Yoshinori Ono Details Street Fighter x Tekken

The big surprise announcement from San Diego's Comic-Con comic festival was a crossover between Capcom and Namco Bandai that will result in two fighting games, Street Fighter x Tekken and Tekken x Street Fighter.

The announcement came earlier today at Capcom's "Street Fighter Mania! SSFIV and Beyond" talk session. Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono's talk was interrupted by Tekken series project leader Katsuhiro Harada. They first announced Street Fighter X Tekken, which is being developed by Capcom for PS3 and Xbox 360 release.

You can see a first teaser trailer here. In-game images follow:

SF x Tekken will make use of the technology that powered SFIV and Super SFIV, although the gameplay is tag-based, with each player selecting two fighters. Tekken characters like Kazuya Mishima and Nina Williams will be brought over to the Street Fighter universe complete with their signature moves.

Ono showed off a demo play session of SF x Tekken, using Ryu, Chun-Li, Kazuya and Nina.

Tekken x Street fighter's announcement came later during the talk session. This version is in development at Namco Bandai, also for PS3 and Xbox 360 release. No screenshots or video footage were shared for this.

In a press statement issued by Capcom today, Ono said of the tie-up, “This is history we're making. Two fighting games that have rivaled each other are finally standing on the same stage. This isn't just a showdown between Tekken and Street Fighter, but a decisive battle for Capcom and Namco Bandai Games. So I'm going to give it my all.”

Following the announcement, Famitsu.com was able to get a few additional details on SF x Tekken from Ono himself.

Development on the game began just one or two months prior, said Ono, although they began real discussions about the project with Namco Bandai about one year back. Even prior to this, Ono said, he and Harada had talked about doing something together.

Capcom's past dealings with Namco Bandai appear to have contributed to the realization of this project. While joking that the main reason for the tie-up was that he and Harada are such good friends, Ono also pointed to Capcom's work with Namco Bandai on the Gundam arcade games.

The project began when Ono and his staff shared the idea with CEO Haruhiro Tsujimoto Tsujimoto and software development head Keiji Inafune, who said that they should all go meet Namco Bandai. They ended up having no hurdles even at the top levels.

Getting into the game itself, the site asked Ono what we can expect as far as characters go. Ono would only mention the characters who were shown in the demo session: Chun-Li, Ryu, Kazuya and Nina. However, he added that they're currently thinking about putting in the early generation characters from each franchise.

Detailing the gameplay, Ono said that the staff is thinking about making the game 2 on 2. He joked that for someone his age, Marvel vs Cacom's 3 on 3 fights is just too much.

The basics of 8-way lever and 6 button input system won't change. However, Ono said that he'd like to add something that he referred to as an "assist" feature. He said the iPhone version of SFIV has somewhat of an answer to this desire -- a feature that lets players feel that they were able to do tough moves.

Regarding a release time frame, Ono said that the target is to release the game two yeas after its announcement. He expects the next timeframe for a major announcement to be next year's Captivate (a Capcom private event held every April in America). The reason for such an early announcement at Comic-Con was because Capcom wanted to do something for the fans.

Most of Ono's comments with the site concerned just the Capcom side of the tie-up. This version will likely come out first, said Ono.

Development on the two sides are being handled completely separate of one another. In fact, the staff has agreed to not share information between the teams. The Capcom side will be doing their own designs for the Namco Bandai characters, and the Namco Bandai side will be doing their own designs for the Capcom characters. They're also working separately on the gameplay side.

Ono joked that the Namco Bandai team would be none-the-wiser if the Capcom designers made Nina appear in the game naked, and likewise for Chun-Li in the other version. He also joked that they're interested in seeing which version will get rewarded a Platinum score in Famitsu.

"We'd like to challenge one-another in all areas, including sales, and get fans of both series excited," said Ono.