TEKKEN 6



[Tekken 6 Gallery]
          GAME STATISTICS
A.K.A.: N/A
Release Date:  October 27, 2009
 October 29, 2009
 October 30, 2009
 November 5, 2009
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Namco Bandai
Genre: Fighting
# of Players: 1-2
ESRB Rating: T
Our Score: 7.5 out of 10
Our Reviews: Ape - Review below.
To submit one, click here!
Systems: Playstation 3
Xbox 360

7.5 out of 10
         
     Tekken is a pretty well-known and loved fighting franchise...So imagine my surprise when I popped in Tekken 6 for the first time and discovered that the arcade-style fighting that Tekken fans know and love seemed to have taken a back seat to a 3D brawler mode. That’s right. The main game of Tekken 6 is a 3D brawler...And as history has shown us, it’s hard to make a brawler work well in a 3D environment...Tekken 6 is no exception to this rule.

     Now this brawler mode, or Scenario Campaign as it’s called in the game, is where you unlock clothing and such for your fighters, in case you feel like modifying their costumes or giving them brand new ones altogether...But many folks may just get bored trying to make their way through it to even bother trying to get gear for their favorite characters. Granted, this is much, much better than the brawler mode found in Tekken 3, but it’s still loaded with enough flaws to really scratch my head as to why this mode was supposed to be the main focus of folks who bought the game. It’s alright as an extra mode...But as the top option on the menu and the source of about 95% of the game’s trophies and achievements, all I can really say is, “Why?”

     Now, in scenario campaign, you start out as Lars, the star of this mode...However, after clearing training, you’re allowed to pick one of any of the playable characters to unlock for the mode...Which is very nice. If you like to play as King or Yoshimitsu, you can one of them immediately so that you don’t have to play for a few hours to unlock them later. However, even when playing as another character, when a cut-scene plays, it’s always Lars there with his terrible, terrible haircut instead of your character. This mode plays alright...You control your character just like you would if you were fighting in arcade mode...All of the moves are the same. This is good since you have a lot of moves at your disposal...But bad because since you’re in a 3D environment rather than a 2D plane, you don’t always get the moves you want or a button combination won’t work. Also, in a head-scratching move, if you try to use the analog stick during this mode, you won’t be able to do any moves of any kind. You’ll be able to move around and do basic punches and kicks, but nothing fancy. I’m not very sure why they did this...Maybe they wanted the precision of the normal directional buttons due to the 3D environment? I don’t know.

     Anyway, during the scenario campaign, enemies that you beat up will randomly drop healing items like chickens and eggs, power-up items like vials, and treasure chests, which contain items like clothing for your fighter to equip that’ll give him or her boosts in battle, such as extra energy, the ability to cause elemental damage to your foes with your punches and kicks, etc. These are nice to have in the mode, but as I stated earlier, they can cause some very frustrating moments when you have difficulty getting to a chicken that’s about a foot away from you and you end up failing the level because of it. The same thing can be said about trying to grab a weapon or reviving a fallen partner...Good luck trying to get to ‘em when you need to. There's a slight variety in enemies that you’ll encounter, which mildly helps prevent you from feeling like the game is getting repetitious...But honestly, there really aren’t that many different kinds of enemies and most of them have the same basic movesets. You can see that the effort was there when they made this mode, and it is playable...But, unfortunately, it just isn’t anything special due to limited movement at the times you need to move the most and the repetitive nature of brawlers.
     So, then we get to the reason that people got the game to begin with; the fighting. This is mostly the Tekken you know and love. Granted, I haven’t played much of the series since Tekken Tag Tournament came out, but I was able to hop in and execute a decent amount of moves by memory anyway. The fighting is fun...But it does seem a little behind the times. It plays very much like the Tekken games on Playstation One. Back then, Tekken was one of the top fighting franchises in the world....But eventhough I haven’t played the past few games in the series yet, it seems as if there was little to no change in the overall fighting system...Well, aside from one thing, but I’ll get to that when I talk about the online mode. There is also an addition to the fighting mode that doesn’t really effect much....And that’s a ranking system nearly identical to the one found in Virtua Fighter. As you fight, you’ll eventually get to a ‘ranking match’ that’ll let you move up a rank. It’s neat, but again....It’s a concept that was done years ago. It’s not anything groundbreaking or new. If you love the fighting system in past Tekken games, you’ll be glad that it hasn’t really changed....If you don’t mind it but were hoping for more, then you may be disappointed.

     The online aspect runs smoothly, but it can be a nightmare for novice players. There are no filters or anything to separate the Tekken experts from everyone else....So, if you go online, you may be placed in a match against a Tekken freak who will juggle combo you into a flawless victory. Now, maybe I’m just not great at the game, but I could not, for the life of me, figure out a way to block these juggling combos once they were started. It felt very cheap to lose to an ongoing, unblockable juggle that wiped out my entire health bar in one, single combo....And it happened pretty often. Every now and then, I’d face a player who had a similar level of experience as me and we’d have a really good, competitive match that went down to the wire....But unfortunately, those seemed to be few and far between. Get into the ranked matches, and be prepared for nothing but cheap juggling. I was kind of a sitting duck during this aspect of online because if I feel that I’m starting to get cheap in a fight, I back off. I had several opportunities to pick up a cheap win and didn’t take it....Most other people, however are quite happy to juggle you around at their leisure. The fun just isn’t there when the fight isn’t competitive, but a competition to see who can get the first hit and juggle their opponent to death. Everything else about the online aspect of Tekken 6 is smooth and well done...I just wish that they could kind of make different lobbies or something so the less-experienced players won’t get maimed every time they hop online for a fight.

     Graphically, Tekken 6 is quite good. The fighters are very detailed and so are the levels that they brawl in...Both in arcade mode and in scenario campaign. You can tell that a lot of time was put in building the models. The animations in the game are pretty well done, as well. Every now and then, you’ll get a hiccup, but for the most part, everything is well made. The audio in the game is equally impressive. While most of the songs will probably be forgotten once you turn off the game (aside from that blasted yodeling song, which is still in my head as I type this), they really work with their particular level and help add to the overall experience. I doubt too many people will want to own the Tekken 6 soundtrack, but for in-game purposes, the audio does quite well.

     In the end, I was pretty disappointed with Tekken 6. The fighting system needs a facelift, if you ask me. It needs something to make it stand out from the crowd of other fantastic fighting games of this console generation...It just seems plain. Also, the fact that scenario campaign seems to be the top-bill and the main focus of the game is just lame. That mode does a decent job and all, but it’s still repetitive and still needs a whole lot of work before it’s great. Despite my disappointment, Tekken 6 is still a solid game and it's not bad by any means. Most fighting fans will likely enjoy their time with Tekken 6...But it’s probably not gonna replace the Virtua Fighter 5's or Street Fighter IV’s off of anyone’s shelves. - Ape