While the rollout of Street Fighter 6's Year 2 Character Pass isn't set to conclude until summer of this year, speculation regarding the season of DLC which will follow it has been growing due to all the fighters in the current pass having already been revealed for months. Although its roster represents a strong blend of a new generation and classic fighters, Street Fighter 6 has still notably omitted enough familiar faces to make up several years of content at its current release rate. With multiple eras of the series and Capcom as a whole to embody, Year 3 has the potential to deliver one of the strongest DLC seasons of fighting games in recent years.
Following post-launch support becoming the lifeblood of Street Fighter 5's later success and multiple editions redefining SF4, DLC characters are now a key part of a title in the series maintaining longterm interest. The ongoing Fatal Fury crossover with Street Fighter 6 is taking up half of the entirety of Year 2 with impressive guests, but there are too many unused fighters that fans have been missing from the main franchise itself.
What to Expect From Street Fighter 6's Mai
Now that her appearance in Street Fighter 6 has been fully unveiled, Mai Shiranui appears ready to keep up the game's Fatal Fury energy.
Popular Street Fighter Characters Likely to Return
Classic Legacy Picks
With just how many crowd-pleasers have been left out of SF6 up until now, it would be more ideal for Capcom to return to five characters per season and to focus entirely on its original cast. This is highly unlikely given comments from Street Fighter 6's producer on guest characters continuing to play an important role, so there will be some inevitable compromise between these fan-favorites.
Makoto and Dudley represent two sides of the endearing spectrum as a tomboyish martial artist and posh boxer, and their absence in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike's Metro City has always seemed odd. Sean shares that distinction, but was also once a face of a new generation that has been overshadowed, leaving him in a unique place to explore his Ball Throw gimmick. Series mainstays Sakura, Sagat, and Vega all received more recent chances to shine in SF5, and staying true to adapting those incarnations would likely resonate well with the Drive system.
- Makoto
- Dudley
- Sakura
- Sagat
- Vega
- Sean
More Recent Series Additions
While not as old and beloved, some fighters have still attracted a healthy fan base in their brief outings so far. Street Fighter 4's C. Viper might feel like a welcome return after the long gap since her introduction, but the unique mechanics associated with Menat or G could make them equally valued despite not being gone for long.
- C. Viper
- Menat
- Laura
- G
Future Street Fighter 6 Crossovers Should Stick to Capcom's Catalog
Several Natural Fits Are First-Party
The inclusion of more guests is unlikely to be unanimously well-received by longtime fans, but it's a commitment that Capcom appears to be honoring. If the company is willing to go through the trouble of bringing a guest into the RE Engine, however, it can be a resourceful move if characters owned by Capcom are utilized. With the return of the Darkstalkers franchise having been teased and speculated about for years, allowing members of its cast into SF6 could test the waters for a full-fledged release in the vein of Luke's original DLC appearance. The succubus Morrigan, her counterpart Lilith, and the cat-woman Felicia all stand as popular representatives of the series who wouldn't heavily contradict the tone of Street Fighter.
Strider and Cyclops, on the other hand, have plenty of history in the company's line of crossover games that could allow their movesets to be nearly prebuilt as nods to the past while also showing faith in future versus titles. Maintaining that theme outside the genre, the violent titular character of Asura's Wrath, if toned down, could still make sense and foreshadow a new title of his own. With Kimberly making Guy's return to Street Fighter 6 unlikely, fully committing to Strider over Zeku could have the most lore significance of all these routes.
Darkstalkers Guests
- Morrigan Aensland
- Felicia
- Lilith
Other Capcom Guests
- Asura (Asura's Wrath)
- Strider Hiryu (Strider)
- Cyclops (X-Men vs. Street Fighter)
Street Fighter 6 Fans Should Keep Tabs on Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
Street Fighter 6 released crossover characters as DLC, and fans should keep an eye on Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves' attempt to return the favor.
Street Fighter 6's Metro City Setting Could Use More Representatives
Continuing the Arcs of Final Fight's Cast
Originally appearing in Capcom's Final Fight series of arcade side-scrollers, these characters have since become canonized into the wider Street Fighter universe. When players first saw that Metro City is where SF6 is set, it was naturally anticipated that they would all get new iterations. The faces of FF have still been conspicuously left out after 2 years of DLC, making them seem more needed than ever.
Guy might need a new vision to feel original in his ninja gimmick, but the reception to updates to the stories of Cody and Haggar, and the politics of Metro City could potentially transcend their gameplay evolution. Poison and Hugo remain a complementary duo of acrobatic and lumbering styles, while Rolento's military baton use could be potent enough to shift the entire meta. The faster paces of Maki and Lucia's styles are natural fits for the offensively-oriented, Drive Gauge-heavy Street Fighter 6, and the hulking Abigail achieves the exact opposite effect. Sodom remains a wild card who's been absent since Alpha, so there's no telling how his weapon-based approach could have evolved in the time since.
- Cody
- Guy
- Haggar
- Poison
- Hugo
- Rolento
- Maki
- Lucia
- Sodom
- Abigail
Final Wish List for Street Fighter 6's Year 3
There's no telling how far Capcom will go with balancing its number of guests versus original fighters moving forward, but being optimistic in terms of their adherence to fan feedback would mean limiting Year 3 to a single, first-party guest. If the pass only contains four characters like Street Fighter 6's Year 2 Pass yet again, the best use of them would be to represent a different era of the franchise with each fighter. Including the following line-up would do justice to the series while maintaining Capcom's vision:
- Makoto or Dudley (Third Strike representative)
- Sakura or Sagat (Old School/Alpha series representative)
- Cody or Poison (Metro City resident)
- Guest Character (Capcom representative)
Street Fighter 6
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 91 /100 Critics Rec: 98%
WHERE TO PLAY
Play legendary masters and new fan favorites like Ryu, Chun-Li, Luke, Jamie, Kimberly and more in this latest edition with each character featuring striking new redesigns and exhilarating cinematic specials.
Dominate the Fighting Ground: Street Fighter 6 offers a highly evolved combat system with three control types - Classic, Modern and Dynamic - allowing you to quickly play to your skill level.
The new Real Time Commentary Feature adds all the hype of a competitive match as well as easy-to-understand explanations about your gameplay. The Drive Gauge is a new system to manage your resources. Use it wisely in order to claim victory.
Explore the Streets in World Tour: Discover the meaning of strength in World Tour, an immersive, single-player story mode. Take your avatar and explore Metro City and beyond. Meet Masters who will take you under their wing and teach you their style and techniques.
Seek Rivals in the Battle Hub: The Battle Hub represents a core mode of Street Fighter 6 where players can gather and communicate, and become stronger together. Use the avatar you create in World Tour to check out cabinets on the Battle Hub floor and play against other players, or head over to the Game Center to enjoy some of Capcom's classic arcade games.
- Engine
- RE Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- PC, PS4, PS5, & Xbox Series X|S
- Franchise
- Street Fighter
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, Arcade
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
