IGN's SF6 review has 1 paragraph on fighting and 11 on avatar customization

Let's address the elephant doing a hadouken in the room: IGN's Street Fighter 6 reviewer does not play fighting games. I know this because he describes the Drive Impact system as 'basically a powerful attack.' That's like describing a chess queen as 'one of the pieces that moves.' The Drive system is the entire mechanical identity of SF6 — it's the thing that makes the game SF6 instead of SF5 with better hair — and the review treats it like a footnote between screenshots.

The review dedicates exactly one paragraph to the actual fighting system. One. In a fighting game review. Meanwhile, World Tour mode — the single-player RPG component that no competitive player will touch after the first week — receives approximately eleven paragraphs of breathless praise. The reviewer describes avatar customization options for longer than he discusses frame data, neutral game, or the Drive Rush cancel system. He calls a fighting game 'bursting with content' the way your aunt calls a casino 'fun' because it has a buffet. You're focusing on the wrong part of the building.

Here's the tell that made me spit out my coffee: the reviewer praises the Modern control scheme — the simplified one-button-special-move system designed for beginners — and says it 'opens the game up.' He then never once mentions Classic controls, which is what the game is actually balanced around. This is a man reviewing a violin concerto and spending the whole review talking about how easy it was to play on Guitar Hero mode.

I've been in the FGC since Third Strike. I've attended EVO. I've lost in pools more times than I'd like to admit. And I can tell you with absolute confidence: this review was written by someone whose fighting game experience peaked at mashing random buttons in Tekken at a bowling alley in 2004. IGN assigned a food critic to review an engine rebuild. The 9/10 is correct by accident — SF6 is legitimately great — but this review tells you nothing about why.