Tekken 4 Updated Preview
We put the Japanese version of the game through its paces.
Since its debut in arcades in 1994, the Tekken series has played a large part in bringing 3D fighters to the masses. Featuring a diverse roster of selectable characters, a solid storyline, accessible gameplay, and slick graphics, the Tekken games have made a strong impact in arcades. The subsequent home conversions of the games on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 hardware have been as influential as their arcade counterparts thanks to the effort that Namco has put into providing a solid number of extras for the games. The games have come to set the standard by which home conversions of arcade titles have come to be judged. We've put the import version of the latest entry in the series, Tekken 4, through its paces and are pleased to report that it manages to stay true to the standards set by its predecessors.
The game's story picks up two years after the third Iron Fist tournament played out in Tekken 3 and finds perennial villain Heihachi back to stir up trouble. Failing in his quest to capture Ogre, he looks for an alternate method of achieving his goal: to create a new life-form by splicing Ogre's genome with his own. When his scientists discover that the merging is impossible without the presence of an additional gene, the devil gene, Heihachi, begins a search for Jin Kazama. Jin's transformation into a devil after being shot by Heihachi at the end of the third tournament was a dead giveaway to his demonic nature. When his search for Jin is unsuccessful, Heihachi shifts gears and opts to search for Kazuya--or rather his body, since Heihachi had to throw his son into a volcano 20 years earlier. Things go awry following the discovery that Kazuya was in fact resurrected by the G Corporation--a biotech firm specializing in biogenetic research. His forces decimated by his surly demonic offspring, Heihachi holds a fourth Iron Fist tournament in the hopes of drawing out Kazuya and capturing him.
Tekken 4's cast follows the standard mixing of old and new faces that fans have come to expect in the series. Veteran fighters Hwoarang, Yoshimitsu, Julia Chang, Lee Chaolan, Ling Xiaoyou, Lei Wulong, Jin Kazama, Paul Phoenix, Kazuya Mishima, Nina Williams, Bryan Fury, Marshall Law, King, Heihachi, Kuma, Panda, and the Combot are joined by three new newcomers, who bring a fresh assortment of fighting styles. Craig Marduk, schooled in the art of vale tudo, joins Christie Monteiro, daughter of the capoeira master who taught Eddy Gordo, and British boxer Steve Fox in the ring. As in every game, each character has his or her own particular motivation for entering the tournament, which ties into the game's main story in some way.
While the game's cast of characters sticks to the same formula seen in the previous entries in the series, Tekken 4's gameplay offers some significant tweaks to the fighting system. While the core four-button gameplay that fans have grown accustomed to is still at the heart of the game, there have been some definite changes. This time around, Namco has done more than simply go through and tweak returning characters to fine-tune the game's balance. Some characters, like Jin, have undergone some pretty hefty changes that will find players relearning the timing of some of their favorite moves and combos.
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