A lot more Street Fighter than Tekken.

User Rating: 9 | Street Fighter X Tekken X360
By PyreofKoL | Review Date:
Street Fighter x Tekken was probably the most anticipated crossover game of any kind when it was first announced. The respective series are veterans in their corners of the fighting genre and set fighting fans abuzz with questions ranging from what the story would be to how Tekken's fighting style would fit into Street Fighter's style. The answer is something of a mixed bag. The gameplay is smooth and the movesets of the Tekken characters are reworked in an interesting and accessible fashion, but one can't help but feel that Tekken's personality is diluted more than one would expect of a crossover coming from Capcom. The Tekken side of the roster was translated beautifully into SF IV's engine. However, this also one of the game's downfalls. The translation is so good that it almost makes the game feel like another add-on to Super Street Fighter IV. In otherwords, you simply don't feel like you're in control of a Tekken character, but simply another of the many, many obscure Street Fighter combatants from the series' history. The thing of it is, it's quite difficult to determine just how much of a problem this actually is, and we probably won't get a concrete answer to that until SF ventures into Tekken's world in the next few years. Now, this isn't to say that there aren't some clear differences that mark this as a true Capcom crossover. Each character has a powerful Super move, just like they would in Street Fighter IV, but they only have one a piece (mostly). To make up for this, Capcom introduced Cross Arts. Cross Arts are a new twist on the Team Hyper Combos featured in Marvel Vs Capcom series. Instead of your team of two fighters attacking at the same time, the character your controlling activates his Super Art and then, after inflicting a good bit of damage, calls out your team mate who proceeds to do the same with his or her own Super Art. This new ultimate attack is highly damaging, but consumes all of your Cross Gauge which forces you to be strategic in using it. Another new super move featured in this game is the Cross Assault. When triggered, the character your controlling calls out your teammate and then fights side by side with him or her as an AI controlled fighter while you controlled the summoned teammate. There's a neat twist on this with the new multiplayer set up featured in this game. You can play a traditional one on one where you and your opponent control both members of your team, but you can now also play with two humans on each team controlling a character. What this means is that if you have a human teammate and activate the Cross Assault, you both get to fight at the same time. It, like the Cross Art, has the potential for a great amount of damage, but it also takes up all three bars of your Cross Gauge. Next on the list of new mechanics for this game is Pandora. The game's story focuses on a mysterious box referred to as Pandora's Box, and when the fighters interact with the box's power they enter Pandora mode. Pandora, like Marvel vs Capcom 3's X-Factor mode, is a last resort mode that greatly boosts damage and speed. However, Pandora can be dangerous if not utilized properly. When activated, it forces a switch to your teammate and bars the use of your other character, and if you fail to KO your opponent before leaving Pandora mode, then it's an automatic loss. It's a tricky mechanic and one that's not particularly highly regarded by most. Finally, we come to the gems. The gem system is an excellent strategic addition to this game. Each character can equip a set of one to three gems before battle, and these gems can have all kinds of effects ranging from boosting speed or damage in battle to extending the duration of Pandora and increasing the amount of Cross Gauge you gain. The gems are set up in the customization screen and you can have several sets if you so choose. You can, of course, play without the gems but they add a great new level of depth to the game and I highly recommend you spend time experimenting with gem combinations. Visually the game is fantastic in spite of the fact that we've seen these graphics before in the current generation of Street Fighter games. The character animations are great and the levels (the scant few that there are) are vibrant and packed with detail. The music is the typical fighter fare and not particularly exciting, but the voice acting is pretty good all around. Capcom has created a lot of controversy around this game with their questionable "DLC" but there's a ton of depth and a lot of fun to be had here; however, it's definitely wise to rent or borrow this before buying as it may not appeal to everybody.

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