Street Fighter 6 has remained one of the world’s top fighting games since its launch in 2023. With its strategic depth, wide cast of characters, regular updates, and thriving competitive scene, there has not been a better time to jump into the latest title in the long-running series.
With its multiplatform release, you might simply jump into the fray with your trusty Dual Shock 4 or DualSense, Xbox controller or whatever USB pad you have handy on your PC – and that’s fine: It’s all about finding the best way you play, and some pros can become EVO champions with just a bog-standard PlayStation 1 controller!
With so many ways to play, we take a look at some of the top Street Fighter 6 pros and what they’re excelling with.
01
Adel ‘BigBird’ Anouche on arcade stick
BigBird has been an arcade stick user for years
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Street Fighter was born in the arcades, and many pro gamers grew up alongside the coin-op machines that sported precise joysticks and six-button layouts. As a result, Street Fighter 6 is also known as a six-button fighter, and many off-the-shelf arcade sticks that the pros use have either six or eight buttons for straightforward play – and rebinding those two extra buttons to throw or Drive Impact can improve your gameplay. Essentially, with its arcade DNA, using a stick is almost how it was made to be played.
It takes a bit of getting used to if you have years of regular game controller experience, as using your whole hand rather than just your thumb to move your character feels different, but being able to dedicate each fingertip to highly-responsive (and crucially, sturdy) buttons is a boon for many players.
Competitors have a unique preference when it comes to controllers
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Movement can also feel quite rigid, in a positive way: many joysticks come with a restrictor gate, allowing you to lock in the stick movement to a specific shape. Whether that’s a circle, a square or an octagon, it’s all down to personal preference, and another boon for using an arcade stick.
The size of arcade sticks also makes for a fascinating blank canvas: with many customisable parts, from buttons to joysticks, and a whole faceplate that can shine with artwork, many pros use the opportunity of an arcade stick to showcase their favourite colours, characters, style and personality – or even just their sponsors.
02
Daigo ‘The Beast’ Umehara on Hitbox/leverless controller
Daigo moved on over to leverless controllers
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Leverless controllers have been making waves since they hit the scene over the last few years, and multiple pros have taken to them for much the same way many pros use regular arcade sticks: faster inputs.
While the right-hand side of the controller is much the same as a regular arcade stick – with typically six to eight buttons – it’s the left-hand side that’s different, much like the leverless name implies, there’s no joystick (or lever) here – instead, the four directions of movement have been turned into individual buttons, allowing you to hit your directions and move inputs with ease.
Rather than it just being one singular way of moving, like your thumb on a d-pad, or your whole wrist moving a stick, your individual fingers are able to hit different directions, essentially speeding up the process. To be tournament legal, however, hitboxes need to be fitted with an input cleaning device called an SOCD (Simultaneous Opposite Cardinal Directions), which means if you hit two directions at once, the controller only sends one to the game. Capcom Pro Tour rules dictate that opposite-direction inputs must result in a neutral being sent to the game, and many of these controllers align with these rules.
It’s a different feeling, and its speed has been criticised as ‘cheating’ by many, but the scene has embraced the controller, and the diversity of different ways of playing is nothing but a boon.
MenaRD makes a regular controller look like the choice of a champ
© Natalia Martinez/Red Bull Content Pool
The default Sony controller sports a layout that dates back almost 30 years, with four face buttons on the right-hand side, four triggers on the shoulders, a d-pad under your thumb, and two analogue sticks. While most players will use the d-pad for movement and move input, some players use the analogue stick for moves that require movement charging, while some might even use it for movement, period.
The console controller is all MenaRD needs to win
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With movement right under your thumb, and a range of attacks at your disposal depending on how you hold the controller, the DualSense that comes with your PS5 can be an equally valid way to fight. In fact, MenaRD makes it almost look like playing music with the way his controller style is very fluid and relaxed – especially when hitting those shoulder buttons.
As a six-button game, the DualSense only has four face buttons, so he’s certainly got a few extra binds set to those shoulders. That freedom within SF6 to set different binds means you can make almost any controller work for you – you just need to set it up to your liking.
04
Your game, your choice, your style
Which controller works best for you?
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How you play Street Fighter 6 is a personal choice and is the only thing you can do. With so many different options and options within those options, there are multitudes of layers for you to unpick. However, each way of playing can be tailored to suit you, and the best thing to do is just give each way of playing a go.
If you’ve ever been tempted to try out an arcade stick, there’s never been a better time, with so many options on the market right now, while if you’re intrigued by going leverless, they’re also in the limelight and have lots of choice too.
The choice, ultimately, is yours.