The Early Verdict on the Street Fighter 6 CBT is Out

The Closed beta for Street Fighter 6 is now underway and will continue till Monday, 10th October 2022. Beta codes were sent out, and while many people did not get the codes, several content creators were able to get their hands on one. 

What this has led to is something of a Twitch takeover with everyone trying their hands at the game, including gamers not traditionally known with Street Fighter like SonicFox, Kizzle Kay, and so many others.

What has been the most fun is watching people discover new stuff about the game. While we have been given information about a lot of what Capcom has in store for the game, we have also learned a lot more from hands-on experience. Some testers were more interested in the custom creation mode and this just goes to show Street Fighter 6's potential mass appeal, as there is something for everyone.

Here are some of the things we have learned about the game so far:

Netcode

One of the biggest problems that Street Fighter V had was the less-than-stellar netcode that plagued the game for most of its lifespan. Street Fighter V eventually got better netcode, but not up to a level of comfort for most players. Guilty Gear -STRIVE- has since then blazed the trail in terms of good netcode, and it seems like Street Fighter 6 is of a similar ilk. We saw examples of games between players in far-flung locations that worked well. SonicFox played Go1 which is incredible considering one of them is in the United States, and the other is in Japan. Big Bird was also able to play RushDown which is a USA-UAE match. So, it would seem that SF6 will have very decent netcode. What this will mean for tournaments and if they will still be region-locked remains to be seen. 

Stage Select

The general idea of Street Fighter V is that someone picks a stage, and both players are tied to that decision. But this is no longer the case in Street Fighter 6, as each player can pick the stage they want and that is where they play the game. So, if someone plays on the grid, and someone else picks a stage, each player will find themselves on the stage they picked.

Gameplay Mechanics

Naturally, we can't have all the mechanics down right now, and going over what each character can do will take way too much time. But, we do have universal information on certain interactions and how they affect frame data. For instance, we now know that:

• Getting a counter hit grants you +2
• Getting a punish counter grants you +4
• Pushing a normal right after Drive Rush grants you +4 

There might be more things, but that's what we have for now.

We'll learn a lot more between now and Monday when the Beta ends. At the moment, there is maintenance going on for the game's servers which have suffered a malfunction. This should be fixed soon, and we can continue swooning over what SF6 promises.