Easily the best fighter for the Playstation 2

Tekken, first created by Namco for the playstation entertainment system, this game spawned 3 more titles of the same name. Now even though this series was extremely popular on the playstation, I never really cared for it. However I wanted a fighter for my playstation 2, and since I already owned Dead or Alive 2 for my dreamcast, I decided to go with this game, and boy am I glad I did.


Developed by Namco,


Genre- fighting


Players- 4


Discs- 1


Memory card- 360 KB




Graphics


Amazingly detailed characters who look and move real. In addition to this, the backgrounds are breathtaking, with dozens of fans, who are also incredibly detailed, cheering in the background, people fighting in the background, trees swaying in the wind, exc. This games graphics are a big improvement over the Arcade version, whose colors were dull, and was a little sketchy and rough around the edges. The Ps2 version has Colorful graphics, and is extremely smooth, I didn’t find one moment in the game where I was dissatisfied with these amazing graphics. As for the question on whether or not this game graphically beats Namco’s dreamcast game soul caliber, which is the question I wanted to know, is well while these graphics don’t blow Soul caliber away, it does have significant enhancements that really show that the PS2 is the slightly more powerful system. (Notice I said more powerful system, not better system)


Bottom line for graphics


Surely taking large advantage of the PS2’s graphical engine, this game looks beautiful. It’s probably the best looking Playstation 2 game next to SSX snowboarding, and it certainly wipes the floor with it’s other PS2 fighting launch title Dead or Alive 2 in terms of graphics.


10 out of 10





Sound


Background music a little odd at times but then again so are the backgrounds, so it fits the atmosphere well. Most tracks usually start off with a mechanical voice reciting a few words or phrases, and then they continue with either weird techno beats, or other types of odd musical scores. I really liked the music though because I found it was easy to engage in the gameplay because of it, it kept you interested and really fit the mood.


10 out of 10





Gameplay


Arcade Mode


This is where you select two characters that you are going to use through the arcade mode. These characters will be with you until you die, in which then if the option is turned on you can select 2 more characters and continue where the others left off. Upon completion of arcade mode you will see the various ways in which you defeated your enemies, the games credits, and the ending of the first character in your party (note: if you have already seen the ending for your first character they will show the ending for the second character instead) The endings really sucked and the only reason I would ever consider playing this mode is just to unlock all the hidden characters, after that’s done I’d rather play another mode, although I will go back to this mode now and then. Replay value for this mode is probably a few days or so, possibly a week or two.


Time attack mode


In this mode your character races against time in order to defeat a certain amount of characters. The more characters you defeat, the higher you place among the rankings. This mode is fun, but will only catch your attention for a couple days, don't worry though, there’s more things to do.


Survival mode


This mode is basically similar to Time Attack mode, however instead of racing against time, you are simply just seeing how many people you can kill without dying. The more kills, the higher the ranking you receive. This mode, like the time attack mode, will last you a couple days max on the average.


Vs Battle mode


Play against your friends in tag battles. This mode let’s you select handicaps to elevate the fun.
Will hold attention for a week or month depending on whether or not the gamer has many friends to play with.


1 on 1 match


Sick and tired of the Tag Mode feature, well play a little old style one on one in this mode. This mode will probably catch your attention for a couple days or so; it’s really fun to go back in time to these old matches especially with better graphics and more characters.


Team Battle mode


In this mode you set how many people you want on each team, from one to five, and then you fight with those people against the opposing team. This mode plays out by when one guy dies then your other teammate comes in, this repeats till you run out of team mates. I didn't care much for this mode, but I admit that it probably could provide another couple days worth of entertainment.


Theatre mode


Unlocked after you play through the game once, it lets you view all he movies, endings, in the game once they are unlocked. These feature is cool but it only last an hour or so, after you see the endings they are so bad you’ll wish you will never see them again.


Gallery mode


Unlock after unlocking Unknown, this lets you save pictures during gameplay and view them here. I thought this feature was useless and never used it, but who know, it might interest you.


Tekken bowl


Unlock Ogre and you get to bowl with the Tekken Fighters. This is extremely cool, and is like a whole other game in itself. This will last about a week or so, extremely fun.


Bottom line for gameplay


Well if you liked the old Tekken series, you’ll love this new addition. However if you hated Tekken, like me, you’ll be surprised but you actually might like this game, it has so many features it’s overwhelming, but its poor endings hurt it.


8.5 out of 10




Control


I thought the controls were easy, you have 4 tag buttons, 2 punches and two kicks. Also special moves are easily pulled off with few button combinations, and there’s even a move list to help you. The only thing bad is that the game moves a bit slow, but that’s the style of fighting in Tekken, however when special moves take 30 seconds to pull off, after you pout in the combo for the move they pose then move back, pose again, exc exc before actually ever executing the move, gets very annoying.


7 out of 10




Overall for entire game


Well it’s an amazing game, but it does have its flaws. A great buy if you like fighters and are trying to choose between this game and that overrated piece of garbage Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore.


Overall ratings summary


Graphics- 10


Sound- 10


Gameplay- 8.5


Control- 7


Overall- 9