Recommended Soundtracks (Preview): Street Fighter 6

This is also about a fighting game, so it also counts as:

The rare double feature.

Capcom opened the floodgates for Street Fighter 6’s promotion with the full reveal in early June, and will never fully close them until support for the game has ceased after, perhaps, another six years after the release. The promotional campaign has largely mimicked those from other fighting games, with Capcom slowly revealing new and returning characters, outlining the features, and giving players the chance to try the game at various conventions. I said “largely” because one aspect has indeed been different compared to the others: The sheer number of music tracks the publisher has provided.

It’s not unheard of for a publisher to sell an intro theme or another main one that becomes a hit with the audience early in the promotional campaign, like Arc System Works did with “Smell of the Game” for Guilty Gear Strive prior to its release. They also provided samples and music videos for select themes, though kept the other ones so shrouded in mystery that some fans started asking if other characters even had their own before samples of the entire soundtrack were posted. But Capcom is out here posting entire character themes on YouTube and social media, something they never did for their prior fighting game releases.

There are a couple of reasons, from what I’ve seen, for why they’ve switched things up here. The first is to show how most returning characters will have brand-new themes, the antithesis to prior SF titles that relied on remixes of old tracks. It’s a different form of 1990s nostalgia, as this is the first time Capcom’s making such a decision since the Street Fighter III titles. It’s also a way to show the style and vibe SF6’s music will have, one set to be very, very funky. It will be the funkiest for a Capcom fighting game since the early 2000s, the era of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Capcom Fighting Jam/Evolution. It feels like a spiritual successor to Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike’s hip-hop theme, a timeless soundtrack — at least for pitiful 1990s nostalgic people like me.

The fun starts with the main theme, “Not on the Sidelines,” performed by Rocco808 and Randy Marx. Beyond it showing how Capcom is once again brave enough to have a theme with lyrics for the main introduction again, after course correcting too hard from the gloriously cheesy “Indestructible,” it shows the funky vibe this installment will be going for. It’s a good track with an accompanying video, though it wasn’t initially clear as to whether this hinted at what the main game would have considering opening themes can be drastically different from in-game tracks. That’s not the case here, though, as I alluded to above:

Instead, it’s Ryu’s theme, “Viator,” that fully reveals the soundtrack’s tone. In addition to the good beats that B-Boy Ryu would dance to, it manages to incorporate segments of Ryu’s old themes. The start of it pays homage to Ryu’s old SFII theme, though not enough that it would make anyone think this is a remix of that one. It also contains subtle aspects of “Good Fighter,” Ryu’s theme from the first two SFIII titles:

Similar to Ryu’s, Chun-Li’s theme, “Not a Little Girl,” is another original one for a longtime character. The name is peculiar considering Chun-Li hasn’t been anything close to a little girl in the series for a long time (and SF6 will mark her oldest appearance yet). It’s also similar to Ryu’s in how it takes cues from her original theme in parts of its recurring beat, enough that longtime SF fans who’ve heard remixes of that theme in several games and spinoffs can identify who this particular theme belongs to:

Luke’s Theme, “Taking Aim,” is a standout example here in how it’s not a new one for SF6, but a funkier remix of his theme from the last season of Street Fighter V. This could be for good reason. The producers of SFV’s final season stated that Luke would be a preview for the future of the SF brand when he was revealed. If the rumors about SF6’s delay were true, with the developers providing a surprise final batch of content for SFV to hold fans off, there’s a good chance this SF6 theme for Luke is the original one. When he was added to SFV, a remixed version from Capcom composer Yoshiya Terayama was created for that one. There’s no confirmation that this is the case, nor is it likely that we’ll receive one. But I believe it, and that’s what counts:

I’d planned to go ahead with this piece when I figured Capcom wouldn’t be uploading Jamie’s Theme, “Mr. Top Player.” But who could have anticipated that they’d do so just this morning, as I was writing this? Maybe someone at Capcom has a camera perched behind me, and wanted to help out. I appreciate it. The theme itself is a nice bit of 1990s-style funk, which is perfectly ok with me, a person who was raised with it:

I figure that Capcom will eventually stop providing these tracks, assuming they want people to purchase the soundtrack alongside the SF6 game when it releases next year. But I hope they never do.