Ebert’s been gone long enough to stop arguing if video games are art, but can they represent the plight of the people? Sometimes — if corporate doesn’t have its way.

Street art, in its base form of individual expression and protest, cannot exist outside of the context of anti-authoritarianism and anti-corporatism. Through paintings, murals, sculptures and tags large and small, street artists declare that the powers that be are not free to seize their public spaces, lay claim to where they live. There’s no right way to create these visual protests: what matters is a piece’s emotional effect, not the form it takes — even if it just appears in a video game.

Mexico’s Antimonumenta movement has seen a variety of sculptures, ranging from pure white doves to grand venus symbols, installed over the last decade to honour loved ones killed as part of military massacres and femicide — many were destroyed by the government but nevertheless reinstalled by the people soon after. The looming statue of slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down by hundreds of Bristolians during 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests, the city’s people united round the decay of that colossal wreck, spitting on its sneer of cold command. Its replacement, Marc Quinn’s A Surge of Power, was a direct challenge to Colston and the city’s council, a marble beauty of young black activist Jen Reid raising her fist in power. It was removed by the council in a single day, but its legacy lives on.

The only wrong way to approach street art is to cross the metaphorical picket line — to create art not against those damaging citizens’ lives, but for them. Abuser and graffiti artist Ben Eine became known for his massive lettering sprayed across London’s  brickwork, with one being, appropriately, just the word VANDALISM. It’s simple, sure, but it effectively satirises the government’s uncertainty over drawing the line between illegal graffiti and ‘city-empowering’ murals. In 2013, with this piece and many others removed, Eine would partner with Israel benefactor and luxury brand Louis Vuitton to create a £465 scarf with his signature lettering style stitching the brand name into its silk. His piece Twenty First Century City was also given as a gift from war criminal David Cameron to war criminal Barack Obama in 2010, cementing Eine’s work as a liberal’s spineless imitation of street art.

Even Bristolian artist Banksy — especially Banksy — is far from immune to this, despite being possibly the most infamous ‘satirist’ street artist in the world known for murals criticising the police, governments and the fine art market itself. His 2005 work on the West Bank barrier wall, intended as a commentary criticising Israeli occupation, was itself criticised by Palestinians themselves for attempting to make smart-assed ‘beauty’ out of their suffering and — critically — being able to simply leave when he was done. He would go on to sell his own works to art collectors for millions and design works for corporations such as Amazon and the BBC, seemingly unaware or deliberately ignorant of the horrific irony. As a bookend to this, it’s worth mentioning that Eine and Banksy came together to form the print company Pictures on Walls to sell their work privately to consumers.

That’s a lot of talk about real-world issues, so how about we return to the one medium where artistic intent is completely uncorrupted by greed and a lack of principles: video games. The Street Fighter series, as the name suggests, bears inherent and deliberate ties to the culture of street art. While the name itself was initially just to denote its relatively urban settings and martial arts focus, it was Street Fighter III: New Generation that took the series from flirting with the aesthetics of street culture to making it the key to its design, art, and sound direction. 

Contrasting Street Fighter II protagonist Ryu’s simple, stoic desire to become stronger through refining his honest karate, the new torchbearer Alex is an abrasive New Yorker dedicated to avenging his best friend through raw power, professional wrestling and a particularly American attitude. Twins Yun and Yang are defined by their blending of kung fu and Hong Kong street fashion, keeping the peace in the criminal underworld clad in traditional changshan paired with baseball caps and sneakers often found stuck to skateboards. Their respective stages, Jazzy NYC ‘99 and Crowded Street, not only put the game’s focus on urban culture in full view with utterly beautiful spritework, but are also matched by its unique hip-hop and jazz inspired sound. 

Its opening movie flashes mantras about getting stronger, becoming the best and fighting for the future, all set to the series’ first vocal track. The contributions of rapper Infinite are inseparable from the lasting impact of Street Fighter III: Third Strike, with the opening track “Third Strike” and character select track “Let’s Get It On” coming second only to EVO Moment 37 in terms of importance to the game’s identity. Street Fighter III, finally, made the series actually represent the streets its name derives from, and the people on them.

Its successors, Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V, were very different. Street Fighter IV was built from the ground up to recapture the industry-changing success of Street Fighter II by taking the series back to its roots while Street Fighter V was too much of a rushed mess to have any cohesive vision of identity in design. Their respective calligraphic ink and watercolour-based art styles reinforced this, implying that each iteration on the Street Fighter series would inevitably try something new with its concept and art style.

