For decades now, a strong Akuma player has been one of the most intimidating opponents to face off against in Street Fighter (and Tekken 7), but it seems that intimidation factor is carrying over to the game as well.
Among all of the new Akuma footage and coverage, it appears as though one of his taunts in Street Fighter 6 has a unique quirk to it.
As highlighted recently by mrquarate, Akuma has access to a taunt that forces the opponent to block (if they’re holding back) despite not ever actually attacking.
Instead, we can see the demon begin to slowly walk forward and seemingly say something to the other character on screen.
That’s not the most threatening thing by itself, but he also has a glowing aura around him, which is apparently full of intimidation energy or something.
What’s interesting is how the taunt appears to trigger proximity block from quite a long distance, which happens when the game determines if holding back allows you to walk backwards or put a character in a guard state depending on the attack and range incoming.
Street Fighter 6 notably cut down on the range of most proximity block triggers compared to Street Fighter 5, but Akuma didn’t seem to read that memo.
This could be a very nasty trick to pull off if Akuma could cancel his taunts into Raging Demon / Shun Goku Satsu (or kara cancel them at all), but thankfully it doesn’t appear to be possible in SF6.
L’important c’était de tester les taunts de Akuma ! SF6 pic.twitter.com/i2OYpYEc9A
— mr qu’a raté (@mrquarate) May 10, 2024
He can, however, cancel out of Drive Rush straight into his special Critical Art, which could prove to be a bit scary when the demon’s at low health and fully stocked on meter.
The clip here also shows two other taunts for Akuma including one where he simply sits down on the ground and faces away from the opponent, and the other is of course his classic Messatsu pose.
We’re not entirely sure if this menacing taunt is meant to reference something from previous Street Fighter games / media though some comments feel like that energy could be calling back to maybe Baki the Grappler, Fist of the North Star or perhaps something else.
Players will for sure try and mess around with this taunt when Akuma becomes available officially on May 22, so we’ll see if it’s holding any other secrets by then.