Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

Update: This story has been updated with day 1 results.

SEA Major is back in 2024 and it’s happening in Singapore as per usual.

Notable players attending include IBSG|Tororo, GS|Gamera, Twis|Slash, PAR|Daru, Zenith, Asher, Jiro, GGyro, ONi|TY, DRX|Poka, MetallicCake, ERS|FloatWater, WHH, UrRequiem, Bread, Vita and many more.

SEA Major is part of the Arc World Tour as a Gold event for both Guilty Gear Strive and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.

Almost 50 players showed up for Guilty Gear Strive while Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising saw around 35 entrants.

At the event, they will also be playing the Street Fighter 6 Capcom Pro Tour World Warrior Finals for the South East Asia region, though those results will be covered in detail in our global World Warrior Finals results story.

Streaming is being done at Mike Ross’ Twitch channel.

Developers had an idea of what Guile was supposed to be back when they first designed him in Street Fighter 2, and the better part of the next few decades, he would widely define the defensive “zoner” archetype. He had some attacks to keep foes at bay if they got close, but his preferred game was the simple combination of throwing his speedy Sonic Booms and thwarting jumps over them with his trusty Flash Kick.

Fast forward to Street Fighter 6 and while Guile still bases his core approach around Booms and Flash Kicks, he’s also capable of some incredibly strong offense. This change didn’t happen overnight, though, and MC Mura has a new video out detailing this evolution that seemed to start in the transition between Street Fighters 4 and 5.

In their quest to appeal to more eSports audiences, fighting games have naturally trended towards becoming more offensively explosive. Developers tend to add mechanics that heavily favor offensive decisions (FADC, V-Trigger, Drive Rush) while often needing to later buff up defensive mechanics (Delayed wake up, V-Shift) to save their games from becoming too unbalanced.

What does this mean for characters who have traditionally relied on old “the best offense is a good defense” adage? It could mean they simply get left in the dust as their fellow roster mates increasingly garner abilities that allow them to rush down and power through defenses, or, as has been the case with Guile, it could mean they evolve into hybrid zoners.

Guile isn’t quite on Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Akuma level, but he’s one of the franchise’s most recognizable and therefore important figures. He’s in almost every Street Fighter to date, and to imagine a game wherein Guile simply sucks is to imagine a game that doesn’t quite feel like true Street Fighter.

Mura examines Guile’s main tools in Street Fighter 4, where he was decent as players like NuckleDu, Dieminion, and ImStillDaDaddy routinely placed high in major events with him.

The ability to extend combos and pressure was noticeably enhanced compared to previous iterations of the character thanks to the Focus Attack Dash Cancel mechanic, but he was still unequivocally a zoner who played primarily by zoner rules.

This changed fairly drastically in Street Fighter 5 when Guile’s V-Trigger suddenly turned him into the most combo-savvy character in the game’s early seasons. He was still hellacious to try to get close to, but now Guile could also decide to move forward with more potential and prowess than ever before.

Street Fighter 6 now grants all characters the ability to burst forward and extend combos with the Drive System, and these resources are available from the start of each round and thus do not have to be carefully built up. Pepper in even more potential with Guile’s Super combos (one of which is essentially his first V-Trigger from SF5) and you have a zoner that can look an awful lot like a rush down fighter.

Instead of allowing Guile to become antiquated, Capcom has evolved him, but is it for the best? Is he, out of necessity, becoming a character who checks too many boxes and thusly will be destined to be a top tier in just about every game he’s in?

Give Mura’s video a watch and let us know what you think of Guile’s journey thus far as well as where you think he’s headed in the comments.

Tier lists from top players are always fun, but things get even more interesting when that top player uses one of the game’s most oppressive characters. Enter Tigers|CrossoverRD, two time Capcom Cup finalist who most recently gave a strong performance that resulted in a top eight finish at Blink Respawn 2024.

The M. Bison main has ranked the current cast of Street Fighter 6 and dared to share his opinion publicly, going as specific as to order each character within their respective tiers. Continue on to see where Bison and the rest of the roster wound up.

The Dominican Republic native divides the 24 fighters across five different tier levels: S, A+, A, B, and C. M. Bison does indeed end up in the S tier, (along with seven other characters) but we won’t spoil exactly where Crossover ranks his current main.

The next tier down (A+) has seven characters while A has just four. B has three more, and then C is reserved for the two worst of the bunch: Lily and E. Honda, according to Crossover.

