'She's REALLY fast' - Justin Wong already got to play A.K.I. in Street Fighter 6, here are his takeaways
We're eagerly awaiting Street Fighter 6's newest character's release as A.K.I. will be joining the playable roster as DLC on September 27, but the mighty Justin Wong was fortunate enough to get some hands on time with her already.
The competitive fighting game legend has a full 16 minutes worth footage, thoughts, and reactions as he shares a ton of exciting new information on the poisonous newcomer.
Obviously an evolution of what was started with F.A.N.G back in Street Fighter 5, A.K.I.'s defining mechanic sees her place a damage over time effect on her foes via her poisonous techniques. Even here, however, she differs from her not so successful predecessor in a significant way.
"Her life drain is really good," starts Wong, "But it's not like F.A.N.G. where if it touches you, you're poisoned; it has to hit. The only way she poisons you on touch is if you do the medium punch puddle."
Where F.A.N.G had more ways of poisoning via proximity or even when blocked, it seems A.K.I. will need to actually land hits. That probably won't be much of a problem, however, as Wong notes that "she's really fast" and that "she has really good anti-airs."
One of the more powerful tools in SF6 that was initially less conspicuous has proven to be the ability to walk behind slower-moving fireballs to simultaneously cover space and threaten foes. A.K.I. seems to enjoy this ability in spades as her projectile is indeed slow enough to walk (or slither) behind.
Instead of leaning fully on the damage over time aspect of poison, Capcom decided to change things up with A.K.I. and combine said DOT with another enhancing mechanic not all that unlike Gill's Retribution in SF5.
If A.K.I. lands one of her poisonous special moves on an opponent who is already poisoned, there's an added effect that can enhance things like damage, follow up pressure, or combo extension. It seems the best case scenario, according to Wong, is to land combos that both "cash in" on an already poisoned foe and re-poison them by the end.
There's a lot to A.K.I. and this video is a wonderful start to learning how she functions in Street Fighter 6. Give it a watch and be sure to follow Justin on YouTube for more, but before you do that, be sure to comment and let us know if you'll be trying out A.K.I. when she drops next week.
