Capcom set the standard for fighting games with the seminal Street Fighter II, and then took the genre to the next level with company crossovers with Marvel (Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 3) and SNK (Capcom vs. SNK, Capcom vs. SNK 2, SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos, SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millenium). Now, Capcom has announced a partnership with Namco to produce two new new fighting games: Namco X Street Fighter and Street Fighter X Namco.

Powered by the Street Fighter IV engine, Capcom’s Street Fighter X Namco will feature Tekken characters such as Kazuya Mishima and Nina Williams as 3D character models in the familiar 2D gameplay. Street Fighter X Tekken will include Tag Team combat where players select two fighters to deliver knockout assist attacks and special combos.

Namco’s offering is Namco X Street Fighter which whisks Capcom’s combatants into the Tekken universe. Street Fighter had previously jumped to the third dimension with the ho hum Street Fighter EX series, but that game was set up in Capcom’s fireball-ridden universe. Tekken, despite it horrid air juggles, is more grounded in a reality where sonic booms are absent. It seems unlikely that Namco will build a new engine from scratch to accommodate this, so I suspect that fireballs will be modified into moves that are given a more realistic touch.

The games are being developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Exact release dates are unknown.