Rumour has it that Namco first approached Sega with a Virtua Fighter Vs Tekken proposition -- one that was shunned. Now that would have been a rivalry.
What about the fisticuffs fan that cares little for brand loyalty and continuity-shattering plots? Is this going to be a technical fighter’s dream? The promotional video showing Ryu going toe-to-toe with Kazuya seems designed to address players’ concerns over fusing the two disparate systems. Kazuya appears to have a crouch-dash forward that evades projectiles, hinting that perhaps Tekken’s essential side-step has evolved to fit life on a 2D plain. Initial reflex fears of Tekken’s projectile-less cast struggling against a wall of fireballs may be reversed if they are so easily avoided.
If Street Fighter X Tekken is visually Street Fighter IV with Tekken skins (and judging by the gameplay snippet, it is) there look to be a number of Tekken-influenced system changes, including a very generous juggling system, wall combos and wake-up forward rolls, all of which look to loosen up the core SFIV engine in the name of accessibility. The crowd pleasing tag combos (let’s see how crowd pleasing they are the fiftieth unskippable time) are lengthy canned animations that owe more to Rival Schools’ showboating than Tekken Tag Tournament’s open-ended team-combos. Sure, I’m as excited as the next man to see King and Zangief team up for the inevitable twenty-throw combo that sees the grab specialists suplex opponents off of the moon into the sun, but gimmicks grow tired quickly.
The Tekken characters appear to have taken a graphical hit in the transition. Conversely, how beautiful will the SF cast look powered by the Tekken 6 engine?
The choice to restrict the titles to merely Street Fighter and Tekken, rather than following the lead of 2005’s mediocre tactical RPG, Namco X Capcom, is a strange one – one that even the game’s backgrounds seem at odds with, showing Servbots from the Mega Man universe, despite having nothing to do with Street Fighter or Tekken. The prospect of seeing Splatterhouse’s Rick clash 2×4’s with Final Fight‘s Mike Haggar remains a pipe dream, leaving us to settle with a cast SFIV and T6 characters that we are already more than familiar with.
With a release penned for 2012, it’s far too early to label the two ventures as missteps, but on a conceptual level, you have to question the validity of Capcom’s choice. For example, if the Versus series (I know, they are defiantly referring to this as a “cross” game) is designed to bring fans of separate series’ together, why release two different versions that divide the audience into 2D and 3D templates that follow the originals? Capcom’s incredible adaptability through multiple hardware generations has come from listening to its fans. Are we to believe that fan demand for these titles towers above the mountains of letters, emails and petitions for a new Darkstalkers or Capcom Vs SNK 3? For fighting games fans to question these titles may well seem ungrateful, but the current wave of beat ‘em up euphoria isn’t going to last forever, so perhaps fans should be careful what they wish for while we’re still riding that crest. I ask once again, who asked for this?
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Before Marvel vs Capcom came out, who asked for it? I didn’t and there wasn’t really any “wow, I want Capcom vs Superheros”, but see how great that turned out to be? Snk was different, because that was another great fighting franchise making company that went good against Capcom, and these to games are the ones I’m really looking forward too, more into Tekken vs. Street Fighter, but I’ll probably get both, even though I feel they should be on one disc, and put as different play modes. And in the end, a lot of people asked for this, look at all the fans that were excited for it, and the numerous amount of people who made videos and mash-ups on youtube for this concept. Yeah, I didn’t ask for it, but then again, I didn’t have too, cause I can’t wait for these games.
Agreed.
The two franchises don’t jive well. Very different in all aspects…
I know for sure I would have been much more interested in a Capcom vs SNK game.
Im so excited my gf and i have a bash at a few rounds of either tekken/soulcalibur/marvelvscapcom or SSF4 most nights so we couldnt have asked for anything more or be more excited esp as were also getting marvelvscapcom3 next year as well.
The one thing that can be said about Capcom is that they know how to balance a game. I don’t see them having any issue on that department here. Additionally, some Namco characters Like Devil Kazuya have projectile attacks. They need only to enhance them. For others added range and flair will plenty. I think its a good match,
On the Namco side, the SF4 cast has on the most part characters that if you take away their projectiles are in line with many of hte Na mco guys and gals. Zangief can play like Jake. Sagat is similar but stronger than Bruce, etc.
The reason for 2 disc is probably because these are different engines and besides the same concept worked in the SNK v Capcom series, so why not.
A recent chat I had with a certain Capcom dude suggested this will all work out OK… he said he had all the same concerns that have been voiced but that he’d also seen new stuff that isn’t public yet that changed his mind.
who the FUCK cares who asked!! All we know is that its coming out!! who gives a fuck!
I didn’t ask for it, and I’m not that interested. I think it’s a bit foolish to create two separate games (regardless of whatever other publishers did that) for two separate engines, and I think fundamentally there may be a lot of issues.
Start with the 2D vs 3D thing. In Tekken a large part of fighting especially for characters like Lee is smashing them against walls, that doesn’t exist with Street Fighter. Tekken gives you the ability to sidesteps. Tekken also has all of these complexities that make it difficult for the two to mesh, like stance changing.
The most important problem is the fighting system for both, Street Fighter has charge moves, DP’s and quarter circle movements plus punches/kicks, Tekken has directional button plus limb, and the important thing with Tekken is that potential combos are strictly defined. How are Street Fighter characters supposed to fight like Tekken characters, and vice versa?
See, I too thought that this was some ridiculous pipe dream request, and now that it’s official, so far I’ve given it an honest chance and I’m not in the slightest bit interested. I will keep posted but my expectations are low.
This certainly came as a surprise to everyone, since the fighting style is so different.
x-men vs street figther was easier to adapt to since it was a capcom game, sf fighters just needed to power up and the first x-men game had akuma in it so it wasnt surprising they made a vs game in the end.
People saying that it is stupid that they are making 2 different games, but think about it from the developers point of view also there was 2 Capcom vs SNK game and one SNK vs Capcom game, (well there was alot more if you include the games for portable devices).
To answer the question, I didn’t nor wouldn’t dare to ask SF x Tekken, but I do admit that I’ve once dreamed of a SF game in 3D that played more like DoA, VF, and Tekken, in the sense that characters have moves lists that can go as high as 50-100.
So while I ain’t too excited about SF x Tekken, due to the reasons mentioned on the article, I am intrigued about how Tekken x SF [sic] will turn out.
Ps: SF is my fave series of all time.