that would normally be safe if the enemy blocked are potentially unsafe and could lead to big punish combos from your opponent. Burnout only ends once the meter refills, which can feel like an eternity during a match. If you are hit with a Drive Impact into the wall while in Burnout, you are then stunned, but at least the meter immediately refills after this, preventing your opponent from just abusing you with stun until you die.

The only other meter to note besides the Drive and Health meters is the Super Arts meter at the bottom. This fills over time from attacks your opponent receives or blocks, as well as attacks you take or block. The most one player can have in this meter is three levels and It’s quite common for it to fill up to its second tier by the end of the first round. This meter, as you would expect, is just used to perform Super Arts attacks, which are special moves that do more damage or have even more powerful properties than the other attacks. Each fighter has a Super Art for each level, totaling in three. If, however, the fighter has less than 20% of their health remaining in a round, their level-3 Super Art then becomes a Critical Art that has a slightly different animation and does a little more damage. This is the only instance of a comeback mechanic, and it’s, thankfully, not as impactful as those featured in previous Capcom games.

All in all, I think the mechanics of Street Fighter VI really help make the game feel fast, complex, and fun. It allows characters who have always been relatively simple like Ryu and Guile to do some wild stuff with the Drive Rush extensions. It’s a lot to pay attention to while playing, but I think it’s a rewarding system for all levels of players. Novices may not make the most use of the Drive system, but just landing a parry or a Drive Impact can be extremely satisfying. Experienced players, meanwhile, can find ways to extend their combos, or develop strategies on how to maximize damage and limit risk in their approach. There’s just a lot more complexity to the system than there was in the last few Street Fighter games and it leads to more flexibility and player expression, which is a very welcomed change.

Features

In addition to the new system and game feel to make the game difficult to put down, Street Fighter VI is loaded with features. There are three primary hubs. There’s the World Tour, which is the single-player RPG mode. There’s the Battle Hub, which acts as the social gathering section of the game in which you can take a character you’ve created and challenge other players to matches in a digital arcade, among other things. And there’s the Fighting Ground, which is where all the primary fighting-game amenities are.

We’ll discuss World Tour in a moment, but for starters, let’s discuss the Battle Hub. After selecting a server, you can jump into the circular arcade room in which you can do a variety of things. You can customize your avatar and add gear to them. You can play some old Capcom arcade games in their entirety, like Final Fight. You can also join a club, which groups you with other players of similar interest and skill. And, of course, you can challenge other players in the hub to some matches online. This is the place to go if you want to meet new players online and interact with them. You can even have your avatar from the World Tour mode that you’ve been leveling up fight other avatars in the Battle Hub. It’s all a neat feature for some in-game socializing—I’m anti-social, so I have not spent much time there.

Where I did spend time, however, was the Fighting Ground. This is the main hub for playing the core of the game. There’s an Arcade mode, where you can play the story of each character. There’s also an Extreme Battle mode, which is kind of the party mode of the game. Extreme battles are different scenarios that involve elements not normally found in a match to change the way the game plays. For example, you can make it so the fighters are using the same health bar and are just trying to hit the other enough times to tip the scale in their favor, while dodging random bulls running across the screen. There’s, of course, the regular Versus mode and Online modes to play other players. Ranked and Casual matches can be launched from here as well, and getting into a set of rounds with other players is extremely quick, especially with cross-play in the game already.

Finally, there’s Training. Hats off to Capcom for one of the most comprehensive set of training options to give players. SFVI has an extensive set of tutorials to introduce you to the basics of fighting games, as well as its mechanics. In addition, there are various combo trials for the different characters of the roster. Unlike other games like Dragon Ball FighterZ, which I thought did a poor job of giving you an idea of what the characters could do, these combo trials are a useful teaching tool. Not only do they show you some basic strings your fighter can use, but it specifically reinforces lessons around how to use the Drive mechanics to optimize your fighter. For example, JP has an advanced combo that involves using several Drive Impacts, which doesn’t optimize much in terms of damage, but it teaches you that you can drain the opponent’s Drive gauge with combos like it. The trials are also just fun to complete. In fact, doing Ryu’s combo trials in the demo was enough to convince me I needed to get this game.

In addition to the tutorials and combo trials to help players learn the basics of Street Fighter VI, the training mode itself comes with a ton of bells and whistles. There are different display settings you can use to learn more about your fighter’s moves, including the very useful Frame Data bar. It tells you the frame advantage and disadvantage of the various moves, as well as when the animation ends to give you an idea of when you might be able to link moves together. Training mode also has a useful set of basic settings that you can enable to practice common situations like defense from air attacks or counterattacks. All of these features make Street Fighter VI the best fighting game for players new to the genre, hands down.

There is one aspect of the game where the features fall short, however. While the game has a ton of other great bonuses I’ve glossed over, including the fact that you can “rent” DLC characters to see if they’re worth your money, the fact that the characters only have two default characters available at first is an odd choice. Capcom made it something you could unlock over time using in-game currency as a carrot-on-the-stick thing, but getting the necessary funds to do so is a pain. The only way for you to get more colors for the fighters besides buying them with real money is to grind for points in World Tour or do the occasional quest. If you’re a cheapskate, it’s going to take you years to unlock colors for everyone. And simply buying all of them is not cheap either. If you were to pay real money to get the colors for every character, you would have to spend about $100, in addition to the game’s price tag. When you consider that Guilty Gear Strive has 12 default colors available for each character, and that alternate colors used to be a thing in Capcom fighting games that came in abundance, it’s annoying that they’re now locked away. It’s a small gripe, but it’s still annoying.

