Street Fighter 6feels like a response, the counter-punch from a developer bruised and battered after a heavy defeat.
Street Fighter 5 launched half finished.
All this on top of a world class combat system and fighting feel.
It’s a fantastic package - perhaps the best Street Fighter’s ever had.
As you play you earn experience and level up.
There is a rudimentary skill tree and gear with its own set of stats to equip.
World Tour, then, is Street Fighter RPG, but it’s also completely and utterly silly.
Metro City’s like Fight Club without the secret rules.
Or just Spinning Bird Kick straight into their gut to skip the foreplay.
The game then switches into the standard 2D fighting perspective for a round.
Win or lose, you switch back to the 3D perspective and get on with your day.
No-one bears a grudge.
In Street Fighter 6, fighting is life!
Eventually you’ll go on a globe-trotting adventure involving crime syndicates, rebel factions and increasingly daft side quests.
At one point I found myself tearing posters off walls.
made good on a delivery to a vendor who was waiting for new supplies.
You’ll meet famous Street Fighter characters in self-contained areas lifted from their stages.
Cammy is of course standing with a serious look on her face outside a London pub.
Big Ben is in the background and there’s a red bus.
Dhalsim is in India, flanked by elephants.
The stretchy sage always has something wise to say, and enjoys spice as a gift.
World Tour is as close to a Street Fighter relationship sim as we’ve ever seen.
It’s hilarious and kind of great.
But it’s overwhelmingly endearing.
My enduring memory of World Tour is the time I got a text message from Ryu.
Of course he does - it’s old out of touch uncle Ryu!
This bizarre single-player sojourn is for them.
Unashamedly, joyously for them.
This control scheme lets you perform context-dependent combos and special moves without the need for complex input commands.
We’re talking about auto dash cancelling, air juggles and Critical Arts, that sort of thing.
It’ll help people get through World Tour, which is difficult towards the end.
It’ll help newcomers with arcade mode.
And yes, it’ll help when playing against other people.
In any case, the modern control scheme does not help players out with the fundamentals.
It is inaccessible for most who play games let alone those who do not.
In fact, quite the opposite.
The new Drive Gauge is central to Street Fighter 6’s fresh style.
This resource governs a number of powerful abilities, including the Drive Impact.
Oh boy has Drive Impact caused a kerfuffle among Street Fighter fans!
This is a move that can only evoke one of two emotions: delight or despair.
Drive Impact is so good it initially feels overpowered.
The clever bit is how the Drive Gauge is balanced.
Better, though, is Drive Impact has a natural counter: itself.
and Drive Rush (dashing for the win!)
Ryu’s rubbed off on me.
Must be all those texts.
With each new Street Fighter game comes new characters and redesigns for old favourites.
Jamie, a breakdancing drunken master, isn’t far behind.
Manon combines ballerina with judo (why not?).
Most of the returning characters look and feel as you’d expect.
I picked up and played my main man Guile without dropping a beat.
Zangief still struggles to get in for a Spinning Piledriver.
I’m glad E. Honda is back but he feels pretty useless.
He’s got a great vibe though!
Vibrant, inventive design and superb animation course through all.
Jamie’s drunken master moves are silky smooth and worthy of a Jackie Chan flick.
Cammy’s redesign - already a fan favourite for obvious reasons - is a triumph.
The art style remains heavily stylised (look at Luke’s forearms!)
Street Fighter 6, like its predecessors, looks and feels world class.
I expect nothing less.
This is the most social Street Fighter game I’ve played.
The Battle Hub deserves particular praise.
A handful of other players had spectated our match, their avatars huddled around the cab.
“GG,” I wrote in the hub chat, for all in the lobby to see.
“GG,” was the response.
I was transported to Megabowl in Streatham and a childhood spent training against real humans in the real world.
At this stage I have mild concerns, rather than criticisms.
Navigation often feels like a fight in itself.
We also knowits first wave of DLC characters.
It’ll be interesting to see how much Capcom charges for all these micro-transactions, and how fans react.
But at launch, Street Fighter 6 is as good a Street Fighter game as I could hope for.
I’ve already put about 50 hours into it, and I can see it lasting me years.
It is welcoming, accessible and progressive.
It is social, silly and spectacular.
And it is very special indeed.
