In the era of open worlds, action rpgs, soulslikes and shooters, there are some people who still prove their strength shaking hands, with fists. In the past it was done on cabinets, now in front of your TV (and maybe even online). A similar discourse – at least conceptually – is what opens street fighter 6new iteration of the famous fighting game saga that takes the burden of modernize a game that has always made the classic its strong point. Will he have made it? This review exists to tell you about it.
Three-hit combo
Street Fighter 6 revolutionises, in a cautious but not indecisive way, the concept behind ai street fighters. Just an opening video tells of how, while the world advances with technology and modernism, Metro City remains the city where some brave ones continue to prove their strength by fighting. Street Fighter 6 is our Metro City, where we can unleash these challenges that have long since abandoned gaming platforms.
The new Capcom fighting game offers a trio of very interesting modes: world tours, a very deep single player campaign that we will talk about shortly, Battle Hub, which will become the focus of the game in the long run being the online mode, and the Fighting Ground, what we could call the offline package, featuring various modes, local battles and trainings.
Battle Hub
Let’s kick things off with the Battle Hub, mode that repeats something already seen previously in similar games, but which finds its heyday in the way Capcom has brought it to life. This section will allow players to experience, with their own avatars, a true virtual space in which to clash.
Any mode of Fighting ground it can be tested here, against other players, also giving the possibility of using it as a free zone to organize tournaments and activities.
Obviously the addition is purely qualitative, and not tied to the raw gameplay, but it must be said that being able to see other players in this virtual space, all fans of Street Fighter, is still really fantastic.
Living inside those places a series of challenges on Street Fighter 6 manages immerse even more within the game, which is no small thing considering the feeling that an online game gives compared to an offline one.
World Tour
Flagship – not for the competitive – this single player mode will allow players to experience an unedited story with their own avatar (customizable with a really good editor). Starting in Metro City, players will be able to fight, train, learn from masters and find your own stylemade up of special moves and disruptive attacks.
In this part of the game, the title takes a different foldwith a setting that isn’t exactly the same as the classic game, but that nonetheless remains fulfilling (especially given the challenges you can do, with practically any NPC on the street). The missions will be preparatory to the story, while the secondary ones will try (and succeed) to make you smile even though some of these are crazy.
The mode proved to be interesting, fun and well structured, with lots of easter eggs and items to unlock. Unfortunately it is also the most experimental, and for this reason it presents some annoying bugs that have occasionally stormed the screen. For the rest, however, it is an excellent system capable of extending the longevity of the title.
Fighting ground
Last but not least the Fighting Ground mode, a battlefield for old school challenges. Despite this, in this section it’s easy to get lost among the various options available. In fact, if the Arcade mode remains the usual (with the choice of whether to do it from 5 or 12 matches), the mode Practice instead it expands into not only becoming the heart of Street Fighter 6 learning, but also giving deeper notionsAnd of the simple command scheme.
In versus mode we will be able to undertake 1vs1 or team challenges, whether they are made up of bots or flesh-and-blood players. To close, in addition to the online mode (for those who don’t want to try their hand at the Battle Hub and simply throw themselves into multiplayer challenges on the net) there is the special modewhich for now only counts Extreme Battle (but which will surely expand in the future).
There Extreme Battle it is a mode that will allow you to add various modifiers, including bulls ready to run towards you up to additional modes, which will make the challenges more “tasty”.
The old returns, the new arrives
After the practical part, now it’s time to talk about the evolution of the game: when we talk about Street Fighter 6, we are talking to all intents and purposes of a title that stands as new starting point of the saga. It is evident in the richness of the contents, it is evident in the technical sector and it is evident in the combat system, the true heart of the game.
We can see the same dynamic in the personages: The rosters of Street Fighter 6 consists of 18 fighters. Eight of these are what are defined world warriors (Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, Zangief, Honda, Blanka and Dhalsim), but there are also 4 historical characters (Cammy, Juri, Dee Jay and Luke), as well as new fighters such as Lily, Jamie, Kimberly, Manon, Marisa and JP.
In short, one eye on the past and one on the future, while the ring of the present is preparing to host the new challenges of Street Fighter 6: but how can such a vast audience be satisfied, which has often found in the game an architectural barrier given by complex commands? There answer resides in choice.
Street Fighter 6 in fact allows you to choose which types of commands to use: if you are for the Classicyou can have the classics 3 buttons for punches, 3 for kicks and tons of crescents; if you want something more practical, however, you can use the commands Modern, which will have fewer buttons and the special moves will be triggered with a button. To close, present one Dynamic modewhich will create combos automatically, practically giving access to the challenge to all newbies.
Instead, opening up to the real challenge, the one made of kicks and punches, Street Fighter 6 presents a very tactical and deep game system: as you can see in the photo above, each character will have a life bar, 6 small notches of a bar called Drive, and a special moves bar at the bottom. If the latter are the same ones that we have come to love over time, the Drive bar is there instead novelty par excellence, as well as one of the most complex dynamics included in a fighting game for some time (in a good way).
This bar will in fact be made up of six notches that will be consumed when a move rests precisely on this Drive, able not only to offer useful offensive options, but capable of making a character at the mercy of events in case it is used in the wrong way.
The Drive bar can be used to do the Drive Impact (1 slash), an almost invulnerable attack (at least for a certain number of hits), which will tend to stun or injure the enemy almost certainly. It’s not very resistant, if we think that a hold is enough to cancel it (or a jump, say), but it can prove to be very useful. Always with the Drive bar we will be able to make the attacks Overdrives (2 bars), what at the time were called EX and which are further enhanced special attacks.
Next we have the Drive Rush (half bar if used during the parry), which allows you to cancel an attack and then rush towards the opponent (in case of cancellation of a move, 3 bars), something capable of changing the pace of the match in short while. The Drive Parry (half bar) instead it is a parry that will be able to recover some of the Drive bar if done well, while the Drive Reversal (2 bars) will be able to push the enemy away after parrying a blow.
All of these mechanics bodes well for the future of the game: we remember in fact that the game has so far been in the hands of the reviewers, and only when it arrives among those of the champions we will be able to see what will really be able to make inroads, to establish the half, and what instead will end up in oblivion. There will be many mechanics to understand, starting from how the Drive options will be used, up to the commands, precisely different based on the choice.
Last information, but not least, the netcode: we are facing a rollback system capable of make every match so fluid to appear to be made locally. We never experienced any kind of slowdown (although there were far fewer players than they will be on day one) and every session was satisfying and problem-free.
Even the eye wants its part
Let’s get closer to the conclusion talking about the graphic aspect: the special Street Fighter 6 art design. The chosen style is closer to 3D counterparts, but still manages to maintain a unique and original style, close to the classic and still modern.
THE personagesbetween rework and news, they are all characterized at best and manage to express themselves with fists and facial expressions as if they had been with us for a lifetime (and we’re not just talking about historians).
If all this were not enough, adding spice will take care of a really energizing User Interface, made of video inputs of the fighters on adrenaline-pumping rhythmic notes, graphics that would scare any layout created for a last-generation boxing match, and a commentary in English which follows the battle step by step, making us feel even a little important during the challenge.
Street Fighter 6 has a well-defined style: we wouldn’t know how to identify it as it blends music of various genres, styles close to various currents and a very fusion art design, yet every single pixel of your screen is undoubtedly recognizable, which highlights how much the brand is powerfuleven when he puts in the Arcade clash having to punch and kick an articulated lorry, or intercept with basketball shots.
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