Street Fighter 6 lets us taste the sweetness of a performance that wants to be one of the best titles in the fighting genre
The king has returned. After 6 years of the eventful launch of Street Fighter V, Capcom is doing its homework and letting us taste the honey of the new installment in the saga. Street Fighter 6 looks very, very good. At least version 0.2 that we were able to test during the closed beta last weekend. A whole statement of intent in the setting, playable mechanics, game modes and a solid online structure. The wait will be hard.
It’s undeniable that we already knew what we were going to do after the generous presentation campaign of Street Fighter 6 in recent months. Where we got an in-depth look at almost every featured character and their new playable mechanics from the hands of developers and genre experts. Version 0.2 we played this weekend included as playable characters Ryu, Luke, Chun Li, Jamie, Guile, Kimberly, Juri there Ken. A good repertoire of classic and new characters to try out different fighting styles and battle rhythms.
The first thing we did was create our avatar in the very complete character editor where we can create all kinds of personalities and yes, spawn too. Surely you have seen many of the community’s grotesque creations on social media. Joking aside, our avatar will be the character with which we move around the Battle Hub mode that we were able to test in this beta. A large room filled with arcade machines to play quick games with other players on the server, train in training mode, play qualifying games or participate in events. Each of these features worked flawlessly, with a stable connection and virtually no waits thanks to cross-play. the future is here
The Drive bar, the main novelty of Street Fighter 6
At the playable level, the first thing we found was the new modern control system which is assigned by default. A selection of moves and abilities for each character spread over four buttons and streamlined combos. This will be very useful for those who want to jump into the genre and learn other playable concepts without worrying about execution. Although it has little to do with classic freedom of control, I think they will have a good coexistence.
The big novelty and one of the pillars on which Street Fighter 6 is based is the new Drive bar. Which is divided into 6 segments, which we will have available at the start of each round and which we will have to manage throughout the fight. We will be able to use our Drive points in different improved movements, but with our head, because if we stay at zero we will enter a state of Burnout. This negative state will penalize us greatly when it comes to taking damage and trying to play defensively, so the only solution in this case is to take the initiative to fill the bar and recover. Either way, the Drive bar automatically regenerates throughout the game, so managing the Drive bar will be vital.
Another novelty in this episode, but not in the saga, is the universal parry for all characters, which also consumes the Drive bar. We can repel attacks relatively easily with a generous strike window, thus recovering the Drive invested. If, in addition, we manage to do the perfect parrymuch harder to hit, we will generate an advantage over our rival to counterattack at will.
More uses of the Drive system
The Generate impact This is one of the main offensive moves in Street Fighter 6, a priori it sounds spectacular, it can absorb up to three impacts to hit the opponent leaving him defenseless. Although if our opponent responds with the same move, we will be the ones sold. Another effective tool in certain situations but which should not be abused.
Another important move is Drive Rush, an impulse that will allow us to quickly approach the rival to surprise him and that, in addition, improves the properties of the next move that we will make next. Finally, the use of classics former move it will be linked this time to the Drive bar. Another novelty compared to the previous installment, in this way the great bar that we have in the lower corner of our screen, will only be used to perform the 3 super attacks that each character has.
Like we said before, Drive bar management will be the big pillar where every game will spin. A significant change from the neutral game and a bit more “fair” than the mechanics of come back which, for example, we saw in Street Fighter V with the V-Trigger.
The weight of blows
The graphic aspect is also a small revolution in Street Fighter 6, with an urban touch of graffiti and vibrant colors that I think suit her pretty well. Certain movements, such as the Drive Impact or the perfect parry, are accompanied by a visual effect that slightly stops the image which, in addition to being visually spectacular, gives us a few moments to prepare our attack sequence.
Although graphically it could be improved, the animations are quite smooth and the weight of the shots feels very good. I want to highlight characters like Kimberly or Jamie, with some hypnotic sequences due to the beauty and fluidity of their movements. A good sign for the rest of the newbie characters.
The BSO, also inscribed in urban styles such as hip hop, has a great personality. Another novel bet that didn’t dazzle me too much, but maybe I haven’t done much about it yet. What I want to highlight are the sound effects, with important details like when our character does a perfect charge and shouts it out in real time. Giving even more excitement to the atmosphere that is created within each fight visually and acoustically.
pamper the detail
Finally, I really enjoyed attention to small details such as in certain lines of dialogue between characters or specific animations in the scenarios, such as in Guile’s scenario, where we can see the pilot himself getting off his fighter and approaching to see the fight between the first and the second round.
Also where the attention to detail hasn’t been lost is how well the game itself works. Changing servers, looking for a friendly or qualifying game, accessing the friends list or even customizing our avatar will be a matter of just over two clicks from the management lobby itself. Thanks to the speed of next-generation SSDs loading times are practically non-existentespecially for a rematch, you are literally playing again in less than 3 seconds.
All this is also due to the online structure based on netcode rollback than Street Fighter 6. If we’ve learned anything after the pandemic, it’s that it’s unacceptable in 2022 for a fighting game, or any genre, not to perform well online. And if we add to this the importance of cross playfinding a game was also a matter of seconds in any of the game modes.
In short, I couldn’t be happier with everything I’ve seen in this version 0.2 of Street Fighter 6. Today’s Capcom is not the same as it was in 2016 and the direction of this new opus of the saga seems to have taken notes of the errors of the past and know very well what you are doing. There is still a lot to see, but the good taste in our mouths that this beta left us gives us confidence in what is to come.
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