Street Fighter 6, Capcom’s new entry into their popular fighting game series hit the streets June 2nd, 2023. SF6 hit the shelves with three main game modes: World Tour, Battle Hub, and Fighting Grounds. World Tour is the game’s story mode that also teaches you the mechanics of the game. Battle Hub is SF6’s online mode where you can take your created story mode character and enjoy activities by yourself or with friends online. Fighting Grounds is where you can play arcade mode, train, play the newly introduced Extreme Battle or compete in online ranked matches. SF6 includes some of the Street Fighter 2 cast and introduces a new generation of brawlers into the SF universe. You have classic characters such as Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li and Freshman fighters such as Manon, Jamie, and JP. The 7th main entry in the series introduces the Drive Gauge with mechanics such as Drive Rush, Drive Impact and parry; mechanics also based on previous mechanics from past Street Fighter titles. There is a lot packed into this game and there is still a ton of stuff to uncover. We’re still at the surface a month in.
As of July 2nd, 2023, my profile on steam says I’ve clocked in 120 hours on SF6. If there’s anything I can say about this game, I could say that it’s one of the most enjoyable fighting games I’ve ever played. Yes, I can say that with my chest high n’ mighty knowing I won’t regret saying it. SF6 can be enjoyed at any level, casually or professionally, but it’s a difficult game to grasp. There’s even pros saying this game is difficult, even if they’re already doing decently at tournaments, they’re still learning new things in SF6. It has only been a month which is a very short amount of time but the way fighting games have been lately, it’s kinda surprising to see a fighting game with this many layers nowadays. We had DNF Duel, KOF XV, Guilty Gear Strive, and many more releases between SFV and SF6 but those games were already figured out by the first two months from what I’ve seen. The mechanics in SF6 will make the game’s learning process last a long time.
I have never seen the characters more alive than I have in this game. Yes, story mode actually has a story but story mode does have qualities that make the story/characters feel more in-depth than previous titles. In SF6, arcade mode and World Tour are your main sources for storyline. Complete arcade mode, unlock story for a character. Go through World Tour and see all the main storyline. The one thing I absolutely love about story mode is the “masters.” The “masters” are veteran and new fighters of SF6 that mentor your created character. With this, you unlock dialogue via in-game phone text and can get their personal storylines as you progress learning their fighting styles. For example, my character learned Ryu’s Shotokan Karate fighting style. I beat up baddies and level up that style. As I level up, I unlock new moves, dialogue, and unlock the chance to challenge Ryu in a fight. I leveled up enough to unlock in-game phone text dialogue with Ryu, and it is the FUNNIEST thing I’ve seen in a Street Fighter game. Like there’s funny (haha **small chuckle**) and then there’s, laughing at my seat, by myself, super loud. I did laugh loudly at my seat by myself. It was great.
Ryu, a master of his technique, someone who’s stay’s barefoot 24/7, and looks like he’s never used technology ever, uses a cell phone for the first time in a quest to be modern. It’s hilarious because long-time players of Street Fighter would never expect that from Ryu but it’s great to see him trying to improving himself outside of fighting. This is the deepest we’ve seen characters in a Street Fighter game, and we love to see it.
Yeah, I could not stop laughing while reading this text chat. You can have interactions like this with all the playable characters. There is a ton of stuff to uncover in story mode. Honestly, with the way the story ended, I think we might get more story soon with DLC character releases but I’m just hoping right now. If more stories were to be added through DLC, that would be awesome, but what we have right now is satisfying.
With those 120 hours I mentioned in a previous paragraph, I’ve managed to reach 3-star Diamond with Manon. Manon is officially also officially one of my favorite characters in the SF universe (with Dudley, Yun, Alex, and Sagat if you cared to know). I Just felt like giving Manon a shout-out in this review.
Ranked has been a challenge but with time, we learn. I went through my Ranked placement matches with Manon and landed in 5-star Platinum. Getting into 3-star Diamond was difficult but we ball hard in this household. I’ve fought my fair share of Deejays, Guile’s, and Ken’s. I definitely lost a-lot. Ken and Guile are monsters in this game. It feels like every button they press is plus and I don’t know when to press a button but we labbin’. With Manon, I do feel like I’m cheating with the medals you receive for grabbing an opponent but fuck it, we ball. A-lot of the characters is this game have qualities that are super busted, but Capcom will most likely bring nerfs and buffs with the next patch when Rashid releases at the end of June. An example of these ridiculous characters would be Marisa. You whiff in front of her, or you wake up DP, you’re actually going to lose 80% health against her. I’ve had that happen to me online. I saw it on stream once thinking “it’ll never happen to me,” and OH MAN let me tell you, it’s WILD. It’s an eye-opening, and humbling experience for sure.
But me complaining about Marisa will be an essay for another day. Let me complain about online for a little bit.
Online connections in this game are also really good. I’ve only had one bad connection while playing this game. If you connect with someone with WiFi, it is a mystery until you’re actually in the match but again, it’s been fine so far. The only problem I have with online would be how the game matches you to fight other players. I feel like while in a lobby, I fight the same 5-6 people. So, I have to move to another lobby with a good connection and the same thing happens there. The connection is good if anything, but I hope that problem is fixed in the future.
In conclusion, you should play SF6. With everything packed into SF6, it’s going to be played for a long time. If you spam buttons or you’re a “pushes up glasses, ‘ACKCHYUALLY,’ proceeds to do a 70% damage punish combo” kind of person, play the game. I don’t think I will be doing scores for now on my reviews, but I hope my review persuades you to play if you haven’t already.
Thanks for reading my review on SF6. Please leave a comment on my twitter post or down below if you feel like something in my review is off or just any criticism really. I will most likely be doing reviews of fighting games for this blog, if I play them. I might do older games too, who knows? I just want to get people to play fighting games and show how fun they can be. But again…
Thank you!
Doombase's Guide into the Fighting Game Community (FGC). 