When I got my first job on a games magazine, there were a few games on constant rotation at my grubby office, and at after-pub gatherings in the even grubbier flats my colleagues and I lived in: Pro Evo, Bomberman, and Street Fighter. Street Fighter was especially embarrassing for me, as an eager-to-prove-myself 16-year-old, because I could just never get my hands around the movesets and controls for all the different characters. I was a perennial button-masher, and I was humiliated so regularly that it put me off fighting games for life. That said, I have always greatly admired Street Fighter, and its players. It is a stunningly energetic game full of stylish caricatures whose movement and swagger are fascinating to look at, especially in the hands of skilled competitors.

Series veterans have praised how the sixth game plays, and they're right to do so. "Street Fighter 6" feels like a fusion of the parry system from the celebrated third game, the chunkiness of the fourth and the mechanics of the fifth. That it feels like the most rewarding fighting system since "Street Fighter 3: Third Strike" is already among the highest compliments it could receive. The new "punish counter" mechanic opens up new opportunities for great timing, while the drive gauge can shift the dynamics of a fight, including a dangerous "burnout" state that could change a character's move set.