Street Fighter X Tekken – Destructoid
In case you hadn’t heard, there are two crossover games in the mix for fans of Street Fighter and Tekken. Both will use a different engine and feature a host of Capcom and Namco characters from either iconic franchise.
This month’s flavor is Street Fighter X Tekken (that’s “Street Fighter first!”) — a game that utilizes a modified version of Street Fighter IV’s engine. As a fan who’s longed over a decade for a Rolento and Yoshimitsu dream team, I was prepared to put this crossover to the test.
Street Fighter X Tekken (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [Reviewed])
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: March 6, 2012 (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) / May 11, 2012 (PC)
MSRP: $59.99
With all crossover fighters, the developers need to find a reason to get everyone in the mood to beat each other’s faces in. The crux of the game revolves around a powerful mysterious artifact called the “Pandora Cube.” Long story short, Pandora has crash landed on Earth after traveling through space on a meteor, and due to the power it holds, pretty much every fighter on Earth wants a piece of it. At the center of this mystic arms race are M. Bison’s Shadaloo organization and the Mishima Zaibatsu, which are vying for control and/or world domination.
But none of that really matters in the grand scheme of things, because all of this story really only plays out during the game’s Arcade Mode. If you’re expecting something fully fleshed out, I’d look elsewhere — original content in Arcade Mode is extremely light.
Essentially, after picking select partnerships, you get a generic moving artwork opening video — one that only initializes for certain themed teams and characters — that often doesn’t have much meat to it other than “these heroes decided to team up.” Once you’re in the thick of things, you fight a handful of other teams with little to no explanation, one rival team (sometimes with no indication of why they’re “rivals”), and a final boss.
After everything is said and done, the only consolation you get at the end is another vague cutscene, or a black screen with two paragraphs of text, vaguely explaining what happens to the first character you picked after the final boss fight. As for the bosses themselves, don’t expect any epic Marvel vs. Capcom Onslaught-esque encounters — they’re just standard characters that are available at the start of the game.
Most of these endings are extremely unsatisfactory (such as “Rolento further dreams of a militant state”), and don’t even come close to Street Fighter IV’s robust character-specific anime cutscenes. While this mode won’t last you long, fans may find some solace in the fact that a second player can join in on the fun via co-op (not online though on the Xbox 360), given the tag nature of the title. In regards to the stages, there are only eleven of them, and most have a number of cameos, ranging from Mecha Zangief to Kunimitsu.
Mechanics wise, SFxT uses the standard Street Fighter six-button system (low, medium, and high punches and kicks).
Rounds themselves are won just like Tekken Tag Tournament: if either partner has their health reduced to zero at any point during the round, it’s over.
This creates a more strategic pull in terms of combat; you have to be deliberate with pretty much every switch you initiate. Due to pressure of one punishing combo losing a round for both characters, there are a number of safe ways to switch (or tag) out partners, and some special tag moves involving both fighters.
The roster of characters is the biggest yet for a Street Fighter game, and most of the Street Fighter characters play similar to how they do in Street Fighter IV. In fact, my personal favorite, Rolento — who hasn’t made an appearance since Capcom vs. SNK 2 — handles very much the same as he always has in the Alpha series.
As for the Tekken characters, they translate fairly well to 2D combat. Most of their moves are intact, but are obviously changed to suit the game’s six-button system, and hadouken/shoryuken input methods.
If you’re a fan of technical Tekken fighting, though, you may be somewhat disappointed to see your favorite character simplified. For instance, Raven goes from nearly a hundred different moves/combos to a paltry few.
The engine itself is a Street Fighter-oriented joint — specifically, it’s a refined version of SF IV’s engine. EX moves return, as do Supers and a Super Meter (now called a Cross Gauge). Characters have one “Super Charge” move, which allows you to “charge” a single specific ability by holding down the attack button. For instance, you can hold down a punch button to power Ryu’s hadouken into an EX, then a shinkuu hadouken super.
Tag teams have their own host of special moves and abilities. There’s the Cross Cancel, which allows you to cancel a block into a launcher that safely switches your characters and initiates a combo. The Switch cancel can be used to switch characters in mid combo. Cross Arts are essentially “double supers,” and are reminiscent of Marvel vs.
Capcom’s team supers.
The Cross Assault ability, which is similar to the Alpha Series‘ V-ism, allows players to use their entire Cross Gauge to send out both fighters for a limited time. This can be particularly deadly in co-op fights, as each player can control their fighters during this limited period. In addition to these new moves, there’s also the biggest new mechanic of all: Pandora Mode.
