Tekken, Dead or Alive, and Virtua Fighter are all in pretty much the same category to me. They are fighting games that I haven’t spent any real amount of time learning, but I do enjoy some button-mashing fun with friends on occasion.

So it’s true, I’m not much of a Tekken player. In fact, before my recent purchase of Tekken 6, the last Tekken I played was Tekken Tag Tournament more than 10 years ago. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t excited by the Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter announcement!

Almost immediately my mind was racing with all of the match-up possibilities we could see between the two games. There aren’t a whole lot of Tekken character I’m really fond of, but some characters that I’ve traditionally disliked (Kuma, Paul Phoenix, and Ganryu to name a few) I all of a sudden want to see face-off against their Street Fighter equivalents that I do like. Funny how things turn out.

So here are 15 Street Fighter and Tekken matchups I would like to see in the upcoming games:

The Obvious:

Rufus vs Bob

Two fat guys who move way faster than someone of their girth has any business in moving. They also resemble each other big time. Neither is really the direct copy of the other since both were announced at approximately the same time, but people have been comparing the two from the start.

Fei Long vs Marshall Law

Two uninspired yet fan-favorite Bruce Lee rip-offs!

Edmond Honda vs Ganryu

They’re pretty much the same character already.

Thunder Hawk vs Julia Chang

Battle of the Native Americans.

Zangief vs Kuma

Probably one of the most talked about match-ups on the interwebs. Sure, Zangief could be paired against King or Marduk or whoever, but who doesn’t want to see him back-up his bear-wrestling claims or eat his words?

The Judgement Calls:

Ken Masters vs Paul Phoenix

I suppose that Paul’s hair can be compared to Guile’s do, but Paul has way more in common with Ken and would make for a visually more interesting match-up.

Elena vs Eddy Gordo

I can see why Dee Jay would be picked over Elena for the Eddy Gordo match-up based on his visual cues, but I had to pick the iconic Capoeira fighters from each franchise.

Sakura Kasugano vs Asuka Kazama

Japanese school-girls who look up to the main character of the franchise? Check!

Cammy White vs Nina Williams

Because their personalities are a better match, Nina is usually paired with Chun Li. However, has a lot more in common with Cammy. They’re both blonde assassins who wear skin-tight clothing. That’s 3 reasons right there!

Dudley vs Steve Fox

Steve just seems more likely to have a rivalry with Dudley than Balrog. They both have a more controlled boxing style than Balrog’s bullish one. Also, he’s irish and Dudley is british … there’s gotta be something there.

Could have gone so many ways:

Ryu vs Jin Kazama

In the Street Fighter X Tekken teaser, we saw Ryu paired up against Kazuya. I can see why they would do that since Jin was only introduced in Tekken 3 and Ryu has always been Street Fighter’s poster boy, but I feel the argument is still in Jin’s favor. Both have an untapped potential to be the greatest thing since windshield-wipers. Both are being chased down by people who want to use them for that and both have alternate “what if” evil versions of themselves showing them after they give in … which brings me to:

Evil Ryu vs Devil Jin

If the Ryu/Jin rivalry works, so does this one. In fact, the first works mostly because of the second one.

Akuma vs Kazuya Mishima

Akuma means Devil in Japanese and Kazuya has the “devil” gene. Sound like a pretty epic match-up to me!

Chun Li vs Xiaoyu Ling

Although personality-wise they are nothing alike, it’s clear that Xiayu Ling is based primarily on Chun Li in terms of visual design. Hell, even their names sound very similar.

Gouken vs Heihachi Mishima

Battle of the ancients! Jinpachi would perhaps make a better adversary for Gouken but he’s dead and everyone knows it would be stupid of them to bring him back to life for … wait a sec …

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