Why Street Fighter 5 is exclusively for everyone

If you’ve ever watched Street Fighter being played professionally, chances are you’ve seen competitors on scene fighting on a level that casual viewers can only dream of replicating. Alpha counters, cross-ups, rushdowns, and loads of other strategies turn even those in-the-know into scrubs. With Street Fighter 5, however, new mechanics have been introduced that could well give fans the best of both worlds: allowing experienced players to make the most of its new systems, while creating building blocks for novice, but equally passionate, brawlers to take their skills to new heights.

While SF4 certainly wasn’t ugly, its successor is a significant improvement. The art style adds greatly to the fights – the pre-game presentation acknowledging this is running on Unreal Engine 4 at 1080p/60 FPS – and the brushstroke effect emphasising special moves adds a lovely flourish. The intensity of colours also helps bring the stage to life as characters batter each other mercilessly in the foreground. Whether it’s the dark, glowing purple of Bison’s psycho-enthused attacks or the sky blue that highlights Nash’s Sonic Boom, everything is accentuated in a way that holds your attention.

The stages are also well presented, at least the two currently on show. The new arena at this event was London, and was more stereotypical than James Bond sipping tea on the back of one of the Queen’s Corgis. Set in a tube station, the venue features a man in a bowler hat holding a croquet stick, a brass band of Buckingham Palace guardsmen, a bunch of punk rockers, a ‘London Pub’, and a classic red telephone box. Again, more British than urinating between two parked cars outside a nightclub in Newcastle.

With this fifth numbered entry (after what felt like thirty different versions of IV), there have been drastic changes to the combat mechanics, aiming to reintroduce counters and tide-turning supers reminiscent of the Third Strike glory days – with the hope that they can be utilised by novices and veterans alike. SF4’s Focus Attacks have been dropped to pave way for the all-new V-Gauge, a meter that fills up as you take damage. There are a few different ways to utilise this new gauge: V-Triggers, V-Skills, and V-Reversals (something I was unable to pull off in my time with the game, thanks to the split-second timing required).

V-Triggers are like a secondary super attack (which you still have, in the form of Critical Arts, which uses a separate EX Gauge that fills as you deal damage), whereby each character has a unique move that consumes the whole gauge. For example, Ryu enters his “Denjin Renki” state, powering up every attack for extra damage for a limited time. His fists become imbued with electricity, so foes on the receiving end of a Hadouken during this phase look like they’ve just received a hug from an excited Blanka, giving us a view of their stimulated skeleton.

V-Skills, however, don’t require V-Gauge, and can be used at any point in the fight. A simple press of both medium kick and punch and your fighter will pull off a different unique move, though it’s often tactical rather than overtly offensive. Of the four announced characters thus far (Bison, Nash, Ryu and Chun-Li), the V-Skill is predominantly used to counter attacks, and feels like it’s been introduced to ease less-skilled players into the more complex strategies. In previous entries, like Third Strike, countering was only visible on-screen following a successful button input, like in Daigo’s famous win from the 2004 EVO tournament. Now, rather than tapping directions, it’s medium punch and kick, to which characters always perform a move on-screen, allowing me to decipher whether my timing, distance or both were incorrect if unsuccessful, and learn for the next attempt.

Ryu will bring both hands forward in an attempt to block a hit, Bison generates a purple glowing orb to catch projectiles, much like Nash places his new transplanted forearm out and grabs anything thrown. Chun-Li has a slightly different move, with her V-Skill seeing her jump at less of an incline. It also doubles up as a strike, acting as a more aggressive counter to jump attacks. I’ve always been a passionate Street Fighter fan, but certain intricacies and underlying mechanics have eluded me. Now, being able to see an action on-screen following button presses means players like myself can learn from mistakes in a much more immediate way.

The more matches I played, the more pivotal the V-Gauge became. Learning how and when to use each character’s Trigger, and understanding how best to utilise it with other combos and Supers, became the match. Nash quickly earned a spot as my new favourite character, sporting an augmentation makeover to rival that of Metal Gear Solid’s Raiden: his V-Trigger teleports to behind his opponent, a perfect move for escaping corners and quickly turning an encounter in your favour. Despite this, it is the only thing I came away from the event an expert in, as I repeatedly weaved myself into a tight spot while so effortlessly helping my opponent out of them.

Playing Street Fighter in local competitive multiplayer for the first time in ages also reminded me how wonderful the experience can be. At first hesitant about the disparity in skill I’d likely face at such an event, 5’s welcoming new mechanics meant that I could find my feet without fear of a relentless arse-kicking on the way to some form of competence. Every match I learned something new, and thoughts immediately turned to a rematch. The thrill of a come-from behind victory against someone who is sat next to me is something long lost since the demise of the arcade, but there’s no better game at creating that feeling than Street Fighter, and this version looks capable of continuing that tradition. Whether or not SF5 can hold my attention in the same way when sat at home, playing online against faceless opponents is another question. With rivals like Mortal Kombat X presenting an excellent and engaging story mode to keep offline players hooked, Capcom has its work cut out if it wants to appeal to more than hardcore fight fans. But, with the solid foundations in place here, SF5 has the potential to appeal to a wider audience than the series has done in years.