Capcom finally opened the floodgates when it announced that Street Fighter 6 would get Fatal Fury's Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui as guest characters. By doing so, the game's producers opened the door for future collaborations with other fighting game developers to get their characters as guests.
Street Fighter 6 being the first mainline Street Fighter game to allow crossover characters is significant for many reasons. Aside from finally allowing guest characters in the first place, the move comes at a time when the series is arguably in the strongest position it has ever been in since the 1990s. Not only did the game sell well and garner multiple award nominations, but it also has continued to have a strong competitive scene and a healthy online player base.
The series' strength at the moment also means that any guest characters added bring more eyeballs to the game said guest characters come from and maybe even help those games out. The series producers acknowledged this during an interview with VG24/7 where the outlet asked whether Mortal Kombat's Sub-Zero would become a guest.
"I don't see it as a negative! In fact, like you just mentioned... What about Sub-Zero?" stated Capcom's Takayuki Nakayama. "Well, there may well be Street Fighter 6 players who aren't as familiar with the Mortal Kombat IP."
"So if the goal is to get more people interested in fighting games in general, and a crossover like that gets people talking about which characters should cross over," he added.
Nakayama's answer here got us thinking. While a Mortal Kombat guest would be cool, there are other games — much smaller ones — that could arguably better be served by having one of their characters get added into Street Fighter 6.
Below is our list of six fighting game icons we believe should come to Street Fighter 6 as guest characters.
Akira Yuki – Virtua Fighter
One of the pioneers of the genre, Sega's Virtua Fighter invented the 3D fighter sub-genre as we know it. Not only that, many of the people behind it went on to work on other 3d fighters, such as Tekken. As such, it's quite a shame that the series has all but disappeared from the mainstream. Having not just any character, but it's most iconic one, becoming a Street Fighter 6 guest character could help change that.
In addition to being the face of VF, Akira is unique compared to similar characters like Street Fighter's Ryu or Fatal Fury's Terry in that he's one of the hardest Virtua Fighter characters to master. Having him retain that when translated to 2D would not only help differentiate him from those but also give players a taste of how different Virtua Fighter can be.
Ryu Hayabusa – Dead Or Alive
Okay, bear with us here. Ryu Hayabusa is technically a guest character in Dead Or Alive, having originated from Ninja Gaiden. However, he's been in DOA since the very start and the two series are basically part of one and the same franchise, similar to the relationship between Street Fighter and Final Fight.
Now Dead Or Alive has multiple iconic characters in its own right, but one of the main reasons we chose Ryu Hayabusa was due to the versatility of his moveset. Beyond his usual component of strikes and strings, he also has a projectile he can throw out. And then there's his famous chain throw sequence that ends in an izuna drop. Having all these tools could set Ryu Hayabusa up as the fast hybrid grappler that Street Fighter 6 has been missing so far.
Doctrine Dark — Fighting EX Layer
Some might see this as "cheating" because Fighting EX Layer is is built on characters who developer Arika created for Street Fighter EX – Capcom's early experiments with a 3D Street Fighter. But the series itself has pretty much morphed into its own thing now that Arika is free to work with the characters.
As for why Doctrine Dark, and not the more popular Skullomania. Well, his moveset, which revolves around placing bombs around the stage is pretty unique. In addition, he also can use his metal garrote wire to pull his opponents toward these bombs. All these tools would make him an interesting and unique addition to Street Fighter 6.
Nakoruru – Samurai Shodown
As Samurai Shodown fans, we really wanted to look for one character that could work as Street Fighter 6 guest character. After a a lot of thought, we concluded that Nakoruru would probably be the easiest choice. Not only does she canonically have time-travel powers, her small dagger isn't as jarring in a Street Fighter game as the swords of other Samurai Shodown characters (other Street Fighter characters have used similar short bladed weapons after all).
What makes her an interesting choice would be her bird, Mamahaha. Not only can she use Mamahaha as a projectile, she can also ride her, adding a different dimension to her playstyle compared to the existing Street Fighter cast.
In addition, she's also faced Street Fighter characters before, in the Capcom vs. SNK games, so it's easy to see her working as a Street Fighter 6 guest character.
Sabrewulf — Killer Instinct
Microsoft and Rare's Killer Instinct was arguably one of the most slept-on fighting games of the 2010s, thanks to it initially launching only on the Xbox One. This was a shame since it was one of the most well-thought-out fighting games of that era, and one of the first to implement modern netcode allowing for seamless battles across the globe. (Read: Xbox fighter Killer Instinct getting updated "Anniversary Edition")
It's with this in mind that we wanted to put a Killer Instinct rep in our list of possible Street Fighter 6 guest characters. We eventually picked Sabrewulf, not only because he's one of the most popular KI characters, but also because we think he adds something unique to Street Fighter 6 with his playstyle.
Sabrewulf is a character that wants to be constantly in his opponent's face, rushing them down relentlessly. However, he's also a charge character, meaning some of his special moves require the player to hold down or back for a few moments for them to come out. This can make him a challenging character to play, and a very satisfying one to master should he make it into Street Fighter 6.
Donovan Baine – Darkstalkers
Some might say that we're cheating by using another Capcom franchise. However, unlike Rival Schools and Final Fight, Darkstalkers isn't directly part of the Street Fighter meta-franchise. The real issue is finding a way to translate a Darkstalkers character with monstrous supernatural powers into Street Fighter 6. This is why we decided to go with Donovan Baine.
The "hero" of the second game in the series, Vampire Hunter, Donovan Baine is a dhampir — a half-vampire. Despite this, he does not use any vampiric powers to fight. Instead, he uses Buddhist spiritualism and summons elemental spirits to fight with him.
The other interesting about his sword Dhylec, also known as Killshread. Instead of directly attacking with it, the sword instead acts alongside the spirits. In addition, Donovan can plant it on the ground anywhere on the stage, after which he can either summon lighting on it or call it back to hit his opponent along the way.
And there you have it, six characters from six games we'd like to make it into Street Fighter 6. Of course, being a wishlist, we know there's no guarantee they'll make it in as guests.
Regardless, we really do hope Capcom uses the platform they now have and make guest character choices that benefit the fighting game genre as a whole, and not just Street Fighter.
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