STREET Fighter 6 saw a full gameplay trailer at Sony’s State Of Play last night – showing off what the classic fighting game series has to offer for a new generation. As the long awaited sequel to Street Fighter V, a game with a controversial history, Street Fighter 6 has a lot of expectations on its shoulders.
Luckily for Capcom, this reveal is one of the most encouraging that I have seen in a very long time. Street Fighter 6 has a whole host of promising new features that look to be a return to the creative aesthetics that made me fall in love with the series with the now cult classic, Street Fighter III: Third Strike.
Putting The Street Back In Street Fighter
The first thing I noticed while watching the gameplay reveal is the refreshing sense of style that the new game is gunning for. An urban aesthetic with rough graffiti, dirty streets and a sprawling city in the background permeates this game. On top of that, rap music makes for the main theme of the game – a wonderful reminder back to Third Strike, which was known for its usage of the hip-hop sound.
On top of that, there is a continued attempt to make the game feel more like a pseudo-sports game. This is an interesting choice that was experimented with slightly in Street Fighter V via in-game commercials and cross-promotions, but never explored in much depth. This time, there is a serious commitment to making the game feel like a next generation sports title. The introduction of dynamic in-game commentators hand-picked from the community is phenomenal, and a feature I hope more fighting games will pick up on. The big open-world element to the new game is also encouraging. It reminds me a lot of the NBA 2K21 mode “The City” – which is a cute little open world story mode. Street Fighter 6 looks to be doing something similar with it’s new “World Tour” story mode.
Hyper Fighting
From this trailer alone, I can tell that the fighting is going to be a thing of absolute beauty. The animations are perfect – smooth, with strong keyframes that mean each move packs a punch. Each character looks fantastic with Ryu and Chun-Li, the only returning fighters we have seen so far, getting phenomenal designs. They both look a little older, but it helps keep the characters fresh.
The new drive system looks dynamic and brings something that I have wanted for a very long time – a universal perfect parry system. Now, parrying is something that every character can utilize to their own benefit. It’s a perfect expression of skill. This new drive system also seems to bring with it a whole other host of changes that seem to fundamentally shift the way characters fight each other. The introduction of more universal system mechanics is always good news to me – more complexity for every character means the movesets can afford to be more in depth.
Fight For The Future
An exciting new future awaits the Street Fighter franchise with this entry, that much is for sure. As a fan for nearly a decade, I cannot contain how happy I am to see Capcom try to push forward the fighting game genre once more. Phenomenal graphics, intriguing new gameplay systems and a big push forward towards potentially genre-changing sports game influences? How could I not be excited out of my mind?
The developers have put together a blogspot discussing the features of the new game if you’re interested in checking them out yourself, too. The only currently given release date is 2023 – but for my sake, I hope it is sooner rather than later!
