Street Fighter x Tekken Tips from Seth Killian

ROME – Capcom debuted its newest fighting game at Captivate 2012 in Rome. After the success Street Fighter X Tekken has had on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Capcom is bringing an enhanced version of that game to PlayStation Vita. This game will join Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on Vita this fall. Seth Killian, Capcom’s resident fighting game expert, said that this new game is not a port. Rather, it’s a stand-alone game experience that will pack the full punch of its PS3 predecessor and even introduce exclusive new content. Key amongst that new content is a roster of 12 new fighters, bringing the tally to 55 pugilists ready for on-the-go brawls. 

“For me, one of the most interesting things about some of the returning characters, even characters that you played in Street Fighter IV, is just the way they function in new ways in the X Tekken system,” said Killian. “Moves that were familiar before will now have a completely different function than they might have before.” 

Killian offers some tips on some of his favorite new fighters below.

Blanka — Blanka is one of my very favorite characters. For people like me that prefer charged characters like Guy, where you charge back for your sonic booms, Blanka is a welcome return. He’s never been able to use some of his vertical and rolling ball capabilities. Basically, his ball attacks using the kicks have never been more effective than they are in Street Fighter X Tekken. You can create a lot of really interesting juggling possibilities that lead into resets in a way that wasn’t possible at all in Street Fighter IV, because of the new juggling rules in the X Tekken system. He’s a very cool character if you like charge.

Guy — Guy also benefits a lot in this game. He was an interesting character with good pressure strings on the ground up close, but struggled in the air. He has a very long jump that prevents him from doing much but approach on the ground, basically. Now, in Street Fighter X Tekken, because you have so many opportunities to pull people out of the air and hit them in interesting new ways, a lot of his moves that were trick shots or one-offs in previous games end up being very powerful. His Bushin grab, where he flips forward and grabs you, can be used in lots of creative ways, which I think really makes him good fun.

Elena — Usually against a Street Fighter character, you know when to block high, because they’re jumping at you and don’t have too many other options on the ground. Elena can really mix it up with overheads. In the past, with the overheads you might get a single strike. You hit somebody once, so it’s not that big of a deal. In Street Fighter X Tekken, because you can tag in your partner, if you are able to land an overhead and call in a quick tag, you can actually have that partner come in and continue a combo. Those overheads, which used to be single strikes which limited her in previous games, have made her a much stronger character. Now she can put together a whole combo of strikes, which makes her very interesting.

Dudley – Like Elena, Dudley is another Street Fighter III character. People had a lot of fun with him in the Street Fighter IV series. If anything, the worst thing you could say about him was he struggled sometimes with characters that were stronger at range. He was a very strong character up close who struggled a little bit to get in. He has a short low jump, and some dodges to avoid fireballs on the ground. In general, that was one of his weak points. Now you can do a pretty cool combo into an uppercut, and then actually follow that uppercut with even more juicy stuff without even bothering to tag in your partner. He’s one of the strongest single, stand-alone characters in the game, he doesn’t require a partner even to do a really beefy damage. 

Christie Monteiro — Christie is also an overhead fighter in the style of Elena. Elena, in some ways, was originally inspired by the Tekken fighters who we just thought were really cool. It was a really unique fighting style and brought a lot to the game. Christie is much more of a combo-heavy character who has some of the longest multi-hitting moves. That doesn’t sound that sexy, but part of the advantage of Street Fighter X Tekken is that when you get one of these moves that holds your opponent in place for a couple of strikes, it really lets you tag in your partner in what we call Hit Confirm. You can see that it’s hitting, tagging your partner with confidence, and then you can continue the combo in a big way — all off of a single overhead strike. She’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of creative stuff that you can do with her. I’m looking forward to seeing what some of the more clever players are able to pull off. She’s a very tricky character.

Jack-X – Jack-X is one of my favorite characters from the Tekken series, period. I have a thing for the big bruiser kind of characters. I like those guys a lot, and Jack is the Tekken archetype. He has some amazing command grabs, as well as cool combos. Mostly, I just like these guys because their hits really feel like they hit hard.

Lei WuLong – Lei WuLong is another character that’s very strong. He has really interesting stuff from stance changes, which is something for maybe a more advanced player. You can switch between different styles of his marshal arts techniques to give yourself access to a whole range of new special moves. He’s probably a more advanced character, but really strong. If you are able to rise to that level and pull off stance changes in the middle of a combo, he’s really worth your time.