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The RPS Advent Calendar 2023, December 12thReady? Fight!
Ready? Fight!
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
You’ll need to limber up and do some warm-up stretches before attempting to open today’s door on the RPS Advent Calendar, otherwise you’ll risk getting an instant KO from the burly brawlers waiting inside.
That’s right, today’s finalist in the Advent Calendar knockout is… Ready?Street Fighter 6!
Jeremy:Street Fighter 6 is thebest Street Fighter in years, and leagues ahead of the two entries that preceded it. SFIV may have resurrected fighting games among mainstream audiences in 2008, but it played things safe with an extreme reliance on Street Fighter II nostalgia. SFV, in contrast, launched in 2015 with a minimal roster and an extreme focus on esports at the expense of everything else. Street Fighter 6 does not commit these same mistakes. The game is big, bold, and brash in all the best ways, from its plethora of playable modes to a hip-hop-inspired flair that infuses everything from the soundtrack to the graffiti-esque effects that accompany every character’s special moves. It’s all wonderfully reminiscent of Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3, the ultimate kings of the series in my eyes.
Street Fighter 6 - Announce TrailerWatch on YouTube
Street Fighter 6 - Announce Trailer
SF6 isn’t quite as superb as those two classics, but it’s up there, mostly because it gives us such a wonderful sense of newness. While old favourites like Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li are present and accounted for, they’re experienced veterans now standing alongside a fresh cast that includes the likes of Luke (the loveable doofus posterboy of this game), Jamie (his much cooler rival, a drunken kung fu b-boy with fresh sneakers), and Kimberly (the first female Black American character inanyStreet Fighter game). The new cast oozes staying power in a way that the newbie combatants in Street Fighter 3 were tragically never able to, and the sheer quantity of fanart that’s spread online since SF6 was released no doubt proves that they’ll be around for multiple games to come.
From fast-paced one-on-one showdowns to selfies with Chun-Li in World Tour mode, Street Fighter 6 has it all. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Capcom
At its best, this franchise has always been about innovative andfunbattles carried out between outrageous characters who are often stereotypical but somehow still cool. (Shoutout to Blanka, who continues to represent Brazil despite being a green wildman with electrical eel powers). Street Fighter 6 brings this vibe back to the forefront after the last two entries minimised it, and the final result is wonderful to behold. Here’s to the next several years of SF6, and the inevitable, eventual release of Street Fighter 6: Turbo Champion Remix VI.
