Zangief really doesn't need Green Hand now that he can Drive Rush these hands for way scarier pressure than before
Banishing Flat was probably the most requested attack that never made its way into Street Fighter 5, and it's not making it into Street Fighter 6 either.
As can be seen in the most recent match footage for the game, Zangief is not getting Green Hand back into his toolkit, and he's seemingly better off without it now.
This latest showcase was also the first time we got some good looks at the grappler's Drive Rush, which appear as though they're going to unlock more scary pressure setups than Green Hand ever could.
Although his normal dash is looking pretty awful, Gief's Drive Rush can carry him a very long distance in the blink of an eye and turn pretty much every button into a potential Banishing Flat that's even better.
The big dude's Counter Hit charged heavy punch sends the opponent back to full screen, but he's able to Drive Rush up close enough to still get a meaty medium punch and stay on the offensive.
Just like every other SF6 character, Gief will get +4 frame advantage added to the move he uses from Drive Rush, so he can get close and be positive enough to have a built in guess of if the SPD is coming.
And as of the last beta, all Drive Rushes were uniformly 11 frames on startup when doing it raw from a parry, so not only are you getting more options than Green Hand could offer, it's faster than the heavy and EX versions were in Ultra Street Fighter 4 — without ever making himself negative if he doesn't want to be.
Or he could just whiff a knee and go straight for a throw.
Now this all sounds pretty terrifying to hear for a powerhouse grappler, but it's not like he can just do this all for free.
Capcom seems to be balancing Zangief's Drive Rush by making it so none of his command grabs or heavy attacks give him any sort of oki, so he's going to be forced to spend meter to keep his pressure going.
This is going to make Gief arguably more reliant on the Drive Gauge than the rest of the cast, and he can only get away with it a few times before burning out.
Using up more of his meter on Drive Rush also limits the amount of Overdrives he can readily perform too, so the huge damage of OD SPD may not come up as much as you'd initially fear.
How good this will all make Zangief in SF6 remains to be seen since there's still so much about the character we don't have the full picture on, especially when compared to the rest of the cast.
It seems probably safe to say that this version of Gief is just a straight upgrade over his SF5 form, which admittedly isn't hard to believe, so things should at least be looking up for wrestling fans.
Just don't spend all your meter in one place.
