It’s often been said that Capcom came into this year with something to prove in regards to Street Fighter 6. After so many missteps with Street Fighter 5 left players cold, the developer stepped up its game to ensure that wouldn’t happen again. And boy howdy, did they overachieve. Street Fighter 6 is one of the most delightfully decadent games ever offered not only in terms of fun fighter gameplay, but also its systems that allow you to easily interact with as many or as few of the online community as you want.

Street Fighter 6 starts by just being a great fighting game. The original Street Fighter 2 World Warriors all came back alongside some other returning faces and a wide variety of cool newcomers. Luke, Jamie, and Kimberly make every bit of a great “new heroes” trio as Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li, but you’ve also got the infamous zoning JP, the burly Marisa, the whirlwind warrior Lily, and more. Each of these cool characters plays fun and are made even more hype by solid Street Fighter 6 systems like the Drive Impact, Drive, Rush, and Parry system.

Street Fighter 6 is also impeccable for how hard Capcom worked to allow players of all skill levels to sit at the table. The Modern controls system lets players use practically any given character with auto combos, one-button specials, and other ease-of-access features that can make even a newcomer viable. Dynamic controls are even simpler, allowing the game to come up with combos for your button presses based on the context of the match as it goes on. It’s just flat-out the easiest Street Fighter has ever been to control, while still allowing veterans to play it at the technical level they want.

Finally, we have to talk about the ribbon that ties all this together: The Battle Hub. Capcom has crafted hands-down one of the best lobby systems ever. With the Battle Hub, you can easily jump into a server lobby and chat with fellow players, take casual or Ranked matches, pit your World Tour avatars and movesets against each other, engage in Extreme Battle matches, spectate other matches, and more. If you want it simple, you can just flip a switch on Casual or Ranked matches and wait to queue. If you want to be more intimate, you can bring your pals to a private lobby. In all regards, Street Fighter 6 makes the social aspect of an online fighting game more easy to access than ever, with as little or as much as much of us could ask for.

Between great lobbies, cool characters, a solid gameplay system, and a wealth of options to cater to your multiplayer tastes, few other games can claim to have offered as much as Street Fighter 6 did for online gaming this year. That’s what makes it our Shacknews Best Multiplayer Game of 2023.

Be sure to read over the rest of the Shacknews Awards in our Year of the Games: 2023 feature.