Street Fighter V

Street Fighter 5 Arcade Edition marks the completion of a transformation from bare-bones fighting game with a rock-solid core to a fully featured example of the genre at its best. The new V-Triggers are sure to shake up the competitive scene, while the nostalgic new modes breathe new life into the single-player fighting.

We don't doubt that Street Fighter 5 will be more than it is today at some point, and it may not even take long to get there. The most important skeletal elements of a strong fighting game are here, and they set the stage for a fighter that should have the legs to carry it years down the road. But for all but the most dedicated Street Fighter player, Capcom isn't making a reasonable case to jump on board yet.

Street Fighter V has a long road ahead of it, and Capcom has to iron out the game's issues if it wants to keep casual players engaged. If it sticks to its projected update plans, that may very well happen; time will tell. Those willing to stick it out now will discover one of the best fighting engines around, with a great cast and intelligently balanced fighting styles making it both challenging and fun.

Street Fighter V is two very different games. To the battle-hardened it is simply brilliant, stripping away much of the nonsense and complexity of its predecessor, with a cast of characters that each feel unique thanks to the V-systems. To the single player it is as convoluted and baffling as ever, and miserably light on content.

Street Fighter V is an extremely pure and honest fighting game, polished to near perfection. Sadly, this is completely overshadowed by the lack of core features, online issues and very little single player content. The type of person I would recommend Street Fighter V to at the moment are probably the people who have already bought the game, those self-proclaimed members of the fighting game community who will devote time and effort to get better and play competitively or those more casual fighting game fans who are looking for matches against friends whether online or locally.

Street Fighter V's core skeleton is sturdy, but beneath those bones lies a barely beating heart. With almost no single-player, limited multiplayer, a tiny cast, and unstable online, this feels like an Early Access beta that Capcom had the gall to try to price as a completed game.