Street Fighter 6’s Modern Controls are the best training tool the series has ever had

I’m not very good at Street Fighter. 2D fighters have never been my hobby, I’ve always been a 3D kid, so much so that I even took a trip to Japan when Tekken 7 was just for games and sat on a machine while a couple of locals desperately launched into My King. But that doesn’t stop me from playing games like BlazBlue, Street Fighter, Guilty Gear and more, besides the release – I love fighting games. I can’t get enough of them. My limited skill ceiling shouldn’t affect that too much.

That means I tend to be very loyal to my main character – I’ve played Cammy for as long as I can remember. Killer Bee works very well for my way of playing; an aggressive superstar with some lovely potential for confusion and (now, in Street Fighter 6) some tricky load times that really force the opponent to be on their toes and read everything you do at the last minute. She’s wonderful and hard to deal with, and her speed and aggressiveness more than make up for my lack of ability to pull off those one touch combos.

Despite my limited ability, I play classic controls. I’ve played with Modern, and it bothers me a bit that Modern Cammy players I meet in ranked lobbies can pull off combos that I’m not consistent with. But I won’t back down; instead I look at the awesome chains that are attached to the wall and think ‘ah, so that’s the time right?’ and redouble my efforts to move them forward. Sometimes I do! Sometimes I concede a match to someone who I really should have beaten. The fighting game gods released their choice, rematch.

And this gave me an idea. I don’t really want to play with Modern Controls yet, because I want to get better with the core systems and better understand the bread and butter of the mechanics. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t a good training tool. Ever since my time on World Tour, Street Fighter 6’s exemplary story mode, I’ve really enjoyed my time with Chun Li; Her stances, mid-range utility, and combo potential impressed me enough to think about putting her in as my second character. In previous Street Fighter games, I barely stray from Cammy… but when I do, it’s to button up Ken or wake up Ryu, and nothing more exciting than that. Here in Street Fighter 6, I took Chun Li to the lab for about an hour…and came out feeling very confident.

It’s all because of those modern control auto combos, you see. Simply holding down a shoulder button and a face button and watching Chun go from a neutral combo to a devastating one and strike with the full impact of a focused one-inch punch gets your blood pumping. It is exciting! It’s all the appeal of a fighting game, done with perfect pacing. To me, repeatedly hammering out those combos, switching the input to Classic, and trying to emulate it (depending on the situation) is a better training tool than the Combo Trials built into the game’s robust tutorial mode.

I think there’s something about letting you handle these moves yourself, seeing how they feel in the hand, in the arena, in combat, that sinks into my weak brain better than a static replay of a combo I slam my head into. , and again. and more. Playing real matches (even against the AI) and knowing what moves to perform where, what’s safe and what’s not, and how to capitalize on a cheeky cheap shot… is the friendly and uplifting introduction to a character I never knew I had. needed.

Learning a character through Modern Controls also allows me a better understanding of how they play when they’re on the other side of the arena. Going up against Modern Chun Li in a game now feels safer; I know his tricks, I know his confusions, I know his range. I also know all of his standard combos that modern players can’t really deviate from, perhaps the biggest drawback of the control scheme (apart from the 20% special move damage reduction).

The modern controls are a huge help for accessibility, and I can already see friends I know who aren’t fans of the fighters posting about the game and even talking about the successes they’ve had on Battle Hub. There’s a reason this game is the most popular Steam fighting game of all time: at its release! – and which has already sold for an obscene amount. There’s a reason everyone in the lobbies is so nice; Everyone is having a good time! Because they are good at the game! Imagine that!

Modern controls have been criticized for allowing spammy players to spam… but that’s always been the case in fighting games. As Alex so eloquently put it in his article, if you can’t take the heat of Modern Control, stay away from the Street Fighter 6 kitchen. This accessible and friendly new addition from Capcom has effectively lowered the barrier to entry while raising the bar. base skill throughout the game. It’s nothing short of magic, really, and a perfect balance between keeping the Street Fighter legacy intact and modernizing the brand for newcomers.

One of the first DLC characters to come to the game is Rashid, the speedy gadget lover from the Middle East who was introduced in Street Fighter 5. He’s another rushing hero and I’m going to 100% bring him to the lab, and in Arcade mode , with Modern Controls at the moment it drops, for a quick and dirty look at how to play it. I’m already excited about this: me, a player who went from barely knowing one character to having at least three at my disposal.

That I’m already planning to spend money on the DLC says a lot: Street Fighter 6 has done its job, and I think I’ll be playing it for a long, long time.