It speaks volumes to a competitive game’s design when you don’t find yourself being frustrated with mechanics, cheap tactics, or dishonest characters. Every win feels earned and every loss feels like you could’ve done something better. Getting tilted in SF6 usually boils down to something along the lines of “I should’ve punished that!” Or “I keep dropping that combo!” Never once in all my sweaty ranked lobbies or bouts in the battle hub have I been dissatisfied with the game itself.

Street Fighter 6 is remarkably balanced. I haven’t seen such a tightly nit group of fighters in a tournament fighter in my lifetime. I main Lily, a consensus bottom 2-4 and I stand by everything I said in the paragraph above. It’s truly that even

This may be my favorite group of mechanics in a 2D fighter. SF6 is a metamorphosis of systems from the past three Street Fighters. Such a mismatch sounds like it could be disastrous or at the very least distracting or overwhelming. The drive system is genius and balanced well. The return of multiple supers is welcome and adds a new layer of depth. Drive impact can be abusable at low level, but it’s effectiveness becomes limited at intermediate levels. Drive rush is certainly powerful. Lots of players are complaining about it only costing one bar, but all I think it needs is punish counter state added throughout it’s entirety.

I didn’t expect Street Fighter 6 to be this good. After the disaster that was Street Fighter V (until it got really good towards season 3 onward), I was skeptical of SF6. I didn’t even pick the game up on launch day. I have to say that I’m so glad that I tried this game out. Easily my game of the year and could be the greatest fighting game ever made.

9/10