Street Fighter 6: how Capcom aims to reinvent the fighting game after 35 years

This summer, a forthcoming Street Fighter game was revealed with a striking new look. Its developers explain how they're trying to make a beat em up that everyone can play

If there's one name synonymous with fighting games, it's Street Fighter. Dominating arcades in the late 80s and 90s and spawning the living room-conquering Super Nintendo classic Street Fighter II, Capcom's beat 'em up became a cultural phenomenon. But since the death of the arcade, fighting games have become more niche. While 2016's Street Fighter V slowly became a competitive esports sensation, it lacked the earlier games' universal appeal. Now, 31 years after Street Fighter II, Capcom is reinventing its prize fighter for a new generation. Visually, Street Fighter 6 is forging a new identity for the franchise, sporting an eye-catching aesthetic that combines unattainably bulging biceps with attacks that explode in a burst of colour.

I really want to make Street Fighter a game that everyone can play, like it used to be," producer and series veteran Shuhei Matsumoto tells the Guardian. Offering a radical overhaul to its controls, Street Fighter 6 is a more accessible twist on spin-kicking, fireball-throwing fighting spectacle. A newbie-friendly control option ditches the classic six-button setup of high and low punches and kicks in favour of a simpler three-button structure, allowing first-timers to pull off a Shoryuken without spending months developing the muscle memory.