Grave Gamer News & Views — katsuhiro harada

What’s Up With Tekken X Street Fighter?

We’re approaching the year mark since the Capcom developed Street Fighter X Tekken released unto the fighting game scene.  Critics loved it, I was quite fond of it, but the community itself chewed it up and spit it out like spoiled milk.  More than a bit of that could’ve been inspired by Capcom’s eyebrow suspending business practices, but you’ll find most serious fighting players simply dismiss SFxT as “broken.”

Namco faired better in the FGC last year, however, having released the universally praised Tekken Tag Tournament 2.  Its success left many wondering what’s shaking on the other side of the crossover fence, Tekken X Street Fighter – where Capcom’s champs would fight Namco’s regulars on Tekken’s groundwork.

Well, the advent of next-gen consoles just may have pushed Tekken X Street Fighter back some until Namco can figure out whether or not the title should be multi-generational.  Longtime Tekken producer and face of the franchise, Katsuhiro Harada, took to Twitter to enlighten a fan on the game’s progress, saying it was still “under development” and that his team was “changing [and] considering platform strategy.”

The news is slighter than the sound of a quarter rattling in an arcade cabinet, yet it’s the most we’ve heard regarding Tekken X Street Fighter in months.  The original Tekken Tag Tournament was a flagship launch title for the PlayStation 2 over a decade ago, so it isn’t hard to imagine Namco would want the same for its crossover fighter during the PS4’s launch window.  Hopefully that means we’ll actually get to see footage of the illustrious title sooner rather than never.

“I still have some characters left to be revealed that comply with some of your requests, even ‘bringing back’ several others. Even so, none of them are paid DLC. I will continue to sincerely comply with fan requests. However, I can’t continue to engage the negative ones that, without knowing what you are talking about, or even thinking about what you are saying, blindly repeat 'bring back, bring back, bring back…’ After this lengthy explanation, I will be quite surprised if there are still people who still don’t get [the game].

Thanks for understanding or not understanding. Whatever.”

Tekken Tag Tournament 2’s chief producer, Katsuhiro Harada, at the tail end of a rather long Twitter diatribe telling fans to shut the hell up about bringing back original voice actors and characters.

If you hop to his open letter, it’s an unpleasant, crabby read that’ll be sure to sour Tekken fans whose only crime was being annoyingly passionate about their beloved fighter.  I still feel absolutely justified in Tweet-bombing him about bringing back Alex.  Harada, you can’t just lash out at your fans unless you’re able to back up your talk with a boxing fucking raptor.

[By the way, if you seriously think I’ve ever gone as far as to bother Harada online about the inclusion of a boxing fucking raptor, I really don’t know how to help you.]