Power Rangers Legacy Wars and Street Fighter have crossed over, and we had the chance to chat with nWay about the big time partnership with Capcom.
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Fans are already getting their hands on Street Fighter characters like Ryu, Chun-Li, and Guile, and seeing those fighting game icons take on beloved characters from the Power Rangers universe is just surreal. We never thought we’d see a day where Cammy could actually fight Trakeena or Jason could fight Akuma, but here we are, and nWay’s VP of Creative Steve Kuroki gave us an exclusive breakdown on how this crossover began.
“The whole concept spawned from a “what if” scenario someone on our team drummed up,” Kuroki said. “You know what would be cool? A Street Fighter and Power Rangers crossover.” What’s funnier is that we frankly never thought a simple “what if” idea would become a reality. Luckily for us, Street Fighter’s Executive Produce Yoshinori Ono is a massive Power Rangers fan and jumped on the idea immediately. Capcom didn’t even hesitate and were just as excited as we were!”
It seems like destiny called, but now that the idea was greenlit the hard job of making it a reality began, including figuring out which Street Fighter characters would make the jump over. There’s a myriad of fan-favorites to choose from, but there were a couple that just had to be included.
“We knew from the start that Ryu and Chun-Li were must-haves, but when it came to selecting the others, we relied on Capcom to help us pick out the characters that would work best in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars,” Kuroki said.”
That led to a character lineup of Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile, Cammy, M. Bison, and Akuma, and while that doesn’t include all of the Street Fighter roster, it allows for some very interesting matchups for players.
“The beauty of this crossover is players can create the matchups they want,” Kuroki said. “We obviously love the idea of franchise titans Tommy and the Green Ranger going against Street Fighter’s Ryu. Seeing villains such as Power Ranger’s Goldar fight side-by-side with Ryu is another highlight for us. Ryu being such a stoic hero and working together with the gold-cladded monster Goldar is just pure fun!”
Ryu and Goldar on the same team is one of several possible matchups, as is Cammy alongside the Phantom Ranger or an all-villain squad that features Lord Zedd and M. Bison as part of the crew.
One of the more difficult tasks in making this crossover a reality came when nWay went to implement the specific and well-known abilities of the Street Fighter characters.
“The most difficult part of adapting the Street Fighter characters to Legacy Wars was selecting which of the characters’ special attacks would make it into the game,” Kuroki said. “Each of the characters have a lot of insane special attacks to choose from, but it really came down to what would work best for our game. At the end of the day, balance is key in a fighting game.”
The team managed to find a mix that worked, and it seems the challenge was more than worth it.
“As for the most rewarding part, it depends on who you ask, but seeing Ryu in the game for the first time was certainly a dream come true for me,” Kuroki said.
If this project is successful, assuredly fans will want to see more Street Fighter characters enter the mix somewhere down the line, but what about seeing the Power Rangers in a Street Fighter game?
“It would be cool to see, but for now our focus is to make the Street Fighter characters shine in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars,” Kuroki said. “I think we showed that the two franchises mesh well, so it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.”
Fans can download Power Rangers Legacy Wars right now on the App Store and on Google Play.
