Let me kick this off by saying; I have a pretty sizable bias towards Street Fighter as a series. Hence why the website I created was called “Down Right Punch” to start with. When I was young I couldn’t grasp “Quarter Circle”. I had a vague understanding that most of the time when I would press down followed by right (presuming I was on the left hand side) I would shoot out a “DragonBall Z blast”. This is something that has stuck with me for most my life, this is why to this day I still say “down, right, punch” even if it’s not technically correct. 

All of this is to say, I love Street Fighter. Always have. I enjoy many fighting games casually. I dabble in Tekken. I enjoy the story of Mortal Kombat. Love the nostalgia that DBFighterZ gives me, and how beautiful Strive is. However, I am competitive in Street Fighter. I’m not hardcore enough to review bomb the game if they make a change I don’t love, There is certainly plenty of criticism to hurl towards SF6. As a Diamond Rank player pushing Master with a total of about 700 hours over the last almost two years, this has to be not only one of my favourite Street Fighter games, it has become one of my favourite games point blank.

This is not to say the game doesn’t have many issues. Mostly these issue stem from what the gaming culture has become in the last 10 plus years. Live service and seasonal pass expectations. But we will get into that a little further down. For now, I want to start with the obvious.

Street Fighter 6 rules. 

Pretty plain and simple. There are many reasons why both the FGC community and casuals would have plenty to love in this entry. So let’s get into it. 

Very first thing that I feel is important to mention. Controls. A surprisingly controversial topic as of late in the FCG. How does a fighting game cater to their hardcore longtime fanbase while also trying to open the door for a new generation os potential fans? People who may never would have tried a fighting game before, let alone stick with one after long after the honeymoon phase of the new game fomo wears off? Well, Street Fighter 6 introduces “Modern Controls”. This is not a new inclusion in fighting games, however it is for Street Fighter. What the control scheme boils down to is the ability to link together a few strings with repeated buttons presses. Such as repeatedly pressing X, or Square (depending on platform) and you will work out a half decent combo that may not be “Pro damage optimal”. But it will absolutely get the job done, and get it done well. This control scheme will also allow for the use of one button specials. This way, you won’t ever need to worry about whiffing a special because you didn’t nail the quarter circle or dragon punch motion. These controls offer a huge advantage for new players. Especially those who have a hard time getting into the genre. I for one, love this addition. I don’t play modern controls, but I love that their inclusion has allowed so many to enjoy this game that I love. And, I would be remiss to mention I have been completely bodied by Modern players, even in Diamond rank. I also know for a fact there are many Master players out there who use Modern. At a high level, ease of inputs is not the be all end all. That will still come down to fundamentals, footsies and knowing player matchups. Long and short of it is, if you are a voyeur into fighting games but don’t like to stick around. Modern is perfect for you. I encourage everyone to try it out and not spit toxicity online when they get matched against a new generation of Modern Warriors!

Lets start with Art Style. Yeah, it has one. A style that has screamed (to me at least) “what if we mashed up SF4 and Third Strike?”. As the camera pans towards me doing my best Phillip J.Fry impression, shoving money towards Capcom begging them to take it. Striking visuals and what was becoming an evolution of the gameplay in Street Fighter V. This is all it took to spark that sweet endorphin rush. While still skeptical that the game may launch as empty and starved as the past entries, Capcom’s latest triumphs with the Resident Evil series did give me a small hope that the same love would be given to Street Fighter (Maybe we will even get an Arcade most AT LAUNCH!). 

Modes. Arcade Mode? Check: Competing in a Tower style arcade mode won’t be the only single player activity. Arcade Mode is just a part of “Fighting Grounds” one of three packed modes available in SF6. Fighting Grounds is also where you will be utilizing the expanded Training Mode. Try your hand in Extreme Battles, Casual Battles and, where I spent a majority of my 700 Hours, Ranked Mode. This is where most of the competitive scene will live. Often I’ll boot up training mode and, while practicing combos and utilizing the the games toolbox meant to help you better understand the games mechanics and frame Data; I will also have Ranked Mode queuing in the background. If you want to take a break from playing your own rank, and want something a little more interactive, then the games second launcher may be for you.

