Updated with official footage from Bandai-Namco!
Excuse me sir, you seem to have gotten some Street Fighter in my Tekken game…
Today there was a King of the Iron Fist Tournament in Japan for the Tekken gaming series, a lot of the fights were done with the Tekken 7 arcade units. Personally, I have no idea who won, but Director and Producer Katsuhiro Harada announced an upcoming major update for the game titled “Fated Retribution,” which will bring new characters, costumes and a graphics overhaul.
One of these new characters… AKUMA FROM STREET FIGHTER!!
Now the crossover between Tekken & Street Fighter is old news. Capcom did their spot with the Street Fighter X Tekken game a couple of years back. It featured characters from both franchises fighting one another. We also had the i games, but they don’t count. However, this is something completely different. This is the first time that someone from not only outside the Tekken roster has appear in a mainline Tekken game; but this is the first time that someone from outside the Namco Bandai family of games has come into the Tekken games from a whole different company.
Akuma looks to not only be a selectable fighter in Tekken 7, but he looks to be a part of the main plot for the game too. Something to do with stopping Heihachi and Kazuya… I’m not too familiar with the story for this game as I’m waiting for the home console port that will appear sometime in the future. However, going from the clips in the trailer that was shown at King of the Iron Fist 2015, there seems to be some links between the Tekken series “Devil Gene” and the Street Fighter “Satsui no hadou” (or Dark Hadou) power. I’m sure more will be revealed once people get their hands on the game.
Gameplay wise, nothing has been revealed. However, once again going by the trailer (which you can watch below) Akuma looks to be very much a clone of his Street Fighter IV incarnation, complete with Hadoukens, Shoryukens, and everything else… Including the Shun Goku Satsu (or Raging Demon); which is really damn cool.
I personally can’t wait to get my hands on it now since, at this point in time, Akuma is not available in Street Fighter V (Yet).