The fighting game genre has no shortage of odd pairings. From Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe to Sonic the Hedgehog in Smash Bros, it seems like we’d seen it all. Then in 2011, Capcom shocked the fighting game world by announcing a crossover between the top 2D fighting game franchise and the top 3D fighting game franchise. Having seen how poorly 2D fighting games and 3D fighting games have mixed in the past, people had a lot of questions about how a Street Fighter and Tekken mash-up could possibly work. Is Street Fighter X Tekken the best of both worlds? A failure like past attempts to mix the genres? Or did it turn into it’s own thing?
Let’s get the basics out of the way. Street Fighter X Tekken is a 2D tag-team fighting game. For me, as a diehard Street Fighter fan, this is right up my alley, at least as far as the perspective goes. Going into this, I thought that I’d be able to leverage a lot of what I’ve learned in Street Fighter IV to this game, but that’s not the case. This is not Street Fighter IV with Tekken characters in it. The fighting game engine is its very own beast. Ultimately, I think this is an excellent thing for everyone involved.
There are no shortage of mechanics to learn, from the standard chain combo to the high-risk-high-reward Pandora mode, to the once-controversial Gem system. At first, all of the different nuances can seem to be overwhelming at first, but with the help of the game’s tutorial mode, challenge mode and mission mode, it’s at least enough to get you off the ground. As a novice player, the initial barrier to entry is a bit lower than something like Street Fighter IV, which makes it more fun upfront. For fighting game veterans, the game has a ton of depth to explore, whether that comes from learning the advanced combos, the mind games, or learning characters from the other side of the cast. I’m glad to see that the Street Fighter and Tekken characters play at least somewhat like their original counterparts while merging with this new fighting system.
While it can take months or years for people to fully grasp how solid or broken a fighting game is, this one feels really good. I’m having a blast exploring the game’s nuances. I definitely see myself working this into my main rotation of fighting games alongside Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3, if not taking over as my main game.
The core fighting experience is excellent, but how about the rest of the experience? If you’re playing this by yourself, Street Fighter X Tekken is slightly more rewarding than most regular fighting games. The arcade mode does have team-specific stories for pre-defined teams, as well as cutscenes for those teams when you beat the game. However, the story itself is one of the dumbest stories in the history of fighting games and you’re still simply going from one fight to the next. I understand why this had to be for a team-based game, but as a single player game, it does fall short to the likes of Mortal Kombat.
As a multiplayer game, Street Fighter X Tekken has the added bonus of supporting 4 players in 2v2 action. With 4 players, you can either play it out where only one person from each team will be on the screen at a time, or you can choose to do Scramble mode, where everyone is on screen at the same time. The first mode is excellent. The team dynamic really shines through, as there’s a lot of room for teammates to coordinate their strategies and tactics. I wouldn’t be surprised if 2v2 ends up being the most popular way to play this game, at least in the competitive scene based on how well it plays. As for Scramble mode, you probably won’t spend too much time here. Having all four characters on the screen quickly turns into a chaotic mess that isn’t very rewarding.
The last thing I wanted to cover was the online play. The feature set is virtually the same as the feature set in Street Fighter IV, with the added bonus of online training mode and the ability to do 4 player matches. This is a good thing overall. The million dollar question when it comes to online modes is, “How good is the net code?” So far, it seems to work fairly well. On good connections, it runs fine. In less than ideal situations, frames of animation start to drop out, which can be jarring. The biggest failing of Street Fighter X Tekken’s online experience so far are the sound issues. Oftentimes, sound effects will cut out. The other big bug occurs when you do the launcher off the chain combo. Instead of zooming in on the hit like it does locally, the camera will oftentimes not zoom in at all. They are very apparent problems and I find it crazy that Capcom would ship the game with these bugs in there. Here’s to hoping a patch is on the way soon.
A few blemishes aside, Street Fighter X Tekken continues the string of awesome Capcom fighting games while successfully mashing two disparate fighting game universes together. Depending on who you ask, this may be the best Capcom fighting game they’ve released since Street Fighter IV. I’m sure this game will be a hit in the tournament scene, but casual fighting game fans should check this one out too. I wouldn’t necessarily call it the best of both worlds, but the game is awesome all on its own.
In Third Person 