Tekken 6 Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 12th November 2009

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Teking to them!

Tekken 6 Details:

	Beat 'em Up
	PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
	Namco Bandai
	Namco Bandai

16+

Out Now

1-4

It doesn't seem that long ago since I first played the original Tekken on the PSOne, but here we are with the sixth instalment of the "true" fighting franchise. I will admit that I am not the biggest fighting game fan and have only played a handful in my gaming lifetime, but I was still very impressed overall by this newest offering from Namco Bandai.

The main mechanics of the standard gameplay have not changed, it’s one against one in hand-to-hand combat and the Tekken series as I’ve pointed out before is the only true fighting game, because the entire move set is based on actual martial art styles such as kickboxing, karate or kung-fu. Also as in previous instalments, each button is assigned to a limb of your chosen fighter, therefore combos are quite easy to learn and use. Unlike, the other big name fighters, there are no long distance attacks, it’s all about getting up in your opponents face! The only new feature is the rage system, which gives you a fighter an attack power boost when their health drops below a certain point, this allows you to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat! There is a huge roster of characters to choose from (42 in total, I believe) each having a unique move set, although a few characters are similar in their fighting styles. Every character is beautifully rendered with stunning animation and the action is always fast and fluid. The roster contains many firm favourites from previous games such as King, Paul, Law, Nina and the ever present and perplexing Yoshimitsu, as well as eight new additions.

There are the usual modes of play from your standard versus mode to the team battles, the arcade mode to the survival and time attack modes, the best addition by far is the online mode though! Tekken and its fellow fighting games are always best enjoyed with friends, beating the computer is nowhere near as satisfying as stuffing your mate! And thanks to online play you are never short of a human opponent to beat! There is very little in the way of lag although there were a few times I got a bad connection which makes the game pretty unplayable, but this was a rare occurrence. This online mode adds a new longevity to the game, and makes it better value for money, in my opinion.

As a single player, there is the Scenario Campaign mode to keep you busy for at least a few hours. This mode plays like a 3D version of the traditional 90’s side scrolling beat-‘em-up games such as Streets of Rage, but includes a story to keep you interested that is played out in fabulous cut-scenes. The story revolves around a new character, Lars, who is the leader of a rebel force against the G Corporation and the Mishima Zaibatsu, who have brought forth war and havoc in the nearby areas due to their fierce rivalry. Lars loses his memory but acquires a new robotic female friend, another new character, Alisa, and this begins their adventure to regain his memory. The mode is split into a series of stages, filled with standard goons and baddies to beat, as well as some items to use to turn the tide in your favour. At the end of each stage there is a boss fighter who once beaten will be added to the roster of fighters you can choose to play as in this Scenario Campaign mode. This mode is not particularly challenging, but acts as a nice distraction for the solo player, there is also the opportunity to obtain large amounts of money and items that can be used to customize each fighter and give them perks such as extra health or higher defence and so on. This mode however contains my only major criticism, which is the targeting system. Due to the nature of this mode, you will find yourself against a group of enemies, however you can only target one of them, once targeted the free movement of your character is lost and the stance is changed to a fighting stance which is less manoeuvrable, and this means it is easy to get attacked from behind or the sides unless you change your target quickly! This can be infuriating at times when you want to try and get some distance from your enemies. The camera can also get in too close sometimes, meaning you can be blindsided from behind. These aren’t huge gripes but detract from the enjoyment of this mode, the other thing is the fact that this mode includes a two fighter team made of your chosen character and Alisa, but you cannot play this with two players, which is quite disappointing as it would be much better if a co-op mode was available!

The stages in which the fights take place are amazing and quite interactive with walls to slam your opponent against and some arenas have breakable floors allowing battles to flow into a brand new area! The Japanese and English voice acting is spot-on during the cut-scenes and the soundtrack was very impressive with some catchy J-Pop-esque charm but also plenty of high tempo tunes to accompany the fighting, it is all very impressive and hard to fault from an aesthetic point of view.

Overall, I have really enjoyed playing this new Tekken, it was much better than I expected if I’m honest! There are so many characters to master and plenty of modes to keep you happy and with an online connection there are no limits to the amount of hour’s gameplay you can rack up! Newcomers and veterans alike will enjoy the challenge of creating or copying combos and learning to juggle their opponents, as well as the mostly likable distraction that is the Scenario Campaign mode. Graphically it’s awesome with an excellent soundtrack to accompany the high octane action onscreen, it is a shame that the loading times seem to take so long as you’ll be waiting to get stuck in again as quickly as possible for some high quality fighting fun!