Street Fighter 6 Classic, Modern, and Dynamic controls guide: How to choose the right option for you
Fighting games have always struggled to be as accessible as other genres. Yes, they're tons of fun but they've also garnered a reputation for being much harder to get into than most other kinds of video games. Why? Because fighting games like Street Fighter have traditionally demanded that players learn complex inputs and sometimes super tight timings to pull off routine aspects like special moves and combos.
The rewards are high but getting over these initial barriers has proven to be too much of a turn off for potential users who could just as easily load up dopamine drips like Fortnite and start enjoying satisfying experiences right away. Fighting game developers have slowly but surely worked on this problem over the years with increasingly simplified controls, but Capcom is taking things to a whole new level with Street Fighter 6 as they've got not one, not two, but three different control schemes with varying levels of assistance.
These are designed to make the game fun and enticing for anyone and everyone who might want to give the game a shot. Whether you've been playing every day since Street Fighter 2 came out, never touched a fighting game in your life, or are somewhere in between, there's a Street Fighter 6 control scheme for you and in this guide we're going to break down all three so that you'll know going in which one is the best fit for you. Let's jump into the first and simplest option.
Dynamic ControlsPlaying Street Fighter 6 with Dynamic Controls is basically playing with AI assistance. Everything is simplified down to just three buttons that will take care of all attacks and some maneuvering, and then two more that trigger Drive Impact and Parry, respectively.
When we say "assistance" here, it's more like you're assisting the AI than it's assisting you. Press one of the three inputs and your character will perform an attack based on how far away they are from your foe. If you're full screen away, you'll either throw a fireball, perform a longer reaching attack, or maneuver closer to a more effective range.
If you're up close, you'll either toss out a short ranged attack or perform a throw. When at mid range your character will go for a poke or jump forward and, get this, perform an entire jump in combo. No need to mash, just press one button at the correct distance away and you'll leap forward and hit your opponent with a jump in and a full follow up combo... all from a single input.
Yes, the game does the majority of the playing for you here, but Dynamic is a great way to introduce newcomers to the party and give them the satisfaction of seeing their characters pull off effective sequences with them behind the controls. What happens on screen will look like an actual fight as opposed to just random mashing and uncoordinated jumps, and offers a starting sense of what a given character's abilities are as well as what a potential game plan for them might be.
Players who start here can get acquainted with the general feel and flow of the game, and hopefully this first taste will entice them enough to graduate into the less restricted control schemes. Not only are you limited to just a few basic sequences with Dynamic Controls, you can't even take them online.
That's right, it's really just Versus and single player modes that you'll even be able to use them, so at the end of the day, Dynamic Controls are for people who don't really play video games, little kids, and maybe parties where someone busts out the newest Street Fighter and bunch of drunken college kids use it as a drinking game.
Modern ControlsThat brings us to what might prove to be the most popular option of the three: Modern Controls. Using Modern Controls also simplifies things down a decent bit as it includes a combo assist button and gets rid of complex inputs such as quarter circle or zig-zag motions traditionally required for such attacks as the iconic Hadoken and Shoryuken.
Instead, players will only have to press a designated special attack button, either by itself or along with a direction, to pull off such moves. The drawback here is that you can't choose the strength level of the special you're performing; you only get one version of each special attack, though you can still enhance them with Overdrive.
We will note here that you can still use classic inputs to do special attacks while using Modern Controls. This grants access to all three strength levels, but it doesn't apply to all specials. Ryu can do all three levels of his punch-based specials using this method, but it doesn't work for any of his kick-based specials.
You can also more easily pull off Supers with Modern Controls by inputting the special and heavy buttons at the same time along with a direction. Normals are relegated to just three buttons: one for light attacks, one for mediums, and one for heavies. Holding a direction or the combo assist button while performing these attacks will cause your character to do different moves, but they ultimately won't have access to their entire arsenals.
Let's look quickly at the example of Ryu. Here we see him perform most of his standard heavy attacks by pressing the heavy button and either a direction or assist. Note, though, that when using Modern Controls Ryu, you won't ever be able to do his standing heavy kick from the neutral, as it's simply not an option.
Finally, using this scheme grants you access to assisted combos. Hold the assist button down and repeatedly mash any of the three attack strengths to pull off combos that will implement both Overdrive specials as well as Supers. You can also mash light, medium, or heavy without holding this button down and get more basic combos. Using Modern Controls frees you from having to worry about complex inputs as well as combo timing, and you can indeed take it online into both casual and ranked modes... but there is a downside.
Not only do you not have the freedom to access some of your character's standard normals and special attack strengths, there's also 20% damage scaling on all specials and supers performed with Modern inputs, meaning you'll only be doling out 80% of the damage compared to an opponent using Classic Controls.
That said, Modern Controls are aimed specifically at getting rid of the most egregious barriers to entry in the fighting game genre. While not having to worry about executing inputs perfectly every time, you'll be able to much more quickly get the battle plan in your head to manifest on the screen. This offers an even stronger sense of understanding character abilities and strategies than Dynamic Controls can, and will allow players to experience and appreciate some of the highs of Street Fighter very early on in their journey.
Modern Controls are for players who might know a thing or two about video games, but don't want to spend a bunch of time in training mode getting all the tedious basics down. It's also for those who want a substantial taste of Street Fighter 6 before they decide to commit to learning it at the highest and most nuanced levels.
If you're unsure, this looks to be a great option to start with. You might find that after mastering the basics with Modern Controls you see even more potential in your character and want to move past the limitations of this training wheels mode, or you very well could find that Modern Controls give you the perfect Street Fighter 6 experience as is.
For more information on the drawbacks of Street Fighter 6's Modern Controls, be sure to check out our Modern Controls disadvantages guide.
Classic ControlsThat just leaves good old Classic Controls the standard six button Street Fighter layout with three strengths of kicks and three strengths of punches. Those who have played Street Fighter before should be familiar with the Classic set up where you won't have as many shortcuts as in Modern or Dynamic, but you will have the most potential both for overall control and player expression.
You'll have to use complex inputs such as quarter circle forward and punch to do special attacks like Ryu's Hadoken, but you'll also have access to three strengths of each special move, plus Overdrive enhancements. In the case of Ryu's fireball this means you can throw the projectile at four different speeds instead of just the two that are available to you if you're using Dynamic or Modern.
Yes this type will require the most practice and training to master but also likely going to be the necessary choice for those who want to reach the highest levels of play. Classic Controls are for those who are already used to playing traditional Street Fighter and likely for any new players who are hoping to break into the competitive scene.
Even then, there's absolutely no shame in using the other options to grow, learn, and level up your Street Fighter 6 abilities until you feel comfortable exchanging short cuts for more control. Let us know in the comments which Control Type you'll be starting with when you dive into Street Fighter 6.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:25 - Dynamic Controls
03:28 - Modern Controls
06:59 - Classic Controls