Pandora Mode, simply put, partially reminds me of Guilty Gear’s “instant Kill” mechanic mixed with Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s X-Factor. After your character has reached 25% or less health during a fight, you can sacrifice them to super-charge your partner. At that point, you have about eight seconds (it feels like less!) to finish your opponent with an infinite meter — otherwise, you instantly lose the round.
How this will end up playing out within the competitive community will be interesting to watch, as I can easily see how the mechanic can both be abused and easily countered (by running slow launchers, OTG combos and switching carefully).
Beyond this drastic new addition, there is an entirely new, out-of-combat Gem mechanic.
At first, the Gem System sounded like something out of Marvel Super Heroes. But in actuality, they bring back heavy memories of Alpha 3’s RPG-like abilities that you can equip in certain modes. Before battle, the player is allowed to outfit characters with up to three gems. Boost Gems activate under set conditions (such as blocked attacks). Others, titled Assist Gems, instantly activate at the start of the battle, but decrease other statistics.
Nothing so far seems game-breaking, and the system allows you to play to your strengths. In fact, the whole gem system seems confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not so bad. All you have to do is equip your favorite characters with a setup that you are familiar with and then play the way you want to. There are a few rookie-oriented changes, however, that may have hardcore fans on guard. First off, there are no “double hadouken” inputs for any moves whatsoever.
In other words, all moves have been simplified, and in some cases, have been streamlined or eliminated.
Capcom also installed an easy combo system called “Boost combos” (essentially lifted from Guilty Gear‘s Gatling Combinations), that allow easy combo strings from Low to High. What’s more, the game makes use of a Quick combo system, which allows you to queue up small combos before battle, and map them to one customizable button. To help balance this seemingly broken mechanic, it does cost a bar of Cross Gauge to initiate.
While these changes seem alarming at first, I think they are a step in the right direction when it comes to easing people into the genre. Capcom has been musing with a way to incorporate new players for decades, with mechanics like the “Easy Operation” (EO) system in Capcom vs. SNK 2’s GameCube and Xbox editions, but all they really did was fragment different versions of the game. For instance, if a player became adept at EO, they couldn’t play it in the arcade, Dreamcast, or PS2 version because their play style wouldn’t translate.
Street Fighter X Tekken is basically an amalgamation of various mechanics from a number of different fighting games — thankfully, it all gels. When you think about it, things like Boost Combos and the Quick Combo system are hard-built into every version of SFxT — every player has an equal opportunity to use or ignore these features without fragmentation. The fact that Quick Combos cost a segment of Cross Gauge is a good move to help balance the system, as veterans will have more access to better abilities and can just perform combos using their own skill.
But what good would all these mechanics be without a host of modes to play them in? Like Tekken Tag before it, SFxT features a “2v2” mode, where a team of two players faces off against another player-controlled team. If you’re really not keen on waiting, you can also tackle the game’s Scramble mode, built for four players at the same time. This is particularly reminiscent of a mode found in the long lost Street Fighter stepchild series EX.
While it isn’t the most competitive mode ever made, its an absolute blast to play with three other friends who just wanted to waste the afternoon away.
On top of the aforementioned user-friendly mechanics, novice fighters will also feel right at home with Street Fighter X Tekken’s modes. There’s a standard training mode, but the game also features an all encompassing tutorial (with fan-favorite Dan) and a character-specific trial mode (like Street Fighter IV), allowing you to pick up the game more quickly than most fighting titles.
Then there’s replay mode, where new users can study top players and emulate their tactics (or vets can just plain show off), and a Mission Mode, which allows you to tackle a number of different challenges with any character. Strangely, there’s also an online co-op training gametype — a really welcome addition. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to hang out with someone and shoot the breeze while learning a few new combos.
I think this will help the online community overall, as it eases the learning curve when you have someone who’s able to easily explain mechanics to you explicitly in ways that a CPU is unable to.
Moving past the host of modes available, there’s a decent amount of customization options, like being able to change your character’s color scheme online player title. The costume-coloring system isn’t fully featured, meaning you aren’t allowed to drastically alter the character’s wardrobe (that will probably be reserved for DLC costumes).
Outside of the interesting online modes themselves, the netcode is sufficient. Other than some extended loading times before fights, I had no issues in any ranked or unranked fights. Matchmaking was also pretty quick to find other fighters.
In the interest of transparency, I should also note that the only available version for testing was the Xbox 360 version, which precludes us from commenting on the PS3 exclusive Pac-Man, Mega Man, Cole, Kuro, and Toro characters.