Story/World Tour

One of the biggest criticisms launched at Street Fighter V when it first launched back in 2015 was a lack of modes, specifically for single player. There are plenty of fighting game fans who do not have an interest in competing or fighting other players, but just have enough fun playing against the AI and experiencing the story. Netherrealm studios games like Mortal Kombat and Injustice, for example, have put significant emphasis on their single-player content in the past few years. They put so much work into it, you could call their efforts the antithesis of what Capcom did in Street Fighter V. Street Fighter V had no arcade mode and no story mode when it launched (for full price), and people were quite upset about it. To show they’ve learned their lesson, Capcom has released Street Fighter VI with more single-player content than you might even want.

There is a standard Arcade mode in which you can choose a character and play through the cast of other fighters in the Fighting Ground hub, as I’ve mentioned. It’s not very in-depth, in terms of a story, though. There’s an opening and ending cutscene of still art that was used in Street Fighter V. I personally think the art isn’t very good, but the scenes are short and give you a basic gist of that fighter’s story arc.

Unlike the Netherrealm games, there is not an in-depth, continuous story mode in which you cover the overarching plot with the different characters. Instead, Street Fighter VI has the World Tour mode, in which you create a fighter using the absurdly specific character creator from Monster Hunter. This character creator, by the way, allows you to make some hideous abominations—I’m sure you can look up plenty of examples on YouTube.

Once you have your disgusting homunculus, you can venture into World Tour, which starts you off training under the new poster boy of Street Fighter, Luke. Luke and his Popeye forearms start going over the basics of combat when your session is interrupted by a hot-headed doofus who just starts attacking you to prove his strength and skill. Regardless of the outcome, Luke puts him in his place and then starts giving you both the rundown of how your “training” is going to work. You’re to go out in the streets and fight people, learn from other masters (aka the main characters of the game), level up, get some gear, etc. It’s basically an RPG from here on out with quests and random encounters.

Unfortunately, it’s not a very interesting RPG. While it’s funny doing Chun-Li’s spinning kick attack to smash boxes or hit random bystanders walking down the street at first, the World Tour mode gets stale really quick. There is an underlying plot involving your hot-headed buddy, but I don’t think the game does enough to make the mystery or the characters seem interesting. The dialogue is all goofy and bad in the same way the Monster Hunter games tell their stories. It’s fluff and mindless chatter, as far as I’m concerned.

Maybe if you don’t mind all the grind and weirdness, it will satisfy your single-player desires, but I found the mode to be pretty boring and pointless. I’ve heard plenty other people praise the mode for having so much content and giving you a lot to do. I am not the target audience, however, as I preferred to spend my time in the training mode or online modes. I’m happy that Capcom added World Tour for those who wanted more to do that didn’t involve fighting other players, but what it provides does not seem all that interesting to me.

Presentation

The overall presentation of Street Fighter VI is dripping with style. Capcom went in hard with an aesthetic meant to evoke a feeling that this was all something from the slums and streets. It may sound surprising because of the name, but Street Fighter has not always gone with this sort of approach in its presentation. The menus of the different hubs all represent a different type of street art and style. The character select screen, the cutscene that plays as the fighters walk out towards the match with crowds shouting around them, and the victory screens at the end of a match all scream with a funky aesthetic. And there are plenty of small touches like how the colors of Drive Impact attacks resemble graffiti to add to the flair of a match.

The character designs are new and detailed in a realistic fashion that makes the fighters look fresh and with a lot of personality, having done away with the blocky and cartoonish look from the two previous games. Having actually progressed the story of the franchise for the first time in many years, some characters like Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li look older and more like real people. Even Blanka, a character that would be difficult to render in a way that would not appear uncanny, looks great in SFVI. A majority of the background stages look good too, with lots of color and movement that doesn’t get distracting. If you focus on some of the details in the back, they won’t look that great, but you shouldn’t be paying attention to that during a match anyway.

The music is also pretty funky and versatile. The menus have music that resembles the hip-hop of Street Fighter III: Third Strike, while the themes of the different characters are very dynamic and broad. Not all songs are bangers, but some evoke a great deal of personality and can be pretty catchy, which is good if you’re spending a lot of time in the training mode.

TL;DR

Maybe this is a hot take, but Street Fighter VI is the best game in the franchise since Street Fighter III: Third Strike. I’m sure there are plenty out there who would disagree with me, but the fact is that this game was made with a desire to deliver a ton of features and content, and to shake up the franchise in a new way. There are plenty of things about SFIV and SFV that made their way into this game, but all the new mechanics and characters make SFVI feel fresh and innovative. The Drive mechanic is a great addition that adds a lot of complexity and customization to a person’s playstyle. The roster is extremely diverse with interesting fighters to suit anyone’s preference. And while I didn’t care for the World Tour mode, there’s a lot to do in Street Fighter VI that doesn’t involve other players or fighting online. For those that do want to play online, the netcode is solid and matchmaking is extremely fast, especially when you consider it’s the biggest game in the genre that everyone wants to play right now. If you are on the fence about it, I’d say it’s better to jump in now instead of waiting.