Street Fighter and Tekken: A Match Made in Heaven… or Hell?

Street Fighter… it’s the classic beat-em up game that defined a generation. Street Fighter 2, introduced in 1991, is the game that most people recommend for others who want to get into the fighting  scene. With memorable characters like Ryu and Chun-Li, and infamous moves like the Hadouken, you can’t go wrong when playing either Street Fighter II or today’s Street Fighter 4.

Tekken… Introduced back in 1994, Tekken was one of the earliest 3D fighting games to be introduced. Tekken has a strong fan base, and with flagship characters like Jin Kazama and Heihachi Mishima, it’s a game that’s more involved than games like Street Fighter. In order to be proficient, you must know your moves and combinations with precise timing, or else you’re done without landing a single move.

Many fans of the fighting game genres have always wondered what if this property and that property came together. Games like Marvel Vs. Capcom, SnK Vs. Capcom, Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe and others have done what was considered a dream to fans. Now two more can enter the fray: Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter. If you don’t know how to pronounce the “X” part, here’s how you’d say it: Street Fighter “Cross” Tekken. The SF X Tekken game will use the Street Fighter IV game engine, while Tekken X SF will use the Tekken 6 game engine. (Game engines in simpler terms mean graphics.)

At Comic-Con 2010, the creator of Street Fighter Yoshinori Ono and Tekken creator Katsuhiro Harada announced the creation of Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter. Fans who kept up with videogame news didn’t see this coming at all, even thought it was speculated something would be done with a Namco and Capcom title. Then the two creators previewed the Street Fighter X Tekken version, to everyone’s delight. The game started out with Ryu, and then Kazuya Mishima walks and the two share a verbal exchange. Then during the fight Chun-Li comes to help Ryu, and then after that physical exchange, Nina Williams comes in to help Kazuya. Then the game ends, and the crowd cheers. Here is a video of what I explained:

Just recently at Gamescon the same producers showed Tekken X Street Fighter, they showed off prototype images of what Street Fighter character Ryu would look like when using the Tekken 6 engine. Images are below:

To bring this blog to a close, this(these) idea(s) are a match made in heaven due to the huge fan bases of both series. If you’re a gamer, you decide: Is it a match made in heaven, or will it be match made in hell?