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Michael Duetzmann

Developer: Capcom

Genre: Fighting Game

Release Date: June 2023

Street Fighter 6 is a fighting game developed by Capcom, set within the ever-evolving narrative and universe of the Street Fighter series. Players can delve into the individual stories of characters across various game modes or create their own avatar in the Battle Hub to navigate the Street Fighter world in the World Tour mode.

Is Street Fighter 6 suitable for children?

The game has received a “T” rating from the ESRB due to its depiction of violence, occasional blood and injury effects, and references to alcohol and tobacco. Some characters don outfits that may be considered revealing or suggestive. The game also offers online connectivity, and the communications therein are not rated by the ESRB. Parents should exercise discretion and may choose to monitor or disable this feature. Street Fighter 6 is best suited for young adults and older. For younger children, gameplay should be under strict conditions.

What is the recommended age for Street Fighter 6?

Street Fighter 6 includes elements of violence, blood, alcohol, tobacco, and suggestive themes. While the controls might be challenging for newcomers, the game offers tutorials and training features, along with a simplified “modern” control scheme. Supervised play is recommended for ages 12-14, while unsupervised play is suitable for ages 15 and up. Online interactions should be monitored by parents.

How challenging is Street Fighter 6?

Street Fighter 6 offers a range of difficulty levels and gameplay accommodations. The default controller setup is a 6-button layout, compatible with both controllers and arcade sticks. However, players can switch to a “modern” control scheme with single-button inputs. The game’s AI difficulty can be adjusted, but the World Tour mode is more challenging by design. Online matches aim to pair players with opponents of similar skill levels, ranging from beginners to professional gamers.

Where can I play Street Fighter 6?

The game is available on Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 4 and 5, and PC via Steam. While it offers local multiplayer and single-player modes without internet, many features require a constant internet connection.

How much does Street Fighter 6 cost?

The game has an MSRP of $69.99 for the standard edition, but its price does vary among retailers. Additional content, including costumes, stages, and characters, can be purchased separately or through a yearly season pass.

How popular is Street Fighter 6?

The Street Fighter series is among Capcom’s most renowned titles. Street Fighter 6 boasts a dedicated following, including streamers, tournaments, and professional players. Within its first month of release, the game recorded 1 million global sales.

What is the storyline of Street Fighter 6?

The game, like its predecessors, narrates the tales of a diverse set of fighters, each with unique motivations. While some battle for wealth and fame, others seek self-improvement or aim to protect or destroy the world. The intricate storyline primarily introduces new characters or reimagines existing ones. Central themes include competition, self-improvement, and mastery.

What can children learn from Street Fighter 6?

The game, and the fighting genre in general, fosters skills like short-term and long-term planning, pattern recognition, and reflex development. It also promotes diversity through its character representation.

How is Street Fighter 6 played?

Players engage in 2 to 3 rounds of combat, aiming to deplete their opponent’s life bar. They can utilize punches, kicks, throws, special moves, and more, with each character offering a unique playstyle. The game features various gauges that influence gameplay dynamics, such as the Life Gauge, Drive Gauge, and Critical Art Gauge.

Can I play Street Fighter 6 with my child?

While the game lacks cooperative features, parents can adjust settings to tailor the experience for younger players. This includes modifying difficulty levels, controls, and online interactions.

How long is a typical game session of Street Fighter 6?

The World Tour mode, a single-player campaign, takes approximately 20 to 30 hours to complete. Practice mode, offering tutorials for each character, lasts around 30 minutes to an hour per character. Other modes, like Arcade, consist of standalone matches lasting a few minutes each. Tournament Mode durations vary based on participant numbers.

Are there similar games to Street Fighter 6?

The Nintendo Smash Bros. Series is a notable alternative, offering a lower age rating and more straightforward controls compared to Street Fighter.


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Horizon: Forbidden West is an Open World Action Adventure Game in a world set after the destruction, and rebirth, of humanity and society. You play as the protagonist Aloy with deep connections to both the present and distant (but to us futuristic) past. In her quest to understand and overcome a coming calamity. Aloy explores, hunts, and gathers resources in the ruins of what was the west coast of the United States, but is now an overgrown land populated by animal-shaped machines. Horizon Forbidden West is the sequel to the hit game Horizon Zero Dawn.

Is Horizon: Forbidden West appropriate for children?

