Street Fighter 6 gets a crucial component of fighting games right: personality

Capcom seems to be taking the right steps for it Street Fighter 6. On top of a solid one-on-one fighting game, Capcom has built a lightweight RPG, a comprehensive set of training tools for newcomers and veterans alike, and a true arcade mode. It’s a far cry from the barebones, esports-focused launch status of Capcom’s latest flagship fighting game effort, Street Fighter 5.

I recently played dice with street fighter 6‘s various modes, including World Tour’s fun, Yakuza-esque open-world exploration, where players can take their custom character to the streets of Metro City and battle virtually any resident there. It is not as smooth nor as beautiful as Street Fighter 6‘s other modes, but it’s the most newcomer-friendly place to start; World Tour teaches players the basics of fighting games before sending them on a meet-and-greet adventure with the Street Fighter cast. It’s also where players can create their ideal fighter, or their weirdest – Capcom offers huge anatomical freedom with character creation in SF6.

The mode I spent the most time in, and the one I can’t quit, was Street Fighter 6‘s Fighting Ground, against Chelsea Stark, editor-in-chief of Polygon, in casual 1v1 battles. We had the chance to experiment with the SF6 roster – 18 fighters at launch – and picking a favorite feels almost impossible.

Almost every character in the Street Fighter 6 the roster is appealing, whether that’s a classic character like Ryu or Chun-Li, who feel instantly familiar and newly refined, or fresh faces like Marisa (a hulking Italian kickboxer) and JP (a vascular dandy who might as well be a wizard can be). Those latter characters exude personality: Marisa rivals Zangief in both size and pride, but she subtly drags her defeated opponents along at the end of a match; JP brings a sense of refined style and apparent Psycho Power abilities to combat, heartlessly stepping over his opponents as he walks away victorious.

Style and personality bookends battle within Street Fighter 6. In addition to post-fight flair, the game gives its fighters true WWE-style entrances, and they can go mean to each other in pre-match faceoffs. Capcom showed off that feature, called Game Face, quite some time ago, and after playing with it, it feels infinitely entertaining to watch the game’s World Warriors grin, growl, and stick their tongues out at each other. Game Face is just one of hundreds of meticulous details Capcom puts in Street Fighter 6all to make fighting games fun again for the masses.

The STree Fighter 6 roster is incredibly diverse, with big powerhouses like Zangief and Marisa fighting alongside fast fighters like Cammy and newcomer Kimberly. Kimberly can teleport with her modernized version of ninja smoke bombs – spray cans – and she feels she will be a real weapon in the hands of fighting game pros. Her rushdown abilities allow her to sprint at an opponent and act unpredictably, with follow-up moves like slide kicks and jumping leg grabs that will leave opponents baffled…and frustrated.

Capcom has even managed to revive veterans like Dhalsim, Honda and Blanka, all of whom feel completely authentic in their Street fighter 2 versions, but updated in a way that fits their designs. Dhalsim is terrifyingly more rubbery than ever, Honda looks and moves more like a real sumo fighter, and Blanka looks like a man and a wild beast. Capcom amped up the character designs and personality traits of Street Fighter’s veteran cast to their peak, but somehow managed not to turn them into caricatures of themselves.

Image: Capcom

Not a single member of the cast – which also includes returning fighters Ryu, Ken, Guile, Juri and Dee Jay – seems to have been overlooked. Be it new looks that differentiate them from previous versions, such as Street Fighter 6‘s standard ‘Hot Ryu’ and ‘Hobo Ken’, or newly polished moves, Capcom seems to have taken the ‘there’s something for everyone’ approach not only to game modes and features, but also to the characters themselves.

Street Fighter 6 and the new series of World Warriors are coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X on June 6. At least four more characters are planned to join the game as downloadable content in the game’s first year, including Akuma (which debuted in Super street fighter 2 turbo), Ed (first playable in Street Fighter 5), Rashid (also from Street Fighter 5), and AKI (a brand new fighter).