Every fighting game developer needs to take notes and copy Street Fighter 6's Simple Training Settings because they're just that great
Arguably the biggest hurdle facing fighting games for decades now has been how to make players bridge beyond button mashing into understanding the mechanics and decision making process behind them, which no one has really mastered yet.
Capcom may be the closest to making that connection, however, with Street Fighter 6's Simple Training Settings that every fighting game developer should be trying to copy.
Like many of SF6's interesting additions, there's not much wholly new in terms of what the game's Training Mode offerings can do, but Capcom has gone back and put more thought into how they can use features for the benefit of the player in an easy to understand way.
That's potentially best shown off in SF6's Simple Training Settings, which makes it simple to learn and lab without leaving users on their own to figure things out.
Training options like Combo Practice, Anti-Air Practice, Whiff Punish Practice, Drive Impact Defense Practice are all just a few button presses away.
Longtime pro player RZR|Xian is also impressed with what's included in the settings and shows how quickly they can be used.
Punish practice option is so good! #xiansf6 #sf6beta pic.twitter.com/tO5g8btDq2
— RΛZΞR Xian (@XianMSG) October 23, 2022
They bypass the need for players to manually record and play situations to give a specific menu of important topics to master as well as descriptions as to what they're for.
Players can take that a step further by going into the Reversal Settings and adding to or changing the options they want to make the computer do without recording.
Even for experienced players, the recording and labbing process is quite tedious, so these features benefit everybody, especially if they continue to add to the options.
Capcom has clearly been taking notes about the good advancements other fighting games have been implementing since Street Fighter 5 released.
Tekken 7 did already include a Punishment Training option years ago, but SF6 appears to have taken that a step further in most regards.
That doesn't inherently solve the issue of getting players to try Training Mode in the first place, but that's not all the developers are banking on.
We've seen ideas like simple control options and big Story Modes not do much to move that dial for getting people to really learn fighting games.
Street Fighter 6 feels a bit different though with the added focus of building your own personal avatar in the large, explorable maps of World Tour mode, which in theory could make players care more about their character and keep improving.
The frame data display, Simple Training Settings and the long list of other options will probably make Street Fighter 6's Training Mode the best in fighting games, but that doesn't mean it's perfect.
It'd still be awesome to see features like combo recipe sharing from Guilty Gear Strive and Them's Fightin' Herds and Tekken 7's My Replay & Tips make it into the game at some point, and then there's the crazy playable replays Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R added, if that's even possible for a newer game.
Capcom means serious business for the next generation of fighting games, and other developers are going to need to pay close attention to their approach for what can still be done in the genre.
