Tekken Vs. Street Fighter: Home TGI
by CheekyGuy, HSM team writer
Way back as far as March of last year, I wrote an article about the possibilities of having a fighting ‘space’ or game on PlayStation Home that could be competitive and at the same time exciting.
Now, fast forward to February of this year, and lo and behold: a fighting area has been introduced within the Hub area of Home from Namco & Capcom, once rival companies now in partnership promoting a cross-branded game. Both brands have a long history in the arcade fighting scene — Street Fighter having being one of the longest running franchises, a staggering fifteen years!
Capcom’s flagship game, Street Fighter is no stranger to cross branding; in fact, its character roster had gone up against stiff competition from the likes of SNK’s King of Fighters to the X-Men and the rest of the Marvel universe, featuring in three highly successful Marvel Vs Capcom franchises respectively.
Having Tekken Vs Street Fighter – two of the biggest names in the fighting genre – just seemed like a natural, cross branded choice; many gamers probably had their own reservations as to whether this may work, with both games having a completely different game mechanic behind it. Tekken was always the 3-D fighter, spawned from Sega’s Virtua Fighter games back in the mid ’90’s that simply threw something “different” out there as the genre was swamped in 2D fighters at the time. It was only a matter of time, trial & error for Capcom’s Street Fighter series to become a 3-D fighter (think EX) that could compete with the success of the Tekken brand, in the mould of Street Fighter 4.
The new Street Fighter game plays the same as it always had as a 2D fighter (its visuals nothing short of showstopping in its transition to 3D), a game that brings together a ‘back to basics’ approach to its fighting engine, stripping away the ‘Ism’s’ featured in it’s Alpha series and keeping with it a retro simplicity that novices and experts alike will recognise, (unlike as with ‘Street Fighter 3′, a game of which already assumes that you are a veteran Street Fighter gamer)
The Playstation Home promotional game, however, uses a turn-based combat system, a feature found in most traditional RPG titles (think the original Final Fantasy games on the PS1), and has easy to follow commands for novice / casual players alike. It has a unique twist in gameplay using a ‘tag’ system last seen in Namco’s ‘Tekken Tag Tournament’, in which a character from your chosen side can jump in at any point your block meter is filled. The Arcade bouts are short and sweet, which does actually make you drool for some more action. The character designs will look similar to any Home user that you will generally encounter in the Hub, so my guess is that this game is basically a warm-up for you in which to invite a friend and kick his / her butt in the online VS game.
Playing in ‘Arcade’ mode unlocks many rewards, some of which can be character costumes and accessories. So there is an incentive to play. And of course in beating the Arcade mode, this opens up the option for you to pre order Tekken Vs Street Fighter (Released US 6 March, EU 9th March respectively).
Playing the promotional Home game…it can be a lot of fun, but the turn-based system disappoints me. I really would like to see a real time fighting system for me to feel personally involved, and this includes more options to customise your fighting avatar. There may be opportunities for Capcom / Namco to allow you to customise your fighting avatar to your liking (costumes and weapons available for sale). Obviously, the bane of any fighting or FPS game in Home is collision detection and ping rate; hopefully, as Home becomes more sophisticated, these hurdles can be minimized.
Wouldn’t you really like to see a weapons-based combat game on Home (think Soul Calibur for online play)? Why not go all out in the spirit of competition and have tournaments on Home? This raises the profile of Home, and it also raises the profile of arcade gamer communities that have played this game so long, yet play this game like it’s brand new.
Win bouts to unlock costumes & other 'goodies' for your Home Space!
If this game had a Home space of its own, with enough updates and opportunity for competitive play, then I’m sure this space won’t likely become another forgotten game space like so many we have encountered before. Rather, it would become hugely successful, and introduce a new generation to both Capcom & Namco’s timeless legacy.
As it stands, however, the current fighting TGI in Home is a step in the right direction.
March 7th, 2012 by CheekyGuy | 2 comments
CheekyGuy is a loveable, mischievous Brit who first entered virtual reality via Second Life, and now frequents Home as a Grey Gamer to keep in touch with friends. In real life, Cheeky is a video editor who has just completed a Master's degree in screenwriting from Liverpool John Moores University.
Having never been a fighting fan I found this new game in the Hub to be kind of fun and I for one am glad it is an easy thing to play. I doubt I will be too concerned with beating it as I doubt I can without a great deal of effort and time, both of which are in short supply right now for me.
I think it is a great deal of fun for people who love this genre and for the kids who like to act like they want to fight in Home it might prove a great outlet for teenaged angst.
Good read Cheeks, glad to see you back on the page again.
I was a little disappointed with the fighting game actually, I would much rather have seen something where players control their respective fighters simultaneously, and could duke it out. I have to say though, they did capture two important elements of fighters, which are reaction time, and predicting opponent’s movements over time. I’ll be happy as a clam if I ever see a way to duel in home though.