The X-Men characters come largely unchanged from X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes, with the exception of Rogue, Gambit and Sabretooth, who were new to the series. This rule was later used in SNK's The King of Fighters 2003, where all three characters must be defeated in order to win the match. Street Fighter requires both characters to be defeated in order to win the match. Unlike some other tag team games such as Tekken Tag Tournament, X-Men vs. Also, the "Variable Combination" is a two-character super attack which costs two levels, and will switch your character as long as neither character gets hit during their super moves. There are other ways to bring your other character in the "Variable Counter", which replaces the Infinity Counter of Marvel Super Heroes, breaks your block to bring your teammate in with a counterattack at the cost of a level of super meter. During their taunt, they are vulnerable to counterattack.
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The starting character can then tag the waiting one in at any time by hitting the Fierce and Roundhouse buttons, which activates the "Variable Attack" the incoming player will jump in with an attack and taunt briefly.
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Instead of picking one character, a player picks two. Street Fighter uses a system similar to the style developed in Marvel Super Heroes, and adds the tag team gameplay feature.