The anticipated crossover between two of the biggest fighting game franchises of all time... what could possibly go wrong?
Whereas other instalments in the Capcom vs. series dress to impress by being so incredibly faithful to the source material they draw from, Capcom instead opted to present "Tekken in the style of Street Fighter", with the gimmick being that Namco would have eventually created their own equivalent game, Tekken X Street Fighter, with the inverse design approach. Alas, due to this game's underperformance and the controversial DLC tactics surrounding it, that plan never came to pass, leaving SFXTK as a strange anomaly at the tail end of the early-2010s fighting game boom.
This all leads to one of the root issues with SFXTK: it isn't really a true crossover between Street Fighter and Tekken. At least, it doesn't feel like one. At its heart, it's little more than a Denser and Wackier tag team Street Fighter title featuring a bunch of new Street Fighter characters who vaguely resemble the Tekken cast if you squint. Most of the Tekken cast have been squashed down to fit into the game's classic 2D mechanics, lacking many of their most iconic moves, stances and gameplay attributes that fans love them for. Worse, they are universally Flanderized into gross caricatures of their canonical selves, almost as if Capcom wanted them to be the Opposing Sports Team to root against.
The sad thing is, behind all the extraneous bullshit, the game itself is not bad at all. While it does a pretty terrible job of representing Tekken in any way, as a Street Fighter game, it's incredibly fun and frenetic with tonnes of unique mechanics. The tag system is well implemented, the combat is open-ended to allow for creative combo strings, and the overall presentation is solid, even if most of the assets are recycled from the Street Fighter IV series. Thankfully, the maligned, tacked-on Gem System can be discarded. The incessant "wacky party game" tone may grate on your nerves though, what with the demonic mammoths, Jurassic Park dinosaurs and fatherless graffiti artists always freaking out in the background. That's another problem I always had with this game, it was falsely advertised as a Darker and Edgier take on the Versus series with a dramatic, serious tone when the game itself is anything but.
If you're a Street Fighter fan, this game is definitely a fun detour from the canon series. However, many Tekken fans were sorely disappointed by the apparent lack of depth and faithfulness to their own franchise, and I can't blame them for feeling that way. Tekken 7 is already flooded with Hadoukens and Reppukens thanks to Akuma and Geese's inclusion as Guest Fighters, the last thing they want to see is their own reps like Jin, Steve and Raven shooting fireballs as well.
Street Fighter X Street Fighter
The anticipated crossover between two of the biggest fighting game franchises of all time... what could possibly go wrong?
Whereas other instalments in the Capcom vs. series dress to impress by being so incredibly faithful to the source material they draw from, Capcom instead opted to present "Tekken in the style of Street Fighter", with the gimmick being that Namco would have eventually created their own equivalent game, Tekken X Street Fighter, with the inverse design approach. Alas, due to this game's underperformance and the controversial DLC tactics surrounding it, that plan never came to pass, leaving SFXTK as a strange anomaly at the tail end of the early-2010s fighting game boom.
This all leads to one of the root issues with SFXTK: it isn't really a true crossover between Street Fighter and Tekken. At least, it doesn't feel like one. At its heart, it's little more than a Denser and Wackier tag team Street Fighter title featuring a bunch of new Street Fighter characters who vaguely resemble the Tekken cast if you squint. Most of the Tekken cast have been squashed down to fit into the game's classic 2D mechanics, lacking many of their most iconic moves, stances and gameplay attributes that fans love them for. Worse, they are universally Flanderized into gross caricatures of their canonical selves, almost as if Capcom wanted them to be the Opposing Sports Team to root against.
The sad thing is, behind all the extraneous bullshit, the game itself is not bad at all. While it does a pretty terrible job of representing Tekken in any way, as a Street Fighter game, it's incredibly fun and frenetic with tonnes of unique mechanics. The tag system is well implemented, the combat is open-ended to allow for creative combo strings, and the overall presentation is solid, even if most of the assets are recycled from the Street Fighter IV series. Thankfully, the maligned, tacked-on Gem System can be discarded. The incessant "wacky party game" tone may grate on your nerves though, what with the demonic mammoths, Jurassic Park dinosaurs and fatherless graffiti artists always freaking out in the background. That's another problem I always had with this game, it was falsely advertised as a Darker and Edgier take on the Versus series with a dramatic, serious tone when the game itself is anything but.
If you're a Street Fighter fan, this game is definitely a fun detour from the canon series. However, many Tekken fans were sorely disappointed by the apparent lack of depth and faithfulness to their own franchise, and I can't blame them for feeling that way. Tekken 7 is already flooded with Hadoukens and Reppukens thanks to Akuma and Geese's inclusion as Guest Fighters, the last thing they want to see is their own reps like Jin, Steve and Raven shooting fireballs as well.