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The Tekken storyline gets more and more complex as the series progresses, with each evil Mishima family offspring (Jin, Kazuya and Heihachi) and his plans of world domination causing somewhat catastrophic wide spread damage and then, overconfidently, yet foolishly, the diabolical dictator providing an opening, to be overthrown by the others, in the form of a King of Iron Fist Tournament. Tekken 6 has Jin going psychotic and hosting the tournament, but his intentions somehow involve the greater demonic powers of the newly discovered ancient deity Azazel. At least the story writers can’t be blamed for slacking off, but as with most fighting games, the story hardly matters.
Undoubtedly, the best feature of the Tekken series is its accessible gameplay. With a pick up and play system that is easy to learn but difficult to master, Tekken still remains perhaps the best fighting game to play locally when you have casual gamers as guests. The button combinations couldn’t get any easier – each face button maps to one of the four limbs and either the d-pad or the left analog stick can be used for movement, with a quick tap to up/down keys changing the plane for a quick dodge. But merely button mashing your way through your opponent rarely works and it is that depth that the game offers which makes it extremely fun. An aggressive opponent can efficiently be defeated with well timed defences or a good parry, but a badly timed block can just as easily result in being dragged into an unforgivably massive combo with no escape. Even the minute choices of how to respond when knocked onto the ground add new depths to a player’s combat strategy.
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Apart from the gameplay elements employed in the previous games, Tekken 6 adds some new features. One of them – the Rage system, allows the player’s moves to become much more damaging to the opponent. Rage automatically kicks in when a fighter’s life bar falls dangerously low and allows the player to perform very effective counter attacking to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Another new element is the Bound juggles, which allow the player to perform a high impact move towards the end of a combo which makes the opponent smash into the ground hard and bounce back to continue taking damage. This, when perfected, can lead to some seriously damaging lengthy combos.
Tekken 6 also lets the player assume a blocking stance when just standing still without the need to press the ‘back’ button to do so, although it’s not a dependable way to ward off an aggressive opponent. An additional feature is the introduction of weapons, which can be brought into play during fights. These weapons, unique to each character, can be used in single special moves once when acquired in the scenario campaign or bought using earned money, but provide more of a novelty factor rather than drain a large chunk of the opponent’s life bar.
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Coming back to Tekken 6’s insane roster – with more than 40 unique characters (42 to be precise) it is the largest collection of fighters seen till date in the Tekken franchise. The 6 brand spanking new playable characters – Lars, Alisa, Zafina, Miguel, Leo and Bob, come as a welcome addition, most of them worthy of being as much as part of the Iron Fist Tournament as the rest. Lars plays the protagonist in the scenario mode and the leader of Tekken Force. He is insanely strong; almost a good match to Jin Kazama himself. Alisa is a robot with a strange move set which includes using chainsaws attached to her arms and detaching her exploding head from her torso, and then growing it back. The mysteriously hot Zafina is an ancient assassin who incorporates some very shockingly interesting stances in her fighting while Bob is an overly obese American who is as fast as lightening in his karate. I personally did not find Miguel and Leo too interesting; just your run of the mill generic new additions.
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The game offers a wide variety of modes to indulge in, including the main Scenario Campaign mode. This story mode, which plays like a somewhat third-person action adventure game, has Lars travelling to various destinations and fighting a multitude of generic enemies and an end-level boss all while trying to recover this lost memory with the aid of Alisa. Defeating the end level boss unlocks him/her in the campaign mode, after which the fighter can then be optionally used to continue the campaign instead of Lars.
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The cutscenes still feature Lars, which makes it clear it is still Lars’ story that is being followed albeit with a substitute. Once a fighter is unlocked, he/she can also participate in the Arena battles, which revert to standard fighting view. Unlocking a character in the Scenario Campaign and then fighting 4 opponents in the Arena is the only way to unlock that fighter’s epilogue and ending movies. The gallery unlocking and the massive amount of money awarded after each stage with some costumes and other customisations thrown in mid-stage, and the fact that this mode can be played in co-op, become perhaps the only reasons to play this mediocre campaign mode, which still feels forced and may easily last more than 8-10 hours. Having to play the entire level again after dying at the end-level boss is definitely the most frustrating experience the game offers.
The other offline modes include Arcade, Ranking Battles, Time Trials, Survival and Practice. Arcade is similar to the Scenario’s Arena mode, albeit with more battles and a bonus mid-campaign boss thrown in in the form of Nancy, a gigantic robot, whose health bar is perhaps even more enormous than its 10+ foot stature. The Arcade end-boss is the demon Azazel, who comes off as quite a cheap final boss, almost even more than Street Fighter IV’s Seth. With a wide variety of close and ranged attack moves, the massive demon can be quite a challenge to take down. The Ranking Battle mode is possibly the best mode among the rest with one unique AI opponent after another thrown in with varying difficulty levels. The best rewards of these modes is the money earned, which can be used to customise one’s favourite fighter to give it that unique look, with the ability to alter even the hairstyle to a great degree, when playing online. But with each battle ending in an average of 3,000 points, and with accessories costing millions, the Scenario Campaign mode offers the best money for time spent.
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The online mode is where Tekken, just like most fighting games, shines and where true fighting skills can be tested. Post-patch, Tekken performs quite well and the lag is minimal enough to play online either ranked or unranked. The ability to save replays and ‘ghosts’ is a fairly nice touch. The inability to team up with a fellow player in Team Battles online, as can be done in local multiplayer, is however disappointing.
The high definition graphics of Tekken 6 appear similar to its previous HD incarnation, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection (for the PS3) at first, but are definitely upgraded a few notches. The players move more fluidly (with most having additional moves) and the dynamic lighting adds to the beauty of the game. The players also look a lot sharper and even the long tresses of some characters move a lot more realistically. The stages are now more interactive, with some having multiple levels with collapsible floors. Some backgrounds even feature interactive sheep and pigs which sometime annoyingly get in the way during battles. The only gripe with the game’s graphics remains to be the long loading times before each battle, especially in online mode. The sound is nothing to write home about. The voice acting in the Scenario Campaign is cheesy and the music feels even cheesier, but is a small aspect to overlook in an otherwise polished presentation.
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Conclusion
Tekken 6 is an extremely refined game with enough content to last a small lifetime. Although completing the mediocre Scenario Campaign mode might seem like a chore, the other aspects of the game definitely do not and ensure sufficient replay value. The polished graphical overhaul, the new gameplay elements and the excellent new additions to an already enormous fighting roster are more than enough reasons to upgrade from the franchise’s previous iteration, while the easy to pick up gameplay makes it a preferred choice over Street Fighter IV for casual local multiplayer matches. A worthy addition to the fighting game genre indeed.
(+) Excellent new additions to the fighters
(+) Overall gameplay refinement
(+) Superb character customising options
(+) Beautiful graphics
(-) Forgettable Scenario Campaign mode
(-) Might still feel like just another Tekken game at times
Title: Tekken 6
Developer/Publisher: Namco/Namco Bandai
Genre: Fighting
Rating: 16
Platforms: Xbox 360 (Rs 2,999), PS3 (Rs 3,999)
Reviewed on: PS3
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