Preview: Hands On With Street Fighter 5

Street Fighter 5 will be the newest iteration of the famous fighting franchise. Does it feel any different from the older games?

I finally got my hands on Street Fighter 5 playing through many different characters and beating lots of challengers that came my way. Some things feel different, while a lot feels the same too.

First of all, it goes without saying that this game is not good for button mashers and beginners. Most of the people that challenged me had no clue how to play Street Fighter games and were button mashing like crazy. Button mashing doesn’t work and hardcore fans will be happy Capcom hasn’t “dumbed-down” the gameplay so to speak.

I got to play as many different characters in Street Fighter 5 and I will give you a quick overview on how each of them plays. Some characters are relatively the same as in their previous iterations, while others have been changed and feel a lot different.

The preview I played was based on a slightly earlier build. The only characters that were available for me to play were: Ryu, Cammy, Chun-Li, M. Bison, Nash, R. Mika, Necalli, Rashid, Vega, Birdie and Ken.

The first character I played as was Ryu. In my opinion, he feels basically the same he has always been. All of this special moves have the same controls and I didn’t notice too many things that were changed. Ryu fans will be happy he’s mostly the same in this new game.

The other main character I played mostly during my playthrough was Cammy. Much like Ryu, Cammy’s moves all had the same controls so she felt “normal” to me as well. I would say she feels faster and more fluid in the new game as well.

Ken is by far the strongest character in the game in my opinion. His fiery Shoryuken still takes a lot of damage and he’s very fast too. Ken has always been kind of overpowered in other Street Fighter games, and I’m sure he’ll still be a favorite in the fifth game if he stays like this.

I played a lot of R. Mika in Street Fighter Alpha 3 mainly because I am a huge pro-wrestling fan. I’m glad to say the character still kicks a lot of butt in Street Fighter 5. Her moves are the same controls and I was able to do her special moves quite easily.

Nash on the other hand has changed a bit from his Alpha days. His Sonic Boom is now the same command as a Hadouken. I’m used to charging back in executing this move so this was new to me. He also had a few other new moves that I never saw him do in the older games.

The other two characters that have slightly different controls are M. Bison and Chun-Li. The preview I played did not have a command list so I had to guess the moves. M. Bison I think has changed a lot as the controls I remembered from Street Fighter 4 no longer worked. Chun-Li is also changed her moves as well.

I didn’t have time to play as Vega and Birdie sadly, but I saw how they moved. Birdie looks similar to how he plays back in the Alpha games. He may be slow, but he makes up for it with brute strength. Vega is the opposite as he is fast and agile like he’s always been.

The other two characters I got to try were Necalli and Rashid. Necalli is quite strong and a little faster than Birdie was. He mostly uses melee attacks and is a good grappler too. Rashid is fast and has a cool tornado style of kick. From what I have seen so far, Rashid could be my favorite new character in Street Fighter 5.

Overall, Street Fighter 5 plays brilliantly and I loved the fact that they brought back many characters from the Alpha series. It’s not a game for beginners, but hardcore fighting game fans will easily get used to the game’s controls and mechanics.