How the rules are changing for Akuma and his red fireball in Street Fighter 6

Akuma’s gameplay trailer for Street Fighter 6 was recently shown near the end of Evo Japan 2024. Shortly after, the PlayStation Blog post detailed how Akuma evolves in Street Fighter 6.

Of course, Shoto’s fireball, the Gou Hadoken, returns. However, the PlayStation Blog also noted how the prominent red fireball changed in Street Fighter 6.

In previous Street Fighter entries, Akuma’s regular fireball and his red fireball were actually separate moves. It was typical for the regular fireball to be performed using the standard quarter-circle forward movement, while the red fireball was accessed via the backward half-circle movement.

While the light version of the red fireball only launched a single-hit projectile, the medium and heavy versions of the special projectiles delivered two hits and three hits, respectively. This made winning fireball wars against Akuma extremely difficult for any character.

However, a lot has changed for the Satsui no Hado master in Street Fighter 6. For starters, the method of accessing the red fireball is now different.

Rather than performing a half-circle backwards, players should instead use the standard fireball motion and hold the hit button. If the hit button is held for its maximum duration, the red fireball will go off.

This isn’t mentioned on the PlayStation Blog, but we can observe that a partially charged version of the fireball also exists in the trailer. Although they look like Akuma’s usual purple fireballs, they come with two durability hits.

As expected, Akuma’s red fireball has three hits of durability. During the trailer, we saw how the red fireball was able to pass through Ryu’s Denjin Charged fireball and hit Ryu with its remaining hit afterwards.

Of course, this also means that the red fireball will also beat Guile’s Sonic Cross plus Sonic Boom combo and Dee Jay’s heavy Air Slasher. Once again, Akuma will dominate zoning wars with his three red fireballs.

However, there is one very important caveat that players will need to consider regarding how the zoning rules have changed in Street Fighter 6. Akuma’s red fireball, even though it had 100 hits of durability , will not be able to cross it. Overdrive projectiles.

This is important because Akuma has previously been able to win fireball wars without spending a meter, even if the opponent commits to throwing EX projectiles. As Akuma was recently confirmed to have 9,000 vitality points, the lowest in Street Fighter 6 at present, this will certainly be an important consideration.

Overall, Akuma will likely have a strong impact on the Street Fighter 6 meta, as he traditionally ranks very high on tier lists. Despite this, players will have to be a little more thoughtful in how they win full-screen fireball wars, as they will no longer be able to do so without spending meters themselves.