Gamescom 2011: Tekken Hybrid Impressions

If you're a Tekken fan, then we have just the thing for you. Tekken Hybrid is a multimedia homage to the fighting series, which celebrates its 17th birthday this year. It looks to the series' past, with an HD remake of the original Tekken Tag Tournament. It looks to the future with a prologue version of the new Tekken Tag Tournament 2. And, just for good measure, it also looks sideways to the movie industry, with a new animated movie based on the franchise.

This three-in-one package will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3, although the Blood Vengeance movie will be playable in standard Blu-ray systems as well. It's also 3D-enabled for those with compatible TVs and players, following its 3D theatrical run last month in the US. It has been developed in conjunction with Namco so that the plot takes place between the events of Tekken 5 and Tekken 6 and was made by Japanese animation studio Digital Frontier.

The gaming part of the Tekken Hybrid package is tailored to appeal to fans of the Tag variety of the franchise. For the remake of the original game, the artists have gone in and redone all of the textures across the main game and popular minigames, such as Tekken Bowl. They were apparently already some of the highest-quality textures used in all the PlayStation-era Tekken games, though, even down to the modelling of the back of the characters' teeth. However, this is the first time the game has been made available in widescreen high definition, and for European players, running at 60 frames per second.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Prologue, meanwhile, is a demo for the forthcoming arcade release of the full game, although Namco was careful about not describing it as such. That's mainly because it comes with plenty of content that's specific to the Prologue version, including a 3D mode that we got to see in action. It comes with four playable characters sporting two costumes each--Alisa, Ling Xiaoyu, Devil Jin, and Kazuya. Namco was keen to point out that the female fighters boast school uniform costumes too, and clothes gradually get dirtier as the characters fall into mud and water on the ground.

There will also be trophy support for both Tekken Tag Tournaments, as you would hope. The package is due for release later this year on the PlayStation 3, so keep an eye out for a final date soon.