great name bad product, as a pro gamer this has to be the worst game next to capcoms fighting evolution, Im so discusted in this title, I honestly am ashamed to have purchaces this title. the gem system is a huge step backwards, infinite combos, what is this killer instinct, i mean seriously if i jab someone the game is over, I can combo until game is over. I know that there are fanboys here and good for you guys, but as a japanese gamer this game made me go out and purchase King of Fighters 13, wow capcom just wow. you guys messed up so bad. OMG you better fix this crap, balance the characters, minimize the ginormous hitboxes, enable blocking, fix the online volume issues, fix the frame combos, and get rid of the easy combos. or just remame the game as Streetfighter vs Tekken, training wheel edition.

for the new fanboys grow up play a real game ssf4 ae, kof 13, sf3 capcom vs snk, tekken5,6 virtual fighter 5, doa4, something that require skill this game gets a solid 2 of 10, its not a waste if capcom fixes it

This is a good review, but if you want to read a more detailed review into the games mechanics and combo system, you guys are welcome to read my review at www.callofgamerz.tk

They have all this DLC at launch, cough before launch, and then there are going to be one or two different editions of the game? I generally don't like fighters, cause they generally suck, but the base of fighting gamers are really feeding the beast here.

@MasterRain said:

Well if you did your research that's why the 12 characters are on the disk, they said there will never be a new disk based update, and will be selling the new characters when the vita version is released.

If you believe them, you're high. They were PRing it up when MVC3 came out too, only to release ultimate 9 months later.

And really, why do they have to be on-disc anyway? Why not just release the whole game and be done with it? There's other ways to keep it in the public eye.

I wouldn't go so far as to say the online is broken or a mess, that's reserved for games who's online is actually broken. The gameplay is just as fast and furious online as it is off. I've only had the audio clip off on me during the first couple of days and I seriously haven't had it happen to me since. And I was thinking the same thing about blocking incoming attacks until I learned a little more about the recovery times of the moves. What might have been safe to poke with or throw out there in SSFIV might not be so safe in SFxTK. After looking at frame data I learned I learned why that was. A lot of what I was throwing out there just wasn't safe. Also the recovery times of anything done as part of the boost combo (Light-Medium-Heavy) is different than just linking a light and medium attack (outside of a boost combo). Jeff, if you're getting pounded from one combo after another, it's probably not the fault of online. It sounds as if you spent only a couple of days with it, thought that was enough, and then sat down to write the review. You're right about the menus thing though, that's for sure. I have to say that this is the first time that I've read one of your reviews and said, "Are you serious?!"

Man, I was expecting really good things from this. That's pretty disappointing.

@m2cks said:

I'm just gonna wait for the updated Super Street Fighter x Tekken to come out in October. Or maybe I'll wait even longer and get Super Street Fighter x Tekken Arcade Edition next year.

Or maybe I'll just wait for Capcom to quit with their bullshit and just release games normally without any "updated" rehashes.

Forever seems like a long wait.

Well if you did your research that's why the 12 characters are on the disk, they said there will never be a new disk based update, and will be selling the new characters when the vita version is released.

And what's wrong with the 'rehashes' anyway? You don't have to buy them, casuals will have stopped playing by then anyway, and people who love fighting games WANT the new version.

@buzz_killington said:

@Undeadpool said:

@buzz_killington said:

Hey Jeff, is Capcom not buying enough ads from CBS to be displayed on Gamespot? Obviously biased review...

And so we begin. "I disagree with this review, therefore CBS BOUGHT/DIDN'T BUY IT!!!"

*cough* sarcasm *cough*

Aaaaaaaaaaaah damnit. Yeah, I kinda thought it might be after I wrote it, but A) Text. B) A few people actually ARE freaking out.

Anyway, apologies.

Really eager to see what Tekken X Street Fighter will be like.

It's only a matter of time before Jeff gets himself fired at this rate.

:-p

How can a game with completely broken online play still get 3 stars?

@Undeadpool said:

@buzz_killington said:

Hey Jeff, is Capcom not buying enough ads from CBS to be displayed on Gamespot? Obviously biased review...

And so we begin. "I disagree with this review, therefore CBS BOUGHT/DIDN'T BUY IT!!!"

