Street Fighter 6

A couple of weeks ago I downloaded Arcade Time Capsule, a VR game/experience that allows you to walk around multiple floors of classic arcade machines, all of which you can immediately play via emulation. It’s a wonder. I was most struck by how much I enjoyed giving the various shoot-em-ups and fighting games a go, genres I had ignored for years. Playing Street Fighter II in particular reminded me of my 1990s self, who wanted to beat people at games, rather than just finish them as quickly as possible to reduce “the backlog”.

This has led to me buying Street Fighter 6 and, for the first time in over twenty years, playing matches online. Late 1990s clan Quake was the last time I tried to beat other humans at games, so it is strange to rediscover the rush of competitive play. I sweat. I get angry at myself (though, middle age has definitely given me better perspective on these things). But I’m having a lovely time, fascinated by how the tutorials, training modes, replays, and ranked matchmaking make it easy to study the game and improve your performance.

And when this newfound fighting interest dies down I suspect I might try to learn how to play all those amazing-looking shmups…