This game is rated T by the ESRB and features mostly bloodless violence against animals, people, and giant robots. The main story features many sensitive topics including death, destruction of the environment, and depictions of revenge, anxiety and depression. There is also some profanity sprinkled throughout the game. Gameplay features open world, 3D combat with time-sensitive reactions, and thoughtful planning. This game is recommended to be played by young adult gamers and older, and only acceptable for viewing by younger gamers under heavily modified conditions.

What is the age range for Horizon: Forbidden West?

This game’s content features realistic violence against other people without gore or blood. There is also profanity, and story content that features death, depression, anxiety, and complex societal issues. Additionally, there is the complexity of game controls to navigate and fight in an open-world 3D combat space. We would recommend this game for gamers 13 and older with parental guidance for sensitive content between 13 and 15.

How Hard is Horizon: Forbidden West to play?

This game features adjustable difficulty for combat and navigation, as well as visual, audio, and control accommodations for the vision, hearing, and motor impaired. The main story features some basic problem-solving and puzzles that cannot be adjusted for difficulty. There are more complex navigational and combat puzzles kept off the beaten path. They are placed in side missions and additional content.


This game also features multiple branching trees of upgrades to quickly adjust some of the game’s difficulty to your personal playstyle. Stealth, Traps, and Close combat are some of the upgrade paths that are available to upgrade and customize gameplay.

Where can I play Horizon: Forbidden West?

Horizon: Forbidden West is available to play on both PS4 and PS5. PS4 purchases feature a free upgrade to PS5. Its DLC, Forbidden Shores, is only available on the PS5. The game requires no constant internet connection and only needs the internet to download content updates.

How Much Does Horizon: Forbidden West Cost?

Horizon: Forbidden West costs as much as full modern release of 2022-23 at $69.99 with its DLC costing an additional $19.99. This game series is a flagship game for Sony Entertainment and the series is always added to the Playstation Plus Program. As of 2023 both Horizon titles: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West are available for free as part of the base PS Plus program. Check the most current price on Amazon here.

How popular is Horizon: Forbidden West?

Horizon: Forbidden West has received positive game reviews and nominations for awards by the gaming community and press. It has sold at least 8.4 Million copies since its DLC was released in April of 2023. The game is popular, but its release suffered from being within the same timing as Elden Ring. Its critical acclaim and overall reception were immediately overshadowed by a significantly different, but much more anticipated game. The Horizon series so far has had it one challenge of always being released several weeks before a much more anticipated game’s release.

What is Horizon: Forbidden West About?

Horizon: Forbidden West is a game where the protagonist Aloy explores and ultimately masters the ruins of a destroyed and reformed Earth. Aloy is an outcast and outsider to present-day’s society. She holds a deep connection to the world before its complete and total destruction. She encounters people from various tribes and kingdoms whose ancient folklore and myth are founded on what to us is a distant, futuristic Earth. This futuristic Earth that serves as Aloy’s distant past is complete. They have artificial intelligence, portable and powerful computers, and robots both great and small. It is Aloy’s connection and affinity to ancient, yet to us futuristic, technology that gives her an edge in combat and diplomacy with other people.

What can my child learn from Horizon: Forbidden West?

This game’s blend of stealth, exploration, and open-world combat encourages problem-solving and planning, both short-term and long-term. Powerful robot creatures and colossal mountains create moments of improvisation when your exploration is suddenly interrupted by a challenging obstacle. Aloy is also a strong female role model who shows many sides to her character.

How do you play Horizon: Forbidden West?

Horizon: Forbidden West is an open-world and 3D action-adventure game that features heavy elements of exploration and stealth. Colossal machines and hordes of human enemies can both overwhelm the singular Aloy in an instant. Gameplay allows for the player to identify locations for Aloy to hide. It also allows the player to identify and track their opponents from a distance. Combat is split between human and robotic foes. Ranged and melee combat are available to provide options to overcome their opponents. Typical gameplay includes a mix of combat, exploration, stealth, and resource gathering.

Can I play Horizon: Forbidden West with my child?

This game is a single-player experience with exploration and simulated violence against animals, people, and giant robots, as well as a main story that features some grown-up content. The game does not offer the option to cooperative play. Due to its T rating, play sessions completed by a child should be heavily modified to exclude violence against people but can include exploration, resource gathering, and stealth gameplay and combat against giant robots.

How long does it take to play Horizon: Forbidden West?