*cough* sarcasm *cough*

@Legend: @Legend said:

@Legendary said:

Kinda sucks they can't fix the online though.

Did Capcom say the online won't be fixed? I was waiting for it to be fixed before I buy the game..

I thought Capcom said it was a trade off, that the sound is fucked up to compensate for lag. Who knows, it's a new netcode and they probably can fix it, maybe. I'm not holding my breath for it however, haha.

I love the shit out of this game. True, it has its flaws... and it feels super rushed. But I'm confident that Capcom will patch it up eventually. I play online every day and its completely playable. Everyone... EVERYONE should be playing this game.

I'm just gonna wait for the updated Super Street Fighter x Tekken to come out in October. Or maybe I'll wait even longer and get Super Street Fighter x Tekken Arcade Edition next year.

Or maybe I'll just wait for Capcom to quit with their bullshit and just release games normally without any "updated" rehashes.

Forever seems like a long wait.

Seems a little strange to me how much people are complaining about the netcode... It doesn't seem any worse then SF4 at my house... I'm assuming most of you guys having issue are playing on Xbox?

Cuz while I did see some of the lag and audio issues the first day (on Ps3), once I switched to only playing within my region (and not the defualt, "any"), everything started working great. I would honestly say now that I get maybe 1 in 10 matches that have any noticable lag or audio issues...

And I'm playing over Wifi, on a shared connection with two other ppl in my house who run Netflix 24-7...

Couldn't agree more with him on the gems though; holy hell did they screw that stuff up. It is such a royal pain in the arse to deal with any of that, and the whole "pay to win" aspect of it is really, really gross.

Tekken shouldnt be in this broken Capcom game.

'Law can really lay down the... uh...'

That's fantastic, but where is Law in that picture? :P

Hmmm the cartoon and article header are looking a little wonky to me.. Not sure if it is just my browser or what.

I haven't had much trouble with the online, except for the fact that most of the attack sound effects just drop out during most of the game, and those are pretty integral. I haven't completed a match where I felt I was left open to attacks when I shouldn't have been or anything like that. The only other issue I noticed was strange: I was playing a guy who was using Bob, yet Bob's super art, in this particular match at least, seemed to do no damage to me whatsoever. It was either that or the damage just wasn't reflected by my health gauge.

But, aside from that, the point remains that this game is most fun when you have a friend playing with you in the same room. In fact, that's true about every fighting game probably, which is why arcades were awesome when they still existed where I live.

I know it's just a number, but I don't think bad online play and the weird implementation of the gem system is enough to bring this down a full two stars. First of all, I'm fairly sure that the online bugs can be patched. If for some reason they can't, then okay, it doesn't deserve more than 3 stars...but again I prefer to play locally with friends who grew up playing SF and Tekken in the arcades like I did. I loooove Capcom, but strangely enough the only fighting game I play online regularly is Soul Calibur V.

And as far as the gems go, I honestly didn't see them ever being crucial in winning a match, whether it was me or who I was fighting. But still, whenever I'd pick a new character, realizing that I hadn't configured his/her gems how I wanted, I definitely felt the need to go back and do so as soon as possible, just because the fucking one empty gem slot was frustrating to even look at. By now I'm sure people have figured out gem combinations that totally work for them and help them kick ass all over the place, but I haven't. That being said, I do think it makes more sense to have these gems on a per character basis, but they could have easily just had a few sets of default gems that could be applied to any character in the selection screen. But again, this could be easy just to patch in too, couldn't it? Hopefully they're not taking notes and saving all the fixes for a "Super" or "Ultimate" SFvTK.

But I'm not criticizing Jeff's review, just giving another perspective. This seems to be a polarizing game. I'm actually still kinda stunned they even pulled it off. But, I love it, you may hate it...it has flaws as all games do. Hopefully online issues will be fixed, if not, the core game is enough for me...but I understand that that's not the case with everyone.

Also, I got the special edition just by pre-ordering the game, maybe the special edition is only more expensive if you hadn't pre-ordered it, I dunno. Yeah, I got a ton of extra gems, but the real prize was the awesome arcade cabinet piggy bank. All my change in one place, fuck yeah! And in a tiny arcade machine, no less. I think they're trying to say something...arcades are dead, so now your change belongs in fake arcade machines.

