Hiya!

In just a week, the Street Fighter franchise will get its second ever guest character in Mai Shiranui. Although SNK‘s bouncy kunoichi has crossed over into multiple games, this is the first time Mai will show up in Capcom‘s flagship fighter. In preparation for her impending visit, Capcom has been slowly dripping us details on how the alluring ninja girl will play in Street Fighter 6. They started with her World Tour appearance over a month ago and then her official gameplay trailer this past week.

Capcom kept the ball rolling after this as they invited a bunch of fighting game content creators to get a sneak peek at how Mai Shiranui and how she’ll play. Slowly but surely, they’ve been putting out videos and, while they really didn’t get much time to figure out setups and the like, I do believe we have enough information to get an idea of how SNK’s most popular heroine will play in Street Fighter 6. Just a day or so ago, Capcom officially gave a primer video of Mai’s tools as well. So, we do have enough information to give an informed idea of how good she’ll be. With that in mind, let’s go through some of Mai Shiranui’s gameplay and figure out how strong she’ll be when she drops a week from now.

Before we do, however, I do want to comment on her look which is straight up fire! Fans were initially concerned Capcom blew it with her design as, in her World Tour trailer, the teaser trailer, Mai just didn’t look right. There was something off about her but I guess that’s mostly because the World Tour models, even for the actual characters, do look like plastic dolls in general. That doesn’t seem to be a problem with her real in-game character model! It’s impressive how Capcom molded her face to look like the old Shinkiro art SNK used for their games! Oh, I also love how they gave Mai both her classic outfit as well as the new sporty looking one she’ll be sporting in the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves game! Don’t flub that game, SNK!

Back to her gameplay now, I do see a lot of good stuff with how Capcom adjusted her to fit into the Street Fighter universe as she does have some moves to look out for. Right now, from all the information we have, Mai has 3 normal attacks to look out for: her standing medium punch, her standing heavy punch and her crouching medium kick. The reason why these come off as deadly as they all have good range as well as being cancellable. The first two are going to be strong poke tools and having a cancellable crouching medium kick seems to be one of the best indicators of a character’s ability to get in with a Drive Rush combo as they catch them trying to walk away from pressure.

Another thing a strong Street Fighter 6 character needs is a good normal anti-air button. For Mai, this seems to be her back heavy kick command normal. While it is her target combo starter, it does look like it’ll be good at defending the skies. I also have to comment on her forward medium punch command overhead attack as it seems deceptively faster than a lot of the other command overheads in the game. Having a fast command overhead does seem essential for Mai as a lot of the gameplay out there tends to focus on rushing in and mixing up opponents with high and low attacks combined with her Kachosen projectiles, specifically the charged version of that move.

Speaking of which, everyone in Street Fighter 6 has a gimmick to them but Mai has two! The first one would be her ability to charge up her Kachosen, which will be important to her gameplay. Normally, her projectiles are probably the worst in the game as they lose out to regular projectiles and can even get swatted off with a normal attack. However, if she holds down the attack button, the Kachosen does act like a regular projectile but, when it strikes her opponent, it’ll bounce up and stay active! This does limit her opponent’s movement as they cannot jump up as they can get his by the falling fan.

Her other gimmick is connected to her Level 1 Super Art, the Kagero No Mai. This looks like an okay Super and, while it doesn’t seem to have a lot of range, it should be good as an anti-air. However, the most important part about activating her Kagero No Mai is it grants her 5 “flame stocks” as dubbed by Capcom. These “flame stocks” buffs all her special moves, making them stronger. A good example would be with the Kachosen projectiles we just talked about. With the buff active, these now go through regular projectiles, almost acting like an OD version of the attack!

The issue is you do have to burn a whole Super Art gauge to gain access to this and these “flame stocks” do not carry over to the next round! So, Mai players will have to figure out when to activate the Kagero No Mai buffs. Should you do it as a comeback mechanic if you’re going to lose the 1st round or save the Super meter for the next and activate it then? Should you try to do it as early as possible or wait until you’re sure to kill with it? Time will tell!

Overall, while Mai’s gameplay trailer may make her look like a combo monster, that’s only because of the “flame stocks” she gets from the Kagero No Mai. I do think without the “flame stocks,” Mai will still be a good character but you will have to work harder than, say, an Akuma or a Guile as her projectile game normally isn’t good. She’ll need to try to bob and weave in with combos until she’s ready to activate her Kagero No Mai. I’m guessing Mai will be kind of like her SNK compatriot, Terry. She’ll be a lot of fun to play with but you won’t seem much of her in the tournament scene.

Byee

This early on, what do you think of Mai Shiranui? Do you think she’ll be top tier? Let me know in the comments section below!