Elton's 'Street Fighter 6' Wishlist

First and foremost, we can’t have a replay of what happened with SFV on launch day. All the modes that were added to the game over time (Arcade Mode, Extra Battle Mode, the Cinematic Story Mode, and Team Battle Mode) need to be a part of the sixth Street Fighter from the jump! First impressions mean everything, so Capcom needs to make sure its next major fighting game is feature-rich for every type of player. The single-player and multiplayer crowd need to have a lot to do during the game’s first few months while Capcom works on future updates to add even more content over time.

The Street Fighter Alpha games and Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers upped its fun factor just by adding in a simple yet memorable gameplay mode. Dramatic Mode lets two players gang up on a singular foe with extra power, while Reverse Dramatic Battle Mode gives a solo player the opportunity to try their hand at taking down two opponents. There’s so much joy derived from linking up with a friend to head into battle or defending yourself against two other hungry rivals. Both of those modes deserve to make a comeback and even be implemented into the next Street Fighter game’s online multiplayer suite.

So in total, SFV features 45 characters. And to be quite honest, this entry in the long-running series features the greatest lineup in series history. There’s a cool combination of series regulars, lesser-known “World Warriors,” guest participants from Final Fight & Rival Schools, and entirely brand new characters. The launch roster for SFV gave us 16 characters to play around with before the DLC roster members came through.

I think the next Street Fighter should hit the ground running with 20 characters this time around and feature a mixture of fan favorites, returning combatants, and all-new fighters. Luke will be a part of the next game’s new roster lineup, of course. Plus I'd love to see the original “World Warriors” get updated designs to match their series evolution. Also, here’s hoping that the characters that were skipped over for SFV (C. Viper, Makoto, Dudley, Elena, Yun, and Yang, for instance) get the chance to fight alongside SFV’s signature characters (Laura, Rashid, Ed, and G definitely deserve to come back).

I’m sure everyone reading this has become accustomed to seeing members of the Final Fight roster get embroiled in all the Street Fighter madness all these years. Cody, Guy, Lucia, Sodom, Rolento, Hugo, Poison, and Abigail have all joined the festivities. Even Final Fight 2’s Maki made her fighting game debut in Capcom vs. SNK 2! The next Street Fighter should keep that trend going by bringing a few of those guests back and maybe even throwing in series regular Haggar and Final Fight 2’s Carlos into the mix. And hell, Akira from Rival Schools is in SFV! So it’d make all the sense in the world for the next Street Fighter to bring in even more characters from that game, such as Batsu, Tiffany, and the boss man Daigo himself!

The Street Fighter EX games marked the series first foray into full 3D. Then SF4 arrived and incorporated a mix of 2D & 3D visuals to great effect. SFV kept that aforementioned trend going, but a lot of detractors pointed to its graphical presentation as nothing more than an eyesore. While I’m one of the few fans out there that enjoys SFV’s visuals, I can see where a lot of the criticisms lie.

In order for the next Street Fighter to make headlines and grab the attention of casual onlookers, it needs to present a gorgeous animation style that’s eye-popping at first glance. Should the series make a return to the anime visuals of Street Fighter Alpha? Or should it refine the last two games’ 3D visuals to look all the prettier? I’m fine with either approach, honestly.