Capcom has finally fully revealed Street Fighter 6’s highly anticipated DLC character Akuma, confirming a release date and showing off gameplay.
The famously overpowered Street Fighter favorite will launch on May 22, Capcom said. Owners of the Deluxe and Ultimate Editions or the Year 1 Character Pass and Ultimate Pass for Street Fighter 6 will receive Akuma immediately upon release. Year 1 Ultimate Pass owners will also receive the new stage, Enma’s Hollow.
The gameplay reveal below shows Street Fighter 6’s version of Akuma, older than previous incarnations but complete with his famous moveset. Akuma has his air fireball, dive kick and his teleport move. Capcom saved the best for last: Akuma’s iconic Raging Demon attack. It looks very much like poor Ryu dies a thousand deaths.
Three major new updates arrive right alongside Akuma: Outfit 3 will be available for all Year 1 characters, including Rashid, AKI, Ed, and Akuma. Year 1 Ultimate Pass owners will automatically receive it on May 22, including their colors 1-10. The long-awaited battle balance updates are also coming to the game. Capcom said it will share more about this in the coming weeks. And there’s the newest stage in Street Fighter 6, Enma’s Hollow, “where Akuma resides to continue his hellish training.” Year 1 Ultimate Pass owners will automatically receive this phase on May 22.
Akuma is available in all three Street Fighter 6 game modes, including World Tour, where you can learn more about his story, Battle Hub, where you can apply his moves to your own avatar, and the classic Fighting Ground experience. His throwback Outfit 2 style, in the image slideshow below, is inspired by his debut look in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.
Capcom provided details on an example of some of Akuma’s moves:
- Gou Hadoken: Akuma’s infamous fireball is back and can be charged to release a ‘red fireball’, giving him more options to hit or block.
- Ashura Senku: Like his previous iterations, Akuma uses Ashura Senku to glide across the shadow-shrouded battlefield.
- Adamantine flame: One of Akuma’s new moves, where he performs a forward thrust that bursts into flames. This move is useful in combos and for exploiting vulnerable opponents due to its long range.
- Messatsu Gohado: Akuma’s Level 1 Super Art, where he fires a highly concentrated ball of Satsui no Hado.
- Empyrean’s ending: Akuma’s Level 2 Super Art where he turns the Satsui no Hado into a powerful flame and ignites it within the opponent.
- Mouth of disaster: Akuma’s first Level 3 Super Art, where he throws opponents face-first into the ground and then delivers a single devastating blow.
- Shun Goku Satsu or ‘Raging Demon’: This second level 3 Super Art can only be performed if its vitality is low enough for a critical art and can be used to end combos. This time he shows you what happens during the one-second nightmares.
The Year 1 DLC characters for Street Fighter 6 are Rashid, Akuma, Ed and AKI Akuma completes the list almost a year after Street Fighter 6 launched in June 2023. The fighting game has sold three million copies to date and has received critical acclaim . IGN’s Street Fighter 6 review gave it a 9/10. We said: “Street Fighter 6 is the most versatile Street Fighter ever at launch, but even beyond that the roster of 18 characters is excellent, the new mechanics breathe new life into the one-on-one fighting formula and it definitely has all the little things in the house that make for a great fighting game.”
Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.