Tekken 6 Review: The Same Old Boxing Kangaroos
Tekken is an interesting game franchise, in that after six iterations and a few spinoffs it has basically remained the same game it was back when characters were made up of blocky polygons and frame rates were depressingly low. Tekken 6 has just came out, and it is a whole lot like Tekken 5, which was a whole lot like Tekken 4, which was a whole lot like Tekken 3, and so forth. This isn’t a bad thing, however, for it is very easy to argue that Tekken simply got it right the first time around. As the series grows and evolves with each iteration, it simply adds new characters and stages, tweaks the old ones, and gives a nice polish to the graphics, and we love it every time. Sure, there are a couple gamers out there shouting, “Give us something new!” in the face of the Tekken developers, but they are a tiny minority. Tekken 6 is a good game primarily because it sticks to the Tekken formula that has worked so well in the past.
Tekken has always been a love-it or hate-it type of fighting game. Its controls assign one of each of your fighter’s limbs to a button, and while this may sound simple, it is anything but. There is no built-in generic combo system in Tekken, and intuitive inputs, such as a right punch following a left punch, simply don’t work sometimes. Instead, each move in a character’s repertoire consists of a very specific set of button inputs and directional movements. Good players will memorize a series of moves that work well together and work to keep their opponent in the air or on the ground for a prolonged period of time so that they can continue the pummeling. High and low attacks, throws, and three-dimensional movement are thrown into the mix, but most of the time you will be blocking and looking for that one opening to strike and keep the pressure on as long as you can.
All this boils down to what is essentially “dial-a-combo.” Good players memorize ludicrously long strings of inputs, and are simply looking for the opportunity to get them off. Unfortunately, this emphasis on memorization acts as a barrier to new players. Sure, two newbies can easily button mash against each other and have a decent amount of fun, but when you throw one skilled player into the mix, he will pretty much dominate every time, and almost embarrassingly so. You would think this would make the game become less popular, but that simply isn’t the case. Though the entry fee is high, so to speak, players have been paying it for years, and eating defeat after defeat just to get a little better. This has been the case since Tekken 1, and it is just as enjoyable to see someone get endlessly pummeled now as it was back then. Also, with only four buttons to memorize, and many useful strings isolating themselves to punches or kicks only, you may find yourself simply stumbling upon new combos the more you mash, and while this can be said to be the only intuitive part of the game’s combo system, it is enough to allow a newbie to squeak off a win against a player of intermediate skill here or there. Of course, if you want to really get good, you can always take a break and go into practice mode, where your character’s move sets are laid out right in front of you.
Other than that, it’s the basic slugfest of you trying to reduce your opponent’s life to zero before he does the same to you, and the normal game modes that revolve around it. Arcade mode involves your fighting your way up the ranks till you take on the big bad final boss, while Ghost mode puts you up against fighters who were apparently modeled after real human players. You also get the standard Time Attack mode, which challenges you to finish your opponents quickly in a race against the clock, and Survival mode, which sees how far you can go on limited life before dying. Versus mode is also a standard affair, putting you up against your friends in one-on-one matches. However, an old series staple, the Team Battle, is also included, allowing you to pick a substantial force of characters to go up against one another. Team matches consist of consecutive one-on-one bouts, with losers being replaced by the next character on your roster — once again not new territory in the world of fighting games. Everything seems very run of the mill, but is very well done, nonetheless. It’s a solid feature package of fighting-game staples that compliments the established gameplay well.
The two arguably “innovative” features are online play and Scenario Campaign mode. Online play seems to be a must for any game you can face another opponent in these days. Unfortunately, there is something seriously lacking about Tekken 6’s online mode. Maybe, once again, this is merely a function of the game being but days old, but online matchmaking is horrible. On my spiffy fiber optic connection, matches were riddled with lag, some being nigh unplayable, considering how fast this game is supposed to be. Matchmaking itself also took forever, and I have had games freeze or drop more than once. At this point I am starting to believe that logistically, we just aren’t ready for online fighting games. So few have implemented online play in any sort of good, reliable, responsive way, so this may simply be something we need to wait for in a later gaming generation.
Scenario Campaign mode is something that has been tried in Tekkens past, and it sucked back then too. The idea is that you get to take your favorite Tekken characters through a standalone beat-em-up sort of game. This mode is an obvious afterthought, as its graphics and gameplay simply don’t hold up to what the rest of the game offers. The Tekken style fighting controls don’t work well in a free roaming beat-em-up setting, and the environments and enemies you come across range from the unimpressive to the absurd, and this is absurd by Tekken standards! I mean come on they gave me a boxing Kangaroo and I said “I could believe that.” In fact, this absurdity is one of the only draws this mode has, but it isn’t anywhere near enough to call it enjoyable. It’s an even harder slap in the face considering that this mode is where you are supposed to get the majority of the game’s story from, and a majority of its unlockables! Luckily enough, no one cares about the story of a fighting game, and you can earn points toward unlockables in other modes (albeit markedly slower), so breathe a sigh of relief, this mode is totally and utterly skippable.
I have to give it to the graphics and sound guys, they did a great job. I would listen to a lot of the tracks in this game independent of the game itself, and the backgrounds and characters are decently polished. It’s going for a photo-realistic sort of feel, but it actually misses that mark by a bit, however considering that this game, once again, features a boxing kangaroo, I think they were better off for it. One thing that hasn’t been fixed in the game’s graphics engine is the game’s juggle graphics which more or less have you knocking your opponent into the air by poking at their feet and ankles. This too is part of the game’s charm though, and I think it is better off without a big graphical overhaul just to fix this little bit of PS1 nuttiness.
By far the best thing about this game, in my opinion, is its absurdity. Alongside the aforementioned boxing kangaroo, there is a fighting bear, a fat guy in suspenders, a zombie, a demon and an angel, a robot girl with chainsaws for arms, a robot samurai, another totally unrelated robot, and martial artists of every style you could possibly think of. The fighting environments are also absurd, and once again that is par for the Tekken course. All you have to know is that in one stage, you can beat up your opponent so hard you kill a herd of sheep! You herd me (awful pun). You fight in the middle of a sheep herd and you can knock your opponent into the sheep themselves! Awesome!
I’m reaching for more things to say about this game, but in fact there really aren’t any. Like I said before, Tekken is a love it or hate it sort of game. If you have loved Tekken in the past, then it behooves you to pick up a copy of Tekken 6 as quickly as possible so you can enjoy all the new characters and stuff. If you haven’t, well, this game isn’t going to convert you, but then again most likely nothing will. Gamers worldwide, including myself, know exactly what they are getting with Tekken 6 … more Tekken! As the old saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and Tekken has never really been broken. Tekken 6 is by all accounts, more of the same old thing, and it is a better game for it.
(25 votes, average: 2.80 out of 4)
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