Street Fighter 6: We all gotta start somewhere, right?
I have always been an avid player of video games in my spare time. In recent years Street Fighter has become one of my favorite pastimes. The competitive nature of fighting games in addition to the ability to constantly improve helps drive home my love for fighting games. Prior to this semester the newest game in the Street Fighter series was released. Since the game’s release I have tried a multitude of characters and played my fair share of ranked, reaching Diamond on a handful of those characters. On my journey towards fighting game perfection I have learned a few things that truly enhanced my experience as an avid player of the genre. With Street Fighter 6 still being somewhat new I hope that my insights can help you grow as a player.
There are two main things you want to focus on when it comes to starting Street Fighter 6
- Learning your cancellable buttons
- Anti-Airs
Sadly these two things aren’t the most entertaining concepts to learn but trust me, once you get a hold of them you will be playing on a whole new level.
By understanding what buttons you can cancel off of, it opens new doors for your play style. It gives you the ability to counter one of SF6 newest mechanics, Drive Impact, and lets you take advantage of another mechanic Drive Rush. Having a deeper knowledge of what your buttons can cancel into and how to use that to your advantage you will be able to greatly improve your damage output and gameplay as a whole.
Probably the most trivial sounding aspect to study, Anti-airs are actually one of the most important aspects of fighting games in general. If you suffer with Anti-airing people you are going to struggle in any fighting game you play. Taking the time to understand which of your buttons could be used as an Anti-air as well as practicing the usage of said button, your game performance will improve dramatically.
With each new game it’s important to emphasize your fundamentals. If you spend all of your time practicing the coolest looking combos you may pull them off every once in a while, but the odds of you winning will be significantly lower than if you started off by strengthening your core playstyle. At the end of the day it is just a video game but for me, Street Fighter is one of the most important parts of my life. It is an outlet for self expression and growth and I hope to help others experience what I have from this franchise.
If you’re interested in learning more about Street Fighter check out my YouTube Channel as I am planning on uploading more on basic fundamentals and a training regimen to help practice.