Game review: Street Fighter 6 (PS5 and Xbox Series X)
The Street Fighter franchise has been known to me ever since I was a little kid. Street Fighter II was the first game I remember playing on the old family Amiga computer when I was four or five years old. Fast forward to 2009, and Street Fighter IV was the first game I professionally reviewed for Techday NZ.
Even though most Street Fighter games are awesome, the 2016 launch of Street Fighter V was less than stellar. This is because Capcom was focusing on the eSports crowd, which meant the game had little single-player content at launch. Street Fighter V lacked an arcade mode or a story mode when it first came out!
Thankfully, it looks like Capcom has listened to the criticism, as Street Fighter 6 is packed with lots of content at launch. Not only does the game have arcade mode and online multiplayer, but it also has a new feature called the 'World Tour'.
The 'World Tour'is arguably the biggest and best single-player offering in any fighting game I have played recently. This is a semi-open world adventure mode where you create your own fighter as they encounter many of the fighters from the Street Fighter 6 roster.
At first, your fighter is weak and can only perform a few special moves. As the story progresses, you will meet the other Street Fighters, and you can then learn their special moves. The 'World Tour' feels similar to a Yakuza game as there is a city for you to explore, and some enemies can even attack you at any time while you're roaming around.
Fighting lots of bad guys in this mode is important because it's like an RPG. The more you fight, the stronger your character will become. There is no difficulty mode in World Tour, but you can make the controls more simplistic.
New to Street Fighter 6 is something called 'Modern Controls', which have been implemented to encourage beginners to play the game. Previously, playing Street Fighter games was hard for beginners because not everyone was able to rotate the analogue sticks correctly to perform all of the special moves.
With the Modern Controls turned on, you may now only need to press one or two buttons to execute the special moves. Modern Controls aren't only just available in World Tour because you can turn them on in every other game mode in Street Fighter 6 too.
World Tour is around 20 hours long, but you can expect a longer playtime if you want to tackle all of the side quests. Not to mention you can unlock more costumes for the main roster fighters if you increase your bond with your mentors.
World Tour also has a neat easter egg hidden in the city where you can play the full game of Capcom's Final Fight. Final Fight is a '90s beat-em-up game that is similar to the likes of Double Dragon or Sega's Streets of Rage. It's a nice touch to add for those that grew up in this era of gaming, like me.
Outside of World Tour, there are also several other offline modes that you can experience in Street Fighter 6. Most people will probably dive into the Arcade mode first, where you can experience the story of the main roster fighters. You can choose to play through five or 12 stages, and there are lots of difficulty options to choose from too. One of the stages even lets you even fight against a huge truck! Other mini-games are also here for those that want to test out their skills.
Other offline modes include VS mode as well as training modes where you can practice moves and combos. New to this game is something called Extreme Battle, and this allows you to introduce some weird and wacky gimmicks. Some of the gimmicks include avoiding a bull, evading electricity, not getting exploded by a bomb and more. This will surely be a fun party mode if you don't want to play the traditional way.
Lastly, there is the Battle Hub, and this is the place for online multiplayer. Instead of only fighting others, you are free to also spectate matches while you wait for your own fight. There are even tournaments to join and other old Capcom arcade games you can play in the lobby too.
Graphically, Street Fighter 6 uses the same game engine as Resident Evil 4. While the graphics aren't as realistic as Resident Evil games, it's bright and stylish for a Street Fighter game. Arguably, it's the best-looking Street Fighter game of all time, and it even features some homages to the stages from Street Fighter II.
Speaking of Street Fighter II, the launch roster is pretty impressive as many fan favourites return. You can play as the likes of Ryu, Ken, Guile, Chun-Li, Cammy and more. The roster also includes several new exciting fighters that have their own unique fighting styles. If your favourite fighter isn't in the game yet, they might get added later as post-launch DLC.
The only negative thing I can say about the game is that the World Tour mode gets hard, and there isn't much voice acting, either. The majority of the game you have to play by reading subtitles because Capcom didn't record all of the dialogue for some reason.
Overall though, Street Fighter 6 is one of the best recent fighting games I have ever played. The single-player and offline modes make this game a complete package. It's also great that Capcom is also making the game more accessible for newbies in the fighting game genre. This is a must-have if you like fighting games in general.
Verdict: 9.5/10
