Tekken: Sixth times a charm?

I’m all for that lovable follow-up to a video game productively named ‘the sequel’, so long as it adds new experiences in the field of game-play, narrative, even the visual presences; but for the beat ‘em up genre it’s a pretty tricky mission to accomplish. Men and women duking it out for the prestige title of best fighter in the world, how do you create a narrative around that without the possibility of it become stale? Well for over ten years the Tekken series has managed to keep the public coming back for more, whilst keeping with the same formula that has made it a gaming icon, but I guess that is what makes the beat ‘em up genre so different to others, a few new characters here, a dab of new stages there, and presto a new game……….sorta.

As you can see by the trailer, the game hasn’t changed that much since number four, but Bandai Namco and hardcore fans may argue; why bother with the change, over fifty characters to date you couldn’t ask for more surely, but it does bring me back to my point of fighting games unable to offer much more than this. To some the genre is dead; the restriction of the virtual space to compensate two players fighting from left to right and vice-versa as it’s only way of presenting itself.  The inability to expand on this does deter people from coming back as they see it as repetition, which is a shame as I’m sure the beat ‘em up could offer so much more nowadays. I’m a big fan of the genre since my Street Fighter II days, and even though the thoroughly enjoy it, I still seek that one piece of creative genius to bring it back to the top as it once was.

New Tekken Force mode, customize your character with clothing; we’ll see how this one stands up to the other players in the field, being a fighting nut I won’t be able to resist, but I’m not proud of it.