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PAX 2011 Impressions – Street Fighter X Tekken
So, while I was over in Seattle for PAX Prime 2011 last weekend, I had the opportunity to play some Street Fighter X Tekken at both the Mad Catz booth and at the Capcom booth. We’ve seen trailers and screenshots, but it’s another thing altogether to actually play the game.
True enough, the core gameplay feels pretty similar to what you’d expect from a normal Street Fighter game, but with some definite inspiration from the Tekken Tag sub-series of games. The EX and supers are in there, but the tag-in elements can get pretty creative with linking combos. Also like Tekken, you can do a lot of “air juggling” for the combos. Pacing isn’t quite as frantic as a “versus” game like MvC3, to be sure. I couldn’t remember how to do all the crossover moves, but those will be pretty easy to pick up after a few more matches.
I did find it odd that, like Tekken Tag Tournament, a round ends when just one partner dies; this is quite different from other Capcom “versus” games where all team members must lose all their health for the team to lose.
The graphics style isn’t like Street Fighter IV, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, or anything like that. The edging is “sharper,” if that makes any sense, with much harsher lines than the comparatively softer finish you get with SSFIV. The contrast is dialed up to 11 and there are plenty of exaggerated animations.
We suspect the character selection screen isn’t done yet and more characters will get introduced in the coming weeks. During my time at PAX, I played as Ibuki, Ryu (twice), Hugo, Raven, and Hworang. By far, Hugo was the most fun to play: almost Zangief-like complete with a SPD-like move.
As far as the special SFxT arcade tournament fight stick from Mad Catz, it felt not unlike the tournament edition stick that we already see with SFIV branding on it. The bold red finish on the plastic housing looks kinda cheap, if you ask me.
In any case, we’re expecting a March 2012 release date on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as the PlayStation Vita presumably in some slightly different form.
8-Bit Daigo: The Beast Is Unleashed
I think I’m easily amused. If you’re a fan of Street Fighter, then you’ve surely seen the legendary EVO moment where the Beast was unleashed. Daigo’s most epic Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike moment has now been recreated in an 8-bit format.
Someone has too much time on their hands… and I’m thankful for it.
Street Fighter X Tekken – Gamescom 2011 Trailer
Are you as excited as I am about this crazy crossover game? If so, you’ll definitely want to see this Street Fighter X Tekken trailer from Gamescon 2011 in Germany. It highlights some very important gameplay elements, like hitting both middle attack buttons to switch characters and hitting both hard attack buttons as a launcher. In this way, despite the SFIV look, the gameplay might actually end up closer to a MvC kind of game. The “Cross Assault” is pretty crazy with two characters ganging up on one at the same time.
We are also introduced to some new combatants in Street Fighter X Tekken. Hugo and Ibuki look pretty freaking awesome, if you ask me, but the Tekken side is no slouch either with Kuma and Raven. What character(s) do you want to see included?
Side note: On the flip side of this epic duo, the developers of Tekken X Street Fighter don’t know how to handle fireballs. After all, the projectiles play a major part of the SF gameplay, but they don’t even exist in Tekken. Can you side step a hadouken?
