Street Fighter X Tekken and the Rules of Fight Club

Rule one: talk a lot about Fight Club

UK, January 27, 2012

 

Yoshi Ono is a man as enthusiastic about his signature Street Fighter franchise as he is protective of it, but when the opportunity came to fuse together two of the fighting world's heavy-hitters to create Street Fighter X Tekken, he had few reservations.

Part of the strong identity of the both the Street Fighter and Tekken franchises, however, stems from their individual play-styles, move-sets and balanced rosters – elements that could make it difficult to mesh them effectively into one coherent whole.

"For sure, if we wanted to take Tekken characters and put them into a Street Fighter game, it would be very difficult to make them fit," Ono acknowledges, via his translator. "So, we had to take the Street Fighter and Tekken characters and put them into a whole new game, so they could all stand on the same playfield.

"It was something that we also discussed with Namco Bandai too, and they agreed it would need a whole new game, forcing Tekken characters into the Street Fighter universe simply would not work"

Creating a new framework in which to accommodate varying fighting styles is one thing, selling the concept to die-hard Tekken fans is quite another, which is why Ono knew it was imperative that he not try to re-wire years of Tekken-honed muscle memory.

"Obviously, Tekken is a four-button game whereas Street Fighter is a six-button game," says Ono. "We wanted the Tekken players to be able to make the transition to this game smoothly, and so a lot of the commands here are the same in the Tekken series.

"For example, Kazuya has a 112/122 and that's the exact same buttons that you'll use here in Street Fighter X Tekken. Xiaoyu has her different stances, as another example. Basically, we're hoping that Tekken players see
these kinds of familiar elements and think to themselves: 'I know that character, so I'm confident with how they'll play'."

Street Fighter aficionados are well catered for too, with each semi-circle and Z-motion producing the expected results, but in bringing together two separate franchises Ono has taken the opportunity to add elements that produce a similar result regardless of which fight-camp a player originally hails from, and so help bridge the gap between the two.

"We have something called the Cross Rush, which is a basic combo that every character in the game has," Ono explains. "It's a combo that players of Marvel Vs Capcom will be familiar with, it's light, medium, heavy, heavy and it sets up other combo opportunities based around tagging-in your partner.

"It's good, because every character in the game has it. It's very simple so new players can pick it up and it also sets up more complex strategies by forming the core for other combo systems."



Street Fighter X Tekken is looking like a game that will be as shallow or as deep as players want it to be, regardless of whether or not they know their Ryu from their Kazuya or their EX Focus Cancel from their frame data. So, with Street Fighter X Tekken due in March and Namco Bandai's own Tekken X Street Fighter also on the cards, does Ono think there's scope for more big brand collaborations on the horizon, perhaps a harmonious future in which rival publishers bond over franchise mash-ups?

"I think that this is perhaps a special case," offers Ono, cautiously. "We've been wanting to do it for a long time and we're really excited now that it's happening, but it is a little unusual as Tekken and Street Fighter are both Triple-A franchises for their respective companies.

"I sometimes say in interviews that I'd like to make Marvel Vs DC some day before I die, but these things are really very difficult to do because companies are usually very protective of their IP.

"What we do know is that when brands like this do come together the fans really appreciate it."