Street Fighter x Tekken (Xbox 360): "A Greedy Money Making Fighter By The Capcom Corporation"

As a friend, or follower you have likely seen my ranting, and raving on Twitter about "Street Fighter x Tekken". I will honestly say that there are a few things that really p*** me off in the world of gaming, but none have been as severe as this. I have practically raged over the loss of my $60 to Capcom for this crappy fighting game. What Capcom has basically done is release a game that looks as if it was still in the BETA state of testing. This is beyond ridiculous. To further add salt to the wound Capcom has basically created the game as a bare bones title. A lot of the content that you would think should be readily available within the game such as additional colors, and combos are likely to be released as future DLC. This info comes from some pretty reliable sources, and from my own personal in-game experience. I have yet to find a way to unlock the colors, and can find nothing about it online. I am seriously beyond mad about what Capcom has done.

When I finally picked up my pre-order of "Street Fighter x Tekken" I was psyched about getting home, and plugging it into my Xbox 360. I vaguely knew about the issues of the online before getting the game, but I never in my life dreamed they would be so severe. When I got home I entered the free pre-order DLC code for the extra gems that came with my purchase. When the game started up, and the opening screen appeared my first thought was that it looked kind of cheap. Once I got past the opening screen I got a message about the 'tutorial' mode asking if I wanted to complete the tutorial before playing the other modes. I thought to myself, "Sure, why not?". I figured I would need to become familiar with the controls since they would likely be different from other Capcom fighting games.

As I played through the tutorial it became very apparent that the control layout, and execution was extremely complex. In fact I'd compare it to playing a piano symphony on your Xbox 360 controller. I'm not joking. The controls are so complex that it's hard to keep up with the game's fast paced action while you tend to the button inputs. A lot of the controls have multiple combined uses in the game which will have the gamer literally moving their fingers all over the controller/game pad. In all honesty I think this is a game that's not controller/game pad friendly. I think that a gamer who is willing to invest time in this game would be better off playing with a fight stick. If you are looking to tackle "Street Fighter x Tekken's" combat system be prepared to spend some serious time learning the controls, and possibly repeating the tutorial multiple times.

The graphics in "SFxT (Street Fighter x Tekken)" were not that impressive on many levels. The in-game character models were similar to those of "sf4/ssf4", but were okay for the most part. Even the animated backgrounds were okay. What bothered me about the graphics though was the color edit menu within the game, and the character selection screen. They both honestly looked like something that would have been released on a retro console game such as the Gamecube. It just didn't look like something I'm used to seeing in next-gen Capcom games. Aside from the overall look of the color edit menu, and the character selection screen the CG news broadcast scenes within the game also looked of poor quality. These particular animated sequences chronicled the story behind the "Street Fighter x Tekken" in a news broadcast like fashion with heavy spoken dialogue similar to that of "Capcom vs SNK 2" game (which the game has been compared to). The good thing is that these news broadcast sequences only occur when you choose a custom team instead of a "real" team. If you opt to use a "real" team then you will get an animated opening sequence when you begin your playthrough of arcade mode as well as an ending sequence when you've completed 'arcade' mode.

The sound within "SFxT" was also another huge issue that further led me to believe the game was released in a BETA state. The music/BGM, and dialogue are intact for the most part within the game's offline modes. With that being said the spoken dialogue still has flawed sound quality offline. My main complaint concerning the audio though is that it is totally broken in the online modes. It's not a small matter as some reviewers, and critics have made it out to be. I have "never" in my career as a game reviewer, or as a game player experienced an audio problem as bad as the one that is present in "SFxT". This audio issue greatly effects how a player is able to perform online. If you're into fighting games you likely depend on the impact sounds for making follow-up input decisions, as much as you depend on the onscreen visuals. This will definitely interfere with your success as you strive to rank up within the online modes.

Another thing I want to touch base on is the severe lag I experienced online. I would pass it off as an occasional thing if that were the case, but it's not. I set my match settings to the same region every time I played, and every time I got a match the severe lag was there. I know some of you may be thinking it's my connection, but I promise you I always have a 4-5 bar signal (the best) depending on how a game measures it. I have read some articles from other gaming websites concerning this lag, and it seems to be happening for pretty much everyone who has the game. I also ran across an online article claiming that Capcom was blaming it on the netcode. Whether or not this is true, I don't know. If it is then the issue at hand is much worse than most people think. It won't be any easy fix by any means if it is the netcode that is the problem.

The issues with "SFxT" do not end there for Xbox 360 gamers. It seems that Capcom won't be issuing a patch concerning the Scramble Mode's online co-op capabilities. Initially details were released, and actually printed on the game's manual/case that spoke of the inclusion of co-op play in this unique 4 - player online mode. Unfortunately for Xbox 360 gamers this feature will never make it into this version of the game. The reason behind this screw up involves some incompatibility issues that Capcom blames on Microsoft. Whatever the case is, I find it unacceptable. Capcom should have sorted out this mess before releasing their game. It honestly seems to me that Capcom did hardly any testing during the production of "SFxT". It's inexcusable that a high end gaming company such as Capcom would release a game in a state such as this one was. The fact that they are adding future DLC of things that should have been readily available with the game is equally as inexcusable. In closing I think that anyone considering spending their money on "SFxT" should wait until they see how this whole ordeal plays out. Play it smart, and don't jump head first into something that has the high possibility of failing such as "SFxT" does.

- Official Review Coming Mar. 14, 2012 -