The initial Street Fighter 6 logo design didn't get the best reception last year. When Capcom released it back in February of 2022, gamers were, shall we say a little underwhelmed? No, let's be honest, they completely savaged it. And while we know that any logo design these days is going to have its detractors, in this case, the response was resoundingly negative – and we could see why.
The logo was uncharacteristically minimalist for the Street Fighter franchise, and it looked more than a little like it had been created using the simplest of logo makers – in fact, just a couple of days after it was released, the creator of an $80 stock image emerged offering to sell exclusive use of their design to game maker Capcom. Such a debacle could have seen the design consigned to our list of the worst logos of 2022. But thankfully, the company has put things right and come up with a new design that looks a lot better – and is certainly a lot cleverer (maybe they read our how to design a logo guide).
Capcom Company's original Street Fighter 6 logo was about as far removed as possible from previous Street Fighter logos. It featured simply an 'S' and 'F' in a hexagon. It was downright dull and seemed to have nothing to do with the history of the Street Fighter franchise, leading fans to describe it as "terrible and lazy looking," "weird," "like an app icon with six notifications" and even seeing resemblances to the Scooby-Doo logo.
But worse than that, the design bore an uncanny resemblance to an Adobe Stock image created by a user called xcoolee, in a hexagon design that's available with several different initials. And while stock images definitely have their place, this choice didn't fit the bill here.
Capcom then released a new trailer for the game, and fans were relieved to see that the logo was greatly improved upon (whether they'll be happy is another question). It's still hexagonal (and, we'll see there may be a reason for that). But, perhaps reacting to the claims that the initial logo was too simplistic, the company did something a lot cleverer the second time round. Rather than a simple SF in the hexagon, we now have a hexagon that's shaped like the number six.
But better still, turn the hexagon on its side and you also have the number VI in Roman numerals, reflecting the numbering convention used in the branding of previous games (see above). While not everyone's going to notice that in the static logo, it makes a lot more sense when animated as we can see in the new trailer below – proof that logo design these days requires thought to be given to animated and 3D use, too. Putting the Street Fighter text over rather than under the logo also strikes us as an improvement.
Fans were still not unanimously convinced, but the response was a lot warmer than that received by the first Street Fighter 6 logo design. "Now it looks like an S, a 6 and a roman VI. It's kinda genius," one fan wrote on Twitter. "Really leaning towards the hip hop aesthetic and I’m loving it!" someone else commented, and another person has praised the "modernised SF3 vibes". "Proves again that cyberbullying works," someone else jested.
And some have pointed out that there's actually another, third '6' in the logo as well. Since a hexagon has six sides, the much-maligned shape is actually another representational of the number six, leading some to suggest the devil's work is afoot.
😮 pic.twitter.com/Owl6hwXE2zJune 3, 2022
The original Street Fighter logos were hardly the most aesthetically sophisticated designs with their garish gradients and crude fonts, but they perfectly conveyed the gritty '90s arcade feel and graffiti-daubed backdrops of the original game. The new, improved Street Fighter 6 logo follows nicely in that tradition, bringing back the graffiti and the Roman numerals while reflecting the vastly more advanced gameplay and graphics of the upcoming game.
If you're looking forward to the return of Ryu, Chun-Li, Guille and Dhalsim, you have a while to wait as yet. Street Fighter 6 is due to be released this year (2023) on the PS5, PS4, PC, and Xbox Series X and S. In the meantime, check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch accessories and the best PS5 games.
It's also plenty of time to check out more logo designs in our roundup of the best logos of all time, and even to create your own designs. See the best prices on Adobe's Creative Cloud apps below.
Read more:
- Best retro video games consoles: Dive back into the past
- The best logos of all time
- The best free logo maker
