Yoshinori Ono trolled the entire FGC, but I still want Tekken x Street Fighter

Former Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono made an appearance at EVO 2023 to troll the fighting game community about the long-forgotten possibility of a Tekken x SF crossover.

Street Fighter x Tekken first released in 2012. It’s been over ten years since this game crossed over two of the biggest fighting game franchises on the market, and fans of both series have been tentatively waiting for a second installment ever since.

Although Cross Tekken received a slew of criticism for its DLC structure and confusing gem system, the game has remained a favorite among die-hards within the community — and left fans wondering what a Tekken x Street Fighter game would look like.

It’s hard not to swoon, dreaming of seeing some of Street Fighter’s iconic characters in the Tekken style. We’ve already seen Akuma wreak havoc in Tekken 7; imagine what characters like Urien or Seth could do against the likes of Kazuya or Yoshimitsu.

Yoshinori Ono and Katsuhiro Harada troll EVO fans with Tekken x Street Fighter joke

Although a decade has passed since then, the possibility of Tekken x Street Fighter has remained in the back of players’ minds in the years afterward… and Yoshinori Ono brought it up in a viral moment at EVO 2023.

As Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada took to the main stage to make a few announcements, Ono made a sudden appearance, reminding him about the long-awaited Tekken x Street Fighter game that was once rumored to be in development.

Harada quickly shooed him off stage in a silly moment that was clearly meant as a lighthearted jab at their past collaboration; but it certainly got quite a few players extremely excited. And I was one of them!

There’s still an appetite for Tekken x Street Fighter

Although the community certainly has its (valid) complaints about how SF x Tekken turned out, in the years since, the title managed to enter a more balanced state (although it’s damn near impossible to find a way to play it these days unless you’ve got a PS3 sitting at home). The game wasn’t perfect; but it was really, really fun.

Tagging in iconic characters from Tekken and Street Fighter was extremely exciting, and still is to this day. And how could we forget the two-versus-two Scramble Battle mode that was the perfect party game for having friends over? Not to mention, the soundtrack was an absolute banger, and the character interactions were nothing short of hilarious.

Although the on-disk DLC and paid gems were frustrating, the game’s tag-team mechanic made for explosive gameplay and cool combos that were both fun and satisfying to pull off in the heat of battle. Unfortunately, Cross Tekken’s release wasn’t the smoothest, and a quality-of-life update came too little, too late into the game’s life to be of use to many players.

With the knowledge of what didn’t work for the last game, it’s highly possible that devs could make another crossover game that would bring a much-needed breath of fresh air to the FGC. A fun party game between huge franchises like this would be welcome — especially if it manages to avoid the pitfalls of its predecessor.

With Tekken 8 on the horizon and Street Fighter 6 coming fresh off a summer release, this would certainly make for yet another exciting addition to what some have taken to calling the “Golden Age” of fighting games.

Until then, I’ll be crying in a corner after Ono got my hopes up.