Street Fighter 6 players are already squabbling over whether modern controls need nerfing

With Street Fighter 6 having arrived late last week, fighting game fans across the world have likely spent the weekend diving into a fresh cascade of power-filled punch-ups and beefy brawls.

No matter how much time in the run up to release you dedicated to reading as many reviews as possible, deciding which character you want to main, or setting some ground rules to ensure you don’t ruin the experience for yourself, odds are that if you’re a skilled combatant, you’ve already got enough bouts under your belt to have earned a pretty high rank.

That said, it seems that some veteran fighters are finding that their experience with the game’s classic controls aren’t proving as useful as they might have hoped, with the game’s easier-to-master modern controls seemingly allowing some newer fighters to pull off upsets much more regularly than usual.

Which control scheme are you using in Street Fighter 6?

One such player, user Poetryisalive, shared the success they’ve been having with the simpler scheme in a recent thread on the subreddit r/streetfighter, declaring: “Street Fighter 6’s new modern [accessibility-focused] controls made it possible for me to reach a high rank for the first time! Major props to Capcom!”

While some of their fellow fighters responded by congratulating them and sharing their own positive experiences trying out modern controls, such as user realmwrighter, who revealed: “As someone who quit playing Street Fighter X Tekken years ago because of a repetitive stress injury from circular inputs, modern controls are literally the reason I can play this game. It's a godsend," many seem to have been left unhappy by the effectiveness of the scheme.

“Why is it good for a competitive ranking game that you can compete at a high level without putting in the same amount of work?” user BriefDescription argued in response to the post, adding: “I don't understand what you mean. The goal in my mind should be to make a game easier to learn, not to give people shortcuts to higher ranks.”

A number of like-minded veterans took the opportunity to openly debate the idea of modern controls needing to be nerfed in some way, with user justanotherweeb23 acknowledging that: “it’s a tough decision," due to the fact the controls are making some characters with spammable attacks “straight up ridiculous” to fight against, but also clearly helping genuine newbies, who might otherwise stop playing the game.

Sadly, some of those who’ve developed a bit of a disdain for those using modern controls have seemingly taken things way too far, with Poetryisalive saying of some of the comments and DMs they received: “People [are] taking this to heart [way too much]. I wouldn’t have bought this [game] without modern controls and they are acting like I’m using steroids in the Olympics.”

Regardless of where you stand in this developing debate around Capcom’s attempts to make Street Fighter 6 more accessible to the masses, make sure to check out our guides to everything from unlocking outfits, to drive rushing and even customising your avatar.