New character Lars Alexandersson – the emo – bangs his head and loses his memory while infiltrating the Mishima Zaibatsu. Via some silly, very Japanese Metal Gear Solid-length cutscenes, all using the in-game engine, a story of sorts unravels. It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out, especially online. Technically it extends even further the number of attacks a player can land before the opponent has the chance to tech roll out of a landing. The main gripe seems to be that it is overpowered – calls have already been made for a reduction in juggle damage. For a game based on air combos, this is huge, and has already sparked much heated debate among the Tekken community. Every character has a number of moves that, when used during a mid-air combo, will “bounce” the opponent off of the ground and back into the air, resetting the juggle potential. The overall impact on strategy is minimal.įar more important for high level players is the new “bound system”. It doesn’t make available new, ultra powerful moves, or make you more resistant to attacks. Sure, it might make you slightly more weary of your opponent, but at the end of the day little changes. It’s a disappointing feature – it does little to change the dynamic of a match. When you’re nearly dead your health bar flashes red, your character glows and your strike attacks do more damage. This is sure to please many fans, but will do nothing to budge long-standing critics. All the usual suspects are faithfully reproduced: the four button combat (each button is assigned to a limb), the counter system, tech rolling, wall hits, foreground/background dodging, and the reliance on air combos following launchers. Bar some command list tweaks, the addition of the Rage system, a handful of new characters and an expanded Tekken Force mode, Tekken 6 is Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection.
Even the greatest games would struggle to feel fresh under such circumstances. That’s right – it’s taken two years for Tekken 6, originally released in Japanese arcades in November 2007, to land on Xbox 360 and PS3. Where does this lack of enthusiasm come from? It’s probably got something to do with the fact that this home console release is based on a two-year-old arcade game. The one-on-one fighting is just as bone-crunching, spine-snapping and easy to learn yet hard to master as it’s always been. But it lacks the freshness, sparkle and zing SF4 has in abundance. It seems difficult to criticise Tekken 6 for feeling like an uninspired effort from Namco Bandai in the same year we heap praise upon Street Fighter 4 – a fighting game Capcom is delighted to hear described as Street Fighter 2.5.
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