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 off towards the end of Evo Japan 2024. Shortly afterwards, the PlayStation Blog post detailed how Akuma is changing in Street Fighter 6.

Of course, the Shoto's fireball, the Gou Hadoken, is returning. However, the PlayStation Blog has also noted how the prominent red fireball has changed in Street Fighter 6.

In previous Street Fighter entries, Akuma's regular fireball and his red fireball were effectively separate moves. It was typical for the regular fireball to be performed using the standard quarter-circle forward motion while the red fireball was accessed through the half-circle backwards motion.

While the light version of the red fireball only threw out a projectile bearing one hit, the medium and heavy versions of the special generated projectiles with two hits and three hits respectively. This made winning fireball wars against Akuma exceedingly difficult for any character.

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

Rather than performing a half-circle backwards motion, players must instead use the standard fireball motion and hold the punch button. If the punch button is held for its maximum duration, the red fireball will be unleashed.

This isn't mentioned in the PlayStation Blog, but we can observe that a partially charged version of the fireball also exists from the trailer. Though it looks the same as Akuma's regular purple fireballs, it has two hits of durability attached to it.

As expected, Akuma's red fireball has three hits of durability. During the trailer, we saw how the red fireball was able to plow 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 combination and Dee Jay's heavy Air Slasher. Once more, Akuma will dominate zoning wars thanks to his three hit red fireballs.

However, there is a very important caveat that players will have to consider with regards to how the rules for zoning have changed in Street Fighter 6. Akuma's red fireball, even if it had 100 hits of durability, won't be able to plow through Overdrive projectiles.

This is important as Akuma has previously been able to win fireball wars without spending a sliver of meter even if the opponent commits to throwing EX projectiles. With it recently confirmed that Akuma having 9,000 points of vitality, the lowest in Street Fighter 6 right now, this will certainly be an important consideration.

Overall, Akuma is likely going to have a strong impact on Street Fighter 6's meta as he traditionally ranks very high on tier lists. Despite this, players will have to be just a little more thoughtful in how they win fireball wars from full screen since they'll no longer be able to do so without spending meter themselves.