You can view Crossover’s tier list by clicking the thumbnail below. After you’ve had a chance to see whom he put where, share in the comments the extent to which you agree and disagree. Would you move anyone around or swap any pairs of characters?

Click images for larger versions

If you haven’t already had a chance to check it out, be sure to take a look at this character downplay tier list from Fighting Game Select. As the name suggests, it examines which characters tend to be downplayed the most by the players that use them.

M. Bison banner image credit to JarroStan via DeviantArt.

Update: This story has been updated with results for 4 out of 24 World Warrior regions.

The Capcom Pro Tour 2024 World Warrior events are finally drawing to their close in most regions, which means that the finals for various regions are soon upon us.

Since there are so many different regions playing, we’re going to contain all of the results in this one story so keep checking back regularly for the latest results in regards to Capcom Cup 2024 qualifiers from the World Warrior format.

Regional leaderboards have been in place all across the world and now the top 8 in each region, barring Super Regions where the #1 on the leaderboard is already directly qualified to Capcom Cup, meaning that the 2nd to 9th people in the leaderboard will play instead, and now it’s time to wrap up each region’s finals.

Some spots have already been claimed via the offline premier events or by placing first in a Super Region, but these are the events which will shape much of what the roster of Capcom Cup 11 will look like.

With a Capcom Cup qualifying spot on the line in each region the stakes are massive as everyone wants their shot at that $1,000,000 grand prize. During the coming months, we’ll continuously update this story with live results for the various World Warrior finals as they’re happening.

Since these World Warrior events are being streamed on different channels depending on the region, we will continuously be updating the embedded stream to coincide with ongoing events.

NetherRealm Studios has done an excellent job translating over another horror icon into the world of Mortal Kombat. Scream’s own Ghostface has officially joined the Mortal Kombat 1 fight as DLC, and so far, fans seem to be very pleased with the love and care that went into making this guest fighter.

That should come as no surprise, though, as NetherRealm has had numerous wonderfully made guest fighters join their ranks, and they almost always come absolutely jam packed with amazing references to the source material. Ghostface in MK1 certainly checks that same box, but going even further beyond, it looks as though the masked killer also takes the time to shout out and reference two other iconic slasher movie series in Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns.

A lot of what we see from Ghostface in MK1 stems directly from the Scream series of films. We see him use his trademark phone / phone calls literally within his special move set, witness three different Ghostface killers (as there are several in the movies) acting together to fight the kombatants of the various timelines, and even hear the voice of Ghostface from the movies, Roger L. Jackson, reprise his role here in the game.

Unfortunately, it seems we did miss out on getting the hilarious “WAZZUP” Ghostface mask from Scary Movie in Mortal Kombat 1, but NetherRealm And Warner Bros. appear to have made up for that in various other ways.

Something that’s really cool is that the newest DLC character actually makes references to both the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th horror movie franchises in Mortal Kombat 1. In one instance he mentions Freddy Krueger (not by name), while in the other some believe he is referencing Jason Voorhees, though it’s actually something slightly different.

A couple of clips showing some of Ghostface’s pre-fight intro dialogue were uploaded to Twitter this week and feature the references we’re talking about here.

In the first clip below, Kitana can be seen clashing with Ghostface before they do battle. “You are a nightmare,” Kitana says to the slasher, to which he replies, “No, that’s the guy with the glove and fedora!”

Obviously, any horror fan will tell you right away that this description fits none other than Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Funny enough, both the first Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream films were directed by legendary horror movie maker Wes Craven, and Freddy was also once a Mortal Kombat guest character joining the fight back in 2011’s Mortal Kombat 9.

Ghostface with the Freddy Krueger reference! #MortalKombat1 pic.twitter.com/UoeOmlbY6f

— Mortal_Kombat_Addict | Fatalities Daily (@MK_habit_addict) November 19, 2024

In the next bit of footage we have Ghostface interacting with Kung Lao before their fight. “Name the killer in Friday the 13th,” Ghostface tells Kung Lao, to which Lao responds, “I know nothing of film trivia!”

Though this sounds like it’s a reference to Friday the 13th’s main killer, Jason Voorhees, the reference to the series is actually in name alone here.

What this is actually alluding to is a scene from the first Scream movie where Ghostface plays a brutal game with Casey Becker (played by Drew Barrymore) in which he asks her a question that, should she answer incorrectly, will result in her boyfriend being killed.

