Street Fighter x Tekken: Comic Con 2011 Trailer

I am currently looking forward to so many games coming out this fall and winter that I actually had to make this sentence longer so I could keep linking. Lately though, I haven’t been able to think about any other upcoming release more than Street Fighter x Tekken (pronounced “Street Fighter CROSS Tekken”); I’ve been thinking that I’d really like to invest some serious, dedicated time into getting good at Street Fighter games, and this iteration looks like it’s going to be so much fun.

So does Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 of course, but it’s basically a giant expansion pack for a game that’s still relatively fresh in my rotation. The anticipation is definitely there, but I feel like I can only be so excited about a game that, in essence, I am still playing. Even if Capcom didn’t tweak the gameplay or add any new modes, I’d pick up uMvC3 just for the added content, but it’s going to be great to sit in a lobby of friends and actually get to see what’s going on.

That being said, I really hope Street Fighter x Tekken ships with a spectator mode—third time’s the charm, right? In all seriousness, I actually think I like the idea of returning to 2v2 combat so I don’t have to think about assists more than the actual characters themselves, and it’ll be refreshing to be rid of that air launcher button that took MvC combos from already crazy to downright ludicrious. Launchers do make a return in SFxT, but it looks like they’ve been scaled back a bit to a more manageable level, serving as a sort of tag-link in mid combo.

Perhaps most exciting is the fresh blood that’ll be joining the Street Fighter cast for the latest entry in Capcom’s crossover catalog. I’ve never been even remotely good at Tekken, but it’s sort of been a secret ambition of mine because I really like the cast. It’ll be really interesting to see how the Tekken characters control in a Street Fighter universe where heavy punch and heavy kick exist, though. Also, will Tekken fighters suddenly gain the ability to launch projectiles so they don’t feel imbalanced, or perhaps they’ll deal slightly more melee damage than their Street Fighter rivals?

I’m hoping that these tricky decisions will find natural solutions as the Capcom team helps the Tekken roster make the difficult transition from 3D to 2D fields. Prior to the unveiling of SFxT, I always thought this to be such a Herculean task that I would laugh at myself whenever I would fantasize of a crossover, but now that it’s actually happening, the potential for new technical mechanics is just as exciting to follow through development as the rosters are, and I think there’s a lot to be said for that when we’re talking about a genre whose steps into next generation were paved by more graphical overhaul than gameplay innovation.

The other big difference that sticks out in my mind is that Tekken has always seemed more open to grapple-based fighers who employ a variety of wrestling moves in their repertoires, whereas current-generation Street Fighter games have…Zangief. Okay fine, and Haggar, but personally I wish he was the ‘Gief anyway. Does this mean that fighters who want to play as King better start brushing up on their double-full-circles now in order to even stand a chance against the versatile shotokans? As long as the Tekken team isn’t oversimplified to the point where down-forward-anything does everything, I’m open to learning.

There are still a lot of crucial variables and subtle nuances that need to be addressed before I’ll be completely sold on Street Fighter x Tekken, but I’ll definitely be following it very closely until its projected March 2012 release date. If this crossover goes as well as I hope, maybe we’ll start to see some more obscure new challengers approaching! (Note: that was a joke.)