Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Total letdown"

I'm generally not a fan of personifying my reviews. In the case of Tekken 6 I see no choice. Let us get this straight; I'm a gigantic Tekken fanboy. I own all the Playstation prints, black label copies of Tekkens 1 through 5 to be precise. I've read a number of strategy guides and fan novels concerning the series and I've seen the obscure Tekken animated film from 1998, which was probably sixty minutes of my life wasted, but I enjoyed every second of it.


Heck, at one point, my fandom of Tekken went so far that I actually dreamed of scenarios to the subsequent games when I was younger. Forget Street Fighter, forget Mortal Kombat – during the nineties the only fighting game on my mind was Tekken. Even though I experienced Soul Blade, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers, none of them had the same effect on me as Namco's System 11 fighter did. Tekken was just one of those console starter titles to absorb yourself into, the first game you get and always stick by, and that is how I viewed it for much of my time in school. Yet over the years, like any fighting series carried on, it lost its touch and Tekken 4's attempts to live up to the legacy of Tekken Tag Tournament failed miserably by many regards.


I personally still loved the series but I could see that Tekken definitely was passed its halcyon days. With Tekken 5 my assumptions were correct. The series reverted to the old juggle formula of Tekken 3. Though this time the minor issue of juggling became twice as prominent and the boss fight against Jinpachi almost killed the fun of Tekken entirely. Namco got cheap and they knew it. While this satisfied the masses ultimately it led to an added effect on the series, an effect now more than ever apparent in Tekken 6. Though my enthusiasm for the series still caused me to buy both the limited edition and arcade stick versions of Tekken 6 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 respectively. So with the history out of the way, I'll throw myself straight to the core of this review.


All of the same characters are back as well as new ones. Tekken 6 introduces an extravagant cast of characters including the overweight fighter Bob, Spanish brawler Miguel, she-male Leo and Middle Eastern tomb guardian Zafina. As a port of the Bloodline Rebellions update though it additionally features two extra characters. Alisa Bosconovitch and Lars Alexandersson - the protagonists of the Scenario Campaign mode. Of course all of the typical Tekken game modes return withal. Arcade mode, team battle, versus, survival and time attack make their habitual appearances in this newest Tekken.


Recurring from Tekken 5 are the ghost battle and customisation modes that players will no doubt grow accustomed to for the duration of play on Tekken 6. Customisation I must note is a far more indepth mode than it ever was in Tekken 5, with the ability to now customise hair bases, mix and match clothing set-ups and add whatever weird and wonderful set-up to your liking. Tekken 6's gameplay remains unsurprisingly similar to Tekken 5. The controls operate in a limb based manner, with each button controlling an arm or leg as opposed to high, mid or low attacks as with Capcom fighters. Fans will be wary of this as the type of button layout allows players to dish out the variety of combos Tekken's foundations are based on.


In particular, the process of juggling is what combos mean to the hardcore enthusiasts of Tekken who, with enough skill, would be able to retain chains that can chop off more than half of your opponent's life. As a button masher, Tekken has been better known as a more accessible fighter compared to some of the others out there which has enabled Namco's drive to be as far reaching as it has been. To make things more newb friendly, there is also now a rage meter which enhances the losing player's power as they reach their last breath of health. The animations have also been re-recorded simplifying the move sets of previously difficult to master characters (such as King).


It is what you come to expect from the series really but frustratingly it still has the same flaws as its predecessor which will be explained in detail later. As implied earlier, ironically the main draw to Tekken 6 is through the Scenario campaign – a Streets of Rage approach to the old Tekken force and Devil Within modes previously featured in Tekken. It is a story driven mode with numerous cinematic cut-scenes detailing the renegade Tekken Force soldier, Lars Alexandersson, his led rebellion against G-Corporation and the Mishima Zaibatsu. Following the events of Tekken 5, Jin successfully defeated Jinpachi Mishima and succeeded him as the King of Iron Fist.


However, with this accusation of power, Jin utilised his new found influence and military aggression into declaring full scale war with the world in the thirst for power and domination. This ambition is likened by Jin's equally ambitious father, Kazuya, who sought his own equal strengths through the G-Corporation who failed to dispose of him. To decide who the greater force is, the Tekken 6 tournament was announced. Much of Tekken 6's Scenario Camapaign is spent fighting the multitude of characters in the Tekken series and rallying them towards your cause of repelling Jin and Kazuya's tyrannical domination. As the amnesiac Lars, you're aided in your fight by a mysterious cybernetic doll known as Alisa whose motive to helping your remains unclear and somewhat suspicious. Yet the outcome to this dilemma and the story of the game is all detailed penultimately.


