The Street Fighter 6 trailers are getting me hyped to once again pretend I’m finally going to get good at Street Fighter
The latest Street Fighter 6 trailer introduces Lily, “a descendant of the Thunderfoot tribe” who loves cameras and birds of prey, according to her profile (opens in new tab), and reveals Street Fighter veterans Zangief and my old Street Fighter 4 main, Cammy. The video (embedded above) appeared on Sony’s State of Play stream this week and is the last of the reveals for SF6’s 18-character launch roster (opens in new tab).
I was never actually very good with Cammy—my game was just “spiral arrow, spiral arrow, spiral arrow”—but I was probably better with her in SF4 than I’d ever been with any other character in a Street Fighter game, so I’m glad she made the cut. (A fun detail: The trailer includes a move Cammy does in Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie, as noticed by game designer @SamanthaZero (opens in new tab).)
I have some mixed feelings here: SF6 looks like a lot of fun, but my relationship with Street Fighter usually involves a lot of painful defeat. Being good at it is a dream I’ve repeatedly pursued and given up on ever since my 6th grade friends were pulverizing me in Street Fighter 2 on the SNES. I got sort of capable with Cammy because I vowed to become good at Street Fighter 4 and spent at least a month practicing, but then I got trounced by friends who did not appear to be trying very hard and gave up again.
I should know better, but now that SF6 is nearing, I am again feeling the urge to be good at Street Fighter. Wes liked what he saw when he played Street Fighter 6 at an event last summer, and I dig the colors after Street Fighter 5’s slightly desaturated look. I just find it impossible not to be sucked in by the Street Fighter charm: How can I not want to hear Zangief say stuff like “my beautiful body is built better” before blowing lifting chalk out of his nostrils?
Street Fighter 6 is scheduled to release on PC and console on June 2 this year, and it’ll be on Steam (opens in new tab) as usual. Whether or not it’ll be good is still uncertain even after our positive first impressions, but there’s less uncertainty about whether or not I’ll be any good at it. At least if I suck there’s an “immersive single player story mode” I can hide away in while avoiding the stress of ranked online play.
