So, while Capcom and the Internet hotly debate the meaning of words like "value" and "customer" and "entitlement", the game; Street Fighter x Tekken has finally been released. Against the cries of all my convictions I bought it because frankly, it just looked too damned fun to miss. The catch is that in doing so I pat Capcom on the back for practices that previously caused me to relegate their games to Gamefly only status, but I'm not the one on trial here, they are!
So, the simple truth is, despite its turmultuous development cycle and release, SFxT is a suprisingly solid game. Being a crossover, it won't exactly be winning any awards for creativity or innovation, but it does manage to mash together a couple mechanics from the core franchises with some new goofy ones to create an enjoyable wholesome punching people in the face type-environment.
The flow of battle itself is most akin to SF4, with footsies and safe jump-ins playing the pivotal roles. Where Tekken comes in is the wealth of moves that are now designed to stun or juggle or even bound on counter hit or when pumped up to EX with a meter of super. All those situations in SF4 where you were like, I should be able to tack another move on the end there, now you can... except for all the times you can't. While the engine is pretty flexible, the game does seem to have some rather arbitrary rules on what juggles when and how. I'm sure with time it will become second nature what works and what doesn't, but at this point I am frequently mystified when even a super passes clean through an enemy floating helplessly through the air.
The other major deviation from its parent series is the tag mechanic. On paper its a minor rewrite of Tekken Tag's "2 guys 1 ko" system with some mandatory tagging when certain moves are used, but without a hit there's no safe (or free) way to tag out, so a good bit of strategy is just waiting for your enemy to press the panic button and putting him in traction for it. As a result, the team emphasis is heavier on complementary characters than just guys you're good with. That big damage tag combo you put together isn't really meaningful if you have no good way to get in or out of the match without eating one yourself.
Fortunately the (current) cast is pretty well rounded so whatever your fighting game archetype of choice is, you got a few options for team mates. Pixies, shotos, grapplers, zoners, they're all in there. If you wanna call the SFers easy mode you can because their movelists are pretty straight forward, fireballs, uppercuts, and rekkas. The Tekkens are at least a little wilder on the surface, as they all have a bunch of canned strings and chains in addition to a selection of heavy hitting moves buffed up to SF style specials. The lines are certainly blurred here and there with characters like Juri getting almost Tekken style combo freedom and mix ups while Jin has been granted weird space controlling fireballs, so there's no guarantee a love / hate of a character will be carried over but I wouldn't say at this point anyone has been done injustice. Boring Tekken characters like Julia and Ogre have been animed up to where they actually stand out from the cast, while SF fossils like Ryu and Zangief can use stuns and bounces and the games weird charge up super mechanic to really spice things up.
And that's all very good news, because despite its big boasts, the game is certainly missing some polish. Out of the box (lets re-read this review in 9 months, shall we?) SFxT has a number of features that should be really impressive, but compared to its major rivals there's lots of cut corners that mire its potential. It is one thing to wave off the preschool writing in the arcade mode, no alternate costumes and a record low # of palette swaps. But the fight request is woefully inadequate (even to SF4 and MvC3), and the couch co-op mode (which only works on PS3, mind you) barely accomplishes what MK did just as well a year ago. Some olive branches have been extended when it comes to extraneous single player content but the trials and missions and tutorials are still inferior to KoFs, there's nothing at all to unlock, and the games singular unique feature (gems) are equal parts complex and inneffectual in actual application. Certainly, the pros will turn out some fantastic youtubes by its hand, but for the regular joe gamer it just doesn't hold your hand anywhere near enough to get you interested, and it doesn't engage you enough in battle to make you want to stay for dinner.
That being said, for a fighting game put out by Capcom post-SF4 it is a remarkably rewarding experience to play. The extended feature set has a bit of an after taste, and you may outright vomit if you spend any time at all researching the dlc situation, but it has a damned fine engine running under the hood and a lot of new toys for a cast of characters that have grown tired and antiquated in their host series'. I've had the opportunity to work with it against the cpu, local vs, and online vs and I can't honestly say any of it was a bad experience, which is a damned good sign for gameplay no more ambitious than punching people in the face. So I say keep your internet blinders on and enjoy the ride.
-F.
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