Tekken vs Street Fighter: A Comparison

Tekken and Street Fighter could be argued to be gaming’s two greatest fighting game series. Both have a long past, and have seen release across multiple platforms. We now know that each series is receiving a new entry, with both Street Fighter V and Tekken 7 on the way. Both of these series have helped define the fighting genre, and paved the way for so many games after them. While the games are similar, at the same time, they are vastly different from one another. Here is a look at both games.

First released in 1987, Street Fighter first began with two playable characters: protagonist Ryu, and his rival Ken. Ryu was the default first player character, with Ken being the character that a challenging second player would use. Tekken first released in 1994, and featured eight default characters. Both games first released in arcades, and were later ported to home consoles. The main difference between the two games is apparent from the start: while Street Fighter is a 2-D brawler, Tekken is a 3-D fighter. This does of course separate some of the gameplay mechanics between the two games. With a 3-D perspective, it was possible to side-step in Tekken, giving the game a different layer of strategy than Street Fighter. Street Fighter makes more use of the ability to jump than Tekken does, while Tekken features ground combat not seen in the other title. Tekken is also more combo oriented than Street Fighter is; while combos can be linked in Street Fighter, Tekken features longer combos to be executed by the player. Tekken is also more aggressive than Street Fighter, with the latter being slower and more deliberate.

Tekken and Street Fighter are also different and yet similar in how the game’s are released. Over the years, only four actual entries to the series have been released in Street Fighter (though the fifth is on the way). Instead, enhanced versions of the games are released, which not only balance game mechanics, but also introduce new characters and stages. Tekken, on the other hand, only releases core editions of their titles, with the only exception being the PSP port of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection. Both games do, however, feature team-based spin-offs and crossovers. Tekken has the Tag Tournament series, which pits the series’ characters against each other in 2v2 matches. Street Fighter, on the other hand, has the Versus series, which saw characters in the series battling with other brands, such as Marvel, in team based combat. This has built up to a cross-over between Tekken and Street Fighter, aptly named Street Fighter X Tekken, with another crossover of the two games on the way. One game sees characters from both series duking it out in Street Fighter fashion, while the other will follow Tekken’s fighting engine.

Both series have been seen outside of video games. Both titles have been adapted into movies, animated and live-action. They have also both been adapted in comics and manga. Both games also had their characters featured in the card games Epic Battles and Universal Fighting System. Along with Tekken and Street Fighter, characters from Mortal Kombat and Soulcalibur were featured in these card games as well. Both franchises have stayed popular over the years, and continue to grow. With new entries in the both series on the way, it is likely that both Tekken and Street Fighter will stay popular. Both will just have to continue to battle to see who the true champion of the ring truly is.