I consider myself to be pretty good at fighting games. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be winning EVO any time soon, but when it comes to Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Guilty Gear, I can hold my own. I'm deadly with Dr. Mario in Smash Bros. too, if you're daring enough to call it a fighting game.
No matter how hard I try, that cockiness has never applied to Street Fighter. Whether I was trying to main Ken in Street Fighter 5 or desperately trying to see what all the Juri fuss was about in Ultra Street Fighter 4 (spoilers: it's her feet), something about Capcom's flagship has always tripped me up and kept me firmly in single-player territory to keep from being utterly embarrassed online.
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During the early hours of Street Fighter 6, I realised what I was finding so difficult all these years - combos. While everyone else seemed to have the knack for stringing together combos and special attacks, I struggled to find anyone on the roster I could reliably get more than two hits out of at a time, which meant relying on specials, the new Drive gauge, and mastering the art of footsies.
Thankfully, Capcom anticipated that there were Street Fighter noobs like me out there and implemented a Modern control scheme that streamlines things. This drastically reduces the number of buttons used to attack and ties specials to a single input, but its greatest feature is the ability to hold down a button while attacking to execute an automatic combo.
Sounds perfect, right? Initially though, I scoffed at the Modern control scheme. If you choose Modern controls, anyone you play against is well aware of it thanks to the big M in the corner of the screen. Considering how competitive the Street Fighter community is, it felt like putting a big dunce cap on my head and admitting I sucked. I did, but who wants that to be public knowledge?
This deep sense of shame meant that I spent the first ten hours or so of Street Fighter 6 exclusively with the Classic control scheme. This meant that I spent most of World Tour without thinking too much about the moves I was using and just hoping that the grabs I was chucking in between specials would be enough for the AI.
Then, one of the side missions in World Tour instructed me to turn on Modern controls and learn how to do an auto combo. I flicked it on, expecting to then ignore it forevermore, but I quickly found that not only did it make everything a lot easier to do, but it was also a great tool for learning some reliable combo chains as each character.
After that revelation, I switched to Modern controls whenever I swapped fighting styles and quickly figured out some basic ways to chain together attacks and special moves. Leaning on Modern controls was much easier than struggling for hours in combo challenges and swearing up a storm, and more rewarding too.
Learning some beginner combos is just the tip of the iceberg for what Modern controls can do for newer players, but it goes to show how the scheme shouldn't just be shrugged off - like a bowling guard rail or stabilisers, it gives you confidence to grow in skill across your time in the game.
Most of Street Fighter 6's hardcore playerbase likely won't even bother with Modern controls, but it's a fantastic tool even for mid-level players that are trying to figure out some of the best ways to use their main. I won't be sticking with it as my main control scheme now that I've learned the ins and outs, but the fact that it was able to teach me something should go to show how great of a tool it is, no matter your skill level.
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