Tekken 6 (Xbox 360) Review

Posted by Mark Salmela on 12.03.2009

Who will win the King of the Iron Fist tournament? More importantly, who wants to be blacklisted by the government for winning the title “King of the Iron Fist”?

Title: Tekken 6
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Namco
Genre: Fighting
Players: 1 - 2
Rated: T for Teen



Throughout the years Tekken has been known as one of the easiest fighters to just pick-up and play. A series that started in the arcades, Tekken eventually came to consoles by the Sony platforms. Starting with Tekken 6 however, Tekken is now a multiplatform title. How does the 360 version of Tekken 6 hold up? Let’s find out.



Graphics


Auto bots! Roll out!


The game looks pretty damn good. Each character is fully fleshed out, and includes a lot of customizable gear that you can unlock and put onto your character. There are a little over a dozen levels, and each one once again looks great. It’s not mind-bending awesome, but considering the original Tekken 6 came out in arcades a few years ago now, the graphics hold up very well. There are only two minor complaints I have in the graphics department. Well, the first one isn’t directly due to the graphics but damn the game has some long load times. Even getting to the character selection screen takes longer then it should. Then you have to wait for your fighter to load once you’ve highlighted them, and then you have to wait for them to load in again on the loading screen for the fight. Is your head spinning yet? Playing online adds even more load times in the “sync” function, which makes loading take even longer. The online plays pretty alright most of the time now that the patch is out, but it takes a long time to load into it. The other complaint I have with the graphics is the red sphere of energy that appears where you hit a character. Hell sometimes it even has little lightning bolts in it. It’s quite annoying and takes away from the realism. I need to recheck the menu to see if you can remove them, but they’re on by default and look really stupid.



Gameplay


No, I asked for your hand in marriage you crazy bi…


Tekken has always had a very simple control scheme, and that isn’t a bad thing. Each of the four face buttons controls a limb, right leg, left leg, left arm, and right arm. The back button is block, and combinations of the face buttons allows for special attacks such as grabs. Just like a lot of other fighting games you perform different attacks and perform different blocks depending on whether or not you’re in the air or crouching to the ground. Just like in games such as Street Fighter there is a basic rock-paper-scissors match-up. Blocks defeat attacks, grabs beat blocks, and attacks defeat grabs. Each Tekken game has had this control scheme, and just like every other Tekken game, it works very well in Tekken 6.

Tekken 6 has a very large list of fighters. There are over 40 fighters in the game, most of which are returning characters from previous games. Characters new to Tekken 6 include Alisa, Bob, Lars, Leo, Miguel, and Zafina. Each character has a unique move-set that was carefully thought out and is very fleshed out. Even the large characters can chain together punishing combos. My personal favorites of the new characters are Bob and Alisa. Alisa is one of the game’s featured characters, and has some very interesting moves. Alisa is a robot who has chainsaws, a rocket pack, and can throw her head at you as an explosive weapon. Bob on the other hand is a lot like Rufus from Street Fighter 4, a large American fighter who is a lot faster than he appears.

As I was alluding to earlier what makes Tekken so much fun is just how much depth is hidden inside of it. I’d say for beginners Tekken is the easiest fighting game to pick-up and play. You’ll be stringing together combos in no-time, even if you’re just button mashing. But if you want to put the time into it, there is an incredibly deep list of moves to master for each character. And just like any good fighting game, people who take the time to master the game can beat button-mashers the majority of the time. The real key in this idea is that the button mashers often won’t feel lost like they might in a Virtua Fighter or a BlazBlue. Tekken is very fun to play, each character is very balanced, and there is a lot to master if you want to put the time into it.



Lasting Appeal


Help me out lady Optimus.


Tekken 6 boosts a variety of modes for both offline and online players. You can play traditional 1-on-1 matches, team battles with up to 8 fighters, time attacks, survival modes, ghost battles, traditional arcade mode, and a new story mode unique to the console version of Tekken 6. The story mode follows the story of the previous Tekken games, which means…. Uhhh… Ok I’m not even going to lie, I have no idea what’s going on in Tekken. I’ve mastered the Mortal Kombat storyline, but I have no clue what’s going on in Tekken. If you do, please email me. When you start the story mode there’s a 10 minute introduction video explaining the previous events of Tekken games, and I still have no idea what’s going on even after watching the whole thing.

The story mode breaks down into a 3-d brawler reminiscent of 2-d brawlers such as Final Fight and Streets of Rage. While there is a lot of potential for a 3-d brawler that uses fighting game mechanics, it just doesn’t work in Tekken 6. One key concept of a fighting game is measuring the distance between yourself and your opponent, but it just doesn’t work when you have a weird camera angle and 4 opponents on the screen attacking you. Add in the fact that if you die you have to restart the entire level from scratch and the story mode from Tekken 6 is very frustrating. But unfortunately it is the best way to earn money fast to unlock new costumes for the characters, so if you want to customize your character you’re going to want to play through the story mode.



Fun Factor


”Hey Miss! There are children around, how about putting on a shirt?” “You first.”


A lot of the fun in Tekken lies in just how cool some of the moves look. Even button mashers can pull off ridiculously long combos that do a lot of damage and look pretty sweet. One problem I have always had with Tekken games however is the juggling. It is relatively easy to start juggling a character in the air and start juggling them by doing simple punches and kicks. Button mashers often won’t get more than one or two moves off while juggling, but there are plenty of people online who will take well over half your health bar in one juggle. It’s not quite as bad in Tekken 6 as some of the previous entrees, but I still have a problem with it. The game is a lot of fun to play, especially if you like fighting games, but there are minor problems with things such as juggling.



The 411


Sheep make any game better.


As I’ve stated Tekken is a very fun game to play even if you’re not a hardcore fighting fan. And hey, what do you know? If you’re a hardcore fighting fan, there’s a lot to fun to be had in Tekken 6. There is a lot to do, lots of fighters to play with, and lots of stuff to collect. I still have a problem with the air juggles, as they can go on for ridiculously long amounts of time doing insane amounts of damage, but Tekken is still a very fun fighting game.

Graphics	9.0	The graphics are pretty sharp. Each character retains a solid level of detail even after customizing them.
Gameplay	8.5	The Tekken formula has undergone few changes over the years, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. The juggling still needs to be downplayed.
Sound	8.0	Characters speak a variety of languages, yet they somehow understand each other. The level music is pretty good and sets the mood for a fight.
Lasting Appeal	8.0	There are a variety of gameplay modes to satisfy fighting games. The scenario mode leaves a lot to be desired.
Fun Factor	9.0	Both hardcore fighting fans and button mashers will have fun playing Tekken 6.
Overall	8.5   [ Very Good ]