Utilising the same technology that powered Street FighterTM IV & Super Street FighterTM IV, TekkenTM characters such as Kazuya Mishima and Nina Williams will make the transition into the Street FighterTM universe having been re-imagined using the much loved art style of these seminal titles; while retaining their unique characteristics and signature moves as they go head to head with classic brawlers from the Street Fighter franchise in what promises to be the ultimate match up.

As in Street Fighter IV, gameplay will feature fully realised 3D character models battling for domination in both new and familiar highly detailed 2D environments that are brought to life with engaging animations. In addition to modes such as Versus and Training that will feature new enhancements to make the fighting experience more in-depth and enjoyable, Street Fighter X Tekken will include Tag Team combat where players select two fighters to deliver knockout assist attacks and special combos.

The announcement, which took place at Comic-Con in San Diego in front of thousands of Street Fighter fans, was made by the Producer of Street Fighter X Tekken, Yoshinori Ono, and Tekken series Director, Katsuhiro Harada. Commenting on the origins of this project Yoshinori Ono said: “This is history we’re making. Two fighting games that have rivalled 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.”

Gothenburg Sweden 30 Nov 2009 – Craft Animations is extremely proud to announce that NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. (NBGI) has used Craft Director Studio to generate the animated sequences in NBGI’s newly-released TEKKEN™6. With over 2.5 million units on the market, users will greatly benefit from the vehicle and camera animations in the scenario campaign mode of the game which have been created using Craft Director Studio.

Article continues…

The killer stocking filler is on its way as NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe announces that development is complete on TEKKEN™6 for PSP, with the game hitting retailers across EMEA and PAL Asia on 11th December. Containing all the bone-crushing, over-the-top excitement of its big brothers released on Xbox 360® and PlayStation®3 in October, plus ad-hoc wi-fi versus battling, TEKKEN 6 for PSP lets players fight for the status of TEKKEN god whenever and wherever they choose.

In addition to containing all 18 battle stages and 40 playable characters in the home console version of TEKKEN 6, the PSP game also supports ad-hoc multiplayer versus battles fought across four additional stages. Battle modes include Arcade, Story, Ghost, Challenge and Practice, while the ad-hoc wi-fi features include the ability to send and receive ghost data allowing fights against opponents’ characters even when not connected with them.

NAMCO BANDAI Games today released further details about the forthcoming free downloadable update designed to improve the online game experience for players of TEKKEN™6 on Xbox 360™ and PlayStation®3. The update is scheduled for release on 26th November.

The update is separate from the online co-op Scenario Campaign mode download which is scheduled for release separately this winter.

Online gameplay enhancements in the update include the following:

• Improved input response: improvement of the game’s responsiveness to button / command inputs;

• Selectable search priorities for ranked matches: players will be able to set search priorities for opponents in ranked matches based on comparable rank or connection quality as well as location;

• Optimized data transmission between fighters and spectators: fight data will be optimized in order to reduce the bandwidth load on the host’s console;

• Signal strength bars: the signal strength bar will reflect connection quality more accurately;

• Chance to cancel match: players will be able to cancel the match before it begins once the opponent’s signal strength has been displayed on ranked matches.

We’re happy to announce of brand new photos in our Girls of Tekken series on Flickr! Following in the footsteps of Lili and Zafina, two new characters are being commemorated for their place in the rank of female Tekken fighters. Take a look and let us know what you think!

Flickr Stream

Seriously Namco? Girls of Tekken and you make an announcement that you have added two new females to the Flickr Stream… and it’s Panda and Roger. Err ok, what next female Mokujin? Was this even worth posting about on your Facebook page, wait… I’m reposting it here. Damn you! Although I do have a point, so this article may be still valid. Anyhow if you’re fans of Panda and Roger (or just secretly get off to them), there are 2 new images on the link above.

Tekken 6’s new online features were highly anticipated, but so far it’s turned out to be the game’s biggest weakness. And guess what. Katsuhiro Harada isn’t surprised.

The lag in Tekken 6’s online play is unacceptably bad and Namco Bandai knows it. They’ve vaguely said that a downloadable patch will be available “as soon as it has passed rigorous testing procedures”. Clearly, they did not do enough rigorous testing on one of the game’s key components before releasing it.

Incidentally, when we asked you what you wanted to ask Harada-san, the question over online play was raised. So when I asked him if he thinks there’s a market for online play in fighting games… he had to stop and think about it.

Article continues…

After tweeting about this issue this morning, sonic.Gorilla (@bioxeed) pointed me towards the following news article at Shacknews:

Namco Readying Tekken 6 Online Patch
In a terse mailing, Namco Bandai today passed along word that it is working on downloadable update to Tekken 6 it hopes will “improve the online game experience.”

The update will be available to players of the recently released PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 fighting game “as soon as it has passed rigorous testing procedures.” More details, including specifics on the addressed issues, are said to be coming “shortly.”

Though we’re still in the dark as to what the patch will contain, we do know that it won’t pack online cooperative play for Scenario Mode, as Namco was quite clear that the previously promised co-op update will arrive separately this winter.

Lets hope they don’t screw something over in the process (touch wood).

It may be at the top of the fighting game genre now, but the Tekken series wasn’t always popular. Katsuhiro Harada (aka Mr. Tekken) explains how Tekken fought its way to the top, and what makes it unique.

Harada-san was in Sydney last week for the worldwide launch of Tekken 6 on PS3 and XBox 360. Armed with your questions, I had a one-on-one chat with him about the past, present and future of Tekken, and more specifically, how it compares to a competing game he contributed towards: Soulcalibur.

He says that Soulcalibur’s animation was based on the code used for Tekken, but players will note that the games’ mechanics are “radically different” from each other. In fact, the two teams had completely different philosophies on what a fighting game should look like.

Article continues…