Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion hands-on

TOKYO--At the AM Show 2008 taking place in the Makuhari Messe, Namco Bandai Games showed off its upgraded release of Tekken 6, titled Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion.

With Tekken 5, Namco released an upgraded version called Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, which featured two new characters as well as game balance updates and other minor additions. The company has decided to follow the same formula with Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, adding yet another two unique characters to the Tekken universe.

The first character is Alisa Bosconovitch, a pink-haired female fighter who wears a dress that matches her hair color. If you're a follower of the Tekken franchise, the name should ring a bell. One of the key characters in Tekken's background story is Dr. Bosconovitch, a scientist who appeared as an unlockable player character in the PlayStation port of Tekken 3. Namco hasn't officially unveiled the relationship between Alisa and Dr. Bosconovitch yet, but from what we've played, she seems to be one of his ingenious inventions.

Alisa looks like a relatively peaceful female character when she's doing nothing, but once the battle begins, you'll easily figure out that she's actually an android. Aside from her normal set of punches and kicks, Alisa can fight by sticking chainsaws out of her hands, fly around on mechanical wings that pop out of her shoulders, and, as an especially odd move, hand over her head to her opponent and make it explode.

The second character is Lars Alexandersson, a young spiky-haired guy who is armored with red and black gear and wears a cape. He also has a chest plate shaped like a lion's head. His alternate costume makes him look more casual, with a simple street-style black leather jacket. Lars played in a relatively orthodox manner compared to Alisa, albeit with good range and speed.

The Tekken series was one of the first arcade games to play with a data-recordable card, so it's no surprise that Bloodline Rebellion has been beefed up with new purchasable items and goodies (and yes, card data from the original Tekken 6 can be moved to Bloodline Rebellion). For example, Bryan Fury can equip a machine gun that he can use during his matches, Xiaoyu can use a stick that magically covers her opponent's head with an odd-looking bear mask, and Lily can summon up to five penguins that dash and attack the enemy.

The items may sound like they'd give an unfair advantage to card holders, but from what we've played at the AM Show, these items are more or less a novelty. For instance, Bryan always starts shooting his machine gun slowly from the far end of the z-axis, and it leaves him vulnerable to attacks the entire time. Lily's penguin attacks are a two-step process. She first needs to summon at least one penguin, and then she needs to command it to dash, which is done by holding down on the controller and pressing start. She's left wide open in her commanding pose while the penguins are running, which makes her vulnerable to attacks as well.

Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion also features customizable hairstyles with the use of cards. The game will let you combine different hair parts to make your own hairdo (complete with your own color scheme). While we couldn't customize our hairstyle during the AM Show, the demo at Namco Bandai's booth showed off a good selection of hair parts for Asuka, which ranged from a simple short bob to wacky, crescent-roll-shaped pigtails.

If you enjoyed the high-res stages in the original Tekken 6, Bloodline Rebellion will give you more. The game will include a set of new stages that are quite distinct, including a heliport on a skyscraper rooftop, a fountain surrounded by buildings, and a flooded car tunnel.

There's no telling when or if we'll see Bloodline Rebellion come stateside, but if Dark Resurrection is any indication, there's at least a chance. We hope to see more of Bloodline Rebellion at the Tokyo Game Show in October, and we'll be bringing you the latest on the game as soon as it becomes available.