A few weeks back during E3 we got our hands all over a demo version of Street Fighter X Tekken running on iOS, a mobile port of the console game that hit earlier this year. It felt great in our brief time with the demo, and featured some upgrades from the hugely successful Street Fighter IV Volt ($4.99) iOS game, like fully 3D character models and non-static backgrounds.
At that time it was sort of up in the air whether or not the Street Fighter X Tekken iOS demo would materialize into a full game, but the following week Capcom confirmed that the game would indeed be coming to the App Store sometime this summer. Then late last week, Capcom posted even more new details and screens for the upcoming iOS fighter.
Along with the original 4 characters from the demo (Ryu, Chun Li, Kazuya, and Nina), 4 new fighters have officially been announced: Guile and Dhalsim from the Street Fighter camp, and Hwoarang and Paul from the Tekken side. Controls were also detailed, and should feel familiar to fans of Capcom’s other iOS fighters – single punch and kick buttons, a special move button that performs different functions based on what direction you’re pointing the d-pad when you press it, and a single button for tagging in your partner.
Speaking of tag partners, that’s where things get interesting in the iOS version. Even though you’ll pick two characters for your team, only one will be your primary character and have a life bar. The secondary character can be tagged in while your primary character rests and recovers health, but won’t have his or her own life bar. Instead, a “Partner Gauge" is used which limits the amount of time your primary character can be tagged out. If the secondary character takes damage it will deplete the Partner Gauge even more quickly, and cut short the amount of time your primary character can regenerate health on the sidelines.
The secondary character can’t be beaten, just forced to tag back out if the Partner Gauge is emptied. However, a Pandora Mode will allow you to sacrifice your secondary character to temporarily power up your primary fighter, after which the secondary character will be out of the match for good.
It all sounds incredibly interesting, especially since I haven’t dove into the console versions of Street Fighter X Tekken yet. Stay tuned for more details which are said to be coming leading up to the game’s release at some point this summer, and you can also dive into our forums for discussion of Street Fighter X Tekken coming to iOS.
