A new Street Fighter is just around the corner, and many players think that it looks great so far. Street Fighter 6 will release on all current consoles save the Switch, but that shouldn't impact its technical or artistic performance too much. Capcom has finally revised Street Fighter 5's flawed rollback netcode, and everyone who's tried it in Street Fighter 6's beta was impressed. After years of issues, it feels like Capcom's fighting game division is finally back to reclaim its throne.
Fans are hopeful that Street Fighter 6 is going to be a step-up in almost every way. The World Tour mode looks more in-depth than not only every past Street Fighter's singleplayer, but the entire fighting game genre. Basic gameplay was expanded with the Drive system, and every character is benefiting from their largest move pool yet. Even the online modes are more diverse, allowing players to mess around with their custom avatar, old arcade games, and gimmick match types. Last but not least are Street Fighter 6's visuals, which have been upgraded to be the best in the franchise yet.
Street Fighter 6's Colorful Effects Surpass Past Efforts
An anime aesthetic has accompanied Street Fighter's battles since the very beginning, and even with Street Fighter 6's more realistic look, that touch of style isn't entirely gone. Since Street Fighter's jump to 2.5D visuals in 2008, the series has incorporated various additional visual mediums into its special effects. In SF4, this manifested as ink smears coming off of characters, often during their Focus Attacks. There were some other painterly styles used in the opening cutscenes, but in gameplay it was rather subdued. In Street Fighter 5, this was changed to clay-like paint blobs that swirled around fighters during V-Trigger activations and win screens. It was a minor thing, but every character having their own colors was appreciated.
Now, however, Street Fighter 6 is doing so much more than that. SF6 is the first to go for outright photorealism, but that's also a benefit of running on the RE Engine, which has already done wonders for Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil, and Monster Hunter Rise. That said, those other games look drab compared to how colorful Street Fighter 6 is. Every Drive mechanic has at least one universal color that flares around the user upon activation. Characters still have associated colors for their Drive Impact, and finishing a match with a level 3 super paints the screen with those colors and a stylized design that resembles graffiti. Great pains were taken to ensure that even when Street Fighter 6 was being played at a low level, players would still have something cool to look at.
The Use of Color in SF6's Assets is Sublime
Then, there's the character models themselves. Street Fighter 6 shows more of Street Fighter's world and characters than past entries, even allowing players to create their own combatants. On a whole, the environments of SF have become more diverse and colorful than ever before. From the dimly lit backstreets of Metro City to the seemingly blood-splattered Coliseum in Italy, every part of Street Fighter 6 pops. Even the presentation reflects this, with lighting and texturing techniques being used in environments also appearing in menus.
This goes double for the characters, who are all visually distinct and use the most vibrant colors yet. It's such an extreme case that basic palette swaps like the pre-order bonus palettes turning Ken's hair silver and his coat red stand out, making it look as if he's wearing a Devil May Cry Dante crossover costume. Even Mortal Kombat 11, which attempted to recapture its classic colorful aesthetic after the darker Mortal Kombat X, isn't as lively as Street Fighter 6 can be. All of this focus on increased vibrancy reaches its zenith with Kimberly, the new ninja fighter who actually uses paint cans as a resource for her attacks. All the colors may seem overwhelming sometimes, but Capcom has done a great job of making Street Fighter 6 a feast for the eyes.
Street Fighter 6 will be released on June 2, 2023, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
