The Tekken Factor: First Impressions

Well here we go again, another established fighting game in the beat em up genre making another appearance within the same year as another fighting game in the beat em up genre making another appearance……still with me? Basically what I’m trying to promote here is the fact that Tekken is back with it’s sixth instalment in the series (not including Dark Resurrection), and looks to make up for lost time in order to compete with February’s release of Street Fighter IV. From first impressions it plays and looks exactly how a Tekken has always done, the characters have retained their signature moves, the red mist hit detection is again present, even down to the fact that all of the characters from past games have minced their way back into the arena; added with a few new fresh-faced punching bags, guess it should be the best of all right? Well lets run down a few of the newest key features from the game that I have come across so far, and have the feedback coming from me; a simple boy with his trusty laptop sitting in a kitchen with milk and cookies, ah the simple pleasures.

Story

What happened? Here I was expecting the usual prologue and epilogue for each character giving details in both written and visual practices of their reasoning behind their appearance once again in the fighting tournament, but instead I get something completely different. Eliminating what was the norm from the last group of games, what we get is an entirely new story; written and visualized cut-scenes based around the new characters, and gameplay from a 3^rd person perspective fighting your way through the hoards of enemies to reach your next objective. It does however contain a back-story for every Tekken game up to this point with a length of time Kojima would be proud of; I can’t say I was too impressed though, but understand that Namco had to shake things up sooner or later. The arcade still does it’s job of challenging you to fight your way through stages with the incentive to raise ranks for your character and earn gold for the customization option, but what of the rest of the cast? Well they seem to now be a secondary thought now; only a couple of battles in the arcade style but least they get a chance in the 3^rd person and do have the prologue and epilogue with a story played out in between; thankfully my additional scare was short-lived.

Online

Seems that this little option is a must for any game from the present day, so for as I am a competitive man I indulged. After winning my first and only fight I noticed something rather unpleasant with the speed of which my character was reacting to my button pressing; the dreaded lag returns to haunt once again. I would have to say that it was one of the most uncomfortable sort of lags I’ve ever experienced, no slow down or frame-rate drop, just a delay when it came to the button combination from you to the character on screen. I believe it is something that can easily be sorted quickly, so do not be deterred by this problem keeping you from enjoying the online capabilities. It still retains the satisfaction of defeating an unknown or perhaps a known player; and now that I say that, I feel that I should retain mine.

Customization

As I mentioned earlier, by playing through the arcade you earn the gold needed to buy new clothes, hairstyles, just about everything to help your character become your own next top model. I’ve never really been fussed about this feature even back in Tekken 5, but it is an interesting thought to acquire an ability for experimentation and be able to show your creations off for other players to enjoy in hopes of becoming a stand-out kinda guy or gal. One big problem I do have though is the cost per item, I’m just not understanding the concept behind the price range being so frustratingly high. I realize that it is a tool to get you to play and earn more which is fine, but surely things could be just a little bit cheaper; 500,000 just seems expensive. Mind you, I guess once you get going you won’t be able to stop; guess I just need to be persistent.

So all in all I have enjoyed this just as much as I’ve always done from the series. Some of my impressions of the game are bound to change for better or worse; but feel that it won’t be a regular occurrence for I am a sucker for fighting games. The usual one on one confrontation system is all I need to keep my interests high for this genre, so I feel that this is a worthy piece of software from early experiences; time for another scrap me thinks.

Tags: First Impressions Namco PS3 Tekken 6 xbox360