For music and not as a fighter of course
Street Fighter is certainly no stranger to collaborations in their games and merchandising though this latest one is something nobody probably saw coming.
Alongside the new balance update, Capcom added the composer from games like Goldeneye 007, Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64 into Street Fighter 6.
That’s right, the great Grant Kirkhope is now featured in Street Fighter for the first time as a guest composer, and this seems to be the first time he’s worked with Capcom too.
Kirkhope contributed the new track Annihilation to the game, which is free to use for all SF6 players.
The song can simply be played in the Music Player or set as character themes or background music in other modes via the Options menu.
There seems to be some confusion that this is the SiRN M. Bison boss theme, but Annihilation is not the song that plays during the fight as far as we can tell.
This is still a banger though.
Thank you so much for asking me Nakayama San, I loved writing it for you! https://t.co/mwOQDFLYUB
— Grant Kirknog (@grantkirkhope) December 3, 2024
It’s got a dark brooding atmosphere that does fit well with Bison mixed with the electronic beat, strings and horns that does make it sound familiar to Goldeneye and his other works.
Some are posting that Kirkhope did do Bison’s special boss theme too, but Grant himself only says he did “a track” for SF6 so far.
Kirkhope’s first ever official credit was very fittingly on Killer Instinct 2 as the guitar player, and he has of course provided a multitude of tracks to the Super Smash Bros. series — obviously including the DK Rap among them.
This obviously isn’t the first time Capcom has collaborated with music artists and composers to do something with Street Fighter before, but it was rarer to see them actually used in the games themselves before now.
Hell, there’s still the Del the Funky Homosapien rap for G in Street Fighter 5 that we don’t have an official version of yet.
You can take a listen to Kirkhope’s contribution to Street Fighter below that you can now use in the game.