[Preview] Street Fighter X Tekken

Recently, Capcom showed off some new features in Street Fighter X Tekken at the fightclub in Los Angeles. For the most part, the build stayed the same from before,but we got to witness some of the new additions such as Cross Assault and CrossArt in addition to the Pandora mode recently unveiled at Tokyo Game Show.

The Cross Arts is pretty much the same as it had been sinceits revelation. Taking up three bars to execute, this initiates a tag sequencewhere both characters use their super. It seems to be pretty devastating,taking off a large chunk of health. Essentially, however, you can just think ofit as a bigger super. Much more interesting is the Cross Assault, which hadreceived some changes since it was first seen. Instead of allowing players tocontrol both characters on a team back and forth, Cross Assault now givesplayers sole control over their primary character while giving control of thesecondary character to the AI. It seems to be less confusing, easier toexecute, and may be less broken in the long run. Depending on what players do,the AI will do different actions, so players will have to work to learn thosemagical sequences that will lead to bigger damage.

Pandora mode is definitely one of the most interesting, andgame changing mechanics that’s been revealed. Seen by some as the comebackmechanic for Street Fighter X Tekkenand the equivalent of X-Factor of the game, Pandora is anything but, accordingto Product Manager Matt Dahlgren. It requires the primary character to have atmost 25% health remaining before being activated; thereafter, players have 15seconds of unlimited super meter and increased damage output. As we’ve allheard though, if players can’t get the job done within that time, they’ll losethe match. It sounds like an interesting gamble and a great way to deliverhype. Stay tuned to see how players will use it in the future for high levelplay.

The game looks like it will be chock full of ways to pummelopponents, whether it be through the finesse required of Cross Assault combosor brute force from Pandora mode. We look forward to the showdown between Street Fighter and Tekken next spring!