This game is great in pretty much every aspect
The gameplay hasn'y changed much from Tekken 3 which you should probly expect. Basically its just you beating the holy hell out of your oppenent in a full 3D environment, which is a whole lot of fun. Each character possesses there own unique move set, each with there own 10 hit combos (with the exception of 3 characters), there powerful moves and each character has one unblockable move, or a "special move".
This year Namco have added 3 new characters to the roster that fit in well. First off we the Brazilian capoeirista, Christy, trained by Eddie himself, theres also Steave the Brittish boxer and the Vale Tudo fighter, Craig Murdok. Christy has a near if not identical move set as Tekken 3's Eddie Gordo, Murddok is completely new and Steave is unique because he can't kick but in place of kicks he can dodge.
Along with those 3 new characters, there are many returning favorites such as Paul Phoenix, Nina Williams, King and one of the most popular characters, Marshall Law. And where would Tekken be with out the Mishima/Kazama family? This year Kazuay Mishima returns after a high-tech company revived him. Jin Kazama is also back with a completely new Fighting style. And of coarse theres Heihachi Mishima, the bad guy. In total there is 20 characetrs, each with there own unique fighrting styles and move sets.
A great new addition this year is the prologue's added at the beggining of story mode for each character. This will inform you of the reason they entered the tournament. The main story is basically Heihachi trying to kill Kazuya (again) and get either Jin's or Kazuya's devil gene to fuse it with Ogre's blood (the evil creature from Tekken 3) and then fuse that with himself to create the most powerful life form on the Earth. And Kazuya of coarse wants to kill Heihachi for killing him 20 years ago, and Jin also wants revenge on Heihachi for he's betrayal at the end of the King Of Iron Fist Tournament 3 (Tekken 3) (man everyone hates Heihachi these days).
The graphics in Tekken 4 is one of the games highlights, great lighting, beautiful environments and the character models and all the moves look great. The sound probly could have been a bit better. The soundtrack is filled with techno music which is good, but for the most part it dosn't really fit in with the fighting. Also the voice work in the ending sequences (which look great) can be really dissapointing at times. Take Law's for example, in his ending sequence you hear him talk english language, he looks Asian but he talks way to American like, if that makes sense.
Tekken 4 will probly keep you going for a good 2 and a half months if your a fighting game fan, if not, probly only 1 and a half months. You can finish the story mode in one day easily, but the survival mode should keep you going for a while as well as Tekken Force (which is a sdide scrolling 3D adventure fighting game, which is alot funner than it sounds) and to a lesser extent Time Attck. And if you have a few friends you will have a great time playing multiplayer.
Overall Tekken 4 may be dissapointing in some ways to some people, but for the most part, its great fun and plays great espoecially if you have some friends over. Its predecessor Tekken 3 was one of the greatest 3D fighting games of all time, so it had alot to live up to, and its a great game overall and accomplishes pretty much everything it tries to do.