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HADOKEN!!

After Tekken 6 has been out in arcades for over a year, it’s finally made its way to the home consoles, and will shortly be arriving on the PSP in handheld form as well. Pre-release info was intriguing. But I think the question that was on my mind above all was: Would it stack up to Street Fighter IV?

It would easy to rip into Tekken for its ludicrous overarching plot. Too easy. So I won’t bother and will simply say that it’s ridiculous even by fighting game standards. If you absolutely MUST know all the finer points then I’m sure there’s a fanpage that can help you—or Wikipedia for that matter.

Pretty much every character ever (at least as far as I can tell) returns and there’s a few new ones as well. As is tradition in fighting games, some of the new characters are quite cool, others are boring, bland and have zero personality.

You get a cutscene after you beat the main boss. If you have played any other Tekken title in the past, you know exactly how they will go; Jin’s will be ridiculously serious but so over-the-top you’ll have to laugh. It will be much the same for most of the male characters. The female characters will have a heavy degree of fanservice, but Nina will also have a confrontation with Anna or something.

Scenario mode has a bit more of a story, but only in the sense that Soul Calibur’s various “Story” modes have one. They’re there, but really you just want to beat the shit out of some dudes and the cutscenes slow that down.

Grab your partner, dosy do..

Oh Tekken, you old charmer. Your introductory cutscenes and movies tell of a world which is full of pre-rendered beauty and visuals beyond what one can imagine. But of course, you lie, just as you always have. Once we see actual gameplay footage the difference is immediately noticeable and jarring.

All of that said, Tekken is quite a good looking game. I was deeply unsure when I watched it at the arcade; gameplay looked like a slightly tweaked version of Tekken 5 and there were clipping issues left, right and centre. Rest assured, but it looks much, much better on console. I cannot stress the next point enough though. If you don’t have one, get an HDTV before playing this game. The writing is so small on a CRT that it will blind you if you try to read it for more than 2 seconds. Animation is much, much smoother than any of the previous games. I ran into a few framerate issues in Scenario Mode, but Arcade seemed to be completely fine.

On the minus side of things, those little orange and green explosions that happen whenever you hit someone are dumb. I know they’re a bit of a Tekken trademark now, but since Tekken 4 came along and good graphics were possible, they’ve just looked terrible. You could get away with it in the early instalments, but I have ceased to be a fan.

Five hairspray cans later..well, you can see the end result.

The Tekken series typically has a cool, if somewhat shallow soundtrack. Bit of J-rock, bit of dance music, throw it all together and you’re set. It does enhance the gameplay while you’re kicking the CPU’s behind, but it won’t necessarily stick with you after you’ve put the controller down and walked away.

All the usual grunts, yelps and cries are present for the fighters as well. That’s all done as well as any other game on the market. Fortunately, the narrator from Tekken 5 seems to be gone too. I don’t know how one man could make such outlandish and ridiculous story set-ups so tedious.

"Super atomic elbow, hee-ya!"

Gameplay, wherein lies the true heart of any fighting game. This section, above any other, is where you need to be reading to learn what Tekken 6 is all about. A multitude of errors will be forgiven if a fighting game is fun to play.

And surely enough, Tekken 6 is a lot of fun to play. The first thing I noticed is that it is substantially easier than the last instalment. No bad thing there really; Tekken has never been a series overly welcoming to newcomers and in some ways I think that’s what has held it back from entering into gaming pop culture in the same way as something like Mortal Kombat (a series which releases almost nothing but dreck now, but has a fond place in many of our hearts).

Before I get on to arcade mode, I’ll talk briefly about the Scenario Mode, a side addition to the main game. It’s kind of like 3D Double Dragon or Final Fight—not as awesome as either of those two games of course, but the style of play is similar. You take on the role of one of the new characters and a CPU 2nd player, whereupon you beat the crap out of a bunch of enemies over a stage, then take on one of the Tekken characters as an level boss. This sounds pretty ordinary but it’s strangely compelling and it’s a relatively easy way to earn a lot of in-game money. Worth a look.

The arcade mode is where the magic really happens though. The structure has not really changed since the first Tekken game all the way back in 1378, but let’s face it; it didn’t need to. You fight a bunch of other characters, then you fight a boss. Simplicity is the key here and it works wonders.

Tekken 5 was a very worthy game but it lacked a certain charisma to really put it up in the big leagues. Tekken 6 has finally grasped it, distilled it and put it all into one massive game. You can keep yourself busy for hours just fighting random opponents, or tooling round with character customization. Be prepared to spend a lot of time with this one.

Cruelty against animals, tut, tut. You should be ashamed

Replay Value is almost endless with this game. Customization has been taken to a whole new level and money/items for doing so are much, much easier to earn than in Tekken 5. There’s over 40 characters whose stories you can uncover and Scenario Mode, while hardly the greatest game out there, will draw you back for a round every now and then. Online mode should prove daunting for the casual gamer but will still be well worth a squiz.

'Punched him in the groin and he died' was the official statement on death

Tekken 6 is a very complete package. But does Wolf rule it better than Street Fighter IV? The answer is a resounding “NO!” But hear me out. It is quite possibly just as good, but will keep a different brand of fighting fan occupied. It strives for a slightly more realistic feel, as opposed to over the top anime inspired antics—well, maybe not the cutscenes so much. But gameplay-wise.

Street Fighter IV, for all its merits, was a bastard hard game missing several fan favourites, and charging you for costume changes. Tekken 6 may not have achieved the same legendary status but it has rewarded its fans in a way that Capcom simply did not. So, I must declare this particular bout a draw!

Bandai-Namco has kept us waiting for a loooong time to bring this one to the home consoles, but it’s been well worth it. So grab a bunch of your friends and punch on! Victory and bragging rights to the strong, mocking and washing up duties for those who lose.