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Mai Shiranui has graced the Street Fighter 6 roster in the latest update, and with her, comes a handful of other quality-of-life changes that hardcore players are sure to appreciate. She is the second character from the Fatal Fury franchise to make her way into SF6, following Terry Bogard, and like him, Mai is strong, but won’t be dominating the tier list anytime soon.
Mai Brings Some Real Sauce
Although her abilities and ideal playstyle are still developing, the extent of her capabilities is clear to see. What sets her apart from the cast, like how Terry could cancel his heavy tackle into any other special of his choosing, is her level 1, which is possibly the most useful super in its category. Once landed, it gives Mai 5 stocks near her drive gauge and makes all her specials and supers more fiery because of a lack of a better term.
These stocks buff all of her specials and make almost all of her moves much better than before, including some of her supers. Increasing her damage, utility, and combo potential.
Corner carry is one of the most important factors when considering a character’s strength, and Mai has it in spades. Even without using supers and even from a chain of light attacks, Mai can send you concerningly close to the wall before you can say “My eyes are up here.”
Where the queen of Fatal Fury struggles is when she does not have the 5 stocks from her level 1. Her fan throws are nearly useless without being charged, and if they’re charged, they are susceptible to drive impacts and jump-ins from a mile away.
Her balancing makes her viable but not overpowered compared to the rest of the cast, especially one tornado-throwing demon. She does have a handful of annoying matchups, but with time, perhaps players will find ways to make them a bit easier. It is too early to say if she will be leading the tier list or hovering around the middle, but we can say she isn’t terrible like Terry was when he came out.
Other Changes With the Mai Update for Street Fighter 6
The Mai Shiranui update for Street Fighter 6 came with some quality-of-life improvements like being able to watch a match replay right after it ends, which will encourage players to check their mistakes without having to navigate all the way to the replays section.
Another minor but important change is the ability to pause or change replay settings while the round is changing. This is a big deal because in the past if you were watching a replay and the round ended, you would be locked out of accessing the pause menu until the match started once again, which could be very annoying if you were watching multiple replays and rewatching rounds.
Other smaller additions include new challenger artworks that show up when you connect with opponents and a new V-Rivals mode that lets you fight Woshige and experience him standing up before he wins. You can finally ask Woshige what he is standing up for.
There is only one character left for season 2 of Street Fighter 6, and it is Elena. We have yet to see what she looks like in-game, but once we get her gameplay trailer, we can officially start guessing who the season 3 characters will be, and if Capcom has more crossovers in store for us or not.
