Due to some nerve damage, my left hand legit doesn't move fast enough to do most fighting game inputs. But with the modern control scheme SF6 offers, I can not only play, but win against online players for the first time. It's like skipping straight past the entry barrier of learning inputs and getting straight on to learning fundamentals. I've heard all sorts of discourse about modern controls and how it breaks the meta if people can instantly input this or that, but I'm having a lot of fun thanks to it.

Street Fighter 6 is not only Capcom getting back in the saddle as part of the pantheon of fighting games makers, it's an evolution of the genre as a whole.

If you have even the slightest interest in fighting games this is a must buy. The game is bursting with beginner friendly tutorials that can either be simple instructions or deep, precise, dives into frames and advantage states and such, including a deep selection of tutorials and challenges for each character to help you fully grasp them. Each character feels distinct too, they may have overlapping general 'niche' roles but nobody feels 'surplus' or 'padded'. Manon and Zangief may be both grapplers, but Manon's slow build momentum focus is a world apart from Big Z's brutal command grab heavy arsenal of unrelenting high risk high reward offense.

Multiplayer is smooth and easy, able to be accessed from both the fantastic hub world full of fun details or just from the main menu if you want to jump right in, and provides plenty of chances to learn your way up the rankings before being thrown in with the pros.

The option to switch between classic and 'modern' controls is great as well. Modern in no way feels like 'easy mode' or some crutch either, you sacrifice complexity for ease, and it's up to you to decide if easier supers and combos is worth losing some of the granularity of full control over your character's inputs. There is no 'right' or 'wrong' control system and you'll be matched with both types online, it's a preference issue rather than anything else.

Singleplayer is equally well thought out, though. Arcade mode gives nice simple fights to explore a character and good story rewards, but the real star is it's massive World Tour mode where you make your own avatar to travel the world of Street Fighter meeting mentors and learning their styles. The overall story is fairly bland but the real draw is getting to find Chun-Li in Chinatown and get her to train you and building a relationship with her as a mentor to the point where you're texting with her randomly in the world and learning about what she's been up to since the past games as well as mastering her iconic moves.

That's a detail that seems to go overlooked at times, this is the first SF game in ages to move the story forward. Chun-Li, Ryu, Ken, they've all progressed as characters and have experiences to share instead of being the same rather flat characters we've seen for decades at this point. It feels like a proper 'passing of the torch' in some ways too, there's likely to never be a SF game without the 'core' cast like Ryu but the story lets the new blood feel like genuine up and coming street fighters to watch out for rather than just random additions.

This is the Street Fighter most of us have been waiting ages for, and if you have even a passing interest in fighting games this is going to be a fantastic one to learn on.

I don't understand what force in this game has convinced me that I, a middle-aged man with a good career and reasonably satisfying personal life, need to come home from work every day and study which of Jamie's normals are plus on block after drive rush, drill anti-airs, and grind to master. But here we are.

Bro, Imagine releasing a finished game in 2023!

"Wow look at all these cool new characters" Picks Ryu

11 hours in and my record online is 1-34. very fun

A dude looked at you funny? Punch him. Some guy is chilling by the river? Kick him in. A girl has a cute outfit on? Divekick her from across the street. Bought pizza at a food truck? Uppercut the staff. Violence is never the answer; It is in fact the question, and the answer is YES.

Game feels great, runs excellent (despite Denuvo), and the character creator is nothing short of superb.

Can't wait to never win a single match online.

It does that thing where it has a little musical note icon and then tells you the name of the song playing.

For those unaware, this is a mark of masterful game design.

Add Dudley you cowards