The newest title in the long-running Street Fighter series is out, and was it a great TREAT to play with its great visuals, a fresh start on its new age now that Shadaloo is out of the picture by SFV and the Illuminati is kept at bay by SF III and the story marches on, a fresh take on simplifying controls for newcomers and retaining the old control scheme for veterans as well as a brand-new game mode, SF6 has a lot in store for players who pick it up. We’ll get to the nitty-gritty bit by bit, and I’ll be throwing in bits of lore when needed so buckle up for this review will be a bit long.
Starting off, Street Fighter 6’s new mode is the World Tour mode, where you play as a character of your own making and taking on the entire world of Street Fighter. Starting in Metro City, the place where the majority of the Final Fight games take place. Streetwise ignored for ease despite personally enjoying it, and you start out in the tutorial being taught by Luke, who was introduced in SFV as part of the army and now has started his own Private Military Company.
You start out using his style and 2 of his special moves alongside a possible rival, Bosch, who you fight at the end of said tutorial where your paths go on their separate ways. Making through the story and learning the styles of other Fighters grants easy-to-learn views into their fighting styles and how their individual mechanics work, like an extra version of the Training Mode, except even more interactive and has gameplay reminiscent of (at least, for me) three games: Final Fight Streetwise, Mortal Kombat Deception, and a pretty obscure title for the PlayStation 1; Shaolin: Lord of Fist (or just Lord of Fist if you got the JP version).
The traveling on foot to the bus stations being quick-travel points, the random encounters from both civilians and thugs (Kudos to the Mad Gear gang for actually staying active even after Belger’s death!) across all areas of Metro City.
The gameplay is, as expected of a Street Fighter, really enjoyable and intuitive. The Modern controls simplify the controls for combat, making combos less difficult to input, but still leaving enough room to plan out bread-and-butter combos without making it too easy. The classic control scheme is kept intact as well for the more technical or old-school players, which is what I personally kept to considering that was what I got used to.
The parry system is a lot more intuitive and somewhat easier compared to being stuck solely in Ryu and Akuma in SFV or the incredibly frame-specific way it was in SF III, albeit still has a bit of it in. Figuring out combos on your own on either control scheme is fun, and forming one that you can rely on in situations is always key to getting good, to keep improving yourself, and conquering higher difficulties.
Like every character in previous titles, Street Fighter 6 has a good selection of titles catering to various playstyles, whether you like to keep it somewhat basic using Ryu or Ken, keeping enemies on their toes like Luke or Jamie, or even abusing super armor frames like Marisa. Or even setting up command grabs as counters like Zangief. Playstyle will carry you well through the entire journey you’ll inevitably undertake to at least reach fairly competitive levels.
The new characters are a bundle of joy to look at, like Kimberly. She’s a new student of Bushin-ryu which Final Fight aficionados and those that keep note know is Guy’s style of Ninjitsu and the details about her stick. The Chucks for shoes actually fit great considering Guy uses them too. Another would be Marisa, who’s a Pankration practitioner, and her fighting style relies on charge-ups to deal from extra damage to an extra hit and can be lethal if you can read your opponents’ moves and respond right. Ken’s playstyle has, from my meager observation, changed to even more offense-heavy that it gives off Violent Ken feels considering his fall in the storyline.
The graphics are AMAZING from both World Tour and playing the Arcade/Story Mode. Seeing the sights of Metro City and the other places you can visit such as the jungle of Brazil where Blanka lives, the beach in Jamaica where Deejay runs a disco, and the aforementioned mean streets of Metro City and fighting in them is always a sight to behold. The animations for each Lv. 3 Super is always a treat, and I can’t wait to see the future characters’ animations as well.
The music keeps you pumped and well, making you feel the situation’s tenseness quite well yet not get overwhelmed, but rather feel like you can turn things around and come out on top.
World Tour mode will probably take up a considerable amount of your playtime on Street Fighter 6, considering the grind for styles you like or if you’re leveling all of them, like me. The RPG element to it makes it feel like you’re leveling multiple classes that you can change on the fly, making it really great, but finding spots to grind character and style levels would most likely keep you in one spot for quite a while before you could find another, so a future update might make stronger enemies spawn to speed that further would be nice.
Summing it up, Street Fighter 6 is great, and well worth the price tag considering the game modes available to players and the customization options and story mode in World Tour, the classic Street Fighter runs in knowing characters’ stories in Arcade Mode and the inevitable online battles which await you. In the immortal words of Joe Bob Briggs, “Four stars, check it out!”
