Though Street Fighter 6 just saw its first major balance patch when Akuma dropped late last month, the game is already gearing up for another update here in a couple of weeks. M. Bison, the first official character of Season 2, is being added to the game on June 26, and while we aren’t sure if the update that brings him into the fold will come equipped with more balance changes, it does appear that it will feature some new improvements to the game.
After Bison’s big gameplay reveal trailer and the Season 2 line up announcement at Summer Game Fest, some content creators were given the opportunity to try out the upcoming fighter themselves. With some of the new footage out there now, we have noticed that there are a couple of user interface changes that haven’t been officially announced just yet, but appear to be a part of the upcoming M. Bison update.
Fighting game legend Justin Wong recently put out his own gameplay footage and impressions of M. Bison in Street Fighter 6 Season 2. Some viewers on Twitter noticed that his video included some never-before-seen UI changes that are not present in the current version of the game.
Specifically, both the health bars and the Drive Meter are going to be seeing some improvements, which should ultimately end up being included in the Bison update.
Firstly, the Drive Gauge has a small change to it when a player is in burnout. Traditionally, a player’s Drive Meter appears completely empty when they are in burnout, and we see a light gray bar that fills up to signify the meter being recovered over time.
In the M. Bison update, there now exists a darker gray gradient occupying the space inside the bar where the meter hasn’t been refilled yet. This looks to be a quality of life change that simply makes it easier for the players and spectators to see how much meter a player in burnout still needs to recover before they’re out of burnout.
Keeping with the motif of making things easier to see, health bars are also undergoing a change specifically when Critical Art is locked and loaded. In Justin Wong’s M. Bison footage, we also see that when a player is stocked with Critical Art, their health bar now emits a glow.
We have included a comparison shot below so you can see exactly what it looks like compared to the current version of the game. Like the burnout change, this should make it easier for everyone to see when a Critical Art is stocked, and instead of having to look down at the opponent’s meter and their health, you should be able to glance quickly at the health bar and be good to go.
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At this point in time, Capcom has not officially mentioned or announced that these changes are a thing, nor that they’ll be included in the M. Bison update. However, considering we’re seeing them in the Bison build that is being shown to content creators, it is very likely that these changes will not only be included in the next update, but should also be mentioned in the next set of patch notes.
