Capcom and Namco’s flagship fighters cross over in the hybrid Street Fighter X Tekken, blending characters from both series into a wholly new fighting game boasting a massively revamped Street Fighter 4 engine. Looking past the game’s now infamous on-disc DLC debacle and goofy online issues, Street Fighter X Tekken is incredibly deep and even now, over a month after picking it up, still feels like I’ve only begun to scratch the surface.

Street Fighter X Tekken is a lot of fun, especially when starting out. It feels like there’s so much you can do; a lot of the techniques learned in Street Fighter IV still apply, and there’s plenty of room for you to flex your creative muscle with the combo and tagging systems. Their are echoes of other fighters to be found here, also, from Tekken to Marvel vs. Capcom to even a smidgeon of BlazBlue. The amount of options available to you are staggering, without ever feeling overwhelming.

There are some things worth complaining about, though; the online experience is particularly flawed. Although the problem with sounds dropping out has been recently patched (this was a huge issue for me since I’ve become accustomed to hearing out hits and blocks), the automatic matchmaking system for ranked fights takes too damn long to find an opponent. Compared to Street Fighter IV’s instant search, this is a massive downgrade and a total letdown. Part of what made Street Fighter IV so great was that you can literally jump into another ranked match immediately after your last one. Street Fighter X Tekken had me waiting more than anything.

Still, it’s fun as all hell and one of the most interesting fighters in recent memory. It’s accessible yet deep, and looks sharp as a tack. Expect this one to dominate the pro-circuit for quite some time. Until the next big thing hits, of course.

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