Tekken 6 review
The Tekken series has been in a long battle with Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter for many, many years, each time, each series tried to top the other, and now is no different with Tekken 6. The latest installment in the franchise, this time with a deep roster, new gameplay modes and tweaks, this is certainly the best Tekken game to date. But how does it stack up against the rivals? Read on.
The story of Tekken 6 is slim to non existent to laughable — but that’s expected, it’s not a novel, it’s a fighting game, and the story that’s there basically moves your from fight to fight. Nothing special, and it gets the job done. The single player campaign lets you battle all of the available enemies, which means you’ll be fighting a lot of them — the roster is one of the largest in any Tekken game, with all the classic fighters back, including Lei, Paul, Jin and Kazuya. It also includes characters included in Tekken Dark Resurrection, further increasing the roster to a total of 40. However, not many new members have been introduced, not that it makes any difference, since the roster already feels crowded and it’s gonna take you a long time to identify with all of the characters.
The gameplay is very similar to other Tekken games, although it has been somewhat refined, making it just as intricate for the veterans, while being a lot more welcoming to Tekken newbies, and as they say, it’s easy to learn, hard to master. It still features very complex combos for those who are willing to learn them, but the gameplay overall now appeals to a much broader audience. Each arm and leg has a button assigned to them, which means you’ll have to think what arm to throw the punch with, or what leg to kick with, even if you’re a button masher. When two buttons are combined, the result is a more powerful blow, and the more you combine, the better combos you can pull off.
The single player campaign follows the only two new characters, and two of the most boring ones, to be host, where you can fight through side scrolling missions where you can earn quick points, but the mode is quite boring and very badly put together. Besides that, there’s a ton of fun to be had, as you’ll be fighting away enemy after enemy, and you can even earn points to unlock costumes to each character — and each character has quite a few of them.
Besides the single player campaign, Tekken 6 features an Arcade mode, Ghost battles, Survival mode and most importantly, online multiplayer. The online component is great, provided that you have a stable and fast connection, as connections tend to drop. On top of that, load times tend to go on foreeeever. Technically, the game looks as good as it has to look. It’s by no means an Uncharted 2 rival, but it does a decent job at rendering the characters and environments. The rendered cut scenes are great in particular, but we wished that the whole game would look as good. Tekken 6 will most definitely satisfy the fans, and the new refinements will make it more welcoming to new players as well.
The Good:
Great gameplay
Deep roster
Solid multiplayer
The Bad:
Bad story
Long load times
Fighting can get repetitive
Overall score: 8/10