Ghostface asks her to name the killer in Friday the 13th, to which she replies “Jason!” Unfortunately, this is incorrect as in the very first Friday the 13th film the main antagonist was actually Jason Voorhees’ mother, Mrs. Voorhees.

Still, we get a big name drop of Friday the 13th here in Mortal Kombat 1, as well as a shout out to Freddy Krueger himself.

This Jason Voorhees reference tho pic.twitter.com/OwEXiNwZ4r

— LOSTy (@LOSTyGIRL) November 20, 2024

A few weeks ago, more than 1,200 entrants showed up for the Capcom Pro Tour Super Premier Japan and tons of extremely hype matches played out until only one winner was left standing — the fighting game legend Rohto|Tokido.

After this massive victory which also directly punched his ticket to Capcom Cup 11, I decided to reach out to Rohto|Tokido to see if he had some words to share about his recent success, his prospects for a Capcom Cup victory, Street Fighter 6 and its current state in general as well as a few other subjects of interest.

This interview was conducted entirely in Japanese, but I’ve directly translated it to English as well as included the original Japanese version for any Japanese readers who might enjoy seeing the untranslated questions and responses. Continue below to see what the Super Premier champion had to say.

MajinTenshinhan: First of all, congratulations on winning the Capcom Pro Tour Japan Super Premier! Japan is filled with very strong players and is often referred to as the strongest region. Entering the tournament in Japan with over 1,200 players, were you confident that you would be able to win it?

Rohto|Tokido: Thank you! Lately, I’d been feeling confident in establishing my playstyle, but even then I was not confident that I’d be able to win such a high level tournament as the Japan Super Premier. As the tournament went on, the feeling of “This might just be my day?” started growing stronger and stronger!

MajinTenshinhan: I heard that you practice a lot with your Street Fighter League teammate Leshar. What specifically do you and Leshar do for practice? Also, did you do any training outside of your sessions with Leshar, and if so, what kind of training?

Rohto|Tokido: During the Street Fighter League Pro-JP season I train every day at the REJECT office. There are days I play Leshar and also days that I don’t, but we’re always looking at each other’s games and giving advice on where to improve. Since the effects of the Corona virus pandemic, the custom of gathering offline every day has dissappeared here in Japan, but having a place like this and a team where we can support each other makes me very thankful.

A lot of the top players in Japan stop by the REJECT practice area from time to time so I actively share opinions and feedback with them as well.

MajinTenshinhan: Last year, you unfortunately weren’t able to qualify for the Capcom Cup. This year you’re already confirmed for Capcom Cup, how do you think your chances of winning are?

Rohto|Tokido: Just looking at the players who are already qualified it reminds me how high level the competition will be and I don’t think it will be easy. I’m going to spend my time researching each of them and hope that it’ll even slightly improve my chances of winning.

MajinTenshinhan: This is just my perspective from overseas, but Street Fighter 6 seems to have exploded in popularity in Japan. Could you tell us your thoughts on Street Fighter 6’s popularity as well as Capcom Cup not being in America, but instead happening in Japan, for the first time?

Rohto|Tokido: The popularity of Street Fighter 6 in Japan is at a level which was unthinkable before now and it’s wonderful. I believe this is the result of the players, the game creators, the management and of course most importantly the community as a whole who’ve worked hard together to spread Street Fighter across the world.

With Capcom Cup being in Japan this year, I honestly feel lucky that I’ll also be participating in it for the first time in 5 years. As a representative of Japan which has quite a high level, I feel like I need to show off gameplay that makes everyone here proud, so I’m diligently working every day to make sure that I can do that.

MajinTenshinhan: You’ve played a lot of different fighting games at top level through the years and produced strong results in many of them. As someone with this level of experience, what do you think of Street Fighter 6 right now? Also please share if you have any hopes for system changes or similar areas.

Rohto|Tokido: I don’t have many opinions on the game systems and generally just play what the game makers have given us.

Something I want to praise is that this game has brought in a lot of new players, at least in Japan. Us professional players have made playing fighting games our livelihood, but that’s not possible unless the scene is big enough for it.

For me personally, it was easier to win in Street Fighter 5 than it is in Street Fighter 6, but it still felt more difficult to be a pro in it. In contrast, Street Fighter 6 is more difficult to win in, but for a professional player the environment has improved, I believe.

