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Punching
people is brilliant, I love it, it’s that tremendous sense of
testosterone gushing through your mental sinews as you destroy your
unfit and definitely untalented  opponent, watching them try to hit
you with their protracted attacks, whilst leisurely leaning back to
take them by surprise with a flurry of swings destroying their
guard and knocking ‘em to the ground. Then as they lay prostate
in front of you, waiting for you to perform that final killing
attack, you can consider the option that thankfully it has never
got to this, well not for me personally, fights are never really
that good. The thing is you hurt them, they hurt you,
you both hate one another just a little more for hitting the other
in the first place and there’ll probably be blood somewhere, for
someone to find and clean up, it takes all the joy out of it.
Wouldn’t it just be better if we could all go to one little place
where it looks and sounds like here, but where you can learn to
annihilate people in seconds without even hurting them. Well I’ve
been there for the past week.
It’s
true punching people is loads of fun but this little world of a
game involves so very much more than just punching. The majority of
the moves from the previous editions of the Tekken
tournament are still there, if slightly mod ified, but the amount of
new moves I’m still finding for every character is
astounding, plus there are three brand new characters with their
own unique styles of fighting. It seems everything has been brought
into a central balance; slower people have gained more quick
attacks and complex power moves, whereas quicker people have
obtained a more structure and variation in their attacks. There has
been a complete overhaul of the base moves for every character,
keeping within their relevant style but enhancing the choice of
attacks during small spaces of time. It is with those few seconds
that you can really see the effort NAMCO has put into the combat of
this production, because of how they’ve totally taken the brief
pause between moves out; you now can perform two or three
split-second moves, giving you an advantage and then follow them
immediately with a bone crusher, just repeat until you’ve
finished the job. Easy really, it’s just the opponents’ can
and, damn well will, do it too.
It’s
really hard to explain how much they’ve done to this very simple,
four button, moves system. In fact I didn’t really know until I
fought one of the high level AI fighters,  then I didn’t get time
to breathe, I came to realise that those slight pauses between
moves in the previous games were almost thinking time, time to plan
your next duck or throw, now that they’ve gone, (apart from after
the most powerful moves), you do literally need to think on the
hop. The hundreds of moves that you do not expect, simply because
you didn’t know they existed, really don’t help either. This is
when the Tekken button set-up really shows its advantage -
it’s the collaboration of the four buttons between the left arm (Square),
right arm (Triangle),
left leg (Cross), and right leg (Circle), that allow you, during
the small intervals where you will be getting your ass kicked, to
watch the opposition and try to decipher the nasty little combos
you keep getting beaten by. Relatively easy and most useful for
learning a new character or just knowing the opposition. You could
I suppose look at the moves list to see the gargantuan amount
available, but there are only so many hours in a day and so very
much fighting to be done.
The main gameplay option is as usual the Story
Mode. Thirty different characters all with their own story to tell,
eight stages with some story interludes and the big granddaddy of
them all, the final boss. Then there’s the Arcade Mode that, as
any fans of the series already know, has changed a little; you can
now name yourself and customise and save each of the two costumes
for all but one of the characters, unfortunately Mokijin is the odd
one out, but then I kind of see their point. You achieve the
customisable costumes by buying them with money earned through
beating opponents in the various modes. Plus, as you go through
Arcade Mode you will receive belts - starting from ninth Kyu and
working all your way up to first Kyu, then you can get first Dan
through to fifth - and then it gets a little complicated. But you
shouldn’t worry as ranking matches will come thick and fast
throughout, shooting you quickly towards those mysterious ranks.
You will find as I did, that the accessories are quite expensive
and it will take quite a few fights to obtain your desired effect,
luckily for us though there’s many a way to earn the cash, Story
Mode gives a large lump sum for obtaining each characters ending,
you can also earn it by fighting through Survival and Time Attack,
and there’s plenty to earn in the all new replacement for Tekken
Force Mode.
This is a totally revamped version of the mini
game first seen in Tekken 3, and it has now been renamed Devil
Within - as there’s only one character to go through with,
Jin, it’s
his story you see, well the story of him and his whole
devil gene complex at least. And it’s nothing like Tekken
Force either, you can see that the Devil Within has
evolved from it but that’s where the similarities end. The camera
is user controlled for a start, and the control system has also
been changed; there are now just two attack buttons, punch and
kick, with a special attack for each, a button to block and one to
jump, this opens up a whole new perception on how this mode works.
It has now become a 3D action-adventure, with platforming sections
and plenty of puzzles to keep you going. The basic concept is still
the same though - go from the beginning to the end of each level
taking out every enemy that stands in the way, and then taking on
the boss to proceed to the next stage. There is a few more stages
this time though and they’re sub divided into different levels.
Another
mode that is available in this game that will be popular with
newcomers and fans of the series, it’s the Arcade History
section, so now newcomers can see what they missed in their years
of absenteeism and fans can see what they had mentally blocked out
from their bygone years of playing. With NAMCO’s decision to
include the complete Arcade Versions of the earlier Tekken titles
player’s can  now revel in what they wished their PSone Tekken’s
had played like.
Graphically
the title has improved over it’s predecessors much like the rest
of the game, perfected on perfection. There have been so many tiny
tweaks and adjustments it just adds so much to the game, each
character has had loads of animations added, making them seem to
move easier and with more grace than before, the whole graphical
level has been pulled up enhancing everyone’s looks, from just
their clothing rippling to noticing the slight stubble on
someone’s chin. The backgrounds have been improved too, with
loads of tiny animations and stunning scenery coming together to
form spectacular fighting arenas.
The
sound is amazing, it’s hard to tell but I’m sure as I was
playing through there were so many more cracks and crunches than
before, adding a real satisfaction to beating someone up. One thing
that did really stand out whilst playing the game was the music;
it’s awesome, twenty-three stunning tracks I would happily have
in my collection at home, just the Intro Music was enough to give
me goose pimples, well worth having the sound turned up loud while
you’re beating someone senseless.
Everything
I wanted in the next Tekken has been realised ten fold in
this amazing production. Not only do I think everyone should own
this game whichever system you play, I think those that don’t try
this game at least once, even if your first love isn’t fighting
games, are doing themselves such a disservice, because not only
will they miss out on one of the best pieces of gaming money can
buy, but they’ll also overlook history, as it’s being made.
 
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