Scenario Campaign mode is reminiscent of old school brawlers such Streets of Rage and Final Fight. Each stage you play is littered with hench men goons set to stop your tracks. They can be taken care of either with your fists or whatever weapons you find lying around. There is a basic RPG stats system implemented as well into the items you pick up and cash you earn that can be used to improve your fight money, health meter and general capabilities with pieces of clothing that can be equipped. Naturally, like any decent beat 'em up, levels are finished with a token boss battle – in this case a character from the Tekken series.


While it all sounds good on paper the problem with scenario campaign lies in that it is incredibly repetitive feeling somewhat dull and actually a chore to play. All of the levels follow the same pattern and there aren't any diversions of bonus rounds like in the games it is based on to help add variety to the mode either. That isn't to say players are forced into scenario campaign, it is possible to play Tekken 6 without it, but Scenario Campaign unfortunately is the easiest way to earn gold and customisation items in comparison to every other mode in the game. And unfortunately the most direct way to earn the computer generated end sequences for each character (via the centre stadium).
Sadly this is only the start of Tekken 6's unscrupulous errors. Unscrupulous in that with the time spent Namco haven't adjusted enough to fine render and ease out any of Tekken's regrettable flaws in character balancing and, actually, online play.


Although Xbox 360 owners will be unfamiliar to it, Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection featured an online mode. It was funny enough the main selling point to the 2008 re-release on Playstation 3. Yet it stunk. The games were almost always full of lag meaning precise moves had to be delayed and this prompted players to use cheap and disgusting over-powered characters such as Eddy Gordo, Baek and Hwoarang. To say these characters are cheap is an under-statement, they all have unbreakable combos that deal ridiculous damage and lastly are easy to exploit aswell as these commands process swiftly into a standard controller. Neither three of these characters have been fixed. But not even the three combined measure to the bullcrap that new character Alisa is capable of in Tekken 6. This might sound like a rant, hear me out, the juggling has now also got to the point where it is capable of dishing out far too damage while being far too easier to perform.


See, while Tekken 6 has a impressive cast of characters ranging over forty in number, it lacks the upkeep to make it so that they're all equal level skills wise or atleast be designed in that they can suit every player's needs. Obviously Tekken is a button masher through and through but the term variety needs to be highlighted. Intelligent fighters like the recent Blazblue have it, even Midway's Mortal Kombat vs DC Comics has it. Namco have no excuse – especially with their larger, more capable development teams. Which is a wonder, as on both 360 and PS3 online games of Tekken 6 can still be depressingly delayed despite how fast of a connection you might have. But Namco's keepings adding to their criminal record by separating the servers for player and ranked modes. Words cannot describe how much fail it is to do something like that especially as skilled players could very easily raid the player servers for easy wins.


Tekken 6 is no different to Tekken 5 minus a few minor changes and the point I'm getting at is that arguably these changes are for the worse. The online play is worse, the balancing is worse, the new story mode in worse. Namco have taken five years to finally unleash Tekken 6 on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Let me repeat myself, FIVE YEARS. Atleast where Namco are successful with Tekken 6 lies in aesthetics of the game. I won't deny this, Tekken 6 is an absolutely superb looking game on both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with spontaneous and luxuriously detailed levels all running at a whopping smooth 60 frames per second. The game is starting to show age and by no means pushes either machine but Namco have done adequately in adapting it for both machines. I will also give a short comparison between the two.


As far as differences between the 360 and PS3 versions of Tekken 6 are concerned there are some minor visual contrasts between the versions. Overall the PS3 version has a clearer picture thanks to running at a higher resolution compared to the 360 version. Though even without the use of motion blur, when the 360 benefits from the higher resolution picture of 1365x768, the use of 2xMSAA on the PS3 edition even still out-does the clarity of picture offered on 360. This isn't all that surprising considering Tekken 6 was originally developed for the Namco System 357 hardware, which has similar architecture to the PS3 including the Nvidia G70 chipset and infamous Cell processor. The pre-rendered video also makes full use of the Blu-Ray format's 25GB space, compared to the incredibly compressed dual-sided DVD on 360.


A part of what made Tekken special was lost when the exclusivity of the IP to Sony consoles was broken but seriously with the amount of time Namco spent working on this, Tekken 6 should have been one of the greatest fighting games of all time, even as only an extension of Tekken 5. Tekken 2 was an extension of the original Tekken. Tekken was great in 1995, Tekken 2 in 2010, yes even today, is figured as one of the greatest Playstation games ever. I will admit, as a fighting fan, Tekken 6 is a bloody fun game and is sure to entertain me for months on end much like the others in the series, but as a Tekken fan, I'm left desiring a whole lot more and I think with the return of Street Fighter and the Marvel Vs series, its time has now passed.