Fighting game fans have been waiting for the long-anticipated Street Fighter 6 since its predecessor launched in 2016. That stated, the new entry has a lot to live up to considering the series’ reputation. It’s no secret that Street Fighter V launched in a messy state with a dearth of characters and missing features, but from what we’ve seen of Street Fighter 6 thus far, it seems like Capcom has learned its lesson and will hopefully get the game out in a great state.
Street Fighter 6 boasts 18 characters thus far, alongside a seemingly robust open-world single player campaign that allows the player to explore unique environments and interact with iconic characters from the series. It has the potential to be the biggest step forward the franchise has ever seen, so without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about Street Fighter 6.
Street Fighter 6 release date
Street Fighter 6 launches worldwide for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Windows, and PlayStation 4 on June 2. An arcade version is also coming exclusively to Japan some time in 2023, although a specific date is uncertain at the moment.
Post-launch plans for Street Fighter 6 involve the inclusion of new characters, stages and outfits. The game’s first year will have four new characters released throughout, the contents of which are available if someone purchases the game’s Year One pass.
Street Fighter 6 gameplay
Street Fighter needs no introduction. It’s a game where two experienced fighters duke it out until one or the other gets knocked unconscious, all while utilizing an unmatched degree of agility and power to emerge victorious. Special abilities are often the crux of these games, with moves like Ryu’s classic Hadouken and Shoryuken being a few people have probably heard before.
Street Fighter 6 is designed around its Drive System, a special bar that is full when a battle begins and replenishes automatically over time whenever you use an ability. Balancing this gauge, which allows the player to execute special movies like Drive Impact, Drive Parry, Overdrive, Drive Rush, and Drive Reversal, is vital for every match. These abilities are incredibly powerful; that last one has the ability to execute a counterattack when the player is getting ruthlessly walloped.
Street Fighter 6 World Tour
If you’re a fan of Street Fighter, you probably have a good sense of what the gameplay looks like. But what makes Street Fighter 6 stand out is the inclusion of its World Tour mode, a new campaign system that allows the player to create a character and engage with the world of Street Fighter in a new way.
Street Fighter battles operate in the classic 2D fighting style, but when the player is out in the open world, they can interact with mini-games, characters and shops throughout a 3D environment. The trailer above showcases Luke, a returning character, in what appears to be the campaign’s introduction when it cuts to beautiful shots of a sprawling city, traditional temple, sunny beach pier, and huge stadium within the world.
We then see the player in a clothing shop trying on different outfits before it cuts to a shot of different player characters using their abilities to teleport onto a far off platform, destroy parts of the environment with ranged attacks, and use a flying spin kick to glide across the air.
When the player character interacts with an NPC for battle, it immediately shifts to the beloved 2D fighting position without a cutscene – all in the same spot where the player was in the 3D world. Players will also interact with Street Fighter classic characters like Chun-Li and Ryu, seemingly being trained by them at the same time.
Street Fighter 6 characters
Street Fighter 6 has had 18 characters revealed. The most recent trailer at PlayStation’s February State of Play gave us our first look at the three newest fighters. Cammy, the classic British-based operative first introduced in Street Fighter II, has the power to break every bone in someone’s body using her thunderous thighs.
The seven-foot tall beast known as Zangief was also revealed at the show. Zangief’s muscly glory, unbelievable strength, and overpowering wrestling moves make him a force to be reckoned with. And finally, Lily is being introduced into Street Fighter for the first time. She’s a descendent of the Thunderfoot Tribe and utilizes her connection to the wind alongside two curved blunt weapons to beat on her foes while dashing around the screen swiftly.
As this is the sixth entry in Street Fighter, Capcom needed to strike a solid balance between characters from previous entries with the new blood. Six of the characters are first-time fighters to Street Fighter, and they include Manon, Marisa, Lily, Kimberly, JP and Jamie. Considering Capcom is hitting a two-thirds old with one-third new ratio, we’re somewhat expecting for this to remain the case even when future characters are introduced.
Here are all 18 of Street Fighter 6’s characters thus far:
Street Fighter 6 Battle Hub
Street Fighter 6’s Battle Hub offers an online-only space where players from around the world can interact with each other, purchase cosmetics, and most importantly, battle one another with all their might. It’s essentially a 3D environment where the player can be social before sitting down at a battle-cabinet in the style of an arcade machine to face off against another player. Other players can even spectate while this is happening.
Through the Event Counters, tournaments and various other events are periodically held for players where you can tune in or participate while listening to the real-time commentary feature. And finally, the Hub Goods Shop lets you purchase cosmetics to style your player character however you please, even if you wanted to stick a big red TV on their head.
Street Fighter 6 editions
The standard edition for Street Fighter 6 is $60. Pre-orders of the game offer a new outfit color for Chun-Li, Jamie, Manon, Dee Jay, Juri, and Ken. If you get the $85 Deluxe Edition, you will also get the Year 1 Character Pass. This pass comes with four new characters, four more character colors and 4,200 Drive Tickets (which can be used to buy cosmetics).
Street Fighter 6’s $105 Ultimate Edition comes with the Year 1 Ultimate Pass, which includes four characters, character colors, new character outfits, new character costumes, two additional stages and 7,700 Drive Tickets.
Street Fighter 6 bottom line
Street Fighter 6 is shaping up to be the most exciting entry the series has seen in a long time. It’s the most I’ve ever looked forward to a title in the franchise, mainly due to the inclusion of a sprawling single player campaign mode.
We can only hope that Capcom launches this game in a full state even if we are expecting post-launch characters and stages to grace the many years of its life. As we’re still many months away from launch, keep up to date with this piece to get all the latest news on Street Fighter 6.
