While the bulk of the excitement has surely surrounded Ed and the new balance changes, Street Fighter 6’s latest update has also brought with it the game’s first new stage: Ruined Lab.
We’ve seen our fair share of ruined Shadaloo labs over the years, but this one is of particular interest for two reasons: Shadaloo leader M. Bison is currently dead, and there are a bunch of clone bodies in tanks about the arena. Remy2FANG went in with a free roam camera to get a closer look at these, and we have the footage below.
Capcom cleverly designed M. Bison in a way so that characters could potentially kill him, but it would ultimately be temporary as he always has his Shadaloo scientists creating additional bodies for him to move his soul into when needed.
Those who played Street Fighter 4 will likely recognize these clone bodies in SF6 as extremely similar to that game’s boss: Seth. Seth was actually originally called “Number 15” as he was the fifteenth created clone on an assembly line of back up bodies for Bison.
While we could originally see these bodies were bald and Seth-like, we couldn’t tell if there were any signs of life in them. Upon closer inspection thanks to Remy’s camera, we can see that they do appear to be functional as their face muscles twitch every so often.
The bodies with blue hues seem to be run of the mill Seth clones that would more or less follow the story from Street Fighter 4, but there’s a bright gold body in the much more elaborate central tank. Said body is obscured, sits directly below a Shadaloo symbol, and sits directly behind Bison’s throne that’s empty save for his iconic red hat.
Remy is able to get up close and personal with this body, however, and we get to see it in full detail here:
A closer look at the SF6 dlc Ruined Lab stage. The clones are alive because you can see their faces scrunching. The silhouette figure inside the center pod is the same as the other clones. Bison’s hat is missing the emblem–we know why #StreetFighter6 #StreetFighter pic.twitter.com/fjpfn5mAUC
— Remy2FANG : Artist & Modder (@Remy2FANG) March 1, 2024
While there aren’t any difference from the blue bodies (save for the color, of course) this does feel like it has a lot of potential to be the next Bison. It’s set apart from the others in some significant ways, and carefully placed around symbolism that points directly back to the evil dictator.
There’s even more to this theory as certain special animations play out when Ed (another Psycho Power-infused body Bison intended for potential possession) wins while playing on this stage. Said animations may just be Easter eggs, but Capcom could be alluding to a future familiar face (one with a thousand-watt smile) eventually joining the roster as DLC.