Street Fighter 6 Brings New Characters and a Lower Price
Street Fighter 6 Year 4 is upon us and there’s a new Ultimate Pass to purchase. It includes four new fighters, their additional outfits and colors, and 5800 drive tickets. With all these additions on the horizon, COGconnected thought it would be a good idea to look back on the triumph that has been Street Fighter 6 Year 3, preview and discuss the few ways Capcom can improve upon the game.
Street Fighter 6 remains an incredible game. For many players, it stands atop a phenomenal stack of current gen fighting games. Capcom gives the game plenty of attention throughout the year, tweaking the minutia of every detail. There are events all the time, and every month has a fresh Fighting Pass, with new goals leading to different player rewards. Each year has introduced four new fighters, which will bring the total roster to thirty four fighters by the end of Year 4. With each new character comes new story routes in World Tour, and new moves for player avatars to learn. There’s several hours of content with each character, even if one ignores the traditional time spent in Versus, Arcade, and Practice modes.
Looking Back at Year 3
The fighters from Street Fighter 6 Year 3 were Sagat, C. Viper, Alex and Ingrid. All four fighters ended up being real hits. Sagat is a classic series villain. He was the end boss of the original Street Fighter, and was the second last boss in Street Fighter II. He plays almost like a taller version of Ryu and Ken, with his tiger fireball and uppercut. C. Viper plays like a dream, and has an excellent updated look. Alex brought in motion capture from pro wrestler Kenny Omega, which gave him an incredible second set of super moves that were difficult and satisfying to execute. Ingrid went through a massive redesign that completely changed her into a god-like magical robot, who has major implications on World Tour’s story. As much as I hate multiverse plots, one of my favorite aspects of Street Fighter 6 has been speculating on where the narrative is heading.
The Street Fighter 6 Year 4 Ultimate Pass includes the characters Yasmine (August 3 2026), Arjun (Fall 2026), Tifa (Early 2027), and Bosch (Spring 2027). What’s interesting about this line-up of characters is that they’re all new fighters. There’s been a lot of grumbling online about how there aren’t any returning series characters. Personally, I’m still waiting for the rest of the Street Fighter II-era characters: Vega, Balrog, T. Hawk, and Fei Long. I was kind of hoping that we would get one of them in every Year Pass. But I am very excited at the notion of a bunch of new characters to the series.
New Characters
Yasmine is a Filipino knife fighter with lots of quick strikes, flips, and slides. She has some projectile use by throwing her knives, and looks pretty easy to use. Her second outfit is a baggy school uniform. The way she looks and moves perfectly fits into the world of Street Fighter. It’s also rad to see some Filipino representation in a franchise that globe trots with its story. Not much is known about Arjun, but he’s a giant from India, so he might have a connection to Dhalsim, or some Yoga powers.
Not much is known about how Tifa will play, but she’s a beloved character from Final Fantasy VII. I’m curious to know if they will incorporate Final Fantasy turn-based combat, or her slot machine Limit Break attack, in any way. Out of classic Street Fighter characters, new characters, and guest characters, I’m usually least interested in guest characters. But Final Fantasy VII is my favorite video game of all time, and Tifa is a street fighter in that game, so she’ll likely fit the Street Fighter universe well.
Major World Tour Story Implications
The final new character is Bosch. Not much is known about the way Bosch plays. In the reveal trailer he does a Wing Chun-like pose, but he’s from the fictitious country Nayshall. Bosch is an important story character from World Tour. We’ve seen him in cutscenes for years. He’s there from the beginning of the player avatar’s journey. To those who’ve played through World Tour mode, his inclusion is really exciting, because he’s incredibly important to Street Fighter 6’s narrative. Even if he doesn’t bring an end game to the story, he’ll hopefully provide some strong clues as to where the narrative is heading.
Although Street Fighter Year 4 looks to be an excellent extension of a near perfect fighting game, there are still some issues Capcom hasn’t addressed. The main problem is the cost of bonus content. The Street Fighter 6 Year 3 Ultimate Pass was $80 CAD, and Year 4 is $68 CAD. Year 3 had 1 stage and 5600 Drive Tickets, and Year 4 has no stages and 5800 Drive Tickets. Thankfully it’s a less expensive year, but there is no new level! The Character Pass includes all 4 characters, the additional colors for outfit 1, and 3000 Drive Tickets. It’s missing outfits 2 and 3 for the new characters, and has half the Drive Tickets, but for $40 it feels like a much more reasonable price for DLC content.
The Problem with Fighter Coins
Another problem is the insane cost of Fighter Coins. 350 Fighter Coins cost $9.49 CAD. Fighter Coins remain an insane rip-off, and are incredibly difficult to get in-game. Most cosmetic purchases require around 200 Fighter Coins and 4000 Drive Tickets. It’s easy enough to grind for Drive Tickets but Fighter Coins basically have to be bought with real world money. $9.49 CAD can’t even get the player two cosmetic items! The Drive Tickets that come with the Ultimate and Character Passes seem like such strange, arbitrary amounts. If the passes came with 5800 Fighter Coins, they would feel a lot more valuable, and give chances for players to pick up a few cosmetics every year.
My last complaint is that World Tour avatar creation could still be much more robust. There are constantly new articles of clothing to unlock, but there could be more body options. The hair and tattoo options are still quite slim. There just isn’t enough to make a fighter conjured from your imagination. The WWE 2K games have a phenomenal character creation system that I wish the Street Fighter devs would look at. The game is flawless when it comes to creating move builds, but some obvious work needs to be done in the appearance department.
A Bright Year Ahead
Street Fighter 6 is a phenomenal fighting game achievement. Every year has added tweaks and content to keep the game atop its throne as the best modern 2D fighter. Year 4’s content really adds to the value and longevity of what’s already a massive game, loaded with content. I can’t wait to try Yasmine in a few days. The cost of the Year 4 Ultimate Pass is a bit less than the Year 3 Ultimate Pass, but it doesn’t have any new levels. Street Fighter 6 is still pushing consumer limits in terms of what they’re charging for its extra content, but, thankfully, it’s getting a bit better.
***PS5 code provided by the publisher***