I agree with the review for the most part, but not about the netcode. As someone who was driven away by the input delay netcode of SF4 and MvC3, it's great to finally have a game with decent rollback netcode. It's no GGPO, and the sound issue is irritating, but the important thing is that there isn't significant input delay. You can react to things, and your combo timing isn't changed between online and offline play. Also, though I know this doesn't excuse having this sort of issue at launch, the sound bug is going to be patched.

I kind of hesitate to mention this because if I'm wrong I don't want to come across like I'm blaming you for the game's faults, but there are a lot of tricky overheads in this game. There are overheads that look nothing like traditional Street Fighter overheads, and a few command throws that look like hits. If your main problem with the netcode was blocking, part of me thinks that it may have just been that you weren't recognizing how some of these attacks had to be defended against.

This seems a fair score from the little I have played with my friend who is really into fighting games. When we were playing at his place it was great time but he was talking about how broken the online is and he is running a super fast fibre optic connection at his house

I'll get it when its cheap. I've learned my lesson, I wont be buying anymore Capcom fighters at full price.

This sure is timely.....

@Legendary said:

Kinda sucks they can't fix the online though.

Did Capcom say the online won't be fixed? I was waiting for it to be fixed before I buy the game..

I like the game but it is broken. Sux that games being broken on launch are whats expected.

Bought it at launch and love it.

Capcom, fix your shit.

First you launch MVC3 without a spectator mode and now you launch SFxT with sound glitches and lag online. I personally have no problem with gems, but they're implemented so poorly that they're already patching the game to make gems less bad.

If the game isn't finished, you should wait for a while before releasing it. No one's gonna hate you for delaying a game, in fact, they'll respect you more for taking your time and not releasing a half-assed product like this.

Couldn't agree more with the review - especially the "its a shame the online is so borked cause the core game is fun" - i can't get down with the people complaining about the selling of power, because to my eyes (and i play alot of fighters) the gems (even DLC ones) seem fairly balanced. Any powerful ones have really large draw backs.

Its such a shame that the sound is as broken as it is. I personally think the netcode is ok, but its hard to "feel" the match when you dont have any audio feedback. What with Microsofts policy of patches taking forever to vet, and capcoms slow patching i cant see it getting fixed in a hurry and the community will fall to a minimum with only crazy hardcores left (and most of us cant live with them online). Shame on capcom because the core game is just great, great, fun.

Opinion Validated!

If they could come up with a single player mode that was half as good as MK then maybe I would consider buying it. But if the online modes are as finicky as it sounds then I'm going to pass.

I have to disagree personally. The online is certainly marred by the sound problem but the actual gameplay is the best I've played; especially with more than 2 players which was terrible in Mortal Kombat. The matchmaking is easier and quicker for me too. The online is far from unplayable, not that it's especially acceptable, but I hardly notice the sound issue now.

The gems system I find unnecessary but generally inoffensive. Sure, it's unwieldy to set up gems for several characters, but if you don't spend any time with a single team, chances are you don't really need gems to play the way you want to.

With the online, are people playing anyone in the world? I currently only play with others in the UK, though I played anyone in Europe in the SF4 series, assuming they had full bars. It would be damn near impossible to have good matches across continents, just on a logistic level. I can find solid connection matches at any time without having to spend two minutes refreshing the open lobbies like in SSFIV.

3 stars in probably appropriate for the average person who plays games, but for those of us who enjoy the genre, specifically the recent SF4 series additions, it's damn near the best game in a long time. The depth is up there with SF4, but the combo system and team elements give you so much more to do than in those games. I was very sceptical through SFxT's development, but after seeing pros play it on Cross Assault and a few other places, showing us what you can actually do in the game, I couldn't wait to get it.

The genre's still too niche and hard to get into for broad appeal, but I would really urge any SF4 players to pick it up. If you're already invested in the genre, this game is completely worth a purchase.

Love the game so far, yeah the online is dodgy but got into a lot of good games.

I'm still not exactly sure what those GEMS are and if they're that useful in the end...

Three stars feels a little harsh for this game. It seems the issues are patch-able, and the customization is clumsy but it's not exactly rocket science.

The core game itself is absolutely fantastic and the best fighting game I've played in a long time. Easily the best Street Fighter game.