As such, it was a joy to see Street Fighter 6 return to the urban style of III. Don’t just take it from me — in Capcom’s own words, “The world of Street Fighter 6 is all about the street culture. From the graffiti, to the music that beats while you hustle, and to the fight itself.” Like Alex before, the new core trio of Luke, Jamie and Kimberly (purposely designed as the new, new generation’s Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li) each embody differing elements of modern street style in fashion, personality and martial arts. Current protagonist Luke is a hot-headed MMA fighter quick to start a fight for the fun of it and end it on the ground quickly; Jamie, cousin of Yun and Yang, continues his family history with kung fu and drunken boxing alongside a personal touch of breakdancing for maximum flair and showboating; while Kimberly mixes long-standing Bushinryu ninja techniques with spray paint cans, smoke bombs, and literally graffitting over her opponent’s defeated form. Art director Kaname Fujioka stated that “We wanted to make that trio a diverse group”, reflecting the incredibly varied diaspora of American cities through Metro City (an entirely separate place to New York City in this universe, despite its obvious status as an NYC proxy).

Kimberly isn’t the only representation of street art in this new entry, however. Like ink strokes and watercolour before it, Street Fighter 6’s core design element is graffiti: a Drive Impact explodes with vibrant spray canned streaks; a Drive Rush bathes characters in luminescent verdant sprays; each character’s key art is paired with a personalised autograph-esque tag matching their personality. The soundtrack is a hybrid of hip-hop and techno — a little more understated than previous games’ bombastic themes, but still communicating each character’s personality.

Echoing Street Fighter III, the main theme “Not On The Sidelines” and pre-fight walkout theme “Reinvent The Game” are both performed by rapper Randy Marx, with a guest spot from Rocco808 on the former. While both tracks have been memed on due to the sheer earnestness of their lyrics, “Reinvent The Game”’s appearance during tournament matches is almost always met with commentators and spectators uniting in yells of “YEAH! YEAH! Started from the bottom and I never looked back! YEAH! YEAH! Look at all my haters, yeah I’m makin’ em’ mad! It’s just wonderful, and it’s yet another example that proves Street Fighter cannot exist in its current form without street culture and hip-hop. Capcom knows this too: producer Shuhei Matsumoto stated “Whether it’s the intro of Street Fighter, the characters quoted by famous rappers, or the art you see on the streets, we’re aware that Street Fighter is a perfect match for street and hip-hop culture.”

Similarly mirroring Street Fighter III is the World Tour mode’s opening movie, The Meaning of Strength, a sizzle reel of murals of the cast paired with graffitied questions on what strength means to them individually in the modern era. How can we think about our own strength when the world seems to be plowing ahead too fast to stop and think at all? 

The mode itself doubles down on this question, following a custom character — you, the player, on the other side of the screen! — on their journey to find strength. Along their world-spanning travels, they’ll ask the main roster what strength is to them, how they got where they are, and where they will go next. Their answers, although varied by each character’s personality and past, are consistent in one message: don’t cheat; don’t take shortcuts to power; just keep fighting. And as for who they’ll be fighting, with the (apparent) death of the previous main villain, the cartoonish dictator M. Bison, and the fall of Shadaloo in the previous title, the antagonist is instead the enigmatic JP.

JP is not a dictator wearing a silly hat and spouting about power. JP is not a two-toned Greek god leading a secret society to the apocalypse. JP is, most terrifyingly, a well-dressed old man who was previously Shadaloo’s financial manager, now at the head of a non-governmental organisation hiding a massive money laundering operation and destabilising the developing nation of Nayshall along the way. There’s little scarier than a villain that doesn’t sound fictional. Your character punches JP a fair bit, but as he stands up unscathed, he smugly asks “What does this victory represent to you? […] None of this means anything at all.” It seems an odd message to end World Tour on: even your endless journey to find strength and meaning cannot truly defeat capitalist corruption. It’s arguably the first time a Street Fighter plot has been, dare I say, political.

In a deeply ironic turn of events, this ending is emblematic of Capcom’s own approach to Street Fighter 6’s strengths and identity. There were hints at launch — the Battle Hub lobby area displayed advertisements featuring the strongest woman in the world clad not in her classic white combat boots, but Onitsuka Tiger’s ENDACTUS sneakers, available as outfit items for custom characters. This continued with items (and importantly, Battle Hub-covering advertisements) based on Spy x Family, Baki the Grappler and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — seemingly just Capcom throwing darts at a board of possible market crossover with Street Fighter’s current audience. All of these look absolutely terrible, shattering the visual identity of Street Fighter 6 in the interest of soulless corporate collaboration, but the issue of clashing design pales in comparison to that of the sheer greed on display. Sure, your character can continue searching the world for strength, but now in a $15 plastic cosplay of Donatello. Street Fighter V included crossover costumes too, but they were limited to Capcom’s own work. Draping Ken in the crimson coat of Devil May Cry’s Dante and transforming Blanka into Monster Hunter’s Nergigante may have looked a little silly, but they were a celebration of the incredible character design work done by other artists from across Capcom’s history.

