Street Fighter is one of those games that just screams character. Guile is like a poster child for the 90s, and American commando with a wedge-shaped haircut chucking sonic booms and Bazooka Knees.
While Street Fighter itself has changed a lot in over three decades, its core tenets have not: each game is a bold new iteration on the series formula, with its own unique visual flair and personality, from the Hip-Hop stylings of Street Fighter III or the inky visuals of IV.
Despite this, Street Fighter 6 seems like one of its boldest entries yet- with a more street art appeal, characters explode into splashes of paint, all matching colors tied to individual characters. Characters haphazardly splash blue paint on perfect parries, and green for the game’s meta defining Drive Rush.
At gamescom asia, we caught up with Street Fighter 6’s director Takayuki Nakayama and producer Shuhei Matsumoto about the popularity of Street Fighter 6, its cross-brand collaboration with friendly industry rivals SNK as well as the selection process for new characters.
Adding That Splash Of Fatal Fury To Street Fighter 6
Of course, with Fatal Fury star Terry Bogard being the most recent addition to the roster, there was a lot of excitement around the Hungry Wolf’s addition. According to Nakayama, Terry was simply a logical choice to join the cast of Metro City: he was created by the developer of the original Street Fighter, and symbolized the bond between modern-day Capcom and SNK.
“Street Fighter and Fatal Fury actually have a very close history together”, Nakayama says. “Capcom and SNK are both based in Osaka. Not only is there a lot of affinity with the creator being the same but the fact that they’re so close in proximity. The development teams of both series are very close friends and they’re close in general”.
“We really wanted to collaborate and boost the excitement and love that they have for both series and share it with the fans. Thus, a direct collaboration decision was made due to the close relationship between the two series”, he adds.
Of course, it’s not just Terry and Mai in Street Fighter 6. The exchange program goes both ways, with SNK having also added Ken and Chun-Li to the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Nakayama says that the decision to go with Ken and Chun-Li over Ryu or invasive species Akuma was SNK’s decision.
“We are actually pretty involved with the development of Ken and Chun-Li in the game in terms of them having a lot of conversations [about it]”, Nakayama explains. “The SNK side might say ‘well how about this and that’ and they’ll definitely have a lot of deep conversations with them and helping as much as possible to make sure they are true to Street Fighter since they’re Street Fighter characters”.
But what about Street Fighter characters? In three decades many characters have been introduced, and every new game means a crowd of fans clamoring for their favorites to return.
According to Nakayama, characters are chosen mostly for their personalities and story:
“When you’re comparing the character or the game mechanics, they do tend to prioritize the character. Whether it makes sense for characters to come back in this iteration timeline-wise and also background wise, whether or not they’re popular, we consider that as a factor”, he says.
“Game mechanics, because each character can be finely tuned, in the newest iteration to match the balance that’s needed for the entire game, the character is more heavily prioritized than their [compatibility with] the game mechanics”, he adds.
The Popularity Of Street Fighter 6
There’s also a lot to say about the effects of Street Fighter 6 on the real world, too. Aside from selling very well, it’s become the fighting game of choice for many people who you wouldn’t even associate with fighting games. From Vtubers to casual streamers, it feels like everyone’s dipping their toes into Street Fighter 6.
“It’s really great that a lot of content creators have been taking part in fighting game culture and spreading the word of Street Fighter 6”, Matsumoto says. “Ever since the end of Street Fighter V it’s something that they’ve been thinking about that we’re happy that it could happen and hoping that it could spread even more going into Street Fighter 6. We’re glad that it has”.
Of course, it’s not just enough that Hololive are playing Street Fighter 6. With events like the Sajam Slam and Crazy Raccoon Cup, pro players have been akin to arms dealers, escalating the threat of competition by giving casual players access to coaching by legitimate threats in the Street Fighter competitive scene.
“One thing that we also noticed that’s also part of the growth of the Content Creator culture particularly involving Street Fighter 6 is that the pro players have also joined in with the Content Creators like with the CR cup as well”, Matsumoto says. “You have people who are being taught by pro players then making content from that and it’s really helped to meld together the fighting game community with Content Creators and then spreading out to gamers in general which is really awesome”.
Matsumoto also said that even among casual players, he was very proud of the series ability to pull in new players.
“In terms of the game in general, we’re very thankful for how well it’s been received by the game fans because they’ve put in a lot of effort to make this the best iteration of Street Fighter that it’s ever been”, Matsumoto says. “We added a lot of new modes hoping to pull in new players. We’ve put in a lot of love into the game and feel like we’ve received that same love back and we’re really happy for that”.
“One thing we did find unexpected was that Street Fighter as a game in general tends to be more popular in the States and Europe. In this newest Street Fighter we’ve seen an almost explosive kind of positive feedback from Japan and Asia as well, much more than the games that have come before”, he adds.
“So we found that the popularity has grown a lot in Japan and Asia, which was more positive than expected reaction from what we’ve seen. We’re really happy about that”.
From its early days to its current dominance in the mainstream you can easily see how Street Fighter has earned its spot as fighting game royalty. With its cool characters, bustling esports scene and more, it’s no wonder Street Fighter 6 itself is such a huge success.
Our thanks to Matsumoto and Nakayama for taking the time to talk all things Street Fighter with us, as well as to Capcom for setting up a chance to talk with the minds behind one of the biggest fighting games on the market right now.
