Fresh for Tokyo Game Show '11, Capcom has pushed out a new trailer for Street Fighter x Tekken, revealing some new characters and gameplay nuances. Rolento? Fuck yes, I've been begging for this guy in a Street Fighter game, as he was one of my favorites in Street Fighter Alpha 2, also known as the greatest Street Fighter game ever made. Also confirmed are Heihachi, Zangief, Rufus, and some chick named Lili. Lili? Beats the hell out of me. Capcom has also taken the liberty of adding two more joke characters in the form of Toro and Kuro, stick figure cats with huge heads created by Sony Computer Entertainment (PS3 and Vita exclusive). If your game features a big brown bear that farts in a fighter's face - very mature - why not add a few fighting felines?
In addition to new characters, the beans have been spilled on more of the game's mechanics. Most notable is Pandora, a colorful space cube that has the world warriors all purple and bothered. Is this Street Fighter x Tekken's attempt at story? Aw, how cute. In the vein of Marvel vs. Capcom 3's X-Factor, Pandora appears to gives its user a huge boost in power, in exchange for sacrificing their partner's entire life. It sounds like an even trade, but I'm sure it ain't. Ten bucks says Pandora starts way overpowered, with a post-release patch necessary to tune it down. Typical Capcom.
Some other neat additions are 4-player tag battles, where each player controls one character. This practice should be the norm in tag battle games now, so I'm glad Capcom is adopting the idea. Also, the absolutely insane 4-player simultaneous battle, which is what it sounds like. Fun but head-spinningly confusing. You can practice your tag combos in online training mode, with a buddy across the country, and configure to automatically join an online battle against two others with your partner in tow.
Street Fighter x Tekken is going to be a solid game, there's no doubt about it. The real question is, will Super Street Fighter x Tekken cost $60 when it releases in early 2013?
Update: Joystiq has corraled some info from Capcom's Seth "S-kill" Killian, and it turns out Pandora has stipulations. It can only be activated when one of your characters has less than 25% health, and immediately kills that character. The surviving tag partner will have an unlimited EX meter for 8 seconds, after which that character will also die. Now that's a last stand.