Street Fighter V Review

When it comes to fighting games, only a few can hold a candle to the Street Fighter series and its track record of excellent breakneck melee action. Since 1987, five main Street Fighter games and numerous crossovers and spin-offs have been released.

Street Fighter V (2016) represents the series at its very best. It is a masterful fighting game that has managed to not lose touch with its roots over the last three decades: a true modern classic.

Mechanics

Young and old alike, if you haven’t played a Street Fighter game, let’s just say you’re missing out living under that rock. But nevertheless, in case you never got to experience the fighting game phenomenon, here’s a brief history of the series and a rundown on how their mechanics work.

Following the success of the original Street Fighter, Street Fighter II came out in 1991, eclipsing its predecessor and cementing the series as Capcom’s flagship franchise. The second installment in the series established the limited health-bar, side-scrolling fighting game formula, which titles like Mortal Kombat still use to this very day.

The fighting system of the game seems relatively rudimentary on the surface, yet it is also loaded with underlying complexities. The inputs to do basic kicks and punches, directions, and even special moves are simple enough to execute, but the best players know how to chain these very specific moves into longer, lethal combos to an absolutely devastating effect. In this way Street Fighter is at once very approachable but on the level of more technical fighters like the Tekken or Soul Calibur series.