Street Fighter 6's Big Balance Patch Bundles in Four Famicom Favourites for Free

A big new balance patch is out for Street Fighter 6 today, alongside the long-awaited inclusion of Elena, who first debuted in Street Fighter 3: New Generation of course.

But while the new update demands attention in its own right, there’s a secret update for retro game fans: four Capcom classics from the Famicom era.

Available to play for free within the game’s Gallery are: Bionic Commando, Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight, Mighty Final Fight, and Mega Man 3.

Each game is based on the original NES code, but can be played in its entirety.

For those who don’t know, Bionic Commando first launched in 1988, and sees you assume the role of Nathan ‘Rad’ Spencer. While it’s a fairly simplistic side-scrolling shooter, its gameplay is unique because you’re equipped with a grappling hook, which you need to utilise to navigate the stages.

Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight, meanwhile, mixes up the tried and trusted Street Fighter gameplay, and sees you pilot a cybernetically enhanced Ken Masters in a kind of side-scrolling action game.

Then there’s Mighty Final Fight, a chibi-style spin-off of the more recognisable Final Fight, which obviously released in arcades. This one takes inspiration from older Double Dragon games, and even sees you earning XP and levelling up as you defeat enemies.

And finally, Mega Man 3 perhaps needs no introduction: it’s the third entry in the remarkably popular side-scrolling series, originally released in 1990. Despite its difficulty, this is considered among the best entries in Capcom’s classic platforming property.

We should also spare a mention for the balance patch itself, and the overall changes it makes to Street Fighter 6.

Perhaps the biggest tweaks are the universal changes to perfect parries and throw escapes. The latter will now only trigger a “screen freeze” only when the correct direction is pushed in correspondence to an incoming attack, while performing the latter will trigger a bigger boost to the Drive and Super Art gauges, rewarding defensive play.

Elsewhere, various buffs and nerfs have been applied to all characters, with Ryu among those soaring up tier lists. We’ll need to wait a few days to see how the community responds to these changes.

Overall, though, this is a massive patch with some surprise content in the form of the aforementioned retro games. It’ll be interesting to see what else Capcom has in store for us as we move into Year 3.