Tekken 6: First Impression

I don’t consider myself a gamer who is very serious about fighting games.  I find that succeeding in fighters requires a commitment I am just not prepared to base my life around.  RPGs… now that’s a different story!  Anyway, Tekken is really the only exception for me.  I have been quite the Tekken fan since some friends on mine decided to declare it the official fighter for our circle years ago.

Tekken 6, which was released yesterday, is the latest installment in the 15 year franchise.  I attended a midnight release/tournament held at a local Best Buy, run by my vlog co-host NutGarden5 the other night.  I didn’t even place, but truly I was just there to grab a copy and have a good time; mission accomplished.  So what was the consensus and/or my opinion?

The first thing many people in attendance were discussing was the irritatingly long load-times when entering a battle.  This was really not welcomed in the tournament setting where people are already kind of on edge — determined to prove their worth through silent button pushing.  Eventually it was decided that the game should be installed on the PS3’s hard drive, which helped matters somewhat.  I have heard this problem is somewhat less severe on the Xbox, but can’t speak from personal experience.

The next day after the tournament I sat down with a few beers eager to get to know the game more intimately.  That sounds dirty doesn’t it?  Part of the appeal the series holds for me is the story surrounding the games staggering 42 characters.  I love clearing the game with each one and unlocking their ending movie.  The movies range from the super-dramatic to joystick-slapping-comical.  That being said, my first goal was of course to clear the game using my favorite characters.

That’s right: 42 characters

Eventually I figured out that progressing in the manor I desired required me to play through the game’s awkward action based campaign mode.  Just to give you an idea, it plays like a traditional fighter attempting to simulate a 3D environment with multiple foes.  While not incredibly difficult, this mode simply provides an irritating hurdle to progressing in the story.  Each boss you defeat unlocks that character allowing the player to clear their story and repeat.  I found the only positive aspect for the campaign was that you can pick up some weapons and accessories for your characters.  More on this in a bit.

Once I did finally clear the game with my favorite characters I was deeply disappointed to find that each video was maybe a minute or two long and usually brought nothing new to the table in terms of story.  If you’re really that curious I would suggest YouTube-ing them and saving yourself the hassle.

Campaign mode makes Roger sleepy

The customization aspect of Tekken provides one of the redeeming qualities and returns in the 6th volume with a vengeance.  There are quite a few more aspects of each character’s outfit that can be customized, but the high prices will keep you busy in both arcade and story mode.  If you share the game with a friend (or friends) that may help earn some scratch otherwise you’ll be grinding a bit.

Online play is the hottest element of fighters for this generation, but few games succeed in maintaining decent online play, with lag being the primary issue.  I haven’t had a chance to play the online mode since I pretty much just passed out last night, but I have heard Tekken 6 falls into this unfortunate category of lag-cripple-dom.  Supposedly a local online option makes things a bit smoother, but still not quite perfect.  There is nothing worse then spending hours committing a juggle to muscle memory only to learn that it is completely useless due to lag in online play…  After spending some quality time with online play I will probably post a follow up.

The 6 new characters introduced since the last game feature the series’ trademark balance issues.  For those who don’t know what I mean, new characters (for the most part) seem quicker and stronger than the returning characters.  You can expect to see them popping up quite a bit online and it will probably piss you off.

Tekken is a great series, but this version’s translation from the arcade leaves something to be desired, at least for a single player.  If you are looking for a fun fighter to play with your friends (who are in the same room) than you won’t be disappointed.  I would recommend chipping in on a single copy though…

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