It’s also important to note that the Vita version will be shipping later this year with the additional roster of Guy, Christie, Cody, Lei, Sakura, Alisa, Blanka, Lars, Dudley, Jack, Elena, and Bryan.
We’ll be reviewing the Vita version later this year, but according to Capcom, the Vita characters will come to other versions as DLC. Exactly what that time frame is remains unknown. What is known, however, is that with the information Capcom provided us, they state that Street Fighter X Tekken is the only disc-based product you’ll need to own, and all future updates will arrive via DLC — good news for people who are worrying about multiple SKU fragmentation.
It’s hard to tell whether or not Street Fighter X Tekken will blow up like Street Fighter IV did with the competitive community (probably not), but given how good it is, I hope it does. Despite the lack of story options, there’s plenty of solid gameplay to be had here, and the online features are going to keep people playing for quite a while.
Namco has its work cut out for them with Tekken X Street Fighter.
Street Fighter X Tekken (Vita) – Destructoid
Launching just seven months ago on consoles, it seems that Street Fighter X Tekken never really caught on in the fighting game community. Some would argue this was a result of the quality of the game itself, but a bit of controversy surrounding the on-disc DLC and confusion about which characters would appear where certainly didn’t help matters.
Having said that, back in February, we told you that with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on the Vita, portable fighting has never looked so good or played so well. It appears that Capcom has outdone themselves again in making the most beautiful, playable portable fighting experience out there.
Street Fighter X Tekken (PlayStation Vita)
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: October 23, 2012
MSRP: $39.
99
There’s no question about it: this game is gorgeous, and it’s easily one of the most colorful, eye-catching games on the Vita right now. With Ultimate Marvel, Capcom cut the effects and backgrounds down (making the latter static) to keep the rest of the game as visually striking as it appeared on consoles.
This time around, backgrounds are fully animated and the effects were only nicked ever so slightly. The character models are fully detailed and you won’t find any jaggies on screen, making the high locked-in frame rate all the more impressive.
If you’ve played the console version, you’ve played the Vita version — for the most part. The slick, tag-team-based gameplay is still here and better than ever as the responsive Vita buttons make you feel like you’re more in control than with a standard gamepad (in fact, the game even lets you Cross Link with the PlayStation 3 version to use your Vita as a PS3 controller).
Just as in Ultimate Marvel, Street Fighter X Tekken gives you the option to use the front and rear touch screens to basically play the game for you.
While still as useless as before, it’s certainly there if you just want to destroy your opponent as mindlessly as possible; no reason to use it otherwise.
If you’ve played the 3DS port of Super Street Fighter IV, you’ll feel right at home with SFxT‘s other touch control option. On the right half of the front touch screen, there are four tiles. Each of these can be set/sized to your liking, such as your preset combos or maybe even just one of your punch or kick buttons, or nothing at all if you so choose. It doesn’t make the game significantly easier in any way (or offer any advantage), but simply acts as a convenience.
The entire menu system can be interacted with the front touch screen (Trophy Viewer, Gallery, and Customize modes require you to use the touch screen). It’s worth noting as Ultimate Marvel didn’t offer this for some reason. There’s also a new mode that lets you use the Vita’s augmented reality capabilities to put your favorite characters into your living room or wherever else and take pictures of them.
It’s cute, but it was extremely slow and didn’t quite work right in my time with it.
Exclusive to the Vita version is a download code which will net you all twelve of the added characters for your copy on PS3 (these characters are on the cartridge, so it is not necessary to redeem this code to have the characters on the Vita), and will give you all of the alternate costumes for the original 38 characters.
Multiplayer is comparable to the console version. In fact, it’s the exact same as cross-platform play is supported. Vita players can face each other, against PS3 users, and vice versa. Fighting against a PS3 player from the Vita works flawlessly — there’s also something to be said about being able to play against someone who’s on a console from wherever you might be.
The only lag to speak of from my experience only appears right before and after the fight. Obviously, it doesn’t interfere with the actual match, but it’s strange that it even happens.
Everything went down smoothly, and none of the weird audio syncing errors that plagued the console versions of Street Fighter X Tekken are here.
Whether or not you’ll enjoy the handheld version of the game is really up to you. If you couldn’t stand the original console release, there’s likely nothing here that will make you change your mind. But if you do decide to pick it up for the first time (or again), you will be treated to an absolutely gorgeous game that plays better than its older console brother, and gives you the most bang for your $40.
