Street Fighter X Tekken
User Rating: 8 | Street Fighter X Tekken X360
Street Fighter X (pronounced 'Cross') Tekken is a fighting game using characters from the Street Fighter and Tekken series. Obviously not everyone was included, but it is an impressive roster nether-the-less. Graphically, it looks like Street Fighter 4, but having not played this game, I can't say how close the fighting aspect is. It did remind me more of Marvel Vs Capcom 3, with the cross gauge, and tag team style fighting. The pace of the game is slower but still fast enough to create exciting matches. The moves are mainly pretty easy to pull off, and if you are used to performing Shoryuken and Hadoukens; you will be in good stead. You can learn the techniques and battle mechanics in the Tutorial mode, and learn the moves in Trial mode. The tutorial introduces you to all the techniques such as tagging out using the Medium Punch and Medium Kick buttons together, and performing launchers either by chaining 3 punches/kicks together (technically a 'Boost Combo', or by pressing Hard Punch and Hard Kick together. Using launchers allows you carry out a combo as you switch characters which is safer than just switching out on its own. Each character has a special move which can be made more powerful using the Cross Gauge. Using 1 part of the Cross Gauge makes the special move an 'Ex Special' and using 2 parts of the Cross Gauge creates a 'Super Art'. The special move can be charged by holding down the buttons which bypasses the cost of the Cross Gauge but leaves you vulnerable as you charge up so becomes tricky to do. Many recent fighting games have offered an increased attack for losing teams (like 'Rage' in Mortal Kombat vs DC, or Tekken 6), and in this game, you have Pandora. The good thing about Pandora is that it becomes a big gamble but if the battle looks like there is only one outcome; it's worth using. When your fighter has 25% health or under, pressing down,down, then tag (Medium Punch and Medium Kick) will knock out the character, and your tagged-in character will have stronger attack, regenerating health, and regenerating Cross Gauge. The catch is, there is only 5 seconds to knock out the opponent, or else your character will be knocked out and you lose the round. To win a round, you only need to knock out one of the characters rather than both fighters in the team. It would have been a nice addition if you could modify this option though. If the timer runs out, the victor is decided based on the total HP left but even the maximum time feels a bit strict so I usually disabled the timer. You can pick any combination of fighter you want, but only the set partners have a distinct story. Additionally, there are separate stories for Akuma and Ogre who aren't assigned a partner because these two are the games' boss characters. The story is about the mysterious cube called Pandora which is rumoured to be a very powerful artefact that has crashed like a comet into Antarctica and Shadaloo and Mishima Zaibatsu set out to claim it. There are many difficulties to choose from and I found 'Medium-Hard' was a decent challenge, with the boss fight been tough, especially Akuma who uses the usual tricks of spamming Hadouken from range, forcing you to jump towards him so he can then give the good old Shoryuken. He also seemed very agile and used his Cross Gauge perfectly, unleashing a Super Art when you think you are close to winning. Ogre on the other hand, seemed a much fairer player, and so choosing a Street Fighter character as your primary player seemed the easier option so you can always face Ogre. The teams that you face leading up to the boss are the predefined teams so if you face Ryu, he will always be alongside Ken. Again, it would be nice to customise this feature and define custom partners, or have random partners each time. A complaint for most people is the games Gem system. Gems allow your character to have improved statistics, given that certain criteria are met during the round, and these will automatically activate. There are gems that boost speed, attack, defence, cross gauge or even make moves easier. You can create multiple sets for each character and can even choose no gems, but the trouble is; you cannot disable the computer from using them. Overall, Street Fighter X Tekken is a great fighting game, but it would have been better if you had more customisation when it comes to gems, partners, and victory conditions.