When it comes to system changes I’d hope to see, I’d just like to see changes that would make it more popular worldwide as well. I can’t say definitively what kind of changes those would be, though…

MajinTenshinhan: As someone who’s enthusiastically followed fighting games since Street Fighter 4, the image of “Tokido = Akuma” is very strong for me. But, in Street Fighter 6, even after Akuma’s release you’ve kept playing Ken. Please share why you’d rather play Ken over Akuma.

Rohto|Tokido: To answer in just a few words, I feel like Ken gives off a stronger presence which is why I continue playing him.

When players choose their characters there’s a lot of different aspects that go into that, and I have my own criteria as well.

For a more detailed response to this in particular, I talk about it in these two videos, so please watch them if you’re curious.

MajinTenshinhan: Even at the top placements of recent tournaments in Street Fighter 6, we’ve seen tons of Akuma and M.Bisons which has become a heated discussion, at least overseas. What do you think of the balance in this version of the game? Are there any characters you think are too strong or too weak?

Rohto|Tokido: I do think that there are strong characters and weak characters, but I do think with tournaments being in a first-to-2 format, don’t most characters have a chance? If tournaments were to change to a first-to-3 format, I think people would have to start thinking more about playing characters who are higher in power level.

So I do think that there are both strong and weak characters, but for this game I think it’s more important to look at if they’re fun for you to play or if they have certain individualities that appeal to you. I think this is one of the game’s most successful aspects.

Continue below for the Japanese version. 下に日本語版があるので、ご覧ください。

日本語版

We’re about halfway through Street Fighter 6 Season 2 currently and the dust is starting to really settle revealing where things stand with the current meta. Pro players and content creators alike are sharing more of their thoughts through video breakdowns and tier lists, and Broski — who is both a prominent pro and content creator — has put together his latest on both of the aforementioned fronts.

The avid A.K.I. player has constructed a Season 2 A.K.I. match up chart that aims to reveal the truth about how her bouts tend to go in this current season. Spoiler alert: There is one character in particular that Broski labels as, and I quote, “ONLY THE DEAD CAN KNOW PEACE FROM THIS EVIL MAKE IT STOP PLEASE CAPCOM.”

In one of his latest videos, Broski begins by playing a match against an Akuma player online where things just don’t seem to work out for our hero. The frustration from some of the plays that just didn’t work as intended inspires him to jump out of ranked and start putting together his A.K.I. Season 2 match up chart.

It doesn’t take long for Broski to reveal the absolutely horrific match up for A.K.I. this season as its the first character he places on the chart and discusses. This match up chart does away with the number system and instead lists the following categories: A.K.I. Advantage, Slight A.K.I. Advantage, Even, Slight Disadvantage, Disadvantage, and ONLY THE DEAD CAN KNOW PEACE FROM THIS EVIL MAKE IT STOP PLEASE CAPCOM.

Starting with that last one, Broski immediately drops Akuma into the worst of the worst and explains that this match up alone is worse than any of the match ups she saw in Season 1. He goes on to list the myriad of things that make it awful, including her inability to contest his air approach, her being unable to lock him down in the corner or midscreen, his incredible damage, and much more.

Outside of that awful match up, we also learn something very interesting that a lot of players might not realize about A.K.I. Her Venomous Fang special move, the forward stabbing leap that goes through projectiles, was buffed in Season 2, but doesn’t work quite how most people think.

As Broski notes, Venomous Fang is upper body projectile invincible from early on and not fully projectile invincible like many believe, which makes it a viable move to use on reaction against traditional fireballs, but not necessarily low profile projectiles. This means that characters like JP and Terry can stop A.K.I. using this move on its start up if she attempts to use it against their low-hitting fireballs, and that makes these match ups tricky.

Though A.K.I. looked like she was going to be a direct counter character to JP back when she was first revealed in Season 1, here in Season 2 Broski feels that she actually loses to him and places him in the A.K.I. Disadvantage category.

You can take a glimpse at the Broski’s full A.K.I. Season 2 match up chart below, and be sure to check out his video for the reasonings behind all of the placements.

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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is somehow already about to turn six years old, and it’s competitive meta continues to evolve despite the game no longer receiving balance updates.

Longtime pro competitor ESAM recently dropped his end of 2024 tier list for Smash Ultimate with placements that certainly have some other players talking.

One of the more interesting comes right at the very top with Sonic the Hedgehog appearing above Minecraft’s Steve, who’s generally been viewed as the best these past few seasons.

