Street Fighter 6 continues to be a big success story for Capcom. We’re now into the third year of the popular fighting game’s life cycle and new content keeps arriving, balancing adjustments are still being made and high-calibre tournaments are hosted.
Now the big update for SF6’s third season has been rolled out, so we’ve put together an overview of everything that’s already arrived or is due to drop in the near future.
01
Street Fighter 6: Years 1-2 Fighters Edition
The full package: Street Fighter 6 Years 1-2 Edition
© Capcom
To mark the start of the new season, a version of Street Fighter 6 has been released that includes all the content from the first two years. In addition to the base game, you’ll also get the following characters:
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Rashid
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A.K.I
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Ed
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Akuma
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M. Bison
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Terry
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May
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Elena
It also includes all 10 colours for the 18 fighters on the starting rosters, as well as the four additional stages of the first two DLC waves.
02
Nintendo Switch 2 version
Street Fighter 6 is now available on the go
© Capcom
With the release of the Years 1-2 Fighters Edition, Street Fighter 6 is also making its way to the Nintendo Switch 2, meaning you can now enjoy a part of the series on Nintendo hardware for the first time since Street Fighter IV on the Nintendo 3DS.
03
The characters that await us in Season 3
Four new fighters are coming in Season 3
© Capcom
As in the past, four new characters will be joining the rest of the fighter squad in this season. The first new fighter is Sagat, who’ll be available from August 5. You can check out his teaser trailer below:
The Muay Thai fighter, who’s been nicknamed ‘The King’ by the community, has been part of the Street Fighter series since the first release. Sagat has appeared in almost every instalment of the main series to date. Only in Street Fighter III was he not playable.
The scientist Crimson Viper made her debut in Street Fighter IV, and shortly afterwards she was also able to fight heroes and villains from the eponymous comic universe in Marvel vs Capcom 3. Viper has always been a fan favourite and it’s surprising that it’s taken until now for her to make it back into a Street Fighter.
The in-house versus fighter Capcom Fighting Evolution wasn’t a huge hit; neither fans of the genre nor critics were convinced by the mash-up title. What many players do remember, however, is Ingrid. A fighter who was specially designed for this game and is now celebrating her big comeback.
With the release of Street Fighter III: New Generation, Capcom tried to replace Ryu as the face of the series with newcomer Alex. That didn’t really work, but Alex was still able to establish himself as an integral part of the game series.
04
Changes to game mechanics and balancing
Street Fighter 6 enters the third round
© Capcom
As is usually the case, the major update at the start of the new season has seen some tweaks to the balancing of the individual characters and the gameplay in general.
Perfect parries are about to get a little trickier to pull off
© Capcom
The functionality of Perfect Parries has been adjusted. In the past, it was only necessary to parry an attack at the correct moment and the defender would receive a short freeze frame paired with reduced block stun.
To get this freeze frame, you now have to make additional inputs while parrying an attack. For attacks that need to be blocked low, it’s necessary to hold back and down (as if you were blocking the attack regularly) while entering your parry. The same applies to attacks that have to be blocked standing up – in this case, you have to hold backwards.
This change is intended to ensure that you can no longer simply tap ‘parry’ in defence to receive a ‘get out of jail free’ card. In addition, the correct direction of the attack must be guessed during a cross-up, as the direction of the block is relevant for a perfect parry.
He points out that while Perfect Parries have provided dramatic turns in the offence, you also need a tool to combat the extreme rush-down of Street Fighter 6, saying “It was easy to overrun your opponent with a Perfect Parry, but let’s not forget how easy it is to stick to your opponent in this game.”
Let’s not forget how easy it is to stick to your opponent in this game
The infamous throw loops, which are an essential part of high-level strategy, are still in the game, despite many in the community hoping that they’d finally be removed. However, Capcom are trying to punish unsuccessful throw attempts by giving the defender more Drive gauge and Super Art gauge than before.