Review – Tekken 6 (PS3, X360)

The arcade version of Tekken 6 was released almost two years ago, receiving a mixed reception from longtime fans of Namco Bandai’s popular fighting franchise. New mechanics, such as Rage and Bound, as well as some of the new characters, were unbalanced, which led to many players taking their handful of quarters back to the much more polished Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection. Thankfully, not wanting to disappoint their loyal fanbase, Namco Bandai quickly went to work on a major re-release of the arcade software that would address the balancing issues and introduce two new characters to the mix. Unfortunately, this re-release, called Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, delayed the inevitable console release of the game. Furthermore, Namco Bandai announced at the Tokyo Game Show in 2008 that the console version of Tekken 6 would be appearing on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, a decision that would bring even further delays to development. After nearly two years, the wait is finally over, and console owners can finally take part in the sixth iteration of the King of the Iron Fist Tournament. Was it worth the wait? For the most part, yes.

Based on the arcade release of Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, Tekken 6 is a well-balanced three-dimensional fighting game with a massive cast of forty playable characters. The fighting mechanics are very similar to previous installments in the series, with canned combos being executed by inputting a series of button presses, with each of the controller’s four face buttons corresponding to your chosen fighters four limbs, and the majority of combat damage being dealt during juggles that carry your opponent through the air. The differences come in the form of the two new mechanics introduced: Rage and Bound. The Rage system is quite simple: whenever a fighter drops below five percent of his or her starting life total, they receive a significant boost in attack power. For those who have had the pleasure of playing Tekken Tag Tournament, Rage is functionally similar to Netsu Power. However, in addition to the character’s life bar glowing red, the characters themselves now also glow red. The glow itself is minimal, and hardly ever a distraction, and when combined with Tekken 6’s new motion blur effect, can look pretty cool when seen on darker levels.

The second new mechanic, Bound, has a much greater impact on the way the game is played. With the Bound system in place, players can smash their opponents against the ground with certain moves that will result in their opponents bouncing upon impact, making them vulnerable to additional hits. The bounce itself is brief, so players need to act fast in order to take advantage of it, but if they succeed, the result could lead to massive damage. The more advanced combos in the game rely on Bound in order to maximize damage potential and to carry opponents further in walled levels. On a walled level, bouncing your opponent off the ground directly in front of a wall will often lead to an inescapable wall combo, which is guaranteed to make opponent wince. Thankfully, the release of Bloodline Rebellion addressed the lethality of Bound combos, which in the original arcade release could be used to kill an opponent in one juggle, making them much more balanced. Most Bound juggles deal damage on par with the standard juggles from Tekken 5: Resurrection. Unfortunately, while this keeps juggle damage within the realm of reason, it also forces players to learn more demanding juggle strings in order to remain competitive.

The console release also benefits from the addition of a few console-exclusive features: Scenario Campaign and Online Mode. Scenario Campaign is similar to the Tekken Force beat-’em-up modes seen in previous console releases of Tekken titles, but with a greater story component and a world map complete with branching paths. The default story is based around the two new Tekken 6 characters, Lars and Alisa, and is told through several real-time cutscenes that occur before and after missions. The story itself is pretty campy, at best, and far from Oscar material, but it gets the job done, and for players not interested in sitting through the cutscenes, they can be skipped. As players progress through Scenario Campaign, they’ll unlock other characters to use in this mode, and by defeating enemies, earn spending money and some items for their chosen character. Here’s where Scenario Campaign gets interesting, as the items earned in this way have special properties exclusive to this mode. You may find a pair of gloves that will engulf your enemies in flames when struck, or a pair of sunglasses that greatly increases the amount of money earned during each mission. Players can equip each costume of their fighter with five special attribute slots, something that may be necessary in order to complete the later missions in the game. Unfortunately, Scenario Campaign is not without its flaws. The controls are awkward and frustrating, and the graphics appear to be rendered in a lower resolution than the rest of the game. The characters and the environments look generic, and several of the resources are reused throughout the experience. Sadly, players that want to customize most or all of the characters in the game will need to spend a lot of time in this mode, as it’s the fastest way to earn money and items.

