Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here are the deets for the beta. If you sign up for it before September ends then you’ll have the opportunity to play as eight characters: Ryu, Chun Li, Jamie, Luke, Kimberly, Juri, Guile and Ken. That’s a decent batch of classic characters and fresh faces. You can try out character creation in the game’s Battle Hub, but it’ll only be possible once for this beta. There’s a bunch of game modes to try out too, ranging from ranked and casual matches to open tournaments, gimmicky extreme battles that change every day and, my personal favourite, training mode. I must, however, alert you to the existence of a “DJ Booth”. I assume this is just a small alcove where you can chat with Jamaican kickboxer Dee Jay. There’s six playable stages to have a dust up on too: Metro City Downtown, Genbu Temple, Carrier Byron Taylor, Tian Hong Yuan, Training Room, and the fantastically named Macho Ring. We also got a better look at the game’s single-player World Tour mode in a new trailer, which you see below. It’s good to see my boys Dhalsim, Blanka and E. Honda back in action again. You’ll be able to Tiktok makeover your own World Tour character a fair bit, but the best part is getting to Hadouken and Spinning Bird Kick your way around the city. Tiger Uppercutting random civilians seems like an extreme response to settle minor disputes while out and about though, but this is a game called Street Fighter after all. I mean, who’d play Street Apologiser? Street Fighter 6 is shaping up to be a weirdly interesting entry in the 35-year-old beat ‘em up series, after some initial shenanigans surrounding its logo. I like the sound of its real-time commentary from people in the fighting game community. Capcom revealed at this week’s Tokyo Game Show that esports commentator Kosuke Hiraiwa and singer Demon Kakka were lending their voices to Street Fighter 6. Street Fighter 6’s closed beta runs between October 7th and 10th. You can sign up for the beta at Capcom’s site here. The game proper is due out in 2023 on Steam, as well as Xboxes and PlayStations.