As with most open-world games, length of play can be split up between the main story of the game and its side content. The main story of Horizon: Forbidden West can be completed in about 30 hours of gameplay. This pales in comparison to its available side missions, exploration, and minigames, which adds an additional 40 hours of content to 100% complete the game. The DLC, Burning Shores, adds another 5 hours of gameplay to the main story and another 5 hours of additional side content.
This game frequently autosaves and features numerous save points and fast travel locations in the form of campfires. This network of campfires allows for fast travel between exploration, resource gathering, and story content. With all of these features gameplay sessions can be very short, but with so much content adjacent to each other, players will be tempted to get “one more thing” done and end up playing longer sessions.

Are there any other games that are similar to Horizon: Forbidden West?

With a similar blend of Open world exploration, side missions and mini-games:

  • Insomniac Studio’s Spider-Man Series offers a very similar gameplay experience, swapping the slower, grounded traversal and stealth of Aloy with the fast-paced combat and web-slinging of Spider-Man.
  • Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom share Horizon’s boundless exploration, trading Horizon’s post-futuristic environment and monsters with the high fantasy world of Hyrule.

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Every week the EFG staff will be defining a gaming term that is either confusing or ill-defined. Please leave a comment with any terms you find confusing and we will try to include them in future editions!


The gaming definition this week is a series of terms that is applicable to video games: Respawn, Spawn Rate and Spawn Timer

Pokémon Center

Respawn refers to the act of reviving or returning to the area or field of play in a video game as a player, or the return of a threat or resource. The word Respawn was originally coined for multiplayer experiences, but now has generalized to all of gaming. (verb)

  • If all your Pokémon get knocked out, you respawn at a Pokémon Center.
  • In Legend of Zelda, if you leave a dungeon and reenter the monsters will Respawn.

Spawn Rate is the time it takes for a threat or resource to renew or return to the field of play. It may have a percentage /rate at which an object drops. Distribution of what might “spawn” treasure/creatures

  • The odds at which a Pokemon will “spawn” while you are in the grass.
Pokémon Spawn in the Grass

Spawn Timer counts drown is the time for the player to return to play.

  • How long you need to spend in the grass for a Pokémon to “spawn”

Example of Games:

  • Overwatch
  • World of Warcraft
  • Pokemon
  • Legend of Zelda

Respawn Elements in Game

  • Mineral Nodes (It is a point within the game for gathering resources that can be found within many games, such as WOW, Skyrim, Stardew Valley)
  • Monsters

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Every week the EFG staff will be defining a gaming term that is either confusing or ill-defined. Please leave a comment with any terms you find confusing and we will try to include them in future editions!


The gaming definition this week is a term that is applicable to video games: Emote

Emote is a collection of icons or animations used in multiplayer games to communicate. Emotes were originally used to display a player’s current emotional state on their character. They have since expanded to include:

Hearthstone
  • Communicating basic game information (winning, losing, special attack available)
  • Basic strategy (Hide, Attack, [Pointing to go in a particular direction])
  • Celebration
  • Humor

Emotes are a simple and effective way to communicate in a situation where written and spoken language is limited, either from a diverse player base not sharing a common language or from a fast-paced game where a simple set of symbols or animations can communicate entire sentences of text.

Astroneer

Finally, Emotes are a tool often used in games to limit communication in a standardized way that avoids vulgarity and abuse, and in a way that does not require direct communication from player to player.

What started as a simple method for communicating in multiplayer games, has become a rich language of its own. Emotes now provide character and charm to the game as well as communicate.

Examples:

  • Well played Icon in Hearthstone
  • My Ultimate is Ready voice line in Overwatch
  • Dances in Fortnite
  • Praise the Sun (Dark Souls)
  • Astroneer (dances for fun or to interact with playing two player)

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Every week the EFG staff will be defining a gaming term that is either confusing or ill-defined. Please leave a comment with any terms you are confused by and we will try to include them in future editions!


The gaming definition this week is a term that is applicable to video games:

Battle Pass


A Battle Pass is a collection of rewards and cosmetics that slowly becomes available through play over a set period of time. These collections are often available either through real-life or in-game currencies and are often paired with rewards that are free for all players. 

Battle Passes reward players who consistently play throughout the month, with rewards that renew on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Battle Passes are often priced so that they can be purchased using real or in-game currency.

Fortnite Battle Pass

The Battle Pass’s name originated in Fortnite, but most major free-to-play multiplayer games have integrated some variation of a Battle Pass into their play and reward offerings.



Examples:

  • MTG Arena Season Pass
  • Fortnite Battle Pass

So, what do you think? Are Battle Passes a good way to keep players engaged and coming back for more? Or are they just another ploy by developers to get more of our hard-earned cash? Let us know in the comments below! And don’t forget to check out our other blog posts for more great content like this.

