Welcome to the World Tour
Recommended Videos
Capcom hosted a new digital showcase for Street Fighter 6 today, going into lengthy detail about what’s in store for the next fighting game entry. We got a good look at what to expect, from fighting in the streets to travelling around the world.
Hosted by Lil’ Wayne, who appeared just a handful of times (and sadly did not get confirmed as a fight commentator), the stream spent about 30 minutes running through all the features of Street Fighter 6. We even got confirmation of the first year’s worth of DLC and a surprise demo drop for some of SF6‘s new features.
Here’s the full rundown of everything we saw today.
The World Tour
- A big feature of the showcase today was the World Tour mode, which lets you create a custom character and engage in an almost Yakuza-esque story mode. You wander the open world and take on battles, even initiating fights in the street.
- There’s also a story side to it, featuring unique characters from throughout the Street Fighter canon.
- A key feature looks to be getting tutored by various fighters and learning their moves, while also getting to know them. Finally, Street Fighter has social links.
- My personal favorite feature is using certain signature moves, like E. Honda’s headbutt and the Spinning Crane Kick, to traverse through the environment. This whole mode has an earnest silliness to it that I really enjoy.
The Battle Hub
- This arena lets you take your custom characters into the world and fight with them online. There are also some classic arcade cabs, if playing some older Street Fighter is more your style.
- Obviously, building out your own custom character for battles is a key component here.
- You can also make clubs, the Street Fighter 6 version of clans, with special attire and logos.
Getting into the fighting spirit
- Capcom also outlines some special features. As seen before, fighters can get dirty, sweaty, and have their outfits damaged as the fight goes on. This is optional, but it looks pretty good.
- A really cool accessibility option is the audio pings, that can tell someone distance between fighters as well as attack directions and special meter status. It’s a really neat feature!
- There’s also tutorials for combat and the new Drive system, as well as individual character info.
- Plus, a special offline-only Dynamic mode lets you just mash on buttons. Seems like a good option for parents with young kids.
Arcade mode
- For those craving a ‘classic’ fighting game single-player experience, yes, there is an Arcade mode.
- The story is told in stages, with special illustrations that feel like classic Street Fighter arcade cut-ins.
- There are special illustrations to collect for endings, too!
Versus Mode
- There are some neat Versus mode options, too. My favorite is the Team Battle, allowing you to set up multi-fighter matches. I always love these modes, so I’m very glad to see one here.
- Extreme Battles take it further, with special gimmicks and rulesets that you can customize. Because who hasn’t wanted to fight in the middle of stampeding bulls?
Going online
- Custom rooms are back, holding up to 16 players at a time.
- You can also set up special machines for the room, all with their own rulesets. This seems like a neat way for friends to hang out and goof around, while still allowing for the casual and hardcore players alike to play how they want.
- Ranked match is back, with one-time rank-down protection, as well as character-specific and random-specific ranked matchmaking too.
- And if ranked is too stressful, casual matches are always around, too.
The new wave of fighters
- Capcom is already announcing the lineup of DLC for year one, with four characters set to arrive over the first year of Street Fighter 6.
- SFV‘s Rashid leads off this summer, then AKI in the autumn, Ed arriving in winter 2024, and Akuma in spring 2024.
- The Deluxe and Ultimate Edition of Street Fighter 6 will come with a year one pass.
The demo’s out now
- A special demo, highlighting the character creation and World Tour mode, is out now on PlayStation consoles.
- It’s set to show off some of the new features available, though sadly it doesn’t look like there’s online multiplayer in this one. Characters made here can transfer over to the main game, though.
- While PS5 and PS4 players can play it now, other platforms will have to wait until April 26 to get the demo.
That’s all for today’s surprisingly packed showcase. There’s certainly a lot to do in this new game, but I’ll admit, I’m digging how expansive this entry is compared to the launch states of others. Street Fighter 6 is due to arrive on June 2, 2023 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
