According to a number of hints dropped by Street Fighter creator Yoshinori Ono, Tekken creator Katsuhiro Harada and a report from Game Informer indicate that the game Yoshinori Ono will announce is not just one game, but two. According to Game Informer sources, Capcom is making a Capcom vs. Namco game with the Street Fighter IV engine while Namco is making a Namco vs. Capcom game based on the Tekken 6 engine.
While this sounds exactly like what Capcom and SNK did, the element of 2D vs. 3D makes this a whole new beast.
Capcom is in the business of 2D fighting games. Namco is in the business of 3D fighting games. I think there are a number of problems when translating the wildly different play-styles. For Capcom, they need to work with a Namco roster that is light on projectile attacks, at least from the Tekken and Soulcalibur side. For Namco, they’ve got to work with a roster that has proven to not work in 3D space.
Maybe Capcom and Namco know something I don’t about combining 2D and 3D fighting. Maybe they’ll dig deep into their rosters with characters that we don’t have a pre-conceived notion of how they’ll play in either space. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll be totally awesome.
I better not get too far ahead of myself, as we still have a bit of time to go before this game (or games) is/are even announced. I’m excited to find out what this game is, whatever it may be. Capcom vs. Namco would be an exciting choice though, so I will cross my fingers for that. The only mash-up I would want more is Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat. Ryu vs. Goro? I’m in.
In Third Person 