Street Fighter x Tekken Review

Many of the different special elements feel rather simple to perform, and they're outlined in Dan Hibiki's tutorial mode. Here, he'll guide you through counters, and using the Cross Gauge effectively and using combinations.

The easiest, and most effective, for a newcomber is perhaps the Cross Rush. It allows you to string like-minded attacks together, ending in a nice crescendo before your team performs a tag. Attacks must be performed in order of strength, going upwards, for this to work. But there are also things like Cross Assault, which brings in both characters at the same time - you control both. There's plenty of depth here for those who're willing to put in the time, that's for sure.

The newest, and perhaps the most daring addition, is Pandora mode. If your on-screen fighter is below 25 percent health, you can sacrifice his life to give a massive boost to your other character. It only lasts for 10 seconds and if you don't win within this time, you lose. But their damage output is considerably increased and if it's tight towards the end, it could be the difference between winning and losing. It's easy to see this single gameplay mechanic making duels even more tense.

Everything is rendered with Capcom's new-style fighting graphics, which are akin to those witnessed in Street Fighter IV. All of Street Fighter characters look as they have done in the past few games, but it's great to see how the Tekken characters have transitioned with such ease into their new environment. Putting the nitty gritty of the gameplay mechanics aside, the Tekken characters feel right at home, even if the majority of them don't have the fancy fireballs and mental moves that Street Fighter fans have become so accustomed to.

The online is also back in full force, this time allowing for co-operative fighting. Instead of everything being a one-on-one affair, you can now bring your friend along for the ride. It allows you to control one fighter each. It makes the whole thing a bit more social and it's a welcome addition. There's also a rather fun new mode called Scramble, which allows four people to fight at the same time.