The official Capcom Artworks account on X has also shared a unique New Year’s group photo featuring Akuma in his new Street Fighter 6 design alongside a bunch of their other iconic characters!

 

 

Capcom posted something exciting on Twitter (X). Capcom has released a new render of Akuma in Street Fighter 6 in celebration of the upcoming New Year!

Akuma in Street Fighter 6 was already known from previous hints that he would have gray or white hair instead of the usual red. Like the other veterans of the series, Akuma seems to have aged quite a bit in Street Fighter 6.

However, the latest rendering of Akuma depicts him as darker than ever. This time, he looks really menacing.

Akuma has always had a backstory of being willing to throw away his humanity if it means becoming more robust. This new image of him shows him appearing in a particularly demonic or undead state.

With this image, Capcom emphasizes that the character “will still be raging in 2024”. Indeed, Akuma could arrive in the spring of 2024 if all is true.

What’s interesting, though, is that Ed is actually going to be the next DLC fighter coming out for Street Fighter 6. It is expected to become available sometime in the winter of 2024 (likely January or February).

With this, Capcom acknowledges that Akuma is an immensely fan-favorite character. Needless to say, given the character’s history, there’s reason to be excited about Akuma’s appearance in Street Fighter 6.

Akuma debuted in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, where he can sometimes replace M. Bison as the final boss. Of course, you could also play as Akuma using a particular method of the character selection screen.

However, Akuma was eventually banned from the Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo competitive game as he was much better than the other characters. In particular, the other characters were unprepared to deal with Akuma’s aerial fireballs, among other imbalances.

Of course, it should be noted that Akuma would be the first Street Fighter or Capcom character to fight an X-Men character from Marvel, as Capcom sneaked Akuma into X-Men: Children of the Atom as a secret character.

This decision later paved the way for X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Vs. For Capcom series.

Finally, Akuma was one of the most popular fighters throughout Street Fighter 5’s entire lifecycle based on the game’s online character usage statistics. When Akuma finally appears in SF6, we can expect a lot of players to use it even then.

Capcom doesn’t say much in the artwork post other than wishing fans a happy new year and thanking everyone for their support, but Nurunji’s artwork puts itself out there hard.

Akuma’s SF6 design can be seen on the left, below the Baby Heads of all the characters in Captain Commando, and above Leon, Ashley, and Ada in Resident Evil 4.

Source: X (1, 2)

Happy New Year! 🎆

Thank you for all the support you've shown Street Fighter 6 this year.

Here's to more fights, gatherings, and content coming in 2024! pic.twitter.com/knMjAcuOXA

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) December 31, 2023

過去から現在までカプコンを愛してくださった全てのファンの皆さんへ。あけましておめでとうございます。これからも世界に愛されるカプコンになりますように。今年もよろしくお願いします（ヌルンジ）#カプコンアートワーク pic.twitter.com/U4AzZ0ovj3

— CAPCOM OFFICIAL／ARTWORKS (@CAPCOM_AWT) December 31, 2023