Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile Review

Street Fighter has been around for 25 years. You'd think after that amount of time people would have gotten sick of of the characters of Ryu and Chun-Li. But everytime they bring out a new game, players like me snatch 'em up. And Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile, the latest entry in the long running franchise, helps keep our love for these games going.

Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile takes the best players from the Street Fighter and Tekken franchise and pits them against each other. Pick two characters and let them duke it out. You can choose between Ryu, Chun-Li, Dhalsim and Guile on the Street Fighter side, and King, Kazuya, Nina, Paul, Hwoarang and Hugo on the Tekken side. Not sure why it's so loaded on the Tekken side. You can probably unlock new characters but so far I haven't seen any since I've been playing.

You can play single player or challenge someone over Wi-Fi. The online matches seemed to work pretty well. I didn't experience any lag, and there was always someone to play against. You can play Ranked matches, which increase your player points, unlocking new items like more powerful combos, or simply challenge someone over Bluetooth. If you want to quickly find out how good of a Street Fighter/Tekken player you are, then playing someone online will either boost your ego, or crush it.

You have the option of turning on New Challengers while playing single player, but I recommend against doing so. For one, your single player game will be constantly interrupted by online players looking for a challenger. The other, and most important reason, is it will sometimes freeze up your game, causing you to have to exit the application, force quit it, and restart it. Looks like Capcom has some bugs they need to fix. Gamecenter didn't always sync achievements either, and a lot of time I received an eror message when trying to sync them up.

The graphics in Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile are gorgeous. The characters have nice, fluid movement to them, colors really pop (especially on the new iPad), and there are no frame rate hiccups. Sound is fantastic, with all of the grunts, screams and other assorted sounds one makes when shoryukening the crap out of someone. Special moves look amazing, especially when you're able to tag-team with your partner and pull off an awesome super combo. The music is a bit repetitive though. Up to you if you want to turn it off.

Computer A.I. isn't too bad. You have three difficulty levels to choose from. Most of the time you'll have good matches against the computer but if you want a quick win, then just shoot fireballs at the computer each round. For some reason, the computer can't get out of you doing repeated hadoukens and they'll just stand there as you fire at them. It's the cheesy, (and dishonorable), way to win, but the option is there if you're getting your ass handed to you.

Controls are just like Street Fighter IV Volt controls. You have the option of moving the joystick and buttons anywhere you like on screen. I found the controls to be pretty responsive, though sometimes my character would swap out, even if I never hit the X button. You have the option of simple button controls, or creating your own combos. You can take on combo challenges in Trial Mode (which you unlock after beating the game in single player), or you can practice your moves in Training Mode.

I was hoping for more characters and there are some bugs that need to be worked out, but Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile is a fun new entry in the ongoing Street Fighter franchise. Great graphics, sound, and gameplay, will keep you coming back until the next game comes out (hopefully with Ken). As of this writing, it's currently on sale for $2.99 (normally $4.99), so the price point isn't too bad for such a high quality fighting experience.

App Store Link: Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile for iPhone & iPad | By Capcom | Price: $2.99 | Version: 1.00.01 | 533 MB | Rating 9+