Street Fighter 6 - review,

Street Fighter is a game, that once you try it, it attracts you to comeback wanting more. It is stiill 2d fighting game, it has really big cast of characters, its stylish and polished. It is a refined version of its predecessors. All of that makes it you want more.

trailer:

All of that is to say, the fundamentals of Street Fighter 6 are sound. But the most interesting thing about this game isn’t how it plays — it’s how it’s structured. Street Fighter 6 is divided into three modes. Fighting Ground is basically a traditional Street Fighter game. You can play matches with friends, go through ranked online battles, and experience an arcade mode as each of the characters, learning more about them through comic book-style vignettes. This one mode is what you’d expect from a regular fighting game. If this were all Street Fighter 6 was, that wouldn’t be terrible.

On top of that is the Battle Hub and it appears to be a robust online experience. It looks like a futuristic arcade, filled with back-to-back cabinets, and you can start a match when you see another player sitting down waiting. There are planned tournaments and other special events that could turn this into a lively place, an important thing, given the sad state of modern arcades. But we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out once a wider audience jumps into the game.

Main characters as Ryu, Dhalsim, and Chun-Li are still here, joined by newcomers as Marisa ( Street Fighter’s response to Resident Evil Lady Dumitrescu) and hacker Kimberly with an “infatuation for ’80s pop culture.” Also interesting is to point out, that Chun Li is born on 1968, so sge would be now 56, if timeline of SF6 took place in 2023. Blanka and Honda are also present.

Blanka

Gameplay:

Street Fighter 6 features three control schemes: Classic, Dynamic, and Modern. They’re designed to give three different player types the tools they need to succeed.

Classic is the familiar, six-button control scheme that features motion inputs for fireballs, sonic booms, and other special attacks and Critical Arts. It’s for fighting game veterans who want the ultimate in control.

The new Dynamic option offers super-simple controls that act as a situational auto-combo. It’s for the greenest of the green fighting game players, and cannot be used in online battles.

Likewise, Modern is a new control scheme with a simplified button layout, but it isn’t as stripped down as Dynamic. It has dedicated buttons for Light Attack, Medium Attack, Heavy Attack, Special Move, Throw, Drive Impact, Drive Parry, and Assist (auto-combo). Surprisingly, Modern Controls is enabled by default; I thought my fight stick had gone bonkers until I realized I was playing with the new control scheme.

Here’s an example highlighting how execution differs between the control schemes: To perform Ryu’s dragon punch with the Classic layout, you press forward, down, down-forward, and then punch. That can be difficult for newcomers, so the Modern control scheme requires you to just simultaneously press right and the Special Move button. The trade-off is that you can’t access Ryu’s full move set, including some normals and specials. Dynamic further removes the combat options to the point where it feels as though you’re simply maneuvering a character and mashing a button. In our example, you cannot use Dynamic Controls to bust out a fireball whenever you wish; it comes down to how far you are from an opponent. So, to use the online gaming vernacular, you must “git gud” to enjoy all the combat options Street Fighter 6 offers.

Introducing the Drive Gauge

Street Fighter 6’s combat is fueled by the Drive Gauge, a meter available for use as soon as a round begins. Leveraging it, you can activate five techniques: Drive Impact, Drive Parry, Drive Reversal, Drive Rush, and Overdrive. Let’s break them down.

Drive Impact is an armor-laced strong strike that absorbs an opponent’s incoming attack. Unleash it when a foe is in the corner to produce a wall splat (even if they block the attack). It costs one Drive Gauge bar.
Drive Parry lets you automatically repel an opponent’s attack, take no damage, and regain part of the Drive Gauge when successfully executed. If you perform a Perfect Parry (parrying just before an opponent’s attack hits you), a gorgeous slow-motion effect occurs that lets you counter with a melee attack that wouldn’t otherwise connect. It costs half a Drive Gauge bar.
Drive Reversal allows you to bust out a counterattack from a blocking position. It’s a low-damage move that relieves the opponent’s offensive pressure. It costs two Drive Gauge bars.
Drive Rush is a move that lets you quickly dash toward an opponent after a Drive Parry or cancelable normal attack. Drive Rush from a Drive Parry costs one Drive Gauge bar, while Drive Rush from a normal attack costs three Drive Gauge bars.
Overdrive turns a special move into an Overdrive Art, Street Fighter 6’s fancy name for EX Special Moves. It costs two Drive Gauge bars.

You’ll enter a burnout state upon draining the Drive Gauge, which makes meter management (and knowing when to play aggressively or conservatively) an essential and strategic combat element. If your fighter enters burnout, you’ll be unable to leverage any Drive Gauge mechanic until it refills over time. Worse still, your character experiences greater block stun, quickly becomes dizzy, and can be KO’d with chip damage. You want to avoid entering burnout at all costs.

Multiplayer modes, thoughtful gameplay that adheres to the series’ legacy while introducing fresh elements, and newcomer-friendly controls that beckon a new audience to play. This five-star fighter is an absolutely stacked package that has everything a genre fan would want, plus some things that they didn’t even know they wanted. For these reasons, Street Fighter 6 is a no-brainer purchase, and an Editors’ Choice pick.