Pushing Buttons: Street Fighter 6 is a perfect KO for both newbies and longtime fans
In this week's newsletter: I suck at fighters, but the delightfully camp latest in the franchise is deliberately designed to be easy on new players - for once
When I got my first job on a games magazine, there were a few games on constant rotation at my grubby office, and at after-pub gatherings in the even grubbier flats my colleagues and I lived in: Pro Evo, Bomberman, and Street Fighter. Unfortunately, I sucked at all of them. Street Fighter was especially embarrassing for me, as an eager-to-prove-myself 16-year-old, because I could just never get my hands around the movesets and controls for all the different characters. I was a perennial button-masher, and I was humiliated so regularly that it put me off fighting games for life.
That said, I have always greatly admired Street Fighter, and its players. It is a stunningly energetic game full of stylish caricatures whose movement and swagger are fascinating to look at, especially in the hands of skilled competitors. I have watched fighting game tournaments in awe, and seen winners demolish opponents with deft combinations of reaction speed, on-the-fly strategising and seemingly unnatural powers of foresight. It is the perfect esport: matches are easy to follow, over in just a few minutes, and thrilling to behold. The stylistic flourishes that Capcom is so good at - flamboyant animation, moving backdrops, the outfits - only add to the spectacle.
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