Admittedly, I am not the fighting game expert on this site or even in my own circle of friends. The key, I think, is all plays more of this genre than I do, although I was a bit of a fighting game fanatic as a kid. This lack of experience didn’t hinder me when it came to Street Fighter 6which brought the long-running fighting series to the latest console generation with breathtaking results. Street Fighter 6 has largely fixed many of the problems players had with its predecessor and packed so much love and adoration for the franchise’s history into it that people couldn’t help but adore it. Now it’s continuing its little comeback tour with a legendary addition to the squadalong with features designed to help fans continue their own personal adventures with the game.
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Primarily Street Fighter 6 adds Terry Bogard of SNK’s Deadly Rage Franchise as the series’ first guest fighter. The first of two SNK characters to appear during SF6second season (the other is Mai Shiranui), Terry seems to land with quite a bit of force. SF6 adapts essentially the entirety of his iconic moveset, including his earth-shattering Power Wave punch, his gravity-defying Rising Tackle – where he spins like a top while launching through the air feet first – and his searing Burning Knuckle. Although I agree with Terry and the Deadly Rage series, I know him well enough to know that SF6 has done a great job in implementing these measures.
The tribute doesn’t end there. Terry wears some of his signature looks, including the red jacket he is best known for, as well as a brown jacket from Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Depending on how he dresses, he even does different intro and victory animations, including a nod to Terry’s cap-throwing victory pose from the SNK games. In a game that’s already bursting at the seams with love for its own legendary roster, it’s pretty awesome that SF6 Terry rolls out the red carpet.
With the obvious reservation that I don’t really play fighting games regularlyTerry felt great in SF6 during my last practical experience with the character. His Power Wave allows him to create some space, while moves like Burning Knuckle and his Crack Shoot Kick, where Terry jumps forward and slams his leg down on his opponent, allow him to cover large gaps and deal a ton of damage. Some characters are wrestlers, others are good at mixups and the like, and Terry strikes me as a great all-around character. He may not be pigeonholed, but in the right hands he’s certainly a threat, and his inclusion in this game is exciting as hell.
That being said, I’m pretty bad at fighting games and love those that give me more tools to get better. I want to learn the nuances between Terry and the rest of the SF6 squad. Training modes are a given, but SF6 takes it a step further and offers two really cool new features designed to help players (like me!) get better and feel more comfortable in Ranked lobbies. The first is a feature the team calls “Replay Review.” This new tool is more than just a souped-up replay feature. It allows you to replay a game and then Take control by one of the fighters in the recording. If you thought you were completely destroyed by a player using Manon in a way you’ve never seen before, you can rewatch the game, study his moves, and then take control again to try out your own strategies against him.
It’s a wild new tool that I’ve never heard of before – although it seems to be in 8– and it went absolutely smoothly. After I beat up my opponent (sorry, buddy), he took the opportunity to use the new feature to see what I’d done to win. When he took control of his own character again, he used techniques he’d learned over the course of the fight to see if he could have pressured me for more damage or otherwise cornered me. My own fighter repeated the moves I’d made in the fight, which even gave me time to critique my own playstyle. I’ve since learned that I intervene too much, and that’s probably why I’m so susceptible to punishment and anti-air techniques. We all took something valuable away from this cool new feature.
I expect many pro players will use this on tour to more closely review their wins and losses and formalize their strategies. It’s great that there are use cases for players on both ends of the spectrum, as casual players can use the same tool to start Develop strategies and catalyze winning playstyles. This great new feature will be introduced with Terry’s addition on September 24th.
Another feature mentioned was the introduction of a mode called V-Rivals. In it, players can rank an AI opponent based on the hierarchy in SF6‘s online ranked competitions. The opponent will group the playstyles of people in that rank and then compete against the player in a sort of training. Players are meant to play more or less around their rank or just above it to learn to climb the ladder, and the feature is primarily intended for newbies who are hesitant to jump into ranked matches. This way, players can become more comfortable competing without sacrificing their status in online matches.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try out this new mode as our preview site couldn’t connect to the network, but in theory, V-Rivals (which launches in September along with everything else) sounds like a great tool for someone like me. Playing in SF6’s Preview window was humiliating and I got my ass spanked by countless friends of mine. While it’s simply the nature of competition, fighting games are some of the most intimate online environments with their 1v1 matches, making defeat a deeply embarrassing experience. Being able to be comfortable with people at my level without actually having to go online might be just what I need to SF6 in my favorite fighting game.
In total, Street Fighter 6 seems to be in fantastic shape. People seem to be excited about the growing player roster, and these new quality of life features seem to reaffirm what a great game it is. In short, SF6 obviously still has a lot of steam and shows no signs of slowing down or coming to a standstill any time soon.
Buy Street Fighter 6: Amazon | Best buy | Modest package
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