Street Fighter X Tekken Review
I never thought I would be interested in Street Fighter X Tekken up until recently. I have been introduced into the Street Fighter franchise lately just by random curiosity and a couple of people claiming that it was better than the Mortal Kombat series. With that I thought I would give Super Street Fighter 4 a try. My thoughts on Street Fighter came around in a great way. So how does this connect to Street Fighter X Tekken you may ask? Well Essentially Street Fighter X Tekken is a new Street Fighter game with Tekken characters also in it. So my expectations for this game was pretty high when having Super Street Fighter 4 in mind. We will just have to find out if this new franchise collaboration will reach my expectations.
When you look at Street Fighter X Tekken you will get the same classic Street Fighter art design that has been shown in past Street Fighter games. It’s almost as if you are looking at a interactive comic with lots of effects and colors all over the screen. Now that can be a good or bad thing as a gamer. You may not like that type of art design and may prefer something more realistic. Or maybe you feel right at home with the nostalgic look of this game. I personally like it but I also think the special effects may be too over the top at times.
Usually a gamer doesn’t look for story in a fighting game. So I approached Street Fighter X Tekken the same way. The general setup to the story is that a suspicious meteor falls into Antarctica and is actually Pandora’s Box. So the Street Fighters and Tekken Fighters are all in search for this source of powers. So each team has a special ending scene, for example since Rufus and Zangief are partners they will have their own unique story and ending. So basically don’t go looking for a compelling story while playing but its worth checking out for entertainment and giggles.
Gameplay is easily the strongest area in this game. The game is basically Super Street Fighter 4 more or less. You have the same game mechanics with a few new additions. First and foremost is the ability to have a team of two. In this game there is no ‘one on one’ gameplay. I welcome this addition due to the nice possibilities of a team like having Ryu and Ken on the same team. Only issue with the tag team battle is that once a fighter on your team loses all their health, your team loses that round even if the other character had full health.
One new addition worth mentioning is this new thing called “Pandora Mode” where if your character has less than 15% of health you can go into pandora mode where your partner changes there color and has a huge amount of power. But the thing with Pandora Mode is that if you don’t kill your opponent in a few seconds your team loses, so all your opponent has to do is avoid you to win.
One of the most controversial of these new additions is probably the “Gem System”. When you start Street Fighter X Tekken you will be given the option to add up to 3 gems to your fighter which will enhance you in a match. An example of a gem would be get 10 blocks in a round and you will unlock your gem to take 20 % less damage for 15 seconds. There are plenty of gems that do different things, some may improve your offense and others may improve your defense. With my personal experience I barely notice them in effect and that’s a good thing because if I noticed that some was too overpowered there would have been a problem.
There are a good amount of game modes to choose from. You have your regular story/arcade mode, versus where you can fight the computer or a buddy, you have a trials mode which helps you perform combos, a mission mode where you have to do specific things, and more offline. Online you can now train with a friend which is huge in my opinion because I always wanted that option in Super Street Fighter 4, for a true “Endless Battle”. They also have this new highly addictive mode called Scramble mode where all four fighters can fight at the same time, be ready for outrageous action on screen. As far as the tag team aspect of the game you can incorporate your teammate into the battle for devastating attacks. You can start a combo and bring your teammate to finish the combo with their own combo, or you can launch your opponent into the air to give your partner some free hits as they tag in immediately. Or can spice things up and have both you and your partner fight at once, or even do your special move and link that into your partners best special move. Overall there was a lot to soak in with this game and a lot of things to make this game standout as its own game from a gameplay standpoint.
The Sound in Street Fighter X Tekken is what you would expect from a Street Fighter game. From the music to the sound effects to even the voice actors. I cant speak for the Tekken side because I don’t know if the voice actors are true to the series. But overall everything is pretty much along the lines of a Street Fighter game. The online mode has some trouble, by not having sound effects from time to time, so I’m hoping this will be fixed in a patch. Something worth mentioning is that on the PlayStation 3 version you can play your own music from your hard drive. The tracks in the game is upbeat and matches the overall pace of the game while fighting.
Based off what I’ve played there is two things that really will keep this game controlling me. One is the amount of characters and combos of who you can put together. Like I can put Yoshimitsu and Akuma together and make the ultimate beast team. The other thing that will keep me controlled is the scramble mode where me and a buddy can fight two other friends all at the same time, what a blast. Other than that I will probably stick with Super Street Fighter 4 for competitive play.
When it comes to the online aspect of Street fighter X Tekken I really haven’t had any lag issues. Also a pretty big issue that got fixed from Super Street fighter 4 was that if more than two people have there mics on the mics will break up and not be clear. This issue has been fixed and now multiple people can speak clearly with no problems. Surprisingly the Online aspect of this game is pretty solid when it comes to performance.
In the end Street Fighter X Tekken is a fun game hands down and a unique experience. It has some weird aspects to it that is not necessarily bad but they give you the thought of, “is this really necessary?”. I think it will be strong enough for people who want another competitive fighting game but it really doesn’t revolutionize anything in the fighting game genre. So if you are looking for a new fighting game with two great franchises fused together then this game is for you. But if you are not a huge fighting game fan then you can do without this game if you don’t need it. I personally am happy with this game and I’m happy to have another fighting game option in my library.
