The look of Street Fighter X Tekken is quite familiar to Street Fighter IV fans. Pretty much everything is rendered in 3D, but constrained to a 2D plane. That doesn't mean characters don't occasionally get thrown into the foreground, or otherwise break from their 2D plane. The style can't be called super-realistic, but it does stay more realistic than cartoonish. It's definitely going to be a change for Tekken fans, but I personally think the expressions and artistic style Capcom brings really do improve the look of most of the Tekken fighters.

The sound is standard, high-quality Capcom fare. It's got a lot of guitar and rock flavor, with fast beats and electronic keyboard stuff thrown in for good measure. It's going to be very familiar to Street Fighter fans. I'm not familiar with the music of Tekken as being anything that really stuck with you (it always sounded pretty generic to me), but it fits with the style of that game as well.

Street Fighter X Tekken is a crossover between, of course, Street Fighter and the 3D arcade fighter Tekken. It's a crossover I don't think anyone saw coming, but heck, everyone's getting in on the crossover fun these days. The story centers around the characters from both games pursuing a mysterious box hidden in Antarctica. The box is called Pandora, so chances are it doesn't contain world peace. Some fight to keep it out of the hands of evil, some are the evil. Nah, the story wasn't pulled from any literary masterpiece, but it's decent enough for your average fighter.

Street Fighter X Tekken continue's Capcom's trend of creating fighters that are accessible to the first time or novice fighting game player. I won't say this makes a game that plays itself. There's still a lot to learn, a whole lot of customization, and a whole lot to practice. Street Fighter X Tekken simply finds ways to put training wheels on when you need them.

One new feature to this game is the Gem system. You can add custom Gems to your fighter in order to customize your character to your preferred style of gameplay. Each Gem has a condition associated with it. For example, an Onslaught Lv. 1 Gem may require you to connect with 3 Special Moves to trigger its effect of 20% increased Cross Gauge acquisition rate. Don't like that trigger condition? You can choose another Onslaught Gem with a different trigger condition. The Special Edition DLC pack basically gives you a ton of new Gems with various conditions and effects to play around with. A lot of these DLC Gems are identical to the ones already included with the game, but the DLC Gems do not include a detrimental effect such as reduced speed. If you ask me, it requires a ridiculous level of drilling down, comparing, and sorting to really compare them all. But if you do look through them, Gems will offer you a way to build a character suited to you. Another drawback is the fact that you can't currently alter your Gem setup while choosing your characters, but this should be coming as an update down the pipeline.

It may be a small thing, but the character intros before each match are actually pretty fun. Put together a "standard" team like Bison and Yuri, and they'll have a special introduction where they have some custom lines and interaction. The Poison and Hugo team will of course start with Poison sitting on Hugo's shoulder, for example. Zangief and Rufus have an intro that I can only describe as... Power Rangers and/or Sailor Moon. It's really just awesome. Even if you don't put the correct teams together, the non-custom intros are still entertaining (A subtitled bear? Awesome).

Online play of course lets you go head-to-head with opponents on Xbox Live. The more unique feature is the co-op play option. You can play online with a friend on a co-op team. You can play with your real life, smelly (maybe) friends as well. Co-op means you don't always have to play against each other, but you can play up each other's strengths. You tag your partner in at key times to help each other win the match, or at least to prevent a lost match by getting your injured self out of there. For utter chaotic fun, you can also try a Scramble Battle. 4 players are simultaneously on the screen battling each other as teams.

Unfortunately, online play is marred by some performance issues. If you don't have a pretty decent, lag-free connection, you'll experience some jarring rollback issues (the game goes back in time a bit to make up for lag). Also, very often, you won't hear the voice or sound effects for certain moves.

Several features make it easier for the novice player to pick up Street Fighter X Tekken and go. The most unique feature to Tekken is the Gem system. You can equip certain Gems before each fight to aid your playing style. Assist Gems are the main crutch for new players, and can do things like prevent their character from being thrown or making Special Moves easier to perform. Of course, there's also a thorough tutorial system to walk you through the basics, and the more advanced features of the game. Actually, you will probably want to spend a few hours in this section, even if you are a decent fighter, just because there are so many concepts to pick up.

Of course, hardcore fighting hell is there for those that are looking for it. None of these training wheels need to be used, and you can up the difficulty for a real challenge. For a side challenge, you can undertake Missions that will give the player very specific, difficult conditions for winning. You might not be able to use Special moves, or you might have to endure a long line of fighters. Either way, you can find your preferred level and enjoy the game.

Street Fighter X Tekken is a solid playing game, just what you'd expect from Capcom. A fighting stick helps, but isn't totally necessary to excel with this game. Regardless, this game is a responsive, solid fighter, with lots of options to ramp up your efficiency and gameplay style as you progress and become better skilled. Just be sure you haven't worn any buttons out on your controller before you take your moves out online.

Overall, newer fighters like Street Fighter X Tekken do their best to be inclusive, but they do pile on a bit of overload. For fans of Tekken, the wait for a crossover is finally over. They've been absorbed into a Street Fighter style, more or less, but it does work. I'll be the first to admit I'm not great at fighters, but I can tell a solid fighter when I come across one.