Street Fighter X Tekken for the Vita is not only the best version of the title, but it’s also easily the best-looking fighter on the handheld, and it could be said that this is the best fighter on the Vita right now. Considering its competition, that’s saying quite a lot.
Review of Street Fighter X Tekken for PS Vita
As promised — the last of the reviews 🙂 This time, enjoy watching and reading :3
Text version:
Perhaps there is no fighting game lover who has not heard of the Street Fighter and Tekken series of games.
By the will of fate, the developers of both series, while doing phalometry, asked themselves a simple question — should we file a crossover? Thus, from an ordinary joke, a multi-platform fighting game was born — Street Fighter X Tekken. nine0003
In general terms, our guys were prompted to beat their faces by a meteorite that fell into Antarctica, which is fraught with tremendous power. And everyone has their own reasons for taking possession of it: someone wants world domination, someone settles scores, but someone just passed by. But let’s move on to the gameplay itself, compared to the previous parts of the Street Fighter and Tekken series, the mechanics have undergone noticeable changes, now these are 2 vs 2 team fights, which means that the plot tells the story of two heroes at once. When choosing characters from different universes, we see a standard video, but we get something special when choosing heroes that are opposite each other in the grid of fighters. There are just too many of these fighters to choose from, which can not be said about single game modes — only arcade and survival.
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The change in mechanics also resulted in the fact that now it will not work to pick up tricks for only one hero, because. victory or defeat is counted if at least one of the fighters has a health bar that drops to zero. So in the game it is simply necessary not only to distribute lyuli, but also to change heroes in time in order to have a good combine or not blow ahead of time. It is also worth noting the system of stones added to the game — which give certain goodies in battles, such as health regen, increased strength, or accelerated recovery of the scale of super moves. nine0003
In terms of graphics, everything is bright, colorful and dynamic, because under the hood the game has an improved Super Street Fighter 4 engine. At the same time, the picture on PS Vita lags behind the versions for older consoles, but without brakes and freezes. A small bonus for the owners of this console was the AR mode, in which you can look at the characters you like. In terms of control, in addition to the standard keys, the developers used the back panel and the touch screen, so it will not be easy to learn many tricks.
But there are just too many of them in the game, so if you are new to fighting games, it will be quite difficult to get used to. This is especially felt if you immediately decide to look into the multiplayer, because the wildest chaos is usually going on there. Fortunately, the game has a solid training mode, after which the game will become much friendlier than initially. nine0003
In conclusion, it is worth saying that Street Fighter X Tekken for the PS Vita platform is a very suitable representative of the fighting game genre. Here we have: a large list of characters and a solid graphics, a rather rare crossplay with PS 3 in our time, and of course, huge open spaces for zadrotstva both alone and with other players.
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The creators of Street Fighter X Tekken very skillfully played the feelings of fans of fighting games — they combined two popular games into one. Each of the popular series not only has its own original heroes with a unique fighting style, but also game mechanics appreciated by fans of a particular game. And, since it is impossible to combine two different mechanics within the framework of one game, then one should dominate, and the second should adapt. As the name implies, Street Fighter completely dominates here. I can’t say it’s bad, but I’ve always liked Tekken more, and naturally I see it as a disadvantage. This is essentially a regular Street Fighter, only with Tekken characters. The mechanics copy the first as well as the graphics — Tekken, whatever one may say, is more three-dimensional. Street Fighter X Tekken is definitely a good game, and given the emptiness of this genre on PC, it can be safely classified as a must buy if you want to see this genre more often on your hard drive. In addition, almost all of my complaints are related to the fact that this is not Tekken, and this does not make this product worse. I advise everyone to play, but only in the company of friends, otherwise you will quickly get bored. 
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In my opinion, these universes have only one competitor — Mortal Kombat, but this is the opinion of a person who does not really like this genre, but, nevertheless, is a fan of these three particular fighting games. But back to the topic of Street Fighter X Tekken. Such an alliance did not go smoothly and it is worth talking about this in more detail. nine0004 
However, there are no complaints about the graphics. The graphics are pleasing to the eye, very colorful, full of detail, and the backgrounds of the scenes are gorgeous. The controversial points include the fact that there are two fighters on each side. Firstly, this is extremely unusual and does not allow you to rest against your favorite player (although this can not always be considered a disadvantage), but it adds variety. And, secondly, with a cooperative game of four, the gameplay turns into chaos — most of the time, due to the abundance of special effects, it is not possible to understand what is happening on the screen. nine0004 