REVIEW
Tekken 6
By Jorge Figueiredo - December 2nd, 2009
Tekken 6 has been around in specialty arcades for just over two years but has been available to home gamers for just over a month. My first serious foray into the world of Tekken was playing Tekken 3 in the arcades. Eventually, I would get a bit more serious about it, playing it at home on the PlayStation. I had played some Tekken Tag Tournament in the arcade while killing time in theatres waiting for movies, but not enough to really claim to know the game well. When I went to the Sony Holiday Event, I got to sit down and play it, and it blew me away. But even that did not prepare me for the amount of fun I would have playing it at home.
I have raved about how incredible this game looks (there is no exception on my plain ol’ tube television at home), as well as the more realistic pacing in my impressions from the Sony Event, so I will instead focus on gameplay.
The standard offline section of the game is full of typical fighting game goodness, with Arcade, Team Battles, and Survival modes. Each of these options is fun and challenging, especially given the deformable terrain and multi-stage levels. The Rage system is refreshing; when you’re getting low on life, your hits become more powerful. You can even perform moves that allow you to extend your juggles by bouncing your opponents off the floor thanks to the Bound system.
The Scenario Campaign Mode is also very enjoyable, if not somewhat repetitive. This repetition isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, as it’s you against hordes of bad guys with rewarding boss battles. As you make your way through the campaign you also attain items that will allow you to enhance your character, granting more health points, more powerful attacks, elemental effects, and much more. The items you find also help you customize your character. It’s strange to say, but there’s also a very obvious sense of whimsy with some of the items. There are also a few unlockables hidden away in the campaign, so you have to keep a sharp eye out for them.
There has been a lot of bellyaching about the online play being stilted and prone to dropped connections. But I have to say that I didn’t see any with this. I challenged some people who were far, far superior, but it was still definitely a lot of fun. I even played with Rich from GameNorth.ca while engaged in voice chat with the Bluetooth headset. I could hear his game running in the background and let me tell you, there was minimal lag and we had a blast.
Tekken 6 is a worthy addition to the series. With hours upon hours of great gameplay, unlockables, and online battling, there is a lot to do. You can certainly finish the game without too much difficulty, but I can pretty much guarantee that you will come back for more. Tekken 6 is a great go-to game.
