5 Things I Learned Playing Street Fighter V

Street Fighter V is out, almost eight years after the original Street Fighter IV. I’ve grabbed myself a copy because I’m starting to get bored of all the shooter games out at the moment. I’ve been playing for a couple of weeks now, and I’ve learned five valuable lessons.

The first thing I learned while playing the new Street Fighter is that I suck. The same can be said for most games when playing for the first time. But I really struggle with this game. I was more of a Tekken fan growing up, so I haven’t played much Street Fighter, which is a completely different game. Everything is more challenging—the combos, defending, special moves, etc. Street Fighter has a much steeper learning curve than Tekken, one that requires a lot of training and watching…

Watching people play games is very popular these days. Many gamers stream their games now, especially with hack & slash and fighting games. You also see a lot of tutorial videos with fighting games, and that’s where you should start with Street Fighter V. One of the first things I did was watch a couple of videos by Gootecks & Cross Counter TV called Street Fighter V 101. They go over all the basics and teach you some much-needed combos. The tutorials in the game are very poor in my opinion, so the best thing to do is go on YouTube and watch some quality tutorials.

After watching Street Fighter V 101 videos, I learned some basic combos and improved my defending. But the most valuable thing I learned was to play with Ryu first and stick with him for a while. Ryu is the poster child of Street Fighter. So, if you can’t win a match with Ryu, then you won’t win with anyone else. Ryu’s character feels much more balanced than anyone else. His strength, speed, endurance, etc., are much more even. His move set and combos are also more straightforward. You need to learn how to do the hadoken, dragon punch, hurricane kick, etc., first with Ryu before playing with any other character.

Please read before ripping me apart, hardcore gamers. If you’re playing on the PlayStation, then stick with the PS4 controller for now. This is the same as playing with Ryu first. If you can’t win a match on your PS4 controller, then you won’t win a match on an arcade stick. Playing with a PS4 controller helps you stick to the basics, which is what you need to do if you’re a beginner like myself. I’ve managed to learn a few combos with Ryu, and I’ve noticed that performing a dragon punch on a PS4 analogue and d-pad can be difficult, so I can see how an arcade stick can come in handy here. Once you learn all the basics with each character, feel free to upgrade to an arcade stick. But for now, I will be sticking with my PS4 controller.

Street Fighter V has received a lot of criticism for its lack of content so far. While I can see why the more die-hard Street Fighter fans are upset, beginners should be thrilled with it. Street Fighter V currently features 16 characters, which is far from the largest roster we’ve seen in a fighting game. The lack of characters is great for beginners like myself because it gives me time to learn each one’s strengths, weaknesses, special moves, and V-triggers. Also, the lack of story doesn’t bother me because most of them are mediocre at best, and they should never be the main focus of a fighting game. The scarcity of content makes me focus on the more important parts of Street Fighter, such as the training mode, which is where all beginners and even pros should be for now.

And there you have it, 5 things I learned playing Street Fighter V. Thanks for reading. Please like, share, and comment with your own opinions on Street Fighter V. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter X @rhysbritton.