Street Fighter 6 Review
Street Fighter 6: Grand dad is back...
While the running joke on my channel was I would eventually cave and buy Street Fighter 6, I kind of thought it was going to be a thing I would not like, I played the second beta and the open beta and every time I walked away more and more impressed with a lot of the elements. Now having played the game for a bit, I feel I can share some of those thoughts. This is not a review per se, I am not the type who gives scores or who feels to make a scale so I’ll give you the Sum up at the start and if that’s enough well thanks for stopping by hit the subscribe button at least? The deeper dive will be below the summary if you want to know more thoughts.
TL:DR: The OG of fighters has made a huge comeback, if you like what you see in the roster just get it. If you wanna see what else is coming it’s also not a bad idea as this game is going to mature well….
The stats:
Paid for: By myself, I bought a disc on launch day
Played on: Playstation 5
Time played: at least 10 hours
Control style used: Classic, on an arcade deck
Modes Played: Mainly just the fighting ground section and online ranked and casual
Drive system: The fresh maker
The biggest thing that has been introduced in this game is the drive system, it not only replaces super bar management, it now entwines with your stamina. EX moves still exist but are now spent via this drive gauge and recharges as you keep your offense up. You also get parries and counters for all characters with a simple push of two buttons (or I guess one if you are using Modern?) you can spend your some of your meter to counter and parry attacks. To me it is both a simplified and expanded version of the parry system of Street Fighter 3. It is simplified because of the buttons, it is expanded cause there are a lot more options to use with this.
The impact on gameplay is what I would call smooth, as a guy who’s been playing since 2, this did not seem insanely complex to me. The flow it gave made the matches and game as a whole a lot of fun. The super arts are still controlled by another meter but at this point it is simply a bank to save or use as you see fit. Want to charge up for your max damage? Alright, like to use supers off and on and have a reserve? Cool, you can do that to as the EX moves as I said are linked to the drive meter. I feel less worried about meter management and more focused on the game itself. Simplicity at it’s best.
Online:
Online play any more is a live or die feature of a fighting game, if the online play doesn’t work, well the game is screwed. While I am not that well versed in online play, gotta be honest here. This is some of the quickest and snappiest online I’ve ever played. I’ve found it doesn’t take long to find an opponent in ranked or casual (I have been playing with the basic no tweaking the settings for finding matches). I wait about less than a minute usually and I have my enemy ready to go. I’ve found no real lag on playing and when I want a rematch it’s almost instant gratification.
One quirk I noticed in ranked is if you beat your opponent two times in a row you cannot ask for a rematch, if it’s a 1-1 a third can be played. This is a nice little feature and doesn’t make the people not as good feel TOO much like punching bags for the better. A lot of people I’ve been playing have given me a challenge but I have to say I rarely felt it being cheap. So if you’re trying to improve its something you can work at but not feel overwhelmed. Overall if this is going to be an online heavy game, this is leaps and bounds better than 5 was and right now the most seamless transition to offline to online I’ve ever played. Well done Capcom.
Create-A-Waste a time
I’m going to be honest, here I am making a lot of jokes about the world tour and the Avatar stuff, but I get why it’s here this is a game that is being built as a gateway, so those modes are really not for me. I again find the create a character thing just to be utterly wasted on this game because if this was say a Resident Evil or some other longer form game, this would be a highlight. You can do a lot of stuff with it. For those that do enjoy it, I hope it works for you I will eventually make my character (meaning my wife will just be set loose upon the creator and I’ll run with the results). Just so if I have to go into the battle hub I have something.
That is another thing to mention here really quick. If that stuff is not your thing, you can just stay in the fighting ground and NEVER EVER have to touch battleground or world tour. I am happy about that cause I have zero interest in making a virtual me to go into a virtual arcade to play a game of street fighter. The world tour from what I’ve heard others and seen gameplay of, if you are new I would say may be good for you so you can learn how the classic controls work. I’ll cover more on the controls in a moment, but I felt I should mention the World Tour option, again this is not for me. It is to bring people into the game, and when looked at that way it is alright. Also, if you want to be sure you never have to see World Tour. When you install the game you get an option to just not install it. I enjoy the fact this is not being forced fed down my throat, it’s a nice change from “Well you want everything you have to play this.”
Controls: Auto and Manual (aka Modern and Classic)
SF6 comes with two control styles for online: Modern which is a simplified version of the controls and Classic, this one is like if you’re a professional driver and know all the tricks. So far I have not tried modern, and I’ll say it, I won’t ether playing people who do use it I’ve come to see the differences in how they play. Control is simplified, however with that you loose some tricks that classic players have such as speed of a projectile or range of a move control. If you are using modern, I would really recommended when you get confident graduate up to classic, you’re really going to get all the experience and see why it’s been kept.
Final thoughts:
I went into this game skeptical in the second beta, but I walked away with some doubts gone. The Third beta further erased these doubts and the full game from what I have played is probably the most fun I’ve had in a Street Fighter game and maybe even a fighting game in general in awhile. The drive system meshes so well and everything is smooth and gels in a way that is hard to describe but all works just right. The RE engine shows its versatility with this game and graphically it looks damn impressive. I have some issues with the game (the battle pass, the fact I want some in game currency I must do Avatar fights, and World Tour and Battle Hub not being for me.) But they are not enough for me to tell people to stay away. Capcom as of right now have reclaimed their status as the cream of the crop in fighters, something I did not expect to say. Mortal Kombat 1 has the deck stacked against it with it’s release in the fall, and as of this writing I do not know if its something they can achieve, the Original is back ladies and gentlemen. However for those of you who are still not sure, there is some things I want to address.
Coda
SF6 is very much being presented in a live service frame, there is a good game here to start with and lots to do offline as well as online. The DLC has already been announced with what characters are coming when. (Something I wish more companies would do). So if you are the type of person who wants to wait and see consider that the game may be a bit different a year from now. And this game WILL evolve, there will be I am sure at some point a champion edition or something cause Capcom is gonna Capcom. If you want to wait then do consider this when planning to make your purchase. If you are wanting in on the ground floor though and want to get the DLC also consider getting the 85 dollar edition as the season pass is 30 bucks and base game price at retail is at 60, while with tax you will pay about the same ether way just give that some consideration.
-The Chaos Director
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