Compared to ESAM’s previous Smash tier rankings from July, he had Sonic behind Steve and Mr. Game & Watch.

If we do look at recent majors like Don’t Park on the Grass and Luminosity Makes Moves, Sonic has seen better results lately with more tops thanks to SBI|Ken and LG|Sonix carrying the blue blur.

Another pick that’s garnered attention is Bayonetta moving to a top tier position and apparently above Joker, Palutena and Pyra/Mythra.

The menace of Smash 4 has seen her stocks rise this year with more consistent top finishes in Ultimate than seemingly ever before, but having her above some of those mainstay picks is still surprising.

That being said, however, ESAM now has 21 different characters in the top tier category or around 25% of the cast including his own main Pikachu showing up fourth on the list.

At least one fighter has also seen a notable drop from his previous list like Zero Suit Samus going down to upper mid next to Captain Falcon and Young Link.

He was questioned if he really believes Toon Link is better than ZSS and he affirmed it to be true in his eyes.

Some others saw some promotions too including Piranha Plant and Ike moving from low to mid tier.

Although Ganondorf still finds himself alone at the very bottom while only six characters remain considered as low tier.

You can check out ESAM’s full tier list below for Smash Ultimate as we head to the end of 2024. It’s not stated the ranks are ordered, but they appear to be at least partially so.

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Three and a half decades of development have clued creators in to how to balance their rosters more effectively than ever before, but the lessons that were learned came in the form of some of the most overpowered characters the franchise has ever seen.

When one such character emerges and starts winning way too much, however, developers are naturally inclined to nerf them down a good bit. Sometimes this regulating force is a tad too much, and thus we arrive at JM Crofts’ latest video wherein he counts down the top 10 Street Fighter characters who fell off.

The first character on the list is Sean Matsuda from Street Fighter 3. Many know Sean as a joke character, akin to the likes of Dan Hibiki, because of how conspicuously bad he was in Third Strike.

Not as many people know that Sean was actually one of the strongest characters in Street Fighter 3: Second Impact. JM Crofts covers precisely why Mr. Matsuda enjoyed a brief stint near the top of the tier charts, and then shows us how far he fell when developers nerfed him for Third Strike.

We won’t spoil it, but will say that there is one character in particular who absolutely dominated one of the earliest Street Fighter games. Said character was indeed nerfed, and has appeared many times since this initial tear, but it seems as though Capcom has conclusively decided to err on the side of caution with them.

As such, this character has almost never been much better than mid-tier in their many subsequent appearances. While others have been exceptionally strong, been nerfed, and have returned to top tier status in other games, this fighter seems to have learned the hard way for everyone else.

Give Crofts’ video a watch and let us know in the comments if there are any other characters who could have made this list.

I might be a little biased…

With only four newcomers each year, the value of real estate on the Street Fighter 6 character select screen has definitely become inflated, but even so I have a particular fighter I’d like to pitch for the game’s third season.

We have seen this character on a playable roster just once before, in Street Fighter 4, but his story actually begins back during the early days of Street Fighter 2, when a translation in Ryu’s win quote led arcade goers to believe a hidden master was tucked away in some background files, and an April Fool’s joke from a gaming magazine put Capcom developers on track to actually bring the character to life… albeit nearly 20 years later.

If you haven’t put it together already, the character I’m speaking of is none other than Gouken. Brother to Akuma, and master to both Ryu and Ken, Gouken is directly tethered to one of Street Fighter’s most central story lines.

Developers clearly had no intention of featuring him in the early days as Gouken was originally said to have been killed by Akuma a la Raging Demon before the events of the first Street Fighter game, but that narrative was retconned by Capcom once they decided to add him into SF4.

The year was 1991 and fans had noticed an oddity in Street Fighter 2 after winning with Ryu. The franchise poster boy was supposed to say “You must defeat my Shoryuken to stand a chance,” referencing his trademark uppercut attack (Dragon Punch) as the key pillar of his arsenal, but the English transition wound up tripping over “Shoryuken” and ultimately read “You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.”

Arcade Ryu said one thing (left) while console Ryu actually got the translation correct (right)

People instantly started wondering who exactly Sheng Long was, and just about a year later Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), a magazine that’s still in operation to this day (albeit online only now), decided to run an April Fool’s joke that would echo for decades to come.

