If you’re a Vita owner (and one of those non-whiny Capcom fans who seem to be a dying breed on the internet, but actually exist in the real world) that’s been wondering whether or not you should buy Street Fighter X Tekken when it ships out this fall, I’ll say right now that it’s a no-brainer YES, particularly if you want to experience what’s looking like the smoothest cross-platform play to date. A recent hands-on test of the game at Capcom’s NYC press event put a grin on my face that was hard t remove thanks to some of the new playable characters, the interesting and fun touchscreen control options and yes, that lag-free gameplay against a PS3 opponent.

Being a fan of obscure and unexpected characters, I chose Toro and Kuro (“mascot” characters from a few import PlayStation games you’ve probably never heard of) for a few rounds, followed by Mega Man (a chunky guy based on Bad Box Art” version of the character) teamed up with Pac-Man (riding Mokujin, who’s not playable by himself it seems). For a bit more “normal’ fun, I also played as Elena (from Street Fighter III: Third Strike) and Marshal Law. Standard controls were fluid and as good as it gets, but the touch-screen took a few rounds to get used to before I became comfortable with it. As you play on the Vita, you’ll see numbered touchscreen “button” prompts appear where you need to tap. The rear pad is used as well, but it was too easy to accidentally activate moves by adjusting my grip on the handheld. I ended up alternating between touch and standard button usage for the rest of the matches I played, managing to win a few more than I before I decided to move onto playing the Lost Planet 3 demo.

One of the coolest things about playing on the Vita and PS3 using cross platform play is if you’re in the same space as your opponent, you can choose to look at their TV and not even glance at the Vita’s screen if you know the controls well enough. I found myself initially playing the game watching the larger HD image (basically using the Vita as a controller) before looking down to check out the lovely screen (discovering the onscreen touch control prompts in the process). I have the feeling that this is the way most gamers will play when competing against someone in the same location. Nevertheless, the experience is quite amazing and seamless with ZERO lag or connectivity issues. Yes, those load times are still long on both platforms once characters are selected, but gameplay performance is the clear winner for it.

The game packs in all the content from the home version and adds a dozen new characters (including some exclusive ones you won’t find on the Xbox 360), meaning that if you’ve somehow avoided buying ANY version of SF X T, this one will be the “ultimate” version if you want something to take on the road. Naturally, Capcom will be bringing the new character packs to the home versions of the game on July 31 (obviously, 360 owners can’t so cross-platform play on the Vita nor play as some of the Sony exclusive fighters), so those of you with the PS3 version of the game can do battle against your Vita-owning buddies when they finally get that version. I’ll jam a release date here once I find out what it is. I’m not going to San Diego for Comic-Con, by my ear is to the ground for game news, so we’ll see what’s what and update accordingly…