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Fighting game genre fans better get their sore thumbs and rickety controllers ready because Street Fighter VI is on the horizon and will be released on June 2, 2023. Street Fighter VI will simultaneously be released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Microsoft Windows on the aforementioned date.
But of course, you don’t have to wait until June 2 in order to buy Street Fighter VI. Right now, you can pre-order Street Fighter VI straight from CAPCOM’s website for $59.99 USD. This is for the Standard Edition of the game.
Those who pre-order Street Fighter VI for any platform before June 1 will receive a pre-order bonus of Outfit 1 Color 10 for six characters; that’s six outfits for these popular and fresh new characters:
- Chun-li
- Dee Jay
- Jamie
- Juri
- Ken
- Manon
There’s also a pre-order for a Deluxe Edition for $84.99 and an Ultimate Edition for $104.99. All editions will also be available on the release date though you will miss out on the pre-order bonus if you buy the game on release or on June 1.
The Deluxe Edition comes with these bonuses on top of the full game:
- Year 1 Character Pass (details below)
- 4 additional characters
- 4 additional characters’ colors:
- Outfit 1 Colors 3-10
- 4,200 Drive Tickets
Meanwhile, the Ultimate Edition comes with these bonuses along with the full game:
- Year 1 Ultimate Pass (details below)
- 4 additional characters
- 4 additional characters’ colors:
- Outfit 1 Color 3-10
- 4 additional characters’ costumes:
- Outfit 2 (including colors 1-10)
- 4 additional characters’ costumes:
- Outfit 3 (including colors 1-10)
- 2 additional stages
- 7,700 Drive Tickets
A demo version is also available
Those who want to try out the product first before diving in or biting the bullet will be pleased to know that there’s also a Demo version for free. It comes with limited content with a couple of player characters, namely Luke and Ryu.
Here’s what the Demo version includes:
Fighting Ground content:
- One on One
- Extreme Battle (‘Down & Out’ x ‘Bull Run’)
- Tutorial (Beginner: Classic/Modern/Dynamic)
- Character Guides
World Tour content:
- Avatar Creation (can carry over to the main game if you bought it using the same account)
Playable characters:
- Luke
- Ryu
Playable stages:
- Genbu Temple
- Training Room
Commentary:
- Aru
- Vicious
You’ll need at least 25GB of space on your gaming platform regardless of whether it’s a PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, or Microsoft Windows. Meanwhile, if you’re on the PC, here are the system requirements for Street Fighter VI:
Minimum Specs:
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit required)
- CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200
- Memory: 8GB
- VRAM: 4GB or higher
- GPU: GTX 1060 / Radeon RX 580
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 25GB
Recommended Specs:
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit required)
- CPU: Intel Core i7 8700 / AMD Ryzen 3 3600
- Memory: 16GB
- VRAM: 6GB or higher
- GPU: RTX 2070 / Radeon RX 5700 XT
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 25GB
What’s new in Street Fighter VI?
Apart from the obviously revamped graphical engine, Street Fighter VI is chock full of new features that would make new and old fans excited.
New street fighters!
Thankfully, you won’t just be having six street fighters in Street Fighter VI. The game will launch with 18 unique characters in total, with DLCs poised to add more characters, both old and new. Two of the total 18 characters available at launch are new, while five more fresh faces are expected to be added later down the line via DLCs.
For now, here are the new characters we know:
- Luke – Borrowing a page straight from Ryu and Ken’s cocky action star looks, Luke seems to be assuming the role of the junior. And sure enough, he’s the brash and youthful poster boy for this sequel.
- Jamie – Another junior role character, this time Jamie seems to be taking his cues from Ken and is a staunch practitioner of Drunken Fist Kung Fu.
- Kimberly – Kimberly is this sequel’s Chun Li, it seems, and she’s a street ninja, by the looks of it. Her aesthetics are notably different since she’s a walking throwback to the 1980s.
- Marisa – Standing at 6’8”, Marisa is a meat mountain of a woman hailing from Italy, and it’s no coincidence that her hair looks like a Greek Hoplite’s helmet since she also has Greek roots and even likens herself to the Spartan warriors of old.
- Manon – Manon is many things. She’s a supermodel, a dancer, and a Judo champion. So she combined all of that into one package, making for a unique marriage of ballet and judo, as ridiculous as it sounds.
- Lily – Lily is a homage to Native Mexicans, being one herself. This new street fighter loves her aerial attacks, leveraging her small stature and acrobatic physique to throw her enemies to the ground.
- JP – There has to be a big bad, and in fighting games, it’s usually an old and more mature man. In Street Fighter VI, it’s likely JP or Johan Pavlovich, and he fights just how he looks, with a staff and magic.
The game also revolves around three gameplay segments, namely Fighting Ground, World Tour, and Battle Hub.
Fighting Ground
Fighting Ground is the standard and familiar game mode that fans have come to love over the decades. There’s no story here since it’s practically an arcade mode that lets players get straight into the action.
World Tour
World Tour is an experimental and fresh new content for the Street Fighter franchise, and it’s essentially an open-world mode where you get to roam around Metro City’s streets with your own custom-made player avatar. As for what you’ll be doing, well, you’ll presumably be looking for fights among other open-world stuff.
Details aren’t exactly plentiful, but one of the most notable stuff you could do in World Tour mode was to interact with the mainstay characters of the franchise, like Chun Li and Blanka, based on the trailer.
Battle Hub
You can think of Battle Hub as the multiplayer space for World Tour. Each instance of a Battle Hub can hold 100 players, and here, you can look for multiplayer fights while interacting with other players; these essentially turn into Fighting Ground matches.
This instance also allows players to hold and set up enclosed tournaments and spectate fights, giving a more atmospheric and thematic way to play Street Fighter than ever before.
Drive Gauge has replaced V-Trigger as the meter system
To further spice things up for Street Fight VI, CAPCOM has replaced Street Fighter V’s V-Trigger system with the Drive Gauge. It’s essentially a culmination of all the meter systems from all the previous Street Fighter games.
Drive Gauge has six bars which act as some kind of currency that you can spend to perform cool and powerful moves with your character of choice. Attacking and catching opponents’ attacks will fill up the meter. Blocking attacks or getting caught will deplete the bars.
If the Drive Gauge bar runs out, then you enter a vulnerable Burnout mode where your character will be stunned if pushed against a wall, and it will also take more damage. So a lot of what you do in Street Fighter VI revolves around managing the Drive Gauge to reap its advantages.
