This iteration’s main gameplay additions are Drive Impact and Drive Parries, universal moves that let any character burst straight through enemy attacks or easily nullify incoming assaults. If you’re having issues reading the fast-moving action, optional eSports-style commentators – despite occasionally sounding like 90s-era Fifa robo-announcers – can really help in understanding the thrill of mind games and spacing, especially against human opponents, though in honesty they’re also just really exciting to listen to. Whatever control scheme you’re using, the classic rock-paper-scissors rhythm of carefully considered combat remains utterly mesmerising.

Marisa lands a drive impact on Zangief in Street Fighter 6. For my taste, though, assisted combos (where holding down a trigger as you mash buttons automatically produces a stylish and often inescapable set of attacks, as long as the first hit lands) go a bit too far. Simplified “modern” controls are available alongside the traditional six-button system: newer players and veterans alike can execute special moves faster and more consistently at the press of a button, with slightly reduced damage a decent tradeoff for ease of use. Fighting hordes of disposable goons soon gets annoying, though, and it’s tiresome to hit a wall where no amount of skill can make up for dealing near-to-no damage until you go a level up – but as a fun diversion and a gentle on-ramp for newer players, it’s still a surprisingly good time.īut the meat and potatoes of fighting games is in one-on-one competition, and here, too, a welcoming hand is extended to beginners. Side-quests act as piecemeal interactive tutorials for novice fighters, while flashy cutscenes and goofy yet entertaining writing help flesh out Street Fighter’s outlandish world. You’ll explore a city, level up your fighter’s stats, wear your choice of stylish (or stupid) clothes, and learn fighting styles from the series’ classic cast, customising movesets to create an avatar you can later take online for extremely unbalanced, if entertaining, battles. Unlike standard fighting game story modes, World Tour plays out more like an open-world game, along similar lines to Sega’s Yakuza series.

Street fighter 6 chun li box