Battle Hub: A unique mode where you create your own personal Avatar using the impressive RE Engine. There are some absolute nightmare creations out in the wild, and you won’t have to try hard to find some of these “amazing” creations. In this mode once the character creator has been pushed to its limit, you are let loose into the Battle Hub. A place that is meant to resemble an Arcade. A stadium, Theater like with a massive screen at the center stage. The stadium is surrounded with arcade cabinets facing back to back with each other. You can pilot your RE Engine nightmare machine to any one of these cabinets and sit them down to want for an opponent to sit themselves at the opposing one. You can then compete with that person regardless of their rank in online. Just as well, you are no longer beholden to the limit of Best of Three which is where Fighting Grounds limits their player interactions. You can play extremely long sets, until you or the other person taps out. Or, if there is a queue of people at your particular cabinet it will kick out the loser to make room for the next challenger. This is to best replicate Arcade culture of lining up your quarters to hold your spot in line to try and dethrone the local King of the machine. Battle Hub is also where Character Specific and League Separated Tournaments are held. These tournaments will often grant you an in-game currency called “Drive Tickets” often for just choosing to compete in them, and more for winning. These Tickets can be redeemed for Cosmetics for your create-a-fighter. Though the exchange rate can be pretty ridiculous and often not worth it. Seemingly to incentivize you to spend real money on the games second form of in game currency. Fight Coins. Which seems like a great way to Segway into my first gripe with the game. 

Monetization. Most items can be bought with the free in game currency of Drive Tickets in the Battle Hub, with notable exceptions being made for limited time licensed items. Most infamously was the first crossover event the game had not too long after launch. SF6 introduced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costumes for your create-a-fighter. These can only be purchased through fighter coins, not drive tickets. Which set the community into a frenzy when this launched. Not because of any expectations that these costumes would come for free. But, more that the costumes (which were not usable for any of the actual main roster of fighters) cost roughly $15 each. And with four outfits, one for each turtle, $60 was an absolutely outrageous asking price for something they would only use on their Avatar. Though nothing was publicly said about this by Capcom, it is assumed that they know it was a bad look that was presumable set into motion before the game was ever released. As no collaboration of this size has happened since. There have been crossovers for sure, but nothing asking you to spend $60 to obtain third party digital items. 

The monetization issues haven’t stopped stopped there. There are two staples in modern day fighting games that they need to stay alive and relevant. Those are Additional seasonal characters and Costumes for your whole roster. Each of the main roster has two costumes. Their Default costume and a second one, typically a “classic” costume. As most of the fight cards looks and outfits have changed fairly dramatically for this new entry. This classic costume can be obtained one of two way. You can unlock it in the “World Tour” mode, which we haven’t gone into details about yet (but we will). Or, you can buy it with Fight Coins. This practice no one really batted an eye at, as the game gave you the ability to unlock it without dropping anymore cash. It also helped that the means for unlocking their second costume wasn’t too challenging provided you can find the character in the open world (again, more on this later). You might now ask yourself “Hey, this author said we had monetization issues with costumes, that doesn’t seem so bad!” And you would be right, if the existence of Costume Three didn’t exist. The Street Fighter community in year one was pretty starved for content. We had a character season pass, yes. We had four new characters dropping in the span of a year. Rashid, AKI, Ed and the beloved Akuma. The space between these charter drops were… uneven at absolute best. You would assume three months between each character. But you would be wrong. The wait between AKI and Ed would end up being five whole months. And with zero balance patches within the first year of release, players were starved for anything new in the game to look forward to. Especially since the FGC was starting to explode with new entries to both Mortal Kombat and Tekken releasing. 

Costume three finally did release for the whole main roster all at once on December 1^st, 2023. Finally something came that would breath some fresh air into the game between the released of AKI and Ed. To some shock, there was no bundle to purchase all costumes at once at a discounted rate, and we no longer have the ability to unlock these new costumes in any mode which I think should of been expected. If you wanted to buy any one of the new costumes, they were 300 Fighter Coins, or in dollars, $6 each. Which is a little on the high side. But, that’s not where the main issue lay, What caused the second bout of outrage in the community, was that you could not simply buy 300 Fighter Coins. They start at 250 coins, and then the next batch you could buy was 610. So doing come mental math, if you wanted just ONE new outfit, you had to pay minimum $12. This also meant that if you wanted everyone’s Costume three, you are looking at just nothing of $100, more than the MSRP of the game itself.  Were the costumes good? Yes, great even. They all look fantastic in game, clearly a lot of work went into them. But, no amount of work into a single costume can wash that taste out of your average players mouth. 

