Fighters on the PS Vita have had a huge potential due to the screen that provides crispy visuals but that potential wasn’t really utilized well because let’s face it, why would anyone want to spend so much time and effort on the Vita.

Street Fighter X Tekken is exactly the same as its console brethren minus a few graphical effects, and looks stunning on the Vita. When a game that hardly has any effort put in manages to look good by default how amazing it must be if the developers actually did something about it from the bottom of their hearts. I’m not saying the effort is missing from this game, but there could have been some Vita specific features to make it more handheld like rather than just cramming in more touch-based functions.

However, there are quite a bit of modes exclusive for the Vita which utilize its touch features, but in a way it seems minimal effort has been put in into polishing it. The game is fantastic on the Vita though, with terrific visuals that really lights up the OLED screen at night. Everything works smoothly to the controls to how your characters respond on screen. Yes, there is hardly any input lag here.

The Playstation version of the game contains a bunch of exclusive characters like Pac Man and the likes which was announced at E3 last year, and they will be available in the Vita version as well. The controls being smooth is a massive plus, because it really reduces annoyance and makes it enjoyable to play.

There is an enjoyable tutorial mode as well, which is quite in-depth and guides you through various combos ranging from basic to complex. If you’re new to fighting games you will easily get the hang of it as it is a two-versus-two fighting game and it is easy to switch between characters and even maintain combo.

There are almost 55 fighters if you count the additional DLC ones and plenty of well created stages that makes it a joy to fight in. They’re varied too. The main advantage the Vita version offers is console quality on the go and that definitely applies to this game.

The game is so identical to its PS3 version that you can even play the PS3 gamers on PSN and still have an enjoyable experience. The netcode which has been a major problem in the console versions is quite good here on the Vita version, and don’t ask me how that happened, because that’s just how it works. I guess the lack of traffic can contribute to that but the netcode is quite good.

Scramble mode online contains the ability to play against 4 players, while the Endless mode allows you to keep continuing the fight if you win. There’s also something called the Replay channel mode which allows you to view battles over PSN and even your own battles. It’s kind of like the Theatre mode of Halo games but much more advanced. You can even customize your characters using the touch feature of the screen.

The cross-compatibility is such a great feature as it enhances the online quite a bit by providing a much larger player pool to choose from. The experience isn’t skewed either. While I would have loved some handheld specific modes, there is enough content here to justify a purchase for any fighting game fan. For players new to the genre, the game is quite accessible as well, so overall Street Fighter X Tekken is one of the best games on the system.

This game was reviewed on the PS Vita.