The first teaser for Street Fighter 6 dropped today, and all anyone seems to be talking about is the logo. The bland, corporate, clean-cut SF with a small 6 spray stencilled in the corner lacks all the character and personality we associate with Street Fighter. Without the 6, it could be the logo of a tech company that specialises in teaching underprivileged kids about the joys of NFTs. Even with it, it feels like a game desperate to appeal to the esports crowd more than anything else. For now though, I’d like to side-step the logo controversy completely to discuss something much more important - this trailer horny as fuck.
Fighting games have always been a little horny. Titles like Dead or Alive have leaned into it more obviously than others with jiggle physics, but think of any fighting game in existence and three of the most popular characters are Ripped Guy, Evil Guy, and Half-Naked Girl. Even though half the dudes have their shirts off, it’s almost always the women who are oversexualised. Street Fighter 6’s trailer is a literal (more on that later) sausage fest, and that makes just how horny it is far more intriguing.
It begins like an average fighting game teaser, with close-ups on a fist, bulging bicep, and rippling chest. But the dark atmosphere and the close-up on the sweat goes way beyond just showing that this guy is tough; it’s way too erotic for what it’s trying to show, and ditches the usual tone of a fighting game for something downright sensual. Why is everyone fighting over the logo when Capcom clearly purpose-built a trailer to get us to lust for Ryu?
This is followed by a zoom in on his sweaty, naked feet while his toes squeeze in anticipation. Come on, guys. It’s not my thing, but it 100 percent is the thing of whichever dev insisted on getting the wriggle on those five little piggies exactly right. We then see Ryu from in front and behind while sweat continues to drip from every fibre of his muscle-bound body, and yet all we’re talking about is how silly the logo looks.
Perhaps it’s just trying too hard. Lady Dimitrescu, Capcom’s previous horny hit, seemed to catch everyone by surprise. In time, Capcom leaned into the phenomenon with reveals about her height - hat and heels included - as well as Lady D sock puppets and towels. Initially though everything was very organic. With Ryu, the horny bait is maybe too obviously a marketing fishhook rather than a delicious juicy worm.
Speaking of juicy worms, and the aforementioned sausage fest, Ryu has one hell of a bulge going on. While you can dismiss the horny conspiracy around Ryu’s sweating, shadowy, slow-motion muscles, and might even find an excuse for the close-up on the feet, I defy anyone to find a non-horny explanation for this angle. We see Ryu shot from below, camera keeping his dangling trouser snake front and centre. It bulges there against his soft, sensual robes, and dares us to look away for even a second. None of us do.
Sure, the logo looks like it came from the same soulless conveyor belt that brought us the emblems for Team SoloMid, FaZe Clan, or NRG, but the trailer at least does one thing no one even vaguely related to esports has ever done before; this trailer fucks.