[TGS2022] Street Fighter 6 Preview – Modern Controls Makes Fights Easy To Input But Challenging To Master

We got a chance to try out a preview of Street Fighter 6 at Capcom’s booth at the Tokyo Game Show 2022 and needless to say, it was a good time all around.

We were able to try out two characters: All-American Guile and the deliciously deadly Juri. Here’s what we thought about these characters before we talk about the game overall.

It should be noted that Street Fighter 6 has two control schemes: classic which plays like traditional Street Fighter with six buttons and ‘modern controls’ which streamline the inputs and move to work with four buttons.

Guile

Everyone’s favorite family man returns. We played with the classic control system, and like a good old-fashioned home-cooked meal, Guile plays more or less as he always has. He’s still a very technical fighter, using charge inputs to do flash kicks and sonic booms.

With that being said, his super commands can be pretty scary. He uses technical inputs like charge back, forward, back, and forward to do supers which is pretty complicated compared to supers in other modern fighting games. It’s all worth it though for the mass amount of damage it causes. Guile’s flash kicks hit as hard as ever. 

One thing we’re particularly impressed with is the buttons which feel very responsive. I’ve always had trouble timing sensitive charge moves like the flash kick but I found it pretty natural to pull it off in part thanks to how smooth the Dualsense controller input was. There are three different versions of the kick, each doing more damage but also leaving you open to attack for longer. As always, it’s up to you to strategize which one to bring out at the right time. 

Parries and dash cancel, on the other hand, were actually a lot harder than I thought using the controller. Getting the timing of the parries right in particular could be tricky to get right. It may be easier on an arcade stick though. 

Juri

Juri’s pretty infamous for being a popular character with a high execution barrier meaning she’s not played as often. This is very much still the case in Street Fighter 6. Juri may have a wild personality but is very precise in gameplay. It’ll take a lot of time to learn her skills properly.

As you can imagine we had a bit of trouble using her in battle with classic controls. Most characters have a natural flow to get into them but we couldn’t find it with the Taekwondo master.

She was a little easier with modern controls though. The new control system makes her inputs simpler to execute which removes that initial barrier of difficulty. That’s not the say that this makes her (or any other modern control character) require less skill to use. Any pro player will tell you that knowing how to input a Shoryuken is nowhere as important as knowing when to throw one.

The one-your-toes strategy is still very much at play, it’s just that modern controls make moves easier to pull off by streamlining more complex inputs.

Settling It In The Streets

It’s been said before but Street Fighter 6 looks beautiful. I was a little worried when I heard it was using the RE Engine since I couldn’t really see the Street Fighter characters with “realistic” designs but it actually worked out well. Despite being able to see the pores on their faces, the characters still have that chunky cartoon-like look you’d expect from the series.

While many fighting games have attempted to include more beginner-friendly control schemes to get newcomers into the genre, I do think there’s something unique about Street Fighter 6’s modern controls.

They don’t make the game easier as much as they do more approachable. They allow newcomers (likely using four-button regular controllers) to get over the hurdle of learning inputs and instead focus on learning the real fighting game fundamentals: controlling neutral space, combos, mix-ups, and the rest.

We were very much satisfied with what we saw in the preview of Street Fighter 6 and can’t wait to see what the full version has in store.

Street Fighter 6 will release for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2023. The pictures used in this article were taken from the Street Fighter 6 Official Website.

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