Street Fighter 6's modern controls made me OK at Street Fighter

engadget.com:

Thank you, Street Fighter 6. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t embarrassed to play a fighting game in front of strangers on the show floor of a video game convention, and it was all because of the updated control scheme in Street Fighter 6. The modern control type adds simplified inputs to Capcom’s storied fighting game franchise, turning button mashing into an effective art. I’ve never felt so capable playing Street Fighter, at home or on a large screen in front of a bunch of gaming nerds.

The modern control type unleashes special moves by pressing a direction and a face button, and simplifies behaviors like throws and the game’s new Drive moves (more on that in a moment), activating them with a single button press. When playing Ryu, it’s possible to Hadoken with just one button. This is the Smash Bros.-style gameplay I’ve personally been trying to shoehorn into Street Fighter titles for years, and man, it feels good.

I tried out Chun-Li, Jamie, Luke and Ryu with the modern control scheme, and threw out special moves and parried attacks so smoothly that at one point, I actually turned up the difficulty settings for my PC counterpart (impressed gasp). I was promptly beaten, but it took three rounds and I put up an actual fight.

Chun-Li is my favorite Street Fighter character – which usually doesn’t end well for her – and in 6 with the modern control type, she feels faster and more powerful than ever. I ended up using her Tensho Kicks move often, charging toward my opponents and pressing triangle to lift them up with a series of spinning feet to the face, but all of her specials came easily and hit hard.

The Drive Gauge is new to Street Fighter 6 and it’s responsible for all of the graffiti-style visuals you see in