Fighting Games Friday: The Doomed Tekken x Street Fighter Ride Goes On

The long-running Tekken x Street Fighter saga appeared to end not with a bang, but a fitting whimper last weekend. Tekken series director and producer Katsuhiro Harada appeared to confirm in the most recent installment of the Harada’s Bar YouTube series that the project had finally been cancelled. “Yeah, development stopped but we got about 30% done,” Harada commented according to the officially translated subtitles. So ended this lengthy, mysterious saga.

Or so the English-speaking side of the internet thought. The untranslated Japanese version of this installment first aired on June 5th, yet there was a reason why this only became news after the English-subtitled version was added two weeks later — and it wasn’t because the Japanese gaming audience no longer cares about fighting games. Harada commented through Twitter a couple of days after the video was posted to clarify that Tekken x Street Fighter has, in fact, not been cancelled. Its status hasn’t changed since he last addressed the topic, meaning the project remains on hold. “We are still hopeful that TKxSF will resume development when the opportunity arises,” Harada said.

It’s nice that Harada, and the individual or team responsible for providing the detailed translation of his comments, clarified what he meant in the video. But it’s difficult to believe this game will ever see the light of day. I’m surprised this train is even still running, because a cruel ending is likely to await at the end of the ride for anyone who still believes there’s a chance it will happen.

Tekken x Street Fighter was announced by Bandai Namco way, way back in July 2010 at the San Diego Comic-Con, almost precisely eleven years ago. It was confirmed alongside accompanying Capcom-developed game Street Fighter x Tekken. The latter was further along thanks to the Street Fighter team having more available resources for game development at the time, with the Tekken team being intensely busy with the eventually-announced Tekken Tag Tournament 2. The prospects of this collaboration were, at the very least, intriguing after the announcement, albeit awkward considering that two historically 2D and 3D franchises were crossing over, a fact bound to lead to gameplay challenges.

No one could have known about the several other challenges Street Fighter x Tekken would run into along the way, all the result of Capcom constantly tripping over their own feet. Thanks to “features” like the character-enhancing gems (some paid; some wildly overpowered), data for paid DLC characters being entirely on the discs, and the general unpolished state of the launch product, Capcom could not have made the game more unappealing. It was eventually given a good polishing through a thorough patch, but it was by then too late to save it. It didn’t take long for Capcom to distance themselves from the game and release the characters and stages created for it in Street Fighter IV, leaving the idea of the Tekken and Street Fighter franchises crossing over tarnished.

When Tekken x Street Fighter didn’t manifest even after Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was available in arcades and subsequently home platforms, it was easy to guess what fate befell it. Street Fighter x Tekken poisoned the entire well, so why in the hell would another company waste their time and resources trying to complete a different doomed crossover? All the people who couldn’t tell the difference between Street Fighter x Tekken and Tekken x Street Fighter, and there were and still are a LOT of them, were bound to ignore the product when it released. Yet, the developers at Bandai Namco just can’t confirm that the game is dead in the aforementioned poisoned water.

Harada and others at Bandai Namco have for years insisted that assumption was wrong, that TKxSF remains a work in progress despite next to nothing of it being shown — if the few assets the team provided even count. All that’s been shown includes promotional art featuring Ryu and Jin Kazama, a character model for Ryu, and concept art of Ryu and Chun-Li. It’s possible Akuma’s appearance in Tekken 7 consisted of leftover assets from this game, after the project fell into an idle state. Chances are this will be the closest we’ll get to seeing how Street Fighter characters would have fit in Tekken’s gameplay style, though if that’s true, it means they would have fit in well.

This project is dead as all hell, and I’m surprised Harada is still insisting it isn’t. There’s always a chance that it could resurface — never say never — but the odds of it resurfacing are lower than the game’s supposed completion rate. With Tekken 7 performing so well in sales and at tournaments, the team will very likely move on to the next mainline installment. Meanwhile, it’s still possible that Tekken could crossover with another franchise in the near future, perhaps the one fans always wanted to see: Virtua Fighter.

In the meantime: Kazuya Mishima’s appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be the newest outlet for Street Fighter and Tekken action, with Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury/The King of Fighters joining the mix — a Fighters Megamix, you could say.