Street Fighter 6 Hands-on Impressions

Whilst fighting games are often alike in their game modes, Street Fighter 6 has taken a different approach by offering players a wide range of choices. For starters, we have Fighting Ground: the traditional set of game modes such as arcade and versus is naturally included here, pitting your fighter against other players or CPU opponents. Extreme Battle is a new mode that grabbed our attention, however, as it lets you set up custom matches and change up the rules and gimmicks, such as adding a stampeding bull that charges across the stage at random!

Next up is Battle Hub, the online-focused mode that, despite not being available in the demo, is looking to be so much more than just matching up with players around the world to duke it out 1-on-1. Maybe you prefer to just interact with fellow Street Fighter fans with your custom avatar, play some classic CAPCOM arcade games, or sit back and watch the pros perform insane combos? If so, the Battle Hub will be the place for you!

Finally, we come to the biggest single-player mode the franchise has ever seen: World Tour. For the first time in the series, you’ll get to create your own character (using a surprisingly in-depth creation suite) and explore Metro City and beyond, on a journey to discover the meaning of strength. Everything from your moveset to the clothes on your back are fully customisable and interchangeable, to really make your character a unique fighter. When you add in levelling up, challenging well-known legends — or some unfortunate NPC in the street —, engaging in a variety of mini-games, and so much more; World Tour could be a seriously enjoyable time sink!

But what of the main draw of any good fighting game, the combat? Well, Street Fighter 6 has some of the most refined mechanics in the series’ history. Whether you’re a veteran, or a complete newcomer, the various control schemes have you covered, including an assisted layout should you need a helping hand. Although not too dissimilar to Street Fighter V in terms of how it controls, everything here is polished and more refined than ever — and incredibly deep. The Drive system allows for both offensive and defensive abilities, allowing for some truly incredible comebacks if you‘ve got the skills!

Unsurprisingly, it looks fantastic, with smooth animations and a stunning colour palette to really make the over-the-top fighting look better than ever. A small touch we noticed was how characters and their clothing can become damaged during a fight, sporting all manners of cuts, tears, and bruises. The only noticeable issue we came across was some slight screen tearing in World Tour when resolution mode is selected over performance mode, but with this being the demo build, we’d expect this to be ironed out by the game's full release.