Street Fighter VI preview: Getting decked never felt so good

What does Street Fighter actually need to do next? Serious question.

After all, the sparring franchise has been going for so long, and has picked up the dreamiest of accolades in the process - it dominated the arcades with its second entry, redefined what a cabinet could do, and ultimately built the side-on fighter from the ground up in a way that everyone could enjoy (we love you, Mortal Kombat, but white-picket-fence mothers did not).

It has carved itself a legacy untouched by anyone else, and even though it has run through five mainline entries now (plus extra editions, too), the game’s dedicated and intense players are yet to be tired of it. Which makes you wonder what new ground can be touched.

Street Fighter VI is peering around the corner with its controversial logo in tow, promising to overturn the franchise once again with a brand new mode that has the potential to change what we can expect Capcom to come through with, as well as refine the gameplay fans know and love well enough to become the latest tournament go-to.

And as we got our hands on an extended look at the game in preparation for its launch, we can say that even with the caveats Street Fighter VI still has to iron out, it has the potential to shake the fighting game landscape up all over again.

Fight and main

Our first look into what Street Fighter VI had in store for its fans was its Fighting Grounds section, an opportunity for players to take on 1v1 and team battles as expected. The fresh roster of characters comes packed with its own aesthetics, playstyles and difficulty ranges, all of which are spelt out to you from the menu itself, making it easier than ever for newcomers to find the character that suits them the best.

The fighting seems to have amped up its showmanship and pizazz, too, with new animations allowing players to boast and goad their foes before laying them out.

One fruitful feature of the game is its character guides, a tutorial mode built for each of the many playable fighters of the game. It’s a refreshing addition to the fighting game genre overall, with the opportunity to get to know characters far better creating a very real chance for newcomers to enter the big leagues by understanding their main straight out of the gate.

Given that the experiences beyond the first hour in Street Fighter are perfecting combos and becoming the best you can be, this is a welcome speed boost to the induction process that is no doubt going to make the lives of new players infinitely simpler.

When it comes to the fighting itself, everything is as slick and polished as you'd expect, with satisfying combos and new bright flourishes to accompany them. The stages are as bold and luminescent as the splashes of paint that pour from the new Drive system attacks, and when played in 60fps, the fighting experience has never felt so fluid and exotic.

There is a lot for new players to discover here, and the brand-new touches are almost surely going to make die-hards very happy. But that's not all that lies in wait in Street Fighter VI.

Bringing the ruckus

What has players the most fascinated about a brand new Street Fighter experience, though, is a brand new mode that the genre, let alone the franchise, hasn't had the nerve to touch yet - the open world. We've seen peeks of it through spin-offs like Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, but for the first time ever, the SF experience is offered up with a brand-new freshness that gives players more freedom than ever.

First jumping into the game's World Tour was surprisingly natural, introducing us once again to the game's cover boy Luke as the instructor of a fighting gym in Metro City, before making way for the game's extensive character creator.

After building your monstrosity, you're let loose onto the streets of the Times Square-adjacent city, and it is immediately clear that World Tour wasn't a mere bolt-on. Detail is rife here, with surprise platforming sections, the opportunity to launch into immediate battle with passers-by, cops and street performers, and even discoverable mini-games that not only pay homage to the history of the franchise but ultimately help you to improve your abilities when it comes to nailing combos.

The focus here is clearly on giving players freedom that they've never experienced in Street Fighter before, allowing player characters to mix and match styles and special moves from each of the series' existing fighters to build an all-new battling powerhouse.

There's one serious drawback when it comes to World Tour, and that's how it handles itself. Dropping into the mode's very first fight on the game's gameplay mode that focuses on graphical fidelity, the scrap was choppy - frames fell away from what should have been a bold introduction, and while there's bound to be a patch eventually, this was a massively jarring kickoff, but by the time the adventure was in full swing in its other mode, all was well.

Providing you don't mind either flip-flopping between performance modes or just sticking to lower fidelity settings, it likely isn't going to keep you up at night, despite its annoyances.

New (old) kid on the block

There are two different ways to approach Street Fighter VI. One is through the lens of the newbie - someone who sits in tow as their friend boots it up for a few simple fights, and the pro - the long-time fan of the franchise fascinated by its new offerings and how well it maintains its tournament status as a force to be reckoned with. With what we've seen of the game so far in our few hours with each of its modes, it seems like Street Fighter VI is swinging for the fences.

There is a familiarity here, of course, but there's every chance that the game has turned the franchise upside down with its new Yakuza-esque open-world gameplay, and there is absolutely no doubt that it's going to be welcomed with open arms.

Framerate issues aside, Street Fighter VI has so far proved its worth tenfold, and is poised to take over from its predecessor with aplomb. The new era of Street Fighter is almost here, and god damn, it is glorious.