Street Fighter X Tekken... Oh! I Play This Game!

Street Fighter and Tekken are two of the most well known fighting games in the world. First released as an arcade game in 1987, Capcom's Street Fighter featured 12 characters in total and 6 who would proceed into the following games. Of those characters the two friendly rivals, Ken and Ryu, have captured the spotlight of the series. As the popularity of arcade fighting games increased Namco joined the party with Tekken, released in 1994. Tekken had 5 more characters than Street Fighter's original title upon release. Though the Tekken franchise was less popular than Street Fighter, it still kept a large fan base through out the years.

Street Fighter X Tekken, also known as Street Fighter Cross Tekken, sets the most popular characters of both games against each other. It was released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and will be released for the PC on May 11th, and on the PlayStation Vita in fall 2012. Having followed both games off and on over the years this crossover caught my attention. At first I thought that the different styles of each series would lower the quality of the game, but I found the two to mesh quite well. New innovations in online fighting have also been added, but how does the cross over stand up to it's parent games?

Visual- 9

Street Fighter X Tekken has very stylized graphics. All the character and stage designs follow the cell shaded style of Street Fighter 4. Namco is currently working on their own version of the game called, Tekken X Street Fighter, which will change the style to look more like Tekken. The game takes advantage of the current generation's graphics with strong high definition visuals. With smooth transitions from intro cinematic to gameplay, as well as smooth graphics through gameplay, SFxT stands out among fighting games.

As you can see from this cinematic trailer, there is a lot of stylized graphics using water. This is due to part of the story, which I will address later. This style is overused however throughout the game and is somewhat unappealing. Although the graphics are good they still don't take advantage of the full potential of the game due to the style of the game. The stylized graphics are both a plus and a minus to the visuals.

Audio- 8

Though there's nothing really special in the sound department of the game, Street Fighter has some excellent voice actors. Both the English and Japanese dubs of the game have big name voice actors like, Kyle Hebert, Fumiko Orikasa, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and Unsho Ishizuka. The music and sound effects however are nothing to write home about. They simply follow the generic fighting game sound effects and bring back classic background music from both series. Overall the music and sound effects aren't bad, just nothing special. The voice acting is really where the talent lies, even though there isn't all that much actual speech through out the game.

Story-7

Street Fighter X Tekken's story revolves around a mysterious cube that falls to Earth in a meteor. Researchers flock to the unknown object to study it and determine its purpose. Soon conflict arises over the cube. When the fights break out the cube reacts, releasing a liquid that makes the nearby combatants stronger. Because of this, it is named "Pandora". Soon more conflict arises, due to the cube's nature. Who will end up in control of this wondrous power?

Most fighting games are lacking in the story department, Street Fighter X Tekken is no different. Though the story has potential, it isn't well executed. As mentioned earlier, the water special effect is caused by the "Pandora Mode", which is similar to "X-Factor" in Marvel vs Capcom.

Gameplay-8.5

Combos, Super Combos, Ultra Combos, Hyper Combos, almost every fighting game has them, as does Street Fighter X Tekken. But this crossover brings some new elements to the table, as well as some familiar ones from a different title. One of the key features is tag team gameplay. Similar to other games like Marvel vs Capcom and Tekken Tag, Street Fighter X Tekken allows you to switch between two fighters in a fight. This also allows for special "cross" combinations, which involve both members of your team. Also, your character in reserve will gradually recover a set amount of health over time. However, if one of your fighters gets knocked out, you will lose the fight.

Another new feature is the Gem system. It allows you to customize your fighter to fit your playing style. You can have up to five gems equipped at one time. Gems have special conditions for use, and are activated instantly in combat when those conditions are met. Yet another new feature is the ability to play cooperatively as a team. One person can control one member of the tag team, and the other character can be controlled by another player. Still, only one character can be used at a time. The Exception is when you use a "Cross Assault". This expends 3 special bars and allows both characters to be used simultaneously.

The final addition to Street Fighter X Tekken is "Pandora Mode". To utilize it you sacrifice your partner and gain a number of bonuses: multiplied damage, decreased damage taken, and an unlimited special bar. The downside is, you lose a partner, and your health decreases over time. So, if you're in the middle of a super combo and your health reaches zero because of Pandora mode, you will lose the fight, even if the super combo would have finished your opponent. Pandora mode seems to be just a gimmick. Though interesting, it doesn't really seem worth using. If I were to use it, it would be as a last ditch effort to finish my opponent, but overall it doesn't add much to the gameplay. Here's a video explaining the new gameplay features in a bit more depth.

In the end Street Fighter X Tekken is a good game, and a new and interesting fighter. It does a good job at combining the two classic arcade series into one game. I love seeing some of my favorite characters like Heihachi and Yoshimitsu or Ken and Ryu face off against each other. Also the new features like multiplayer tag teams is definitely a welcome innovation to online fighting games. I look forward to seeing Namco's side of things later. Overall I give the game a personal score of 8.5, and a quality score of 8. I like the game, but I probably give it more credit than it is due.

Are you looking forward to Tekken X Street Fighter? What do you think of Pandora Mode? Do you think that fighting games need to try and make more newer innovations, or do you think that classic style fighters are better? Once again, leave your answers, questions, and comments below! And don't forget to subscribe for notices when new articles are posted!

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Author's note:

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