Street Fighter 6 – Final Preview: World Tour rounds out the genre-defining feature set

street fighter 6 Quite possibly one of the greatest transformations in gaming history. Reminds you of the deeply flawed Street Fighter V released in 2016. The package has a very strong skeleton, but also doesn’t have much meat. In fact, if you don’t want to play multiplayer, you’re out of luck. This is a shocking, sloppy launch package.

The SF5 has really improved over the years. It’s nowhere near SF4, but I found it to be an enjoyable experience, with a ton of content in all modes. But it took the developers years, and a leadership overhaul, to get there. Maybe SF5 is what needs to happen to learn some valid lessons. Street Fighter VI takes those lessons to heart.

Let’s be fair. I’ve talked about all of this before. I gushed about the game during my first limited hands-on session, and then again when the cast expanded. I’m also one of only two fighting game enthusiasts on the iGamesNews staff – so I’m not even alone, Connor also expressed his extreme excitement for SF6. But the latest practice — the last one before we downloaded the final version of the game — was different.

This is different because the beat never happened in Street Fighter 5. SF5 always looks pretty sharp ahead of launch – an interesting clay art style that initially seems to recall mechanics from the SF3 series, with interesting newcomers and Alpha series veterans alike. But the preview version of SF5 hid from critics the true anemic state of the title’s single-player game – so in many ways, this practice is the ultimate test for SF6. judgment? Well, it looks like a perfect KO.

Obviously, time will tell – some of you may have experienced some of the things I did in public demos. However, the build I played felt very close to the final version, with more missions for the single-player “World Tour” mode, and all 18 starter rosters playable in other modes.

We already know that the core combat of SF6 is very sharp. I checked everyone. Marisa has been a surprisingly unexpected favorite of mine, often opting for diminutive, quick-moving characters over muscular fighters. Dhalsim is dirty and can be an online bloody nightmare. Surprisingly, Lily resembles dad T. Hawk more than I expected.

And my master, Kami – well, I love her. She’s different in a way, which means I haven’t resonated with her yet. The main feeling of proper change in a new fighting game should be a bit like getting a new car. Clutches come in different weights. You know how to operate it, but everything just feels a little off, a little labored. Time is different and takes time to digest. I’m looking forward to jumping into the lab the minute I get my last game.

But, let’s be honest, we know that barring a catastrophe, it’s all good. What about the World Tour? This is where the rubber meets the road – and this is where Capcom has shown its bravest, and I think the results will play out.

In case you’ve forgotten, Street Fighter VI is, in many ways, two (or three, if you’re feeling silly for your generosity) games rolled into one. On one side there are battlefields and battle centers. Between them, these two modes constitute some variants of almost all major functional pillars of SF4 and 5. If you want to play a simple arcade mode with combat ladders, car teardown mini-games, and vaguely-funny beginning and ending story comics, this is it. This is true of training modes, challenges, online, wacky bonus battle modes, and even new features like some fascinating new “Character Guide” teaching tools.

However, if you’re a more casual Street Fighter player, World Tour is just for you. Years ago, before the announcement of SF6, someone described it to me as “like Crypt meets Shenmue of Mortal Kombat”. That seems like an absurd description to me – linking the krypt’s unlockable bonanza and lore feast with a kind of open-ended adventure. I really don’t believe this description. But here we are – that’s right!

I mean, whisper it…but really, Street Fighter VI is an RPG. It has character levels, skill trees (sort of), items, and random encounters on the street (sort of). It has a lot in common with Yakuza and even Shenmue – but the genius is that it serves a dual purpose.

A world tour in itself is doable and worthwhile. But it’s also clearly a “real deal” training tool. The character you create starts as a rookie and becomes a mighty fighter over time. They’ll do this by meeting, befriending, and training with famous faces from the Street Fighter world to learn new skills. You’ll be able to equip poses and styles–so that the characters you create will be even more unique. Given that all combat is played out in classic Street Fighter fashion, a handy side effect here is that you’ll learn more about each character’s move setup, as well as portable knowledge that can be transferred back to Battle Hub and Fighting Ground.

It’s exactly the kind of training tool Street Fighter has always needed–a less cluttered solution to teaching and “story mode” than Mortal Kombat’s extravagant cinematic storytelling Marvel, but won’t teach you much. Playing farther outside the demo area, I embraced the chaos. Despite only being level 7, I fought a burly level 27 enemy and tried to let my fighting game knowledge tell me to pass. That failed, so I resorted to using consumable heals and power-up items in combat to wear him down. It’s a heavy price to pay, but once defeated, my ranks jump with it. look? This is an RPG, in its own way.

The world presented – just a free-roaming metropolitan city in the block, but with representation of other nations and regions, some more limited than others – is colorful and inviting. It makes good use of one of Street Fighter’s greatest assets, which is at the heart of its existence as a Marvel-style connected gaming universe dating back more than 30 years. The most ubiquitous one is Final Fight, but I’d also really like to see Rival Schools and Slam Masters represented. I really like the sadness of street fighter lore, the sad side is for that.

While designed for “modern” control methods on a controller, I was able to play World Tour on a stick. In this mode, I could have happily passed hours if Capcom PR hadn’t been ready to unplug the cord the moment I saw the end of what I was allowed to see.

In fact, it’s probably the greatest thing I can say. I’m not at all the target audience for World Tour, as I’m the type of goblin who jumps into training mode or online and is happy for months. But the novelty and usefulness that Capcom offers here is enough to appeal to me – so I hope newbies or those less inclined to enter the plague pit of ranked play will have fun. Maybe, just maybe, it will get them ready to go online. If this can change even the 1 in 10 people who otherwise might never get online, then Capcom could be a huge winner.

So yes – the world tour is impressive. Like the rest of Street Fighter VI, it seems like a thoughtful and crafted response to the market and the strong criticism it’s received over the past decade or so. The only question left now is how well all these elements will come together in the final game. If only Capcom could stick with the landing. I’m optimistic — and I’m more motivated than ever to find out in a few weeks.

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