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Every week the EFG staff will be defining a gaming term that is either confusing or ill-defined. Please leave a comment with any terms you are confused by and we will try to include them in future editions!


The gaming definition this week is a term that is applicable to video games:

Metroidvania

Metroidvania is a genre of games that features an interconnected map where shortcuts or entire portions of the map are locked away. These inaccessible areas are opened by in-game keys, or with new abilities acquired by the character during play.

This term comes from its first popular use in the SNES title Super Metroid and the PS1 title: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The interconnected nature of this design encourages exploration without tedious backtracking.

Metroidvania-style games often fall in the action/adventure genre of video games, but exist in other genres as well.


Metroidvania games will often include abilities and items that encourage players to rethink and re-explore places that have already been traveled through during the first part of the game.

The player will often encounter branching pathways where one or more exits are made inaccessible by being too far, too high up, or too hazardous to access.

These games will often have maps that loop back on themselves after unlocking more of the map through a key or new ability, which creates this feeling of an organically expanding world instead of a series of curated experiences.

Some examples of these types of abilities are:

  • Missiles (Metroid Series)
  • Double Jump (Symphony of the Night)
  • Cut/Surf (Pokemon Series)
  • Pollo Power (Guacamelee)

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The gaming definition this week is a term that is applicable to video games: MMO

MMORPG is the acronym for Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. This describes a role-playing game that requires a large online player population in order to operate. It typically features dedicated servers and a constant internet connection to play.

MMO games often feature mechanics and narratives that encourage both competition and collaboration between players, to some degree. They will often include encounters that put a fixed number of players into a situation or story meant to provide smaller and specific content to those players without interrupting the play experience of others.

These games can be free to play, available after a one time fee, or can be played through a subscription to the service. The cost and payment style varies depending on the game.

Examples

  • World of Warcraft
  • Star Wars the Old Republic
  • Final Fantasy XIV

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Every week the EFG staff will be defining a gaming term that is either confusing or ill-defined. Please leave a comment with any terms you are confused by and we will try to include them in future editions!


The gaming definition this week is a term that is applicable to both video games and roleplay games: Class

Class refers to a collection of attributes and abilities that define the overall play experience for a character. Class descriptors can either come from within the game itself using its own story and language to provide definition, or the descriptors can come from the community of players. A game that has classes will often include different, but connected styles of play that are encouraged by a choice of class. Class not only describes what a character is, but defines what that character does, and suggests a specific style of play and interaction with other characters.

Examples

  • Healer: In many games these are spell casters who focus on healing magic.
  • Fighter: These characters are proficient in a weapon or many weapons. They focus on taking damage and/or causing damage.
  • Mage: A spell caster, often their spells can be used offensively.
  • Rogue: These characters tend to be sneaky and do well hiding in the shadows.

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Every week the EFG staff will be defining a gaming term that is either confusing or ill-defined. Please leave a comment with any terms you are confused by and we will try to include them in future editions!


Video games are often launched in an incomplete state prior to a full release in order to gauge player response and fix problems that would only arise from a large player base that would be otherwise difficult to find. These “Beta Releases” are often defined by whether it is “Open” to all comers or “Closed” and restricted to invitation only.

Fighting Games like Street Fighter and Smash Bros, will often feature a beta test before launch to test online connections and overall game feel from their player community.

Another wildly successful example is Fortnite. It has been around for years at this point, but is still technically in Open Beta.


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The EFG Essentials

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Every week the EFG staff will be defining a gaming term that is either confusing or ill-defined. Please leave a comment with any terms you are confused by and we will try to include them in future editions!


The gaming definition this week is a term that is applicable to video games: MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena)

MOBA is a strategy game where teams battle in a predetermined lane or area with heroes/allies. Their ultimate goal is to destroy the other team’s structure/tower

League of Legends

This genre that features short, team based, multiplayer matches with computer controlled allies and enemies. Players create teams from a selection of playable characters, with mechanics and character abilities encouraging a balance of playstyles and teamwork. Character abilities and maps are public knowledge, and computer controlled elements operate in a repeated, predictable fashion. With that public knowledge, strategy and optimization are considered an additional layer of play that carries over between the individual fast paced encounters.

Examples:

Skytear
  • League of Legends
  • DOTA (Defense of the Ancients)

The MOBA style exists in a board game

Example:

  • Skytear: A Card driven board game


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Make sure to keep your eyes on Engaged Family Gaming for all of the latest news and reviews you need to Get

Your Family Game On!

The EFG Essentials

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