Street Fighter 6’s mechanics have several go-to uses that players everywhere utilize in their gameplay all the time. Things like raw Drive Rush in neutral or perfect parrying fireballs are commonplace here a little over a year into the game’s lifespan, but sometimes they can lead to situations we don’t often see.
In a recent stream clip from one of the best players in the world, FLY|Punk, we see the top level competitor land an amazing juggle combo that is converted into from a seldom seen interaction involving Drive Impact.
Drive Impact is one of Street Fighter 6’s universal mechanics that allows a player to armor through two attacks and smash the opponent with a big strike. When landed as a punish counter, the opponent will get crumpled in place and be opened up to a full combo punish.
We most commonly see Drive Impact used on grounded foes as either an attempt to catch a big oncoming attack, to counter Drive Impact, or to initiate a stun against a burnt out opponent. However, Drive Impact has some interesting effects when it hits a character in an airborne state.
In the clip, we see Punk fighting in an Akuma mirror match online against Paladin. After weathering the storm from his now burnt out opponent, Punk aimed to fire off a Drive Impact in hopes of catching a commitment from the other Akuma player and score a big punish.
Well, that’s exactly what happened, but instead of hitting a grounded Akuma, Paladin took to the skies for a Demon Flip into dive kick. Punk’s Drive Impact still made contact here, but what we saw instead was the dive kick being struck at what looks to be the highest point where the DI could actually hit.
Since this was a punish counter, the Drive Impact sent Paladin’s Akuma into a slow spinning state high up into the air, and despite Punk being caught off guard by the interaction, he was still ready for the conversion.
Check out Punk’s amazing Akuma juggle below.
No Jumping zone pic.twitter.com/DGlZ37uoc7
— Punk (@PunkDaGod) September 5, 2024