8. No Arcade Ladder, And 'Story' Takes Minutes To Complete
For years we've watched fighting games dance two jigs at once; starting out with universally-included Arcade ladders (the mode being named after its physical existence, no less) and advancing to the sorts of landmark story portrayals seen in 2011's Mortal Kombat. For SFV, it seems that multi-decade long tradition of providing the consumer with an arcade mode and Story is being changed - by removing both almost altogether. The story mode on offer right now (a paltry stand-in for a 'cinematic' version apparently coming in June, yes, June) will literally take you minutes to get through. Comprised of a handful of one-round battles with no difficulty modifiers and only a few slides of static artwork to bridge them, you can rattle through all 16 fighters' 'narratives' in an afternoon, if that. Back to the arcade mode, and there just isn't one. The nearest thing you can get to fighting multiple opponents in quick-succession is Survival, and even that is a mode that's always existed alongside these other requirements. Because for some genres, especially the freakin' KING of certain genres, these additions aren't luxuries or tacked-on extras - they are 100% required for the sake of the series' reputation.