The Street Fighter series is the touchstone of the fighting game genre. It’s a name that everyone knows and each entry’s innovations have an impact on competing titles. However, as successful and appreciated as it eventually became by many fans, there’s no denying that Street Fighter 5 didn’t leave the best mark on the series’ history. One could argue that the reception to Capcom’s fighting games over the last decade has come at an inverse to their success with the rest of their portfolio.

All of this is to say that Street Fighter 6 had a tough hill to climb. It isn’t perfect and there are some elements that leave me wanting. However, for the most part, this has met and exceeded my expectations.

I have to start off with the visuals because Street Fighter 6 looks absolutely fantastic. Part of that is certainly due to the RE Engine, which the team certainly shows great expertise with. On a nitty-gritty level, I want to give some quick praise to the animations. They’re so fluid and it’s even easier to see how fluid they are when watching replays.

Stepping back to what’s noticed at first glance though, I am a huge fan of the more realistic style. This isn’t Mortal Kombat by any means, but I think they found a happy medium between realistic and animated. The character designs themselves are also fantastic. New characters fit right in while old characters have been given some well-received updates to their fit.

As weird as it might sound, my favorite aspect might just be how much personality is here. I had already mentioned some of this when I played the beta and my opinion has only improved with the full game. Everything just feels so welcoming and fun, which comes in a preferred contrast from the more E-sports focus in the previous game. In traditional gameplay, graffiti flourishes with the Drive system and certain animations with characters. Outside of that, it’s the unique characters you meet in World Tour and every aspect of the wonderful character select/VS screen.

The music plays a big part in that too. The jazzy tunes of Battle Hub are just as delightful as the hip-hop that plays during character selection. I’m also a big fan of nearly every character’s theme that matches them so well. Juri has an awesome K-Pop/Trap theme. Cammy’s theme sounds like it was taken straight out of a modern spy-action movie. JP has a slow-burn track that grows into one tailor-made for a big bad. Ryu’s admittedly doesn’t fit as much, but it also feels appropriate as an evolution of the character and the series itself.

Of course, we should talk about the most important part, the gameplay. I have nothing but praise to give because it’s all so fun. The universal Drive System provides so many offensive and defensive tools that it feels like there’s always an answer to a situation. Understanding the uses of Drive Impact and Drive Rush, as well as realizing how I could have reacted better in some situations, is a wonderfully addictive learning experience.

It can be a bit intimidating at first though. The Drive System is a complicated mechanic that you need to keep an eye on and learn to use in addition to character-specific strategies. Once you get into the groove though, it’s smooth sailing. The numerous tutorials and wonderfully in-depth training mode carry their weight well too.

The online experience is an important part and it feels great to play. The rollback netcode is fantastic and I have had only a couple of matches with a spotty connection. Cross-play meanwhile has ensured I never have to wait too long before the next match.

I’m also in love with how fast I can rematch someone. It’s just so awesome to not be stuck looking at currencies I gained, lengthy loading screens, or character intros again. I click rematch and within a few seconds, it’s back to round 1. If there’s a checklist of everything I want from an online experience, this marks every box.

My experience playing online leads me to something else that Street Fighter 6 excels at. Metas will always form in anything competitive and that’s a total given for a fighting game. At the same time, so many recent games from the genre have felt rigid when it comes to a character’s game-plan. It’s expected that players will all use a character the same way. What’s refreshing here is the wide set of tools and freedom with how to use the characters.

That’s not to say you won’t ever see the same combos and set-ups, nor is it saying those won’t become more commonplace further down the road. However, in my time with Street Fighter 6, I’ve seen so much variance in how these characters are being successfully played. Between the aforementioned Drive System and what each fighter can individually do, it feels like you can win without following the same template. You can let your own creativity shine through the gameplay.

Speaking of creativity, I have to talk about Battle Hub and World Tour. The former is a social hub where you can take your imaginative avatar and interact with other players through text, emoting, playing classic arcade games, or simply fighting each other.

It surprisingly manages to fulfill its goal of creating this fun space for everyone with a Street Fighter flair. I can’t help but think of it a lot like PlayStation Home and other probably better examples of virtual social platforms. The Battle Hub doesn’t try to achieve the same goals as those, but by staying restricted to a single hub and just focusing on that singular area ends up feeling fine. I still haven’t lost appreciation for the community’s “creative” avatars either.

World Tour acts more as the story mode. There are arcade stories with endings for each character, but the World Tour which has its own lengthy campaign with your avatar. Starting off as a recruit under Luke, various events lead you to travel the world to meet other fighters.

The gameplay in this mode is varied. A bulk of it is exploring different areas in a 3D space, doing everything from buying clothes and participating in game-mechanic mini-games to fighting random pedestrians and enemies. You can also take on any character from the roster as your master, allowing you to learn their moveset. From there it’s possible to swap out specials to create your own Frankenstein’s monster of a fighter.

If I have any criticisms to give, it’s here. I have fun in this mode, but there are a few things that weigh it down for me. Personally, I’m not a fan of inserting myself into a world already filled with characters. I can tolerate it if I’m playing a protagonist with a distinct voice and traits, but a mostly-silent one in this situation feels weird.

What makes it worse is that there is a lot of interaction and most of it is my avatar silently emoting in an over-the-top manner. In Street Fighter V this would have worked fine because a lot of characters had that anime-level of exaggeration. That’s not the case here though because the characters have personalities but still feel grounded to a degree. As a result, my avatar is almost always jarringly awkward and feels like they’re in the wrong world.

My solution for this was to dress up in a giant Blanka-Chan costume since it made more sense for someone in a mascot suit to act this way. Barring some occasional clipping issues with the giant hands, I found myself enjoying my character a whole lot more.

That didn’t completely fix all the problems I had though. Any enemy variety becomes pointless since they all sort of blend in together after a while. Some enemies are also annoyingly persistent when it comes to attacking you in the overworld and eventually, I just wanted to avoid fighting in general because it felt like a grind. That’s the last thing I want to feel in a fighting game and while it didn’t carry over into the traditional modes I spent more time with, it still sucks to feel that way at all.

Outside of those annoyances in World Tour mode though, I really have nothing bad to say. I’ve honestly spent a lot of my time in that mode and any negatives there just barely take away from the fun I have with the rest of it. The music is great and the characters might possibly look the best they ever have. Every match online has come across like a fun unique puzzle, balancing the Drive Gauge all the while playing against people who utilize characters in different ways.

Street Fighter 6 is simply filled to the brim with personality across its various modes and it hasn’t stopped feeling fun yet. There might be other fighting games on the horizon I dedicate some time to, but this is one I know I’ll always come back for more.

A PC Review copy of Street Fighter 6 was provided by Capcom for this review.

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Street Fighter 6

$59.99

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Pure Fun Gameplay
• Amazing Visuals/Character Design
• In-depth Training Modes
• Wonderful Online Experience
• Novel World Tour Mode

Cons

• World Tour Feels a Little Awkward and Underbaked at Times