Namco X Capcom Industry Fight Club Christmas Special For GamesAid

Last night I was fortunate enough to attend the UK Games Industry's Christmas Fight Club. Organised by Namco and Capcom, it was an evening of intense rivalries between different industry factions, with grudge matches such as:

• Sony vs  Microsoft
• Imagine vs Future
• SEGA vs Nintendo
• 2K vs Ubisoft
• Target Media vs Maverick
• Premier PR vs Indigo Pearl
• Capcom vs Namco
• Access TV vs Inside Xbox
• VG247 vs Destructoid

Despite all of the pre-match smack talk, everyone in the Games Industry had come together to the event to help raise money for GamesAid; a UK video games industry based charity that distributes funds to a diverse range of charities. At the time of writing this, over £6200 was raised from the event's entrance fees alone. Mirroring the industry's solidarity, we were also honoured with the attendance of Katsuhiro Harada and Yoshinori Ono, producers of the Tekken and Street Fighter franchises respectively; both of whom have had a long standing rivalry over the years, but yet have collaborated closely together on their upcoming crossover ventures.

Amongst the freeplay arcade machines (and the only time I'll be able to afford to complete Time Crisis 3) pool tables, bowling, dodgems, the DJ, breakdancing troupe and the bar, there were about over three dozen screens set up with Namco and Capcom titles such as Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Soul Calibur V, Street Fighter x Tekken, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken 6, Tekken 3D Prime Edition, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Dragonball Ultimate Tenkaichi.

Soul Calibur V

Having arrived promptly for the 6pm start, I had the luxury of being able to choose which any of the games on offer. The lure of  the appearance of everyone's favourite Italian master assassin proved too much and so I started by testing Ezio Auditore's skill set against new and returning cast of the Soul Calibur universe. As expected his primary weapon were his hidden blades, but he also utilises his dagger, sword and crossbow as well as his hidden pistol. As a result, he has to fight at much closer range than most other characters when using normal attacks. Ezio unsheathes his sword for heavy attacks as well as during combos.

From long range, Ezio can use his crossbow attack in either standing or crouching positions. However, when standing, Ezio spins to face his opponent before firing and ultimately gives the opponent time to sidestep out of the way. Another long range attack is his hidden pistol shot, which is unblockable, but can be avoided by ducking and sidestepping.

Ezio's Critical Edge attacks his opponent with every single weapon in his arsenal; finishing off the combo with the crossbow and the adversary's slow-motion 'dying swan-like' fall to the ground. A thing of cinematic beauty!

What slightly concerned me when I played as Ezio was his attack speed. He didn't feel like he was as fast as other characters, whom similarly fight in the same proximity to their opponents. I'm not hugely experienced with Soul Calibur titles, but it could have been the lack of weapon animation, given the nature of the hidden blades, that might have given me that impression. The fact that I'm currently playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and the sluggishness of the AI enemies in that game might also have led me to believe that Ezio is much faster than he really is. It might explain why I was beating much better players who were using Ezio and I was button mashing with a mid-range fighter like Patroklos.


Street Fighter x Tekken

As you would expect from the Capcom beat 'em up, Street Fighter x Tekken plays a lot like Super Street Fighter IV. This is especially so for the Capcom's side of the roster, but I personally struggled with the Tekken characters. It could be that I genuinely don't know what their moves or that I Tekken is slower paced than it's Capcom counterpart, but it does means that Capcom have done an excelletn job replicating Namco's style of gameplay.

One issue that I hope is fixed by release is the load times. There were occasions where I had chosen finalised both of my choices from the character select screen and neither images had appeared on the screen until five seconds later. Each match also took 30+ seconds to load before starting, which was tortuously slow especially when compared to the load times of Super Street Fighter IV or Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.


The Friendly Rivalry

We all know that Ono-san and Harada-san are good friends and are always up for entertaining an audience. But seeing Ono-san and Harada-san dressed as Father Christmas and an elf respectively competing to see who could eat the most mince pies in a minute is undoubtedly one of the more stranger moments of the year!

A massive thank you Lee Kirton, Hollie Bennett & Peter Oliver of Namco Bandai for organising such a memorable evening! Same again next year? :D