Street Fighter, Tekken Producers Square Off

Street Fighter X Tekken (don't you dare call it "Street Fighter Vs. Tekken") made its playable debut at Capcom's Captivate press event last week. Katsuhiro Harada, producer of the Tekken series at Namco Bandai Games, is more than happy with the response so far. "Everyone's really excited about it," he told Japan's Famitsu magazine. "It's interesting how it's led to SF fans and Tekken fans interacting with each other as well -- not just in Japan, but worldwide. It made me glad we went through with it. People say that fighting games had their golden age in the 1990s, but really, there are far more tournaments being held now than there was even then. We'd like to bring that passion to new heights here."

Something that most net previews have agreed upon is that the Tekken characters feel sufficiently Tekken-like in this game, even though the action takes place on a 2D plane. "Our characters are always semi-photorealistic and done in the Japanese gekiga style," Harada said, "but with this game they've been given more of an American comic-like tough, from their moves to their expressions and outlines. That's something we definitely couldn't do. I've given them advice along the lines of 'People like this costume for this character,' but I'm not doing any pre-check on their work. All that is being left to Capcom, and I think it's for the better that I'm not interjecting anything midway. Letting them develop the way they want will help the game retain its Capcom-like feel."

"We've made the characters Capcom-like while retaining what made them good in Tekken," SF X Tekken producer Yoshinori Ono added. "I think gamers will be able to pick them right up without any break-in phase once they try the game out."

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