Brawlhalla x Street Fighter collaboration adds Ryu, Chun-Li and Akuma. please
Brawlhalla and Street Fighter collide today in one of the biggest free-to-play platform fighter crossovers yet. Ryu, Chun-Li and Akuma join Brawlhalla’s cast as Epic Crossovers at a special event, bringing their best moves – including Ryu’s Hadoken and Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick – to battle. The event also adds a new game mode: Street Brawl, which adds health bars for Street Fighter style one-on-one battles. Players can fight on a new map based on Suzaku Castle (Ryu’s classic stage), or obtain a Podium patterned after Kapukon Yu (E. Honda’s stage), and a new Street Fighter-style KO effect, an emote , based on Akuma’s Satsui no Hado victory pose and avatars featuring Zangief, the Shadaloo emblem, a Hadoken, and an animated quarter-circle punch.
Of course, such crossovers don’t just happen – they are the result of careful planning and collaboration between companies, as well as deep affection and respect for a franchise that Brawlhalla’s developers grew up with. To learn more about how it all came about, we spoke to Josh Kenneth, international product manager at Brawlhalla developer Blue Mammoth Games.
How did this crossover start? Was it something fans asked for?
Josh Kenneth: Like every Crossover we do, it started because we love the property and its characters. For this one, we thought, “We grew up with Street Fighter, and it’s great. Can we do a crossover with them?” Fans also have a lot of Crossovers they want in Brawlhalla. It’s usually that person’s favorite IP address x Brawlhalla, and we started to see a lot of Street Fighter suggestions. Brawlhalla is a fighting game, so it makes sense that fans want us switch to another fighting game it fits great.
Although Brawlhalla and Street Fighter are both fighting games, they have very different gameplay styles. Brawlhalla allows you to take on multiple opponents at once and is more focused on free fights, while Street Fighter focuses on 1v1 matches and feature set combos. Why does it make sense to bring them together?
kenneth: This Brawlhalla x Street Fighter Crossover is our first Crossover with another fighting game. We’ve made leaps into crossovers with TV franchises, such as Adventure Time, TMNT, and WWE, and into other video game genres, such as Rayman, Shovel Knight, and Tomb Raider. So while it makes sense to bring them together in fighting games, all the differences in the styles are also what makes it so much fun. With this Crossover, we’ve been able to bridge a gap between traditional 2D fighters and platform fighters, and it’s great.
Epic crossover for Petra
Ryu always tries to find the next strongest opponent to improve himself. Many of his iconic techniques have been transferred to Brawlhalla, such as the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, Shoryuken and Hadoken.
Street Fighter characters have a familiar feel and fighting rhythms; what was it like adapting these characters to Brawlhalla? What made Petra, Wu Shang and Val the right characters for these epic crossovers?
kenneth: We knew we wanted the most iconic attacks for each character. For Ryu this meant, for example, the Hadoken, Tatsumaki Senpukyaku and the Shoryuken. Petra, Wu Shang and Val had the right weapons and attack styles to match these Street Fighter characters and their iconic attacks. Once we had those attacks in play, everything fell into place. It felt so good so fast! Chun-Li has her Spinning Bird Kick, Akuma has his Zanku Hadoken – it’s all there.
In Brawlhalla, each character has two types of weapons. What are the Street Fighter characters armed with?
kenneth: Each of the two weapons the character uses changes their fighting style, so we took this opportunity to divide the iconic attacks among the weapons. Ryu uses Gauntlets and Orb, with the Orb being based on the willpower of the fighter (like a Hadoken). Chun-Li uses Spear and Gauntlets, so she uses her spear to balance as she kicks. Akuma uses Sword and Gauntlets, with the sword based on his exclamations of destruction and destruction. Basically, he’s going to use this thing to destroy everything, as he likes to do.
Epic crossover for Wu Shang
The strongest woman in the world is sure to teach her opponents a thing or two about how to take a kick. She brings her own techniques in Brawlhalla, such as the Spinning Bird Kick and Kikosho.
What was the process like working with Capcom for this crossover? For example, were they involved in customizing the characters?
kenneth: Capcom was great to work with. Their team had creative input and final decision making on what the Street Fighter characters looked like in Brawlhalla. We would bring in our ideas and expertise about how Brawlhalla looks and works, and they would give ideas about what should fit in and what it all looked like. They were all very nice and fun to work with!
What can you tell us about the new Street Brawl mode?
kenneth: Imagine taking Brawlhalla’s Legends, movement and weapon system and then twisting Street Fighter’s rules around it. Health bars, best of three, small 1v1 – it’s so much fun. There are also walls and a ceiling on the map to bring the fight really close. I ‘tested’ it a lot during development to play it as much as possible; of course also to give feedback, but every chance I could get to play it, I jumped at it!
Ryu, Chun-Li and Akuma are arguably the three most iconic characters in the Street Fighter franchise. Were there others at the table at one point?
kenneth: Oh of course. Street Fighter has dozens of iconic characters, such as Zangief, Dhalsim, M. Bison, Sakura; the list continues. We’d be hard-pressed not to fit Zangief somewhere in this crossover, so we brought him in as Avatar; he’s easily one of my favorite Street Fighter characters, and we know how much of a fan favorite he is. We really tried our best to fit as much fan-favorite (and our favorite) Street Fighter stuff into this crossover as possible.
Epic crossover for Val
Focused on slaying the gods, the Master of the Fist is ready to really shake them to pieces. He will reach ultimate power with his Tatsumaki Zankukyaku and Zanku Hadoken techniques, among other things..
How does the art team translate characters into the Brawlhalla art style while still maintaining their identity?
kenneth: I cannot sing the praises of the Brawlhalla art team enough. Each of them is incredible. Being well versed in the signature Brawlhalla art style and always being big fans of the crossover characters we bring into the game, they have a great foundation to start with. That means they can identify key aspects of the characters’ designs and bring that into Brawlhalla style. They also work closely with our partners, such as Capcom, to ensure that everything is translated correctly and that every character feels just right. Honestly, I’m sure the art team could somehow fit into any character to ever exist in Brawlhalla.
What is it about Suzaku Castle that made it the clear choice for the map? Have you considered other classic Street Fighter locations?
kenneth: There were so many options, like Battle Harbor and the Casino, but Suzaku Castle just screams “Welcome to Street Fighter!” when you see it. It’s Ryu’s stage in the Street Fighter games, so it just felt right. We also loved the bathhouse stage, Kapukon Yu, from Street Fighter II, so we turned that into a stage, which is another example of putting great Street Fighter stuff where we could! Like Zangief, we just couldn’t have a Street Fighter Crossover without it. Which also means E. Honda is here in spirit. We hope everyone enjoys the Brawlhalla x Street Fighter Crossover as much as we enjoyed making it!
Street Brawl mode is now available to play in Brawlhalla on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 (via backwards compatibility), and Ryu, Chun-Li, and Akuma are available for purchase as Epic Crossovers. All Street Fighter content can be purchased and played after the event.