Hiya!

Well, it’s almost the end of Street Fighter 6’s 1st season. Capcom Cup is just around the corner and Ed is slated to be released by the end of the month. Once Akuma, the final DLC character for Season One is out, Capcom will probably release its patch notes for the next season as well as drop some hints on who’s going to be joining Street Fighter 6’s roster for Season Two. This does mean World Tour mode will be getting some new content.

However, this does make me think about one of the most neglected parts of Street Fighter 6: The Battle Hub. While it did get a major facelift in preparation for the upcoming Capcom Cup, I still think it’s generally lagging behind in use because, well, Capcom needs to give players a little more incentive to use the Battle Hub.

To the uninitiated, Street Fighter 6’s Battle Hub basically works like an online arcade. You control your avatar and sit down at an arcade cabinet to play a few matches. You can do all the prerequisite niceties of any simulated online world, like chat with fellow gamers and have your avatar do silly things like dance around and the like.

The Battle Hub also has a few other things which do come off as underutilized, unfortunately. You can also use the stores in the area to buy stuff for your avatar like cosmetic changes and you can even change your avatar’s look. However, those things will cost you either Fighter Coins or Drive Tickets. Fighter Coins is something you pay for with real money but Drive Tickets are earned through in-game rewards. Of course, the currency imbalance between Fighter Coins and Drive Tickets are outrageous as an item which would cost around 100 Fighter Coins would be around 2,000 Drive Tickets. Sadly, you can exchange Drive Tickets for Fighter Coins. I would’ve liked that.

You can also play some old retro Capcom games as well as the Extreme Battle mode in the Battle Hub. I don’t see many people playing these games and, honestly, I can understand why. When it comes to the Extreme Battle arcade cabinets, there’s really no incentive to play them. Sure, they can be fun but it does feel kind of pointless. Even if you want to grind for Kudos points, which gives you different titles you can use in your profile, Extreme Battles earn you only 5 Kudos points while a regular match on the normal arcade cabinets will net you 30 Kudos points. I have played a few Extreme Battle matches and, yes, they are enjoyable but, after a few rounds, I just quit because the fad just fades away. If they allowed you to choose the rules for the Extreme Battle instead of them being randomly changed every day, maybe more people would be interested.

The retro game area is also a huge missed opportunity. Once again, Capcom doesn’t have all the games available and they cycle through them randomly each day. They are free to play and you can try to get your name on the leaderboard but even if you get the top score, it get deleted at the end of the day, since the games are changed after 24 hours. So, what’s the point of trying? Additionally, a lot of these retro games are 2-player arcade games but you can’t have a 2-player game in the Battle Hub. This seems like another huge missed opportunity.

I also have to comment on the biggest waste of space in the Battle Hub and that would be the 2nd floors of the area. There are only a few regular arcade machines here so I guess you can safely hide away here with your friends and avoid other online players from barging in your marathon 2-player session. Then again, why go through all this trouble when you can set up a custom room? The 2nd floor also has a DJ booth and a Photo Op booth and they feel so superfluous! The DJ booth is very basic as you can only pick for 3 looping tracks and you can only add a few sound effects into the beat. Not even a turntable scratch, Capcom? The Photo Op booth is just a static background so it gets boring real fast! Out of all the things Capcom could refresh everyday, it should’ve been the Photo Op booth!

The crown jewel of the Battle Hub would probably be the Avatar Battles. The implementation of the Avatar Battles is pretty cool. When you play through World Tour mode, your avatar learns the skills and moves of the Street Fighter 6 cast. You can then mix and match these moves to create a truly unbalanced character who can do crazy juggles and super damaging combos. Add to the fact you can outfit your avatar with gear for increased defense, upping your attacks, do massive damage with a counter hit and many more game-breaking buffs, these Avatar Battles can get really crazy for all the right and wrong reasons.

Sadly, you can only get the most out of the Avatar Battles if you max out your avatar stats in World Tour mode. I mean, get your avatar up to Level 100 with maximum 3,000 points of life! Avatar Battles are fun but I do with there was an option to “balance” matches without the buffs for competitors. I would love to see Capcom implement an Avatar Battle Tournament with the prerequisite all characters should not have any gear and limit the number of special moves to 6.

Like I mentioned at the start, Capcom did give the Battle Hub a facelift in anticipation for Capcom Cup. I do wish they did this on a more regular basis to kind of entice more people to join the Battle Hub, even if it’s just to see what changes they’ve made to the area. I do know a lot of Street Fighter 6 players regularly enter the Battle Hub but I do believe Capcom can simply make it better. If World Tour can add more stuff, why can’t the Battle Hub have new areas as well?

Byee!

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