Street Fighter 6 Nintendo Switch 2 review – 2025’s best fighter goes handheld

The Nintendo Switch has been a surprisingly great home for fighting games. Sure, the modern Mortal Kombat ports have been a bit iffy, but fighter fans all around the world regularly use their Switch consoles as a mobile “lab” that they can use to grind out combos without having to carry around a laptop or console plus monitor, which is especially helpful when travelling for events. Guilty Gear Strive, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Under Night In-Birth, Super Smash Bros. (obviously), and many more work great on Nintendo Switch and carrying around a small tablet is fine when you’re already lugging a controller larger than the console. Street Fighter 6 is a much bigger and more challenging game to make work, though.

Street Fighter 6 is one of the most ambitious fighting games ever made. Yes, it has the usual assortment modes; Arcade, VS, Online, and a few goofy options for casual fun, but the games pushes the boat out much further during World Tour, a full-fledged open world full of quests, collectibles, minigames, and fights to spend hours clearing up. This game isn’t just static backgrounds while two characters fight, that’s why it couldn’t work on the original Nintendo Switch, and why it’s still pushing the limits of Nintendo Switch 2.

Nothing is missing. SF6 on Switch 2 is every bit as content-rich as the power-hungry console and PC versions, including every character (with the newest character, Elena, even releasing alongside the Switch 2 version), every mode (and some exclusive ones), and even the retro Capcom arcade games are playable in the Battle Hub. When it matters, the gameplay hums along at a smooth 60 fps and becomes one of the best showcases of what the Switch 2 can do. Yes, certain details are lower resolution with lower average settings when compared to other consoles, but in other situations, the gameplay looks sharper than the Xbox Series S version.

If this port has a weak point, it is World Tour mode. Console versions come with a 30 fps cap in this mode by default, even though only the Series S truly struggles to hit 60 fps here. On Switch 2 World Tour is capped firmly at 30 fps, matching the last-gen PS4 version. It’s a slight disappointment, but forgivable since this mode is PvE only, and hard to take too seriously regardless. Switch 2 delivers 60 fps gameplay when it matters, in 1v1 fights either online or locally — running around in a 3D environment is just a step too far.

Local wireless multiplayer has been added if you want to link up with another Switch 2 owner, but more “interesting” is Gyro Battle and Calorie Contest, where almost all control is moved onto the JoyCon controllers, asking you to tilt and shake to move and attack. Those feel made to be played once and never again, much like Ultra Street Fighter 2’s Way of the Hado waggle mode.

It’s a bit annoying that I couldn’t get any of my arcade sticks to work on Switch 2 just by plugging them into the dock (a bit too hopeful, perhaps), but the JoyCon are surprisingly decent out of the box. They have just enough inputs for a six-button fighting game individually, and if you excuse the analogue stick, it will feel mostly at home for a SF2 SNES player looking to go 1v1 with a friend. Players that have a preferred controller might want to wait until an appropriate adapter is available, but if you just want some Street Fighter fun on the go, there’s no reason to wait.

If you’re brand new to Street Fighter, World Tour acts as a fantastic slow-paced introduction to each of the game’s mechanics and even different kinds of motion inputs. If quarter circles and double quarter circles are too much for you to wrap your head around, the Modern control option makes the game more approachable for action game fans who just want a special attack to happen when they press a button. There’s a surprisingly wide variety of skill levels playing online at almost all times too, meaning that even newbies can jump into Ranked mode and not feel overwhelmed.

Street Fighter 6 is the most popular fighting game of the generation, seeing almost seven times the entrants of the next most popular title at EVO Japan 2025. It supports an aggressive playstyle and in its first two seasons has introduced characters that feel more bold and daring than anything we saw in Street Fighter V until its final days. It is, undoubtedly, the best fighting game to play in 2025, and it’s shockingly good on Nintendo Switch 2.