The magazine rolled out a faux article detailing the process of unlocking “Sheng Long,” a.k.a. Ryu and Ken’s master. The bogus requirements surely had tons of players frustrated as they required users to play through the entire arcade ladder without taking a single hit from any fighters. Once you had reached the final boss, M. Bison, you had to go 10 consecutive rounds with him without either of you taking damage.

If you succeeded in checking both of these boxes, EGM claimed that only then would Sheng Long emerge, toss Bison away, and engage in a timer-less duel to the death. They even created a fake in-game model to really sell the lie:

Mind you, this all took place before Super Turbo’s 1994 release, which means that Akuma very well may have been inspired by this gag as well. Akuma follows a somewhat similar (albeit much easier) pattern for unlock as players must finish the game without losing a round and within a certain time limit (which is almost certain if you’re not losing rounds) to cause Akuma to appear, take out M. Bison, and fight you instead.

This joke resonated so well that EGM came back in 1997 with a follow up Sheng Long hoax for Street Fighter 3, creating yet another article, character model, and list of ridiculous requirements that fans were still intrigued to try out, but surely did not expect to work this time.

Sheng Long would go on to be referenced in subsequent Street Fighter games and even made it onto top Street Fighter character lists despite not actually existing.

It would be another 11 years before mention of Sheng Long popped up in EGM again, though, as Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono gave an interview preceding the release of Street Fighter 4, and directly brought up the hoax as it was connected to a brand new character they were releasing.

The year was 2008 and Street Fighter 4 was in the oven. In the Januray issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Street Fighter 4 producer Yoshinori Ono stated, “Let’s just say that [jokes] that your magazine have reported in the past might find their way into the game as fan service,” and would eventually go on to unveil Gouken a few months later.

Indeed, when Street Fighter 4 dropped onto consoles in 2009, Gouken was the last of the many characters you could unlock by playing through the game. The old master’s design was clearly inspired by shotos like Ryu, Ken, and Akuma, but still functioned widely unlike any of the three.

Gouken’s tatsu, for instance, went vertically instead of horizontally; he did not have a standard Shoryuken, though was able to perform a two versions of the move through his Super and Ultra combos; and he had the relatively uncommon ability to counter incoming attacks.

Gouken tosses fireballs at various angles in Street Fighter 4

Perhaps the most defining trait of the old man was his fireball game. Where Ryu and Ken could throw horizontal fireballs, Akuma could also leap into the air and cast them at a downward angle, and to iterate on this Capcom gave Gouken the ability to chuck plasma at an upward angle to thwart airborne foes.

He could also toss them horizontally, and had the ability to briefly charge his projectiles to enhance them with a second hit. Though he hit like a truck with powerful combos, Gouken’s nuanced fireball game would ultimately classify him as more of a zoner than anything else.

With varied timings and angles, Gouken could litter the screen with a maze of fireballs that opponents would have to try to navigate. Both his counters as well as his upward-moving tatsu worked to fend off those who got too close and immediately shoot them back across the screen to restart their mission.

To date, Street Fighter 4 is the only game Gouken has been playable in. He admittedly wasn’t the most popular amid players, though he was often regarded as exciting to watch whenever a rare high-level Gouken was sighted.

We do already know the final two characters coming to Street Fighter 6 in Season 2, but Gouken could make for an absolutely killer addition to the game.

First of all, Street Fighter 6 only has two characters that you might consider zoners (Guile and JP) and both of them have a notable ability to also start rushing down.

The game will have 26 characters by the end of the current season, meaning fewer than 8% will be zoners. One more fighter amid this archetype might do SF6 some good, and seeing how developers decide to handle his abilities to counter (Street Fighter 6 already has a handful of such techniques despite its universal parry mechanic) and combo off his back throw would be interesting.

Correctly predicting the height of incoming attacks with Gouken’s Kongoshin counter led to big rewards in SF4

Of course there are other characters who rank higher on popularity charts, but Gouken deserves another playable shot to garner more fans and prove he can live up to the lofty titles of master of Ken and Ryu, and brother/equal to Akuma.

Seeing how these three interact here during SF6’s later position on the franchise timeline would be fascinating, as would other potential confrontations such as Gouken vs. JP: battle of the old man zoners.

Gouken may or may not be among the names on your wish list for future Street Fighter 6 DLC characters, but what do you think about his being part of the growing roster somewhere down the line?

Before you answer, give this best of Bullcat (one of the top 3 Gouken mains on the planet) showcase a watch and see if you aren’t roused at least a little by the razzle dazzle:

(Video credit to 0ShinAkuma0.)