The First Fix of Street Fighter 6
There was initial mystery as to what Capcom’s newest countdown would be for when it first launched, but it soon became clear that it would be for Street Fighter 6. How could it not be?
The clues were there. The countdown was planned to conclude around the time the largely-virtual Capcom Cup was scheduled to end, to close out the last year’s Street Fighter V tournament bouts. Not to mention that three — THREE — different collaborations with Street Fighter were announced near the end of the last week, including with Magic: The Gathering, The King of Fighters: All-Star (a franchise in which its most recent mainline installment launched just Thursday), and Minecraft. Capcom wouldn’t have been able to handle the seething disappointment that would have been headed their way if it wasn’t for SF6. Fortunately for everyone, it was.
Unfortunately for everyone, they didn’t show much. All they provided as a teaser that lasted for a mere 40 seconds, showing both Ryu and heavily-pushed new character Luke (also the last character for SFV) duking it out in what initially appeared to be prerendered CG models. A closer glance shows how they very well might be in-game character models. It’s a short teaser with several hints as to what’s in store for the new game.
For one, they appear to be going through with Hot Ryu alternate outfit from SFV as the main Ryu going forward, no doubt a result a result of the furor he generated across social media. For another, they sure are pushing Luke very hard, though this outfit covers up his tattoo-adorned body. The development team wasn’t kidding when they said he’d represent the series’ future.
Unless this teaser is intentionally misleading, it foretells how they’re drifting away from the fusion of anime and realistic styles from previous games for one that fully embraces realism. Capcom reportedly considered going with a realistic style on par with newer Tekken and Virtua Fighter titles with SFV, but abandoned their plans when they felt they couldn’t implement it quite right. They’ve developed the RE Engine since then, one that does a hell of a job rendering realistic styles. Devil May Cry V veered away from its fusion of realism and anime styles from the first four games for a fully realistic one, and this game could do the same.
The teaser is, sadly, all we got here, along with the detail that Bayonetta 2 director and designer Yusuke Hashimoto is working as a game designer on it. Our only weapon will be the power of speculation until the full reveal sometime this summer, a time that will hopefully be closer to June and not, say, mid-September. This did not justify a week-long countdown without a full reveal, and the timing of it heavily suggests that the game will not release this year, but perhaps part of the blame there can fall on our own hype culture. But only part of it; this was poorly handled for a short teaser, yet the excitement generated could be worth Capcom’s efforts here in the end. It will just be us old curmudgeons whining about this.
The other announcement was for the Capcom Fighting Collection, a package that will include classic fighters that weren’t part of the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection released nearly two years ago. All five Darkstalkers games — specifically Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, Vampire Savior: Lord of the Vampire, Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, and Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire — Red Earth, Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (aka Pocket Fighter), and Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition. It’s a solid collection, made even more so with the addition of rollback netplay for what appears to be every game included, and a bunch of extras.
The collection itself is also special for how it will mark the first official releases for Vampire Hunter 2 and Vampire Savior 2 outside Japan. The original arcade games were never given home ports by themselves, and the PlayStation 2 Darkstalkers collection was released only in Japan, though both have been playable through emulators for years. It will also include the first home console port for the underappreciated Red Earth — with the best kind of online at that.
The collection will release on June 24th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC, with a physical version available for $39.99. A digital bundle with the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection will be available for $59.99; a pity they’re not bundling that physically, but Capcom likely feels its sales wouldn’t justify the manufacturing costs. Capcom will presumably reveal the company working on this collection in the near future, but it would be a surprise if it wasn’t Digital Eclipse.
In the meantime, we’ll just have to see if Capcom is willing to give up any info on SF6 before the summer reveal, however small. Don’t be surprised if anything slips through the cracks before then too.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
