Fighting games are some of the trickiest ones to get the hang of. King of Fighters has wacky directional inputs like the Pretzel Motion. Tekken has simpler inputs, but each character has a novel’s worth of attacks to learn. Even Super Smash Bros, while looking like the simplest game to play, can be quite technical.
Then there’s Street Fighter, the series that essentially started the whole shebang. Its latest entry, Street Fighter 6, helpfully informs the player which characters are easier or harder to learn. Luke is fairly straightforward, and Jamie is a touch trickier with their Drink mechanics. But if any players are looking for a challenge, these are the hardest characters to use in Street Fighter 6.
5 Zangief
It’s hard to recall a time when the Red Cyclone was easy to play. His iron body is no joke, as it can tank hits well and deal out heavy damage. He's also big, making him an easy target for quicker opponents. Even with his super armor, he can be knocked out of his attack animations if he’s hit with firm enough footsies. He’s also a grappler that relies on getting close to his opponent, so anyone with a strong zoning game can keep him at bay. It’s why he canonically hates Hadōkens.
Zangief does have skills to help him nullify projectiles and get up close, but they're heavy on the execution. His famous Spinning Piledriver requires spinning the stick/d-pad once, and his Level 3 Bolshoi Storm Buster needs it spun twice. Getting the hang of these moves without jumping and exposing oneself to anti-air attacks takes as much practice as doing them in the first place. Throw in advanced techniques like kara-throws and storing motions, and becoming a Zangief main becomes more daunting.
4 Dhalsim
That said, a character can be tricky even with simple inputs, and Dhalsim's are pretty standard. The trickiest ones are his half-circle motions for his Yoga Flame, Yoga Blast, and Yoga Comet. In fact, he’s a touch easier in SF6 because his Yoga Teleport can now be done by pressing forward/backward and all three punches. In the past it was a Shōryuken input (forward, down, down-forward). Neither made players sweat, but now it can be done much faster.
Dhalsim’s difficulty comes in his movement. He’s been slow and floaty since his debut in Street Fighter 2, and he’s no different here. His odd stretchy movements don’t make him any easier to adjust to either. With patience, players can turn him into a zoning master, keeping his foes right at the far end of the screen with his stretchy limbs and fire attacks. If they get up close, something’s gone wrong, and it’s easy to get things wrong with the Yogi.
3 Chun-Li
The First Lady of fighting games is faster than Zangief, more agile than Dhalsim, and has enough heft in her kicks to punish her opponents for taking her lightly. However, her move set has evolved a lot over the years. She had to hop around the screen to get ahead in SF2, then get in the opponent’s face with Hoyokusen to thrash all but the best parriers in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.
SF6 takes her in a new direction by making her a stance character. She still has her familiar Kikōken, Spinning Bird Kick, and her anti-air Tenshōkyaku. But now she has Serenity Stream, a low stance she can use to sneak around projectiles or launch her opponents for midair juggles. It sounds promising, but she can’t block in this stance. Players will have to practice with Chun-Li a lot to get her just right.
2 Juri
Everyone’s favorite chaotic evil Tae Kwon Do expert is the dark alter-ego to Chun-Li. Both lost their family to Bison, but while Chun-Li became an Interpol agent, Juri became a dangerous force to be reckoned with. Her kicks are just as lethal as her do-gooder counterpart, particularly when souped-up with her Fuha stocks. She’s swift and fierce in the right hands, but it's another matter for players to have those right hands.
First, players will have to get used to her normal attacks to get the most out of her poking game, and her Feng Shui Engine install super. She has strong special moves, but they can leave her vulnerable to counterattacks without her Fuha stocks. Then the player has to keep mixing up those Fuha boosts to be as unpredictable as Juri herself. If her opponents can read her like a book, she’s done for.
1 JP
Surprisingly, most of SF6’s newbies aren’t too hard to play. Marisa is big and slow, but she has easier inputs to pay the opponent back tenfold. Manon, Lily, and Kimberly have similar power-up stocks to Juri, yet they’re not as do-or-die as Juri’s Fuha stocks. They either occur automatically (Kimberly’s Level 3 super switches her headphones on) or give straightforward buffs. The new villain Johan “JP” Petrovic is another matter.
He has Dhalsim’s zoning and teleport techniques without his floaty slowness. Except Dhalsim’s fireballs are quite straightforward. JP is a trap character who places different Psycho Power spikes, mines, and clones all over the place. They’re all intended to keep the opponent away, because JP isn’t so strong up-close. But knowing when and where to use these Psycho Powers is going to take a lot of practice. It’s all too easy to whiff his spikes and end up getting a smack across the chops.