While you wait for the best Street Fighter 6 characters to drop and buff up your anti-air moves, you might also be wondering what other fighting games you could check out. Street Fighter has had a rocky track record in recent years (let’s not talk about Ultra Street Fighter 5, please), but 6 has returned to form, with significantly improved issues like art style and input lag from the previous installment – plus there’s lots of content at launch.
So if you’re coming to Street Fighter 6 from all those hours grinding away on the single-player in the previous installment, you might find yourself wanting more. Well, fear not; there are alternatives. Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode takes a lot of cues from the Yakuza titles, with its phone messaging system and side missions, and there’s plenty to complete, including 61 achievements and titles to earn, different outfits to unlock, and more. When you finish a chapter, you’ll find new markers on your map that you urgently want to clear, like in Like a Dragon: Ishin – it has that same completionist feel.
Guilty Gear
This is the big one. While the last one on this list was a technical fighter, Guilty Gear has always been more flamboyant, stylized, and over-the-top. This is where the anime influence really comes in. Instead of button-mashing, every move has another purpose, and every button press can be utilized in combos. Every fighter will use the same amount of inputs, but the effects can vary hugely. Despite this extra complexity, the approachability of SF makes this easier to manage than other games on this list.
Mortal Kombat
This may be a controversial one for some fans, especially those who prefer the 2D fighters in the series, but even if you only play the latest game for its Story mode, it’s a quality experience and worth checking out if you’re looking for some more single-player content in SG6. After Kratos-like character, Kung Jin, absorbs some devilish powers, he goes on a journey where his alter ego, Tianhu, takes over. Each chapter has an arcade mode feel to it.
King of Fighters XIV
This is another great alternative to SF6. The structure works in a similar way, but it’s a more manageable experience. There’s a lot of single-player content in this game, but if you’re a completionist and like completing tasks, then this is for you. You can review every move using the command lab, find hidden secret character in arcade, work to unlock 2D-style sprites from past KoF games, and start the lengthy journey to complete all of the character profiles, player profiles, and pet profiles.
Arcadia: Symphonia
If you like the look but are not familiar with the BlazBlue series, then Arcadia: Symphonia is a good place to start. It adopts some of the mechanics of the more modern BlazBlue games but keeps them more simple, while still providing a fun, engaging fighting game experience.