@BombaLuigi said:

@MormonWarrior said:

@BombaLuigi said:

@mnzy said:

@MysteriousBob said:

Sorry, but I can't take a single fighting game review from Jeff seriously ever since he gave MKvsDC a five.

That game had shallow gameplay and unplayable online, so how is that the best of its genre?

MK9s online is also way worse than SFxTs and that got five stars, too.

mk9s online was not "worse", it was broken like, broken, it wasnt working, it took up to 10minutes to find matches which had like up to 3 (and more) seconds lag, even in private matches, which by a 90% chance desynced halfway through anyway... and the later added dlc characters introduced compatiblity issues...

sfxt's online on the other hand IS working, and the netcode is @#!*% @#!*% fine... yes it has sound issues, but its nowhere near as broken as mk9s online, which, again, simply didnt work at all... but whatever, hi ed, 5/5 and goty contender, grab a beer and say funny stuff into our camera please...

In all fairness, he did say that MK's single player was good enough to warrant five stars on its own. And the online seemed to be working mostly fine when he reviewed it, then it was totally broken later. The online issues ended up keeping it out of their GOTY top 10.

Laggy fighter gameplay online is pointless. I remember trying to play matches of Smash Bros. online a few years ago and it was so laggy that you had no time to react to anything. Kinda made me wonder why it even had an online mode in the first place.

yeah, but why even consider it then? they almost discussed like one and a half hour about mk9 making the list or not, which at that point should've been out of question right away... in that podcast he even said he wanted to play it online, but he couldnt, cause it was broken, yet they had to discuss the "goty" issue for more than one hour.... come on... good story mode or not, it was a fighting game in 2011, an online mode that broken is not excusable... its a given fact that mk is stronger with the gb crew than the sf franchise and they (jeff and brad) were pretty hyped for mk9... i can live with that, but ranting on sfxt for a non-issue, thats a real issue with mk, which gets away with an almost-goty nomination, thats a bit to obvious...

and for the record, sfxts online is not laggy, sure, you'll get your laggy connections to certain folks as with every other game, but usally i can play with us-based guys (i live in germany) perfectly fine...

fyi, im not ranting that sfxt did not get 5 stars, its not a 5 star game... but so wasnt mk9, or mkvsdc... but some of the stuff in the review feels like random rants, like "i feel like i did block this, but then i didnt"... yes, he didnt, its called overhead, there are plenty of them within the tekken side of things... and they dont look like it... also, this game is heavily about frametraps, press a button at the wrong time, you'll eat 40%, thats how the game plays...

Didn't Ryan and Vinny argue for MK... and they dont even play online? They both loved the story mode. Jeff said no b/c of the online problems (which was kinda lame then, b/c online is working fine now). But MK9 was a pretty feature heavy package and had a ton of content, they had a full fledged story mode, plus an arcade story ladder for each character. Toss in the Tower stuff and you have a game that you can spend hours with and not even go online. And even-then the online was shotty, but stable. It got really bad post release (I was on PS3 and PSN had blacked out) so i can't testify for the quality.

SFxT, needs to get that sound stuff fixed. I played pretty heavy for awhile, got tired of my sound cutting out, and I'm gonna wait for the patch. It's just too disorienting and can knock off your game if you can tell if you got hit, or if your hit connected. For MK9, there was stuff to do outside of online, for SFxT, not so much. You have the Trials, and arcade ladder, but most players will learn their 2-3 main combos and stick to that,

And setting up Gems... SUUUUUUUUCCCCKKK. Cannot wait for the Tournament patch.

I've been playing the game non-stop since release and have never felt like I got hit by something I blocked. I'm wondering if Jeff just got hit by this game's super ambiguous cross-ups. I'm sure the sound bugs are annoying but I don't usually play fighting games with sound on so they haven't bothered me.

@BombaLuigi said:

@mnzy said:

@MysteriousBob said:

Sorry, but I can't take a single fighting game review from Jeff seriously ever since he gave MKvsDC a five.

That game had shallow gameplay and unplayable online, so how is that the best of its genre?

MK9s online is also way worse than SFxTs and that got five stars, too.

mk9s online was not "worse", it was broken like, broken, it wasnt working, it took up to 10minutes to find matches which had like up to 3 (and more) seconds lag, even in private matches, which by a 90% chance desynced halfway through anyway... and the later added dlc characters introduced compatiblity issues...

sfxt's online on the other hand IS working, and the netcode is damn fucking fine... yes it has sound issues, but its nowhere near as broken as mk9s online, which, again, simply didnt work at all... but whatever, hi ed, 5/5 and goty contender, grab a beer and say funny stuff into our camera please...