To cap off the talk on micro transactions and content drip. I’ll simply state While Costume 3 for the core group of fighters launched December 1^st, 2023, and, as I write this overview of my thoughts, the date is now April 21^st, 2025. There has not been any announcement for Costume 4. The only new costumes we have to look forward to are Costumes 3 for the second seasonal characters which have been promised. Those being M. Bison, Terry, Mai and Elena (also as of writing this has not been released.) Elena set to make her debut June 6^th. On the two years anniversary of the game, as well as the launch of the new Fighters Edition of the game, set to line up with the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. 

I haven’t touched at all on the battle pass system the game has in place. Personally, I think it’s because it doesn’t add much to the game. The game really wants to sell you on customizing your create-a-freak, but in a fighting game with such style, I couldn’t care less about how my digital cursor looks. But, I care deeply how my mains look while I’m climbing ranked. 

Now on to the mode that’s meant to help shepherd newbies into the world of Street Fighter..

World Tour: This is where we take our nightmare creation out into the open world as we learn what has happened to all of the legendary fighters since their last appearance. And we learn it all via second hand.. as each fighter over the course of 20-30 hours will meet us, challenge us, be impressed enough to tutor us, then spill their souls to us after choosing to use their special move to deal with the trash mobs of the open world. I get what they were going for. These fighters are legendary and they wanted to introduce newcomers like Kimberly, Manon and Jamie. And they wanted to avoid the fighting game trap of forcing me to play a play style I don’t like to progress. However, I always wish I was experiencing their stories first hand. But, anyway. Your character is buddies with another trainee under Luke’s tutoring. He rebels, you spend most of the game chasing after him while most of the other heroes can’t really be bothered. Though, sorry isn’t why anyone really loves Street Fighter. The ability to mix the whole rosters move set together once you meet them, and create your own combos is inherently pretty cool. But they will never quite play exactly how you want. While I seem to be mostly negative about this mode, I don’t mean to be. It really is a fun jaunt, chaulk full of references and funny text exchanges with the threatening Cammy, or the technophobe Ryu. Lot’s of content to make the average player crack a smile while blasting through silly gangs in Metro City. The fact that Capcom has kept up with updates to this mode with each seasonal character drop is really impressive. Especially with each drop farthing the story giving each new fighter purpose and weight in the world. Once the story concludes there are more things that open up to the player. Nothing revolutionary, but a few secret fights, as well as some of the DLC fighters have been injected into the mode. And not simply shoehorned in, they feel like they were planned in this world from the get-go. Often the world can lend hints towards future characters. Most notable being the inclusion of Aki and Ed, and having their stories in World Tour included Fong trying to find Bison. Sure enough once this story concluded, the second season was announced and M. Bison being announced as the first character coming in season 2. 

For the most part, all the modes in the game feed into each other, and the game does try to give you the absolute most value per dollar spent on the base game.  If you love street fighter, I would find it hard to believe if this isn’t your new favourite in the series. At the very least it should be a contender. A fighting game hasn’t captured me completely in a very long time. This if the first fighting game that had me buy my first every arcade stick for a console. If you are new or typically shy away from the fighting game genre, I cannot recommend SF6 enough. There is enough for the average casual player to do that is genuinely fun. If you choose to dip your toe on more, all the tools are there to hold your hand in improving before you throw yourself in the deep end of Ranked. If you never leave the shallow waters of World Tour and Battle Hub, you will still have a great time. 

I love Street Fighter. And I adore Street Fighter 6. In the end even if this game opens your mind into thinking you can enjoy pressing buttons, that’s a win. This community is better the more accessible it becomes to everyone. 

I want to move away from using numbers for a review, so instead ill say I give Street Fighter 6 two “drive impact cancels into forward medium punch into ex scissor kick into level 3 super” thumbs up.