Is it because I hate fighting games? No! If you have read any of my blog posts or reviews, you’ll know that I love fighting games and have been playing them my whole life. So why the lack of enthusiasm for either crossover games? Probably because of how many fighting games I’ve already played. Experience has taught me to know better than to get hyped over crossover games.

When I was younger, I remember getting excited over Capcom vs. SNK, because my friends would always play Street Fighter games while I stuck with the King of Fighters series. Once I heard about Capcom vs. SNK, I thought “Yes, this is it! This is when we’ll play together and I’ll get a chance to school them at a game they actually play.” In retrospect, I could not have been dumber.

Anyone who’s played these crossover games in the past knows that incorporating character designs from another franchise is simply a ploy to attract more customers and makes little impact on the gameplay itself, the most important aspect of all.None of the SNK players ever jumped ship, nor did the Capcom players.

This will be even more evident with the advent of Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter; while the Street Fighter series runs on a 2-D plane, Tekken dukes it out in 3-D. If people play either game purely for character designs, then this is a dream come true for them. But personally, gameplay is the most important aspect and what I look at above all else. Early gameplay videos may not show what the final product for Street Fighter X Tekken will be like, but we already get the idea that this will be Super Street Fighter IV plus Tekken characters.

Is this a bad thing? No, not really. But neither game really deserves the amount of hype that it’s been getting from fans. Call it jaded or wise, either way, we know that neither game will be groundbreaking at all. Street Fighter IV was groundbreaking because it brought back the fighting game genre. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is the exact game that fans have been pining for and has a pedigree of success behind it. Where does either of these crossovers fit in and what can they do that no fighting game has done yet? Instead of thinking of it as a crossover, do yourself a favor and just think of it as a new iteration of Street Fighter or Tekken. Because that’s what it really is.

Oh yeah, I’ll still play it, if any of you are wondering.