Hiya!

No one really cares about the story in a fighting game. Well, that’s what most gamers will say, anyway. I do see the point, though. While fighting games do have a lot of lore in them, the story is never the focus. The actual fighting is and if the fighting game mechanics are good. That hasn’t stopped developers from trying different things to spice up the story in their fighting games. Mortal Kombat has done wonderfully with their cinematic storytelling. Guilty Gear Strive foregoes actual gameplay and just shows gamers a full-fledged animated film.

Capcom is doing something different with their story mode in Street Fighter 6. They called it World Tour mode and, I gotta say, it’s addictive but not at all perfect.

I do have to preface this review with the fact I’m reviewing it on my brother’s PC, which is a decent gaming computer, and I haven’t finished World Tour yet. I’m in Chapter 14 but, seeing that it has 15 chapters, I think I’ve seen most of what Capcom has to offer with World Tour.

Anyway, World Tour is a really weird take on how to tell a story in a fighting game. That’s because you don’t control any of the characters from Street Fighter 6’s roster. Instead, you’ll be creating your own avatar with a very robust character creator tool and then be sent on your way to explore Street Fighter locations, such as Final Fight’s Metro City. Throughout World Tour mode, you’ll be able to take on quests, fight random people on the street to level up your character and, most importantly, meet Street Fighter heroes and villains, like Ryu, Chun-Li, Juri, Guile and more, throughout the world. It’s kind of a trippy experience.

First thing I want to talk about is the character creator. Capcom has done a really good job of giving gamers lots of options to mold your character to your liking. Some may say they gave gamers too much power as you’ve probably seem some of the monstrosities some gamers have made by now. However, you don’t have to create total weirdos. The character creator tool is robust enough to create really cool looking characters, even some who look like they’ve crossed over from another game. Please, Capcom, make a crossover event with SNK again! I would love to officially see Terry Bogard join the Street Fighter 6 roster in the future and not have me make a knockoff version.

Going to the actual meat and potatoes of World Tour mode, the exploration and fighting system, this is where things gets a little weird. You can basically pick a fight with most people on the street and, in fact, it feels encouraged. This is because this will be your primary way to collect items and gain experience. Each person you fight will drop specific items and clothing, some are hard to find early in the game, if you meet certain conditions. It can be something simple like hit them with 8 punches or throw them 3 times. Some are a little more nuanced, like connect with a command throw or Drive Parry 5 hits. Some are really complicated, however. There’s one character who needed to be put in a dizzy state, which, in Street Fighter 6, means you have to drain their Drive Gauge and then Drive Impact them into the wall. That’s hard enough to do in a real match and I don’t have time to do all that!

You will encounter some random baddies, who will attack you on sight. When this happen you have to fend off a wave of enemies and each of them have their own item drop conditions as well. These baddies aren’t too much of a problem, especially if you level up your character significantly. In fact, there is a perk you can get where low level enemies won’t pick a fight with you anymore. So, if you over-level up your character early, which is what I did, these small fry won’t be bothering you unless you smack one of them upside the head and initiate the fight.

In order to supplement your combat abilities, you will need to meet the various Street Fighters all over the world. Most of them are just trudging around Metro City but, for some, you’ll need to fly out all over the world. This is where World Tour feels weird. I appreciate the fact not everyone is in one place. However, a lot of these secondary locations don’t have anything for you to do as they’re just fight stages from Street Fighter 6’s other mode, Fighting Ground. The most unique thing about these other areas is the vendor, who sells you different clothing and gifts you can give the Street Fighter characters, and the actual Street Fighter in the area. I guess it would be expecting too much if Capcom created elaborate areas for each member of the roster but this feels like underselling the “world” part of World Tour.

I also have to say even World Tour’s big areas, like Metro City and Nayshall, feel a little constrictive at times. Sure, it’ll take you a while to run from end to end and the fast travel options do become handy when you have to shlep from one end of the city to the other. However, some areas do lead to an abyss of nothingness where you’ll be prompted if you want to go to the world map as you’ve reached the border of Metro City’s or Nayshall’s explorable area. There’s a chance Capcom is going to open up these parts of the city in the future when the DLC characters arrive but, right now, I do wish they put up some walls there or something.

When you do meet a new Street Fighter character, you can ask them to become your teacher and learn their special moves. This is where World Tour does become a whole lot more interesting as you can mix and match special moves with your fighting style. Want to have a character with Cammy’s normal attack but has Dee Jay’s projectiles and Manon’s medal command grabs? That’s totally possible. You might also want to do just that as, in order to get learn more special moves from your masters, you have to increase that specific fighter’s fighting style by using it in combat. I do wish it did also increase your fighting style affinity with special moves but it seems like it only goes up based on your base normal moveset. I also don’t like the fact you have to set each combat style with different special moves. I wish Capcom made an option so your current special moves would transfer over when you switch fighting styles instead of reallocating the special moves you feel comfortable with. What is fun is you can take your avatar into Battle Hub and fight other avatars with your unique combination of special moves. Sure, they aren’t balanced but that’s part of the fun!

Oddly enough, the weakest part of Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode is, well, the story. There’s a basic story where one of your friends, Bosch, goes missing and you go on your globetrotting adventure to find out what happened to him. Oh, and there’s also some nefarious group of former Shadaloo members who have some evil plan for something. The stakes should be high because of the latter scenario but it never really does feel epic in any way. That’s mainly because none of the main Street Fighter characters get involved. No, it’s just you all by your lonesome trying to find your weird friend and try to take down a possible new version of Shadaloo. You would think Chun-Li or Guile would want to get involved with Shadaloo possibly reemerging, right?

Oh, I also have to mention the weirdest thing about World Tour Mode. It seems to the most taxing mode in Street Fighter 6! You would think Fighting Ground, with all the textures and special effects would cause my brother’s PC to start working hard. Nope, the mere act of running around Metro City causing my brother’s computer fans to start going on overdrive! It’s really strange how a mode which looks so simplistic is the one which eats up a lot of processing power.

Overall, I am having a blast with Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode. It’s a nice little diversion and picking fights with random people never really gets old. However, it still proves the old adage of fighting games not having real good stories. It’s a fun game and I would say, if this were a budget title, it would be worth the money. As an add-on to a game I wanted to play for a long time, it’s priceless.

Byee!

What do you think of Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode? Let me know in the comments section below!