Street Fighter™ 6

I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ HATE THIS GAME!!! But you can see Alex's cheeks during his Level 3 so that makes up for it!!

I really wish I could say that I like this game, because there's a lot I love about it. However there are two major aspects of the game that I say ruin the experience as a mid-level fighting game player, the throw-centric gameplay and the gentrification of the style. First of all, throws are too powerful as a neutral option and as a response to approaches (They have NO business being able to cancel Drive Impact), and throw loops are far too dominant in combos which ends up ruining gameplay for most of the match, with games turning into "Who Threw First?". If throws were considered more in the rock-paper-scissors triangle of SF6's neutral (Throws, Drive Parry, Drive Impact) by being countered by Drive Impact instead of it getting cancelled by a throw as well as parries getting buffed a little bit to be a bit more plus upon success, the game's neutral wouldn't be as frustrating to navigate. The other issue is the gentrification of the aspects that make Street Fighter the series it is, mostly in the the overall "safeness" of the game. This game's aesthetic and style is definitely a lot worse compared to games like SF3, SF4, and the SF Alpha series (even SF5 had a unique style to it, albeit one that looks and feels bad to experience), and SF6 having it's style be realistic this time doesn't do much for the game's identity outside of "Look mom! Ken has crooked teeth!". The new characters also don't really help that criticism outside of few exceptions because they all feel like safe designs meant to fit in with the aesthetic of World Tour, plus the fact that they don't have much edge or character to them to be easily marketable. Overall, I think that the roster should've taken a few more risks and made the new characters a bit more diverse, especially since Luke (The New Poster Boy®) is essentially just a white-washed Sean. Also, god why is this game's soundtrack so boring. I've never played a fighting game where I willingly mute the music. It is a genuine problem and I mean no shame to the artists involved but god these songs are just not made for this series.