Street Fighter 6: An exclusive first look at a new dynamic control scheme that aims to help button runners excel

After a long hands-on practice session at Street Fighter 6 and a few interviews at Capcom’s headquarters in Osaka, Japan, I was in the back room of a small sandwich shop overlooking the Higashiyokobori River. While I eat my sandwich, I have a chat with Street Fighter 6 manager Takayuki Nakayama, who is sitting next to me, enjoying his own sandwich. After broaching topics from our own history with Street Fighter and other games we’ve been playing, he asks if you’ve enjoyed what you’ve played in Street Fighter 6 so far.

I told him that the gameplay and art style are great and that I feel real-time commentary is an advantage A revolutionary addition to the combat genre. The director nodded with a smile to mention how I don’t feel the modern controls (which simplify the overall control system) suit me, but My colleague loves the idea. I think it’s a really smart move to allow players of all skill levels to join in the fun and compete against those who have more experience in the Street Fighter franchise. He smiles and says, “There’s actually a third control scheme.” Immediately, my interest is piqued. At that moment, he could only tell me the name of the option: Dynamic Controls.

The restaurant where the conversation took place

We return to Capcom’s offices shortly after and I begin to ask more questions about Dynamic Controls. After some discussion, the team retrieves an updated design from the other side of the office so I can move on with it. Nakayama sits in front of the screen with Producer Shuhei Matsumoto at his side as the two of their consoles prepare for a match against each other. Matsumoto picks out the dynamic controls and asks me to watch his hands and compare them to the movement on the screen.

Much to my surprise, Matsumoto puts his controller on the table in front of him and begins using his index finger to press the face buttons one by one. Despite this, his character uses all kinds of attacks. It soon becomes clear that the dynamic controls are not meant to test your skills as a Street Fighter player but rather to ensure every player is included in the fun.

“Button masher” is sometimes seen as an insult to players who randomly press buttons on their board or pad in the hopes that they will accidentally cause some kind of effective attack, but for Nakayama, that idea gave him inspiration. “In a normal fighting game, when they do that [mash buttons]He says, they do a lot of smells. “We wanted something that mattered and something that made a difference that happens by random push of buttons.”

While some initially considered the modern controls an “easy mode” because it simplified them to fewer buttons and inputs required for effectiveness, Capcom has worked to balance modern and classic controls against each other, so they’re both competitive in matches — even Nakayama believes we We’ll see some high-level competitive players using the modern controls in the future. As such, both Modern and Classic are available in all game modes, without any pressure from the game or developers to “move” to the classic controls after playing with Modern. However, the dynamic controls are supposed to be closer to Easy Mode, and as such, are only available in local play.

The name comes from the idea that the AI ​​essentially decides, dynamically, which attack to perform while pressing the face buttons based on your character’s current situation and position; If the character is far away, pressing the face button may fire a projectile, while that same button may pull a group into a close encounter. While buttoning buttons is a viable strategy when using dynamic controls, strategy still plays a role, and you can still make deletions manually and move the character using the directional pad. After getting my hands on the control option, it’s safe to say I wouldn’t use it personally, but it’s the kind of mode that would have been great for playing my SNES version of Street Fighter II Turbo with my younger brother.

With these three control schemes in place, Street Fighter 6 feels like the most accessible and accessible entry in the franchise’s 35-year history. While I’ll always prefer the classic controls thanks to my experience spanning my time pumping quarters into my local Street Fighter II closet, I’m glad more players have the option to jump into the fun with Modern Controls and, to another extent, the dynamic controls.