€: "I feel like I'm constantly saying "I totally blocked that" as I eat up combo after combo." Overheads, the tekken guys have plenty of overhead stuff which doesnt look like it would acutally hit overhead, but it totally does...

If I remember correctly Netherrealm broke the online after launch and after the reviews went out.

So this makes it possible for Tekken x Street Fighter to be better, huh? Interesting...

The game seems just fine as a fighting game and will hopefully last a while competitively, but as a product, Capcom has really messed this up. Alternate colors need to be patched in? Online bugs that weren't in any versions of SFIV or MvC3? And needing to pay $80 for the real game with the full roster? Come on.

I was really rooting for Street Fighter x Tekken to ring in a two out of five stars.

One thing I'm curious about re: Special Edition Gems, is that Jeff said some are unilaterally better than the standard version, but he never mentioned activation requirements. If I were going to balance something like that, I'd just make it harder to activate the "better" gem.

Remember when all the Blazblue fans were convinced that the reason Jeff gave it a middling score was because it didn't have Street Fighter in the title?

Ha.

Hopefully the recently announced patch earlier today will fix the online sound issues for good. I kind of agree with the 3 stars though, because even though it's an awesome fighting game, the busted sound online and weird gem stuff is seriously off-putting. I've not had too much lag when playing online, but the sound genuinely puts me off playing.

@shamanultra: Until the servers go down

I don't think online should factor that much into the review since it will get better eventually and thus it was only bad for a few weeks but then good for the rest of eternity.

@SpudBug said:

Jeff is entitled to his opinion but I feel that the online issues are not enough to bring down a basically very solid fighting game. I always consider online to be more for training and learning combos. Real competition is local play. Find a scene and really learn to play a fighter. I feel like online is always a poor, poor representation of this genre anyway so a few glitches don't really matter. The online is full of assholes spamming shoryukens as ken/Ryu/Akama teams anyway. I would have given it 4/5, but I'm also not Jeff. I wonder if his opinions would be more positive if they played more local matches more seriously among his group of friends.

This is a world where people play online most of the time, not locally. It being basically poop doesn't mean you should disregard it because you "should" play locally.

Even though I'm a huge fan of this game, I'm fine with it getting 3 stars instead of 4 or 5 because of all the gem and DLC nonsense. Just poorly put together and implemented.

Jeff's online problems, though...aside from the sound issues, I've had no problems, and haven't heard of anyone else I know of having any. I'm totally lost at this "I was blocking" thing. Maybe, like others said, Jeff wasn't aware some of the Tekken characters hit "mid" and it's not quite apparent until you play them a lot.

And honestly, I think the Tekken characters are the best part of the game. Projectiles aren't even a huge deal in SF anymore (Yun, Yang, Fei Long, Rufus prove that), so them not many isn't a hindrance, and learning how to play as them is just a lot of fun.

But, yeah, I completely understand where Jeff is coming from otherwise. It's a great game wrapped in a pretty bummer of a package.

@buzz_killington said:

Hey Jeff, is Capcom not buying enough ads from CBS to be displayed on Gamespot? Obviously biased review...

And so we begin. "I disagree with this review, therefore CBS BOUGHT/DIDN'T BUY IT!!!"

@Maajin said:

@msavo said:

I dunno Jeff this got an 8.5 from your sister site, Gamespot.

That's good, isn't it? Proves what they've been saying, they're not bound to GS review scores and so on.

Dingdingding, we haaaave a wiiiiiiinaaaaah!

Fair enough... Though popular opinion is that playing and being good online is really pointless when majors happen. I'm lucky enough to have a strong enough scene in my area to get my grind on with a lot of solid players. Gems are nice but they really are almost irrelevant. In tournaments they are banned, as a matter of convince. There really isn't that much of a difference in terms of Speed, which doesn't add to being able combos not possible before, dmg is ok I guess, Meter conservation is meh. I get for the majority online is a vital and it should work accordingly but this isn't new and even at it's best, it'll never compare to training offline..