Like many protagonists in bare-knuckle brawling
games, I've
often considered myself an ice-cold merciless fist-fighter with a
disarming honesty. Furthermore, I also suffer from sporadic amnesia,
like Lars from Tekken 6.
Just last night I found myself wandering
around the docks with a half-naked robo-babe with impeccable dress
sense as a companion.
Why? I can't tell you that – my memory fails me.
But this I do know: wharfies fight real dirty...
Long
story short and I'm now in possession of 2.5 metric tonnes of very
expensive Italian bathroom tiling, and several boxes of counterfeit
Tiger Woods apparel.
But what of Tekken 6 – is it the holy grail
of digital fighting, the kind of titular title to make Dead or Alive
just plain dead? To make Streetfighter IV just plain, um, street?
You
know what? That's a lot of question marks, but getting back on topic, I
think it just might be the game to convert a few naysayers.
Granted,
if you love your Streetfighter method, or can't get past the
boobalicious Dead or Alive franchise, you may find the fighting system
in Tekken 6 unpalatable, but as a package judged on its merits, you get
more bang for your buck than almost any other fighting game around.
Once
you booted up the game and slaked your thirst with icy cold
psychotropic beverage, you'll be greeted with a visually stunning intro
(the cinematics are amazing) that delivers a tidbits of story from a
few characters.
Now
I don't know about you, but I started with options, then moved to
profile and realised you can customise all characters, kinda like Soul
Calibur.
First up I hit “Offline mode”, which consists of
arcade,
ghost, versus, team battle, plus time attack survival and practice. I
smashed practice for 20 minutes to brush up on my juggles and to figure
out some of the moves and after that I made a ham and cheese sandwich
that really hit the spot.
The controls are very tight, almost
impeccable, and though it's the kind of game that takes me many days to
really get the hang of (I've been Streetfighter-ing for too long), the
learning curve isn't overly steep and you can tweak the difficulty to
suit anyway.
After some practice I tried the Scenario campaign
which I have to say is blubby brilliant. Or brijjante as the Etruscans
often say. It's basically a story-based Final Fight style beat-em-up
mode where you walk through linear levels slapping and judo kicking the
bejesus out of hundreds of footsoldiers.