Gamescom 2011: Street Fighter X Tekken Hands-On Preview

From X-Men to Tatsunoko, Capcom's Versus series has pitted the developer's most iconic characters against warriors from other worlds. Now the cast of Tekken has thrown its hat into the ring. The resulting clash is a tag-team fighter in which losing a partner means losing the round. While receiving a royal beatdown from Capcom special adviser Seth Killian, we talked with producer Yoshinori Ono about the adaptation of Hugo, Ibuki, Raven, and Kuma, as well as some possible additions to the game's combat mechanics.

We began our session by sampling Ibuki and Hugo. As we played, Ono revealed that the team at Capcom has two very different approaches for adapting these characters. Hugo, who hasn't appeared in a game in nearly 10 years, probably isn't too well remembered by a lot of fans, he said. Therefore, the team has taken some extra liberties in adjusting his character--including new moves using the floor and walls.

Capcom took a more conservative approach to Ibuki's adaptation. Ono revealed that she will play very closely to her Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition incarnation and that the level of familiarity fans have with a character heavily influences the amount of change that character receives. That being said, he also noted that the team would like to work in a few attacks using her pet raccoon/partner-in-crime.

On the Tekken side of the roster we got our hands on Raven and Kuma. When asked which Street Fighter character Raven played like, Ono chose Cammy and Fei Long--but with more options thanks to Raven's command throws and teleport moves. He also noted that in this version of the game, Raven is one of the most powerful characters and will be "one to concentrate on in balancing." Kuma was described as a powerhouse character, similar to Hugo. However, the thing Ono was most excited to talk about was Kuma's flatulence-based super--a humiliating technique to save for your worst rivals.

New characters aside, we also wanted to know more about the different mechanics in Street Fighter X Tekken--specifically the ones that don't involve character-swapping. When asked about this, Ono explained that oftentimes a match will end with one character still at full, or near-full, health. Therefore, the team at Capcom is currently working on a system to give players "an avenue to use that leftover [health]." Ono also said he feels "fairly solid" about this new system, but he couldn't confirm that it would make it into the final game.

We were also curious about the inclusion of a force-tag command, a move that forces your opponent to switch characters, similar to the snap-back command in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Ono responded that this is a possibility. However, the team is still working on ways to design this feature so that it's not just a straight copy from MVC3. If it were going to work the exact same way, Ono said he would "lean against" the idea.

Our final two questions were about different game modes and online play. On the topic of cooperative, four-player tag teams, like in Mortal Kombat, or a one-on-one game mode without a second character, the only thing Ono could say was, "Wait unit Tokyo Game Show." With regard to online play, he assured us, "You're not going to see less [online features] than in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition," and you might see some new additions as well.

Our real final question was, of course, the release date. While he couldn't give us an exact date, Ono could confirm that "we're not going to make you wait a year." Street Fighter X Tekken will be coming to the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox 360 when it's released. A PC version is also a possibility, but there have been some "technical challenges" involved with bringing the game to that platform. "Let me just say that we're not not interested in doing a PC version of the game," Ono concluded.