The reveal of the Season 2 roster of DLC characters rubbed further salt in the wound. Veterans M. Bison (wait, didn’t he die?) and Elena are back, but the key selling point is the addition of Fatal Fury’s Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui. “Holy shit, it’s Capcom vs. SNK 3!”, fans cried, overjoyed at the prospect of Ryu facing Terry again in a fighting game that isn’t Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. Sadly, respect for past crossovers and a desire to make a new versus game were not the reason for Terry and Mai’s guest appearances, nor Ken and Chun-Li’s respective appearance in SNK’s own upcoming DLC for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. The reason, of course, is brand synergy and boosting sales. Mohammed Bin Salman’s MISK Foundation had already poured far too much money into the marketing of City of the Wolves, hoping to use it as part of Saudi Arabia’s ongoing sportswashing initiative to distract from their repeated war crimes and human rights violations. Adding accused rapist Cristiano Ronaldo and friend-of-the-Crown-Prince Salvatore Ganacci to the roster would surely attract non-fighting game fans, and borrowing Ken and Chun-Li would sweeten the deal for Street Fighter veterans unsure of trying out a new series. It was foolproof – why not have Capcom return the favour and let their own guests bring more attention to City of the Wolves?

It didn’t work. Many, many people in the fighting game community and out were utterly baffled and disgusted by the inclusion of Ronaldo — in a twist of fate, it led to even more people discovering the crimes he has tried so hard to cover up, alongside the atrocities committed by Saudi Arabia. A few reviews of the game (including my own) were not precious about making their inextricable connection to the game clear. City of the Wolves “severely underperformed”, with absolutely abysmal figures in both sales and player retention, even by the standards of the generally niche fighting game genre. People voted with their wallets, and it meant the unfathomable amount of money spent on Ronaldo’s likeness, alongside the strange sponsored boxing tournaments and collaborations with young men’s icons IShowSpeed and KSI, has gone down the drain. In a vacuum, a crossover between Capcom and SNK in the current fighting game era should be the coolest thing ever; in context, it’s just another instance of sportswashing that stains Street Fighter 6’s existence.

With the knowledge that fighting game fans can actually vote with their wallets, I can finally arrive at what initially spurred this article: Street Fighter 6’s collaboration with K-pop group aespa. While the main selling point is a new outfit for Juri (which is only available for a year, because god knows Street Fighter 6 needs more artificial scarcity to encourage more microtransaction sales), the outfit that dares to give Juri shoes isn’t the issue (Ed. note: though it absolutely will be for some Juri players; we know what you’re here for. Y’all will never see heaven). It’s the new real-time commentator, naevis: a virtual idol created by aespa’s owners, SM Entertainment. Naevis’ voice is created using generative AI, scraping sound clips from multiple human voice actors to create an artificial chimera imitating performers who have honed their skills and built up their strengths over years of practice. SM Entertainment’s chief director Park Jun-young stated that naevis was a result of R&D, with the company tracking “the market environment, technological advancement and our internal circumstances” to make the most palatable replicant of a real performer as possible.

What’s so specifically infuriating about this choice is that there were so many other options for commentators to add other than a genAI corporate creation. While the game does include some celebrities as guest commentators, most of them are professional fighting game commentators, with decades-long careers casting Street Fighter and beyond. Vicious, Tasty Steve, James Chen and Aru are practically the faces (voices?) of major Street Fighter tournaments; they’re in the game because they’re the best at what they do, something that took time, dedication, and mastery of their craft. There are hundreds of incredibly talented commentators who would absolutely jump at the opportunity to be included in a Street Fighter game, yet Capcom quite happily chooses to slip in genAI as part of a collaboration. With this announcement in the same week which saw otherwise fantastic games The Alters and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also have their inclusion of genAI highlighted and rightly criticised, it feels like consumers have to riot about this shit every time it happens or companies will continue to add it in and hope no one notices. After all, why bother spending years to hone your craft when a company can simply scrape work from other professionals just like you and call it content?

This is, in essence, Capcom’s clearest transition from VANDALISM to Vuitton. A complete betrayal of its own artistic identity and strengths — a reverence for street art and the soul of the people — in the interest of maximising profits and minimising costs by offering their creations up to the highest bidder. JP’s condescending tone is wrong — strength is in changing what you can, whatever form that may take. It’s in standing up for what you believe in and making a difference, no matter how small. We’ve seen it with City of the Wolves — I just truly hope that the fighting game community can make that difference again.