OUR RATING - 10/10
The year 2023 has everything to be historic for fighting games, a genre that has been down in the last decade. With Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8 in the pipeline and generating great expectations from players, we could have an unparalleled crop based on some of the most established titles on the market. In an era with so many games hitting stores full of problems, seeing another Capcom hit in this regard can only make us optimistic.
Street Fighter 6 is one of the best releases of the year so far – and I can safely say it's also the best release of its kind in the last 10 years .
The main innovation of Street Fighter 6 is in the World Tour game mode. He lives up to the term “street fighting”, placing his character as an apprentice of fighting techniques. A wide range of possibilities in fighter customization makes it possible to create whatever you imagine.
This “story mode” allows you to learn moves and develop fighting techniques, something that can be used later in combat with other fighters online. Their leader is Luke, a trainer who doesn't seem to take things too seriously and, for that reason, makes fun of his advice.
World Tour Mode plus Battle Hub are two fantastic innovations in SF6
His apprenticeship takes place on the streets of Metrô City. There you can challenge NPCs and fulfill the most unexpected missions. Your actions impact your character's evolution, both in level and cosmetically, and it's cool to see that evolution.
In a way, World Tour works like a great tutorial, allowing you to learn not only what the game offers, but the combat characteristics of the most diverse fighters. It's a game within the game, an innovation that has a lot of potential to be perfected, but which already in its first version delivers something very enjoyable.
All of which brings us to the new Battle Hub, the online space where the real action takes place. Here, your fighter built from scratch has the opportunity to face fighters created by other players. The big idea is to create a virtual environment in which interaction is simulated – the Street Fighter metaverse.
Finally, in Street Fighter 6 we also have the Fighting Ground, where you can access the traditional game modes. Here, we have the following:
Arcade – fight against the PC in each character's story mode;
Practice – training mode that includes tutorials, character guides and combo tests;
Versus – used for 1v1 or team battles;
Special matches – fights with custom rules and many attractions, like bombs in the ring and more;
Online – for Ranked, Casual, or Custom Rooms.
Here is the core of Street Fighter 6 , with the traditional characters and their moves, in addition to the new ones that were added in this version. In total, 18 fighters are available, and more will be added over time.
There's nothing more annoying in an online game than waiting until the system finds an opponent – and preferably someone close to your level. Street Fighter 6 achieves this primacy by offering a connection system in which waiting for an opponent is rarely tiring.
In addition to being able to do other activities while waiting for an opponent, most of the time the “match” is quick. It is also possible to apply filters that allow the opponent to be chosen by platform or by type of connection – WiFi or cable. The idea is to offer those looking for more stable scenarios with lower latency alternatives, but without leaving casual players unattended.
I confess that among all the connection attempts I made – and there were more than a hundred – only once did the system let me down, at least in the PC version. Colleagues of mine who purchased the game before launch reported the same scenario, which, to everyone's happiness, is a sign that a lot of work was done to make this universe work.
The option to modernize the controls is valid and works, especially for casual players
However, Street Fighter crossed generations and reaches today an audience that doesn't have the same references that we had. And more: commands like these, which seem intuitive and natural to us, may not be so obvious and functional for a new generation. So the option to modernize the controls is valid and works well, especially for casual gamers.
Best of all is the fact that you can choose your control scheme – and choosing one or the other has its differences . Simpler, the Modern control generates about 20% less damage compared to the Classic, a way to balance the game. Even if it is simpler, at least for me it is less comfortable to use them. But that's me, with a baggage greater than that of many new players who are only now having contact with the franchise.
Street Fighter 6 is a game that should have a long life, given the large number of promises made by Capcom. New fighters will come, and via the Battle Pass, there's a plethora of cosmetics and quests to fulfill over the next few years. It is a game that is worth the investment, as the replay factor is very high and there will always be something new to explore , as long as you want to improve your skills.
Not only is Street Fighter 6 one of the best releases of 2023, it's also the best and most complete Street Fighter ever released. This also places it as the best fighting game released in the last 10 years, taking us back to the golden times when titles like Street Fighter itself, alongside games like Mortal Kombat , The King of Fighters , Tekken and Marvel vs. Capcom made the players happy.
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