This month, we celebrate the fifth anniversary of the announcement of Tekken X Street Fighter. Oh my, has it been that long? I don't even remember anymore.
All right, let me scour through my archive: Okay, so here I was really announcing the game back in July 2010, then asking where the hell the game was in January 2012, then saying that it was "still in development." That's excluding our reports of Capcom's Yoshinori Ono poking fun at the game's development in January 2012 and of Namco Bandai hiring 40 people to finish the game earlier this year.
Remind you of any other particular Sony game featuring a chihuahua-chimera? Japanese companies have a habit of never letting things go, and my feelings for Tekken X Street Fighter mimics my exact feelings for The Last Guardian. For the first few years of its development, all of the news of the game being delayed and then coming back and then being radio-silent did not do great things for my heart.
By the third year, I forced myself to stop caring so as to prevent myself from being emotionally manipulated. I decided not to feel anything until the game actually announced in a meaningful way. Luckily for The Last Guardian, all our patience was rewarded at this past E3. But we have not experienced the same luck for Tekken X Street Fighter.
However, according to a recent interview with Famitsu as translated by Siliconera, producer Katsuhiro Harada has said that the game is actually "at a pretty far stage into its development." In fact, "the character lineup has been decided upon since a very long time ago," and they've "already finished the polygon models, moves, and systems."
Now, I believe Harada-san as much as the next Tekken fan, and I've always been aware that it takes a lot more work to turn Street Fighter characters into Tekken characters than the other way around. That said, I will not believe any progress on Tekken X Street Fighter until I see gameplay footage of it.
Part of my concern is that due to how long ago the game was announced that it will seem quite old by comparison to current fighting-game standards when it's finally released. Street Fighter V is well into production and Tekken 7 is already in Japanese arcades, so at this point, Tekken X Street Fighter might feel dated or, more likely, the entire game needed to go through a phase when the graphics needed to be overhauled (which would explain a part in the excruciating delay).
The other explanation for the delay is all of the projects that Harada is juggling at the moment, including Tekken 7, Pokken Tournament, Summer Lesson, and Project Treasure. Even giving this the benefit of the doubt, Harada may not be placing Tekken X Street Fighter as a high priority. Whatever the case, not having enough dedicated time, a trailer, or a gameplay peek at Tekken X Street Fighter only indicates further delays for the game.
Either way, I'm still curious about how Harada and his team turn the likes of Ryu and Guile into Tekken characters with full movelists. But without any proper official information on the game, it might as well be as loosely hopeful as The Last Guardian was before this year's E3… or, if this meandering trek goes on for yet another year, Duke Nukem Forever.