Though taking your favourite combatant online certainly has its rewards as well. Defeating higher ranked players can result in a nice payout, and even losing a Ranked Match will earn you a little scratch. The online mode offers both Ranked and Player Matches for players to participate in, which has become the convention for most console games in this online age. The Ranked Matches will earn you both cash and rank, and for those players that seek fame, a spot on the leaderboards. The Player Matches offer rooms for players to fight without the added pressure of losing a rank, have customizable settings, such as time and rounds needed to win, and allow other players to spectate. For the most part, the online play is enjoyable, but in our experience with the game, suffered from intermittent lag problems. As Tekken 6 is a game of precise timing and execution, the lag can be a little discouraging for serious play, but will hardly get in the way of a casual match or two with some friends.

However, there’s more to the Online Mode in Tekken 6 than beating up friends and strangers. Players can download replays of matches in order to study tips and combos, or even submit their own. The replays are ranked by popularity, but can be filtered to find matches involving specific characters or players, and can be saved for later viewing on your hard drive. Another feature, and probably our favourite of Tekken 6’s online offerings, allows players to upload a Ghost of their character, or download ghosts made by others, including friends. Ghosts are AI representations of your character that attempt to emulate your style of play by using your most commonly executed moves and combos. The science isn’t perfect, but it can be surprisingly accurate at times. Whenever a new Ghost is downloaded to your system, it is placed in the database of random AI players that can be encountered during the offline Ghost Battle and Arcade Modes. Players can store up to one hundred downloaded Ghosts on their system, and may upload one for each character that they use. Encountering an AI opponent that attempts to mimic a friend of yours is pretty exciting, and I hope we see more of this in other fighting games.

One of the best reasons to upload a Ghost of your character is that it actually retains its customized appearance when encountered in another player’s game. The customization options in Tekken 6 are quite expansive, so a great deal of variety is guaranteed to be seen. Furthermore, the customizations have much better character model integration this time around. Fewer items look as though they’re floating near the character, and each character has dozens of purchasable items instead of just a handful with palette swaps.

Though as great as the customizations are, the visual presentation of Tekken 6 is a little lacking. The game suffers from some serious aliasing issues, as well as an upscaled resolution that can make some of the characters and environments look a little muddy at times. It’s hardly a deal breaker, as Liz Lemon would say, but it’s certainly noticeable, especially when compared to another Namco Bandai fighting game, Soul Calibur IV. However, Soul Calibur IV was without an arcade release, meaning that it was designed for both consoles from the ground up. To make matters worse, Tekken 6 also suffers from some lengthy load times, which can make loading a match take as long as thirty seconds. Thankfully, the load times can be significantly reduced by taking advantage of the optional install, which we’d strongly recommend doing. The aliasing issues can also be fixed by turning off the game’s Motion Blur feature, which allows the system to use anti-aliasing instead. Overall, we found that the game looked better with the Motion Blur disabled, but that’s a matter of opinion, of course.

The sound design is also a mixed bag. Most of the voices and sound effects have been recycled from previous Tekken games, sounding a touch stale, and the stage themes, in most cases, are less memorable than those heard in previous installments. However, there is the odd gem that can really help engross you in the battle, or put a smile on your face as you and your adversary take turns kicking sheep. Yeah, you read that correctly. Sheep.

Overall, the Tekken 6 experience is a very solid one, especially if you’re a hardcore fan of the franchise. The offline fighting is just as great as ever, perhaps even at its best with the largest character pool in franchise history, a more expansive move lists, and the benefit of two years of balancing. However, the additions made to make the console release more unique, Scenario Campaign and Online Mode, are too hit and miss for their own good. Throw in the dated visual presentation and the poor load times, and you get a game that to some, may feel like it came out two years too late. Regardless, as a die-hard Tekken fanatic, I have little trouble viewing this game as a success based on the merits of the offline versus mode alone, but if you’re new to the franchise, or hoping to get a little extra out of your fighting games, you may leave the Tournament a little disappointed.