Game of the Year: #6 - Street Fighter 6 1
Image: Push Square

Well, this worked out perfectly, didn’t it? We’ve reached the sixth position on our Game of the Year list, and we’ve reserved it for, well, Street Fighter 6. Brilliant! But yes, while we should have all learned not to bet against Capcom at this point, there was still a little scepticism surrounding the fighter heading into its release. This is a publisher that doesn’t miss at the moment, though, so any unfortunate memories of Street Fighter 5 were soon put to rest.

The thing about Street Fighter 6 is it’s not just a brilliant brawler – it’s the complete package. We could wax lyrical for hours and hours about the eye-grabbing art design, superb offensive gameplay mechanics, and water-tight rollback netcode – but the really remarkable thing about this outing is that it does it all. Take the online lobby system, for example, which allows you to take a hideous created character online, dress them up, and challenge strangers in arcade-style skirmishes. Or the fact that there are Extreme Battles with zany rules, including raging bulls.

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And then there’s the single player campaign: a contemporary kind of Final Fight, where you explore locations like Metro City and meet up with characters from the main game. It takes about 30 hours to reach the end credits, which is astounding for an optional extra – and it proves Capcom really took the complaints about its predecessor’s lack of content to heart. There’s almost too much to do here, and with new characters releasing on the regular, the good times never end. The fact that this game will still be relevant at the end of the PS5 generation demonstrates just how deserving it is of its position.

Fighting games rarely get the credit they deserve, but Street Fighter 6 is truly a stand out affair. Here is a game that can not only occupy the upper echelons of the esports empire, but also casuals looking to kick some ass for a couple of hours here or there. Capcom has been on an unstoppable run for several years now, and this is just another impressive example of a publisher at the very, very top of its game.

Push Square's Game of the Year list is primarily decided by an internal staff vote. Our community Game of the Year poll is also taken into account. Feel free to agree or disagree with our list in the comments section below.

You can check out all of our Game of the Year coverage by clicking the link.

Do you agree with Street Fighter 6 being our #6 Game of the Year? (262 votes)

  1. It should be higher on the list24%
  2. Yeah, it's about right36%
  3. It should be lower on the list11%
  4. It shouldn't even be on the list10%
  5. I don't know / I haven't played it20%