Street Fighter 6 is here, and honestly, it’s one of the best fighting games I’ve played in years. Not only is it a fun and polished fighter, but the single player World Tour mode is an absolute revelation. I’ve been waiting for something like this to come to the series for 30 years! And now it’s finally here, just two weeks after The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, so I’m also kind of wondering why the fuck I can barely do anything? It’s honestly pretty frustrating at times.
Don’t get me wrong, the addition of the Yakuza inspired exploration of Metro City is fantastic. It’s not only a clever way to help flesh out the finer points of the game’s controls, but also an entertaining story that brings to life a truly hilarious one-of-a-kind world. That’s pretty cool! But there’s a bunch of stuff laying around all the time, normal stuff, sticks and magazines and whatnot, and you can’t do shit with them! Can’t craft powerful hybrid weapons, can’t build functional machinery, nothing! Ultimately, Street Fighter 6 gets a lot right, but your ability to apply your creativity is limited to which attacks and special moves you use in combat. That’s it. It’s a pretty big letdown.
It’s not that I think every game should let you build and fuse and all of that, it’s just that, well, I don’t know. Couldn’t they?
I don’t want to be cynical here. I really, really liked the game. The fighting is great, the character designs are impressive, the online all seems to be working pretty solidly so far. Everything that’s there is great. I really did like it.
But I just want to stress again that you don’t build anything in this game. No rafts, no little trolley cars, NOTHING. A shocking misfire from the long-time developers at Capcom, who usually have their fingers on the pulse of gaming.
In short, Street Fighter 6 is fun, great even, but if we have to wait until Street Fighter 7 to see a worthy crafting system be added to the World Tour mode, well, it may be too late for this once dominant series to stay relevant I’m afraid.
Mark Roebuck (90 minutes played for review)
