Choosing Street Fighter 6 controls between the Classic and Modern settings mode can be a tough one. Most Street Fighter veterans will likely stick with the familiar Classic setting for the traditional six-button layout that the series has always used. The Modern settings are more comfortable for players more used to Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. However, there are technical reasons why you might want to choose Modern over Classic. Here are the pros and cons of using Classic versus Modern controls in SF6.
Should you use Classic or Modern controls for SF6?
For competitive play, you should use Modern controls if you find charge moves and half-circle or full-circle inputs too challenging, Otherwise, you should use Classic controls.
The benefit of Modern controls is that it simplifies inputs for some of the harder moves in Street Fighter 6. This includes charge moves like Blanka’s signatural roll attacks and Guile’s sonic boom and flash kick, as well as full-circle inputs like Zangief’s piledriver. Case in point, I have tremendous trouble pulling over Zangief’s Level 3 super art that requires two full-circle inputs consistently, so assigning it to a few buttons and a single direction is an amazing shortcut. Modern controls also have a few auto combos, though any expert player can figure out better combos to perform. For World Tour mode, Modern controls is great for grinding money too in the Scrap Heap part-time job mini-game.
Several pro players like Aru, Jiyuna, and Highspeedwara have tried Modern controls and may stick with it to lower the input time for particular moves and to make hit confirm combos easier to execute. We’ll just have to see whether this control setting lasts through tournament play. Some might call Modern controls “cheating,” but the setting is available for everyone to use. Ultimately, I find this debate to be similar to the controller vs. arcade stick argument. Both will likely be viable, as Capcom is investing its time in both Modern and Classic controls.
That said, if circular inputs aren’t difficult for you and you can time charged moves very well, then Classic controls are where you want to invest your effort for the most precision. There’s also a chance that on Modern controls, you will lose certain normals or unique attacks on the character’s move list, which lowers your mix-up variety.
Besides, Classic controls are the core of Street Fighter fundamentals, so the skills you learn with this setting will apply to many other Street Fighter games and Capcom fighting games in general too.
