Highlights

  • Akuma's return in Street Fighter 6 is highly anticipated by fans and pros, thanks to his powerful moveset and history as a top-tier character.
  • Akuma's unique abilities, such as air moves and demon flips, make him a formidable opponent with potential to dominate the rankings in SF6.
  • The Drive System in SF6 enhances Akuma's already deadly arsenal, setting him up to be a major threat in the competitive scene once again.

Most fighting games have a core set of characters that return every sequel because their moves, stories, and even appearances define the franchise. In the case of Street Fighter 6 and its previous iterations, this roster includes Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li, who have been in the base games since SF2. There’s also Akuma, who has always returned as a hidden or downloadable content (DLC) character. This fighter is a favorite of regular players and pros alike, mostly because he’s always a powerful (and sometimes overpowered) pick. He’s making his debut on the Street Fighter 6 character select screen on May 22, and since his gameplay trailer, many are speculating about how he’ll shake up the meta.

While the Street Fighter franchise technically started with the first game, Street Fighter 2 is what made it popular. This is because it had eight characters with over 30 different moves each, compared to the original Street Fighter’s roster of just Ryu and Ken, who had identical moves. When Akuma first appeared in SF2, he appeared to have similar movesets as the original characters. Players soon discovered he had other moves in his arsenal that made him deadlier than the rest. This trend continued throughout every SF sequel, and it looks like Street Fighter 6's Akuma will just be as powerful.

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Why Akuma Could be Top Tier in Street Fighter 6 Again

Many players gravitate towards the Shotokan characters like Ryu and Ken because they’re easy to learn. Plus their moves, while simple, are effective and balanced. While Akuma practices the same martial arts as them, he’s much more powerful because of these reasons:

  • Air Moves: He can throw fireballs and do hurricane kicks on the ground while jumping, which offers more combo opportunities than other Shotokan archetypes. These also make him better at taking space, which is essential in getting an advantage over opponents.
  • Demon Flip: Akuma’s Demon Flip can be done using a Z-motion and kick, which flings him to the air and gives him various hit-and-throw options for combos and knockdowns. Because this move is slow and doesn’t have invincibility, players often use this while opponents are waking up.
  • Enhanced Basics: Akuma’s speed makes him so overwhelming to deal with. His Dragon Punch and Hurricane Kicks have faster startups and more invincibility frames than Ryu and Ken. He even moves and throws fireballs quicker than most fighters.

The top-tier fighters in the game right now are Luke and Ken. They’re popular with casual players and have won various Street Fighter 6 professional tournaments. These characters are based on the Shotokan archetype, in which Akuma is known to be the dominant fighter in the previous games. Therefore, it’s easy to suspect that the Great Demon will fit right into the top tier.

How Akuma Can Compete With Top-Tier Characters in Street Fighter 6

Akuma’s Street Fighter 6 gameplay trailer sees him doing his signature Demon Flip (now called “Demon Raid”), air fireballs, and rapid basic moves. This means he’ll likely surpass Ryu once more. However, he might see some tough competition in Luke and Ken. Luke’s projectile travels faster than Akuma’s, but the Great Demon can also jump over them and throw an air fireball to take space. While Ken is the king of rush-down right now, Akuma could keep him at bay using his fast fireballs and Dragon Punch.

Street Fighter 6’s Drive Mechanic Makes Akuma Even More of a Menace

Akuma seems to be a great fit for Street Fighter 6’s Drive System. It would be scary to see the Great Demon using Drive Rush to extend a Demon Flip combo or advance quickly after his fireball. The gameplay trailer also showed his Adamant Flame, a long-range kick with wall-splat, which makes him even deadlier in the corner. Meanwhile, his Overdrive Demon Raid gives him an air fireball or Hurricane Kick follow-up, which makes it even more difficult to fish him out of the air when jumping over projectiles, a nightmare for Luke and zoners like JP. Akuma seems to be shaping up to dominate the ranked and pro ladders again, which is par for the course for the Great Demon.