While we’re plenty excited about Street Fighter 6’s second season of DLC characters, there’s always a part of us that sighs with disappointment when a new seasonal reveal inevitably confirms that we’re not getting certain characters on our wish list for at least another year.
Two legacy Street Fighter faces that popped up almost instantly were none other than Dudley and Makoto, a pair of names we’ve been seeing tossed around fighting game social media quite frequently in recent times. I’d like to take just a minute do two things, briefly consider why these two would be great in SF6 and share a snazzy Third Strike clip that just recently went up.
Both of these fighters made their debuts back in Street Fighter 3, a game that Street Fighter 6 has zero representation from yet, (though will when Elena arrives next spring) and both were last seen when they simultaneously appeared in Street Fighter 4’s Super update.
Offense is the name of the game when it comes to these two as both Dudley and Makoto are all about scoring that initial in and then overwhelming their opponents with scary mix ups and powerful combos.
They don’t approach neutral quite in the same way, however, as Dudley tends to dance around with footsies until his foe makes an ill-advised extension that he can take full advantage of.
As we’ve seen in countless examples across both SF3 and SF4, the proper boxer has some of the most naturally exciting combos as he scores hard-hitting whiff punishes and suddenly converts them into explosive forward momentum that carries foes to the corner where their high/low mix up fate awaits them.
From here, Dudley tends to juggle his foes repeatedly with the most pristine punches (and occasional rose-throw taunts for good gentlemanly measure) usually culminating in his particularly cinematic Corkscrew Cross or Rolling Thunder supers.
Before we go any further, check out this quick clip from arguably the most consistently hype fighting game in history as Dudley player Yomoda red parries his way out of pressure and then perfectly evades not one, but two more attacks before launching into a KO punish:
BAAAAKA pic.twitter.com/F2ZBcVagd4
— Cαrínα dєth lα chαnclα (｢•̀ᴗ•̀)｢ (@carinadea) July 3, 2024
Makoto, on the other hand, is a good bit slower on her feet and utilizes special maneuvers to zip about the screen in sudden ways. She acts like a cat waiting to pounce as she ultimately wants to surprise her way up into her foe’s face where the threat of strike vs. command grab becomes absolutely terrifying.
Once she’s in, you’re in trouble as Makoto has traditionally felt like flypaper as she lops off chunks of health bars at a time with explosive sequences that leave her in position to threaten with them on repeat.
Things have been toned down since, but she has an infamous sequence in Third Strike that can KO opponents from full health if she lands her command grab in the correct position and with enough super meter.
While we definitely had reservations about either of these offense-based characters joining a game like Street Fighter 5 that many found lacking in the defense department, one can’t help but imagine what these two would look and feel in the context of Street Fighter 6’s Drive System.
Drive Rush helps a lot with forward movement and pouncing, yes, but with parries and more versatile Drive Reversals (not to mention the way Capcom has been upping their general approach to character balance in SF6 relative to past entries) we can envision perhaps the most fun and balanced versions of these fighters yet.
The style of Dudley combos would only be enhanced thanks to DRC extensions and juggle enhancements, and we salivate at the kinds of mind games Makoto might be capable of using Drive Rush alongside her movement-heavy maneuvers to get the party started.
What do you think of the idea of these two joining Street Fighter 6? Are there others higher up on your DLC wish list? Feel free to drop your thoughts on that as well as your reactions to the clip in the comments below.