I’m not very good at street fighter. 2D fighters were never my jam, I’ve always been a 3D kid – so much so that I even took a trip to Japan when Tekken 7 was just an arcade game and sat on a machine while a couple of locals desperately threw themselves in. my king. But that doesn’t stop me from playing BlazBlue, Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, etc., except for releases — I love fighting games. fed up. My limited skill cap shouldn’t affect much.
That means I’m usually pretty loyal to my protagonists – I’ve been playing Kami for as long as I can remember. Killer Bee is perfect for the way I play; an aggressive sprint superstar with some lovely potential for confusion, and (now, in Street Fighter 6) some tricky recharge times that really force opponents to be on their toes and read you at the last minute do everything. She’s awesome, tough, and more than makes up for my lack of one-click combos with her speed and aggression.
Despite my limited skills, I play classic controls. I tinkered with modern and I do get a little annoyed that the modern Cammy players I meet in the ranked lobby can perform combos that don’t agree with me. But I don’t flinch; instead, I look at those impressive chains that bond me to the wall and think ‘ah, now’s the time, eh? ‘ Go the extra mile to pull them off. Sometimes I succeed! Sometimes, I lose to people I should have beaten. The fighting game master cast his choice, let’s fight again.
This gave me an idea. I don’t really want to play Modern Controls yet because I want to get better at using the core systems and understand the basics of the mechanics better. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t great training tools. From my time in World Tour, the canonical story mode in Street Fighter VI, I really enjoyed my time with Chun Li; I was impressed by her stance, mid-range utility, and combo potential Impressive, enough to make me consider her as my second character. In previous Street Fighter games, I barely left Cammy…but when I did, it was to press the button Ken or wake Ryu up, and there was nothing more exciting than that. Here, in Street Fighter VI, I took Chun Li to the lab for about an hour…and came out feeling pretty confident.
You see, it’s all thanks to those modern control automatic combinations. Just hold down a shoulder button and a face button, and seeing Chun go from neutral to devastating combos and hit the ball with all the punch of a concentrated one-inch fist will get your blood pumping. Be excited! It’s all the magic of a fighting game, delivered with perfect rhythm. Hitting those combos over and over, switching the input to classic mode and trying to emulate it (as the case may be) is a better training tool for me than experimenting with combinations baked into the game’s powerful tutorial mode.
I think letting you handle the moves yourself – seeing how they feel in the hands, in the arena, in combat – fits into my feeble body better than a static replay of my head banging my combo over and over brain and end. Playing real matches (even against the AI), knowing what moves can be done where, what’s safe and what’s not, and how to take advantage of cheeky low poke… this is for a character I never knew I needed Friendly, encouraging introductions.
Learning characters through Modern Controls also allows me to better understand how they behave when they are on the other side of the arena. It feels safer now to play against Hyundai Chun-Li in a match; I know her technique, I know her mix-ups, I know her range. I’m also aware of her standard combo that all modern players can’t really deviate from – which is probably the biggest downside of the control scheme (besides the 20% special move damage nerf).
Modern Controls is a huge boon for accessibility, and I can already see friends I know who aren’t fighting fans post about the game, or even talk about their success with Battle Hub. There’s a reason this game is the most popular Steam fighting game of all time – at launch! — and it’s already sold an outrageous amount. There’s a reason everyone in the lobby is so nice; they all have a great time! Because they are good at the game! Let’s imagine!
Modern Controls got some buzz for allowing spam players to spam…but that’s always the case in fighting games. As Alex so eloquently puts it in his article, if you can’t stand the heat of modern controls, stay away from Street Fighter 6’s kitchen. This new, accessible, and friendly addition from Capcom effectively lowers the barrier to entry while raising the fundamental skill level of the game as a whole. It’s just magic, really, and it’s the perfect balance between keeping the Street Fighter legacy intact and modernizing the brand for newcomers.
One of the first DLC characters to appear in the game is Rashid – the speedy Middle Eastern gadget lover he was introduced in Street Fighter V. He’s another rushdown hero and I’d 100% take him to the lab and go into Arcade mode and use Modern Controls the second he drops to get a quick idea of how to play him. I’m already excited about it–me, a player who went from barely knowing one character to at least three at my disposal.
I’m already planning to throw money at DLC that says it all: Street Fighter 6 has done its job, and I think I’ll be playing this for a long, long time.
