Street Fighter 6 is close to perfection.
Capcom took it upon themselves to reward the fans with a little taste of the upcoming Street Fighter 6, with a demo that was released on April 21, 2023, for the PlayStation 4 and 5 and on April 26, 2023, for the Xbox Series X and S and PC.
It was announced during the showcase, which was hosted by Lil Wayne. The showcase displayed the great content and gameplay the game has to offer, leaving fans super excited. There were close betas of the game previously, but the only way to play was to be chosen by lottery. Now, everyone will get a piece of the pie.
Street Fighter 6 will be available on PlayStation 5|4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC – making it the first Street Fighter title to be on next-gen platforms. If you’re still unsure how to download it – simply head over to your platform’s respective store, type ‘Street Fighter 6’ in the search bar, and you can install it from there. Street Fighter 6 will be released in just under a month, June 2, to be exact, and I am going to give my thoughts on the upcoming edition.
The demo grants access to two of the three modes: Fighting Ground and the brand-new mode in the series, World Tour. But before any of that, you’ll be placed in the detailed tutorial to learn the buttons.
In the Fighting ground mode, it will have local and online versus battles, training, and arcade modes. There are up to 18 characters to enjoy on release. More characters will arrive in the future DLCs. But in the demo, you can only play with the iconic Ryu – a master of the “Hadouken”, and Luke, who is a somewhat new character in the franchise and also Street Fighter 6’s cover fighter.
However, he made his debut as a DLC character in the predecessor. Furthermore, you can only enter two match types: Versus – One-on-one and Special Match – Extreme Battle. There’s also the practice mode, and you can only play the tutorial and character guides.
Street Fighter 6’s gameplay is a little different – it’s centered on the drive gauge mechanic that is said to encourage player creativity. The majority of the gauge’s mechanics heavily borrow from the previous Street Fighter’s mainline games, such as the focus attack, parry, and so on.
Playing with Ryu and Luke was enjoyable. It was great to get acquainted with their moves and practice their combos. Luke functions much better and is a lot more refined than his DLC counterpart in Street Fighter V.
The same goes for Ryu, really. It would’ve been better if the demo allowed you to play with more characters. Perhaps two more – a classic one and a new one, such as Jamie – because he looks like a very interesting character to use. It’s rather strange that those who were able to play the closed beta had more character selections.
You can pick to play with a friend at home or against the CPU, which ranges from levels 1 to 8. It’s best that you pick a level that you’re initially comfortable with, but understand that if you choose level 8, you are getting a relentless CPU that may initially seem almost impossible to defeat. Capcom has clearly improved the AI, and a challenge should always be welcomed.
However, some players insist this Level is a cheat code, in God mode or more recognised as “cracked”, but after a while, you should start to learn its moves and defences, gradually work your way up the levels, and soon enough, defeating it becomes increasingly possible.
Despite getting a few victories against the level 8 CPU, I’m getting obliterated most of the time, mainly due to the rain of combos endured—clearly showing I’m not ready yet. I started from level 4 and am currently playing on level 7 and starting to get the hang of it. I’m confident that, in time, I will start to defeat Level 8 more often.
However, Street Fighter 6’s key feature that caught my attention more than others is the introduction of modern controls. This is a brand-new control system in the franchise that involves pressing a special button with the use of a direction or special plus heavy buttons.
Example: To execute Ryu’s special move, ‘Hadouken’ – With the classic controls, you’d have to press down rapidly and right directional buttons along with either the square or triangle button. However, with the modern control system, all you have to do is press the triangle button. That’s not to say that modern control is easy, because it’s not – but I found that it’s much simpler and requires lesser hand motions to execute certain moves and combos.
This allows me to focus more on timing and strategizing my attacks. This control system benefits new players to the franchise and casual gamers, but even the pros may love this new mechanic. By the way, Street Fighter 6 will still have classic and dynamic controls.
The other accessible game mode, World Tour, is a brand new single-player open-world story mode involving the use of my custom character. By the way, Street Fighter 6’s customization is very flexible and has an abundance of facial and bodily features for players to choose from. It is a great addition to the franchise and is something fresh to look forward to.
The other mode, Battle Hub, was unavailable in the demo, but in case you’re still wondering, it involves taking your custom player avatars from the World Tour and competing in casual or ranked online matches, among other things.
To put it mildly, Street Fighter 6 is almost perfect. Enhanced gameplay, lots of content, gorgeous visuals, great character lineup – the list goes on. The only problem I have is the current number of characters to select. I feel that 18 is not enough to start with at launch – but that will be somewhat cleared up after the DLCs arrive.
Also, a few iconic ones, such as M.Bison and Fei Long, probably won’t be in Street Fighter 6 at all – which is a shame right now. However, it probably won’t matter much in the future with the debuts of some potentially great characters.
The gameplay is considerably better than the predecessor, and Capcom has used their time to create what will obviously become a superior successor. Whether you’re a casual or a pro – the introduction of modern control will certainly make players happy, and with this addition, Street Fighter 6 gives them more options to suit both their play style and skill level.
Furthermore, the visuals look far better than the predecessor, with stunningly designed, refined, and very colorful characters and stages. The game’s commentary makes you feel like you’re in a real-life street fight—hence the name of the game.
Street Fighter 6 is clearly heading in the right direction. And with the abundance of improvements and enhancements made, brand-new features, game modes, and so on – this will be an edition the fans will cherish dearly.
