Street Fighter 5 Season 2 Launch: 7 Ups & 3 Downs
1. Still No Good Single Player Or Tutorial Modes
Safe to say, if you read through this article in hopes that we might finally have an arcade mode, you're probably closing the page now.
Street Fighter V's biggest success is it's online and competitive scene - it makes perfect sense for Capcom to focus on this. Celebrities such as Lupe Fiasco and Xavier Woods have all made public appearances for the game's competitive circuit, and headlining events at EVO and Capcom Cup have been broadcasted on ESPN2.
But the single minded focus into online creates the game's biggest flaw, one Capcom still has yet to address. For a game that thrives on new blood, it seems to make no effort to teach players HOW to get involved. Lacking good tutorials, or even a simple arcade ladder, gives people nothing to dip their feet into before they start swimming. How can you sell a game on "invincible moves on wake-up are nerfed" if players don't even know what wake-up or footsies are?
There's nothing wrong with no single player. Games like Overwatch have proven that a multiplayer only focus can work, and you could even argue that fighting games have outgrown even needing one, as fighting the A.I. tends to grow bad habits in new players.
But, at the end of the day, it's a staple of the series that has been around for 30 years. It feels empty without one. Perhaps we'll see Capcom announce a new single player mode in the future: if they do, it's safe to say that the game would be far better off for it.
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What's your opinion on the newest update to Street Fighter V? Think that single player modes have been outgrown in fighting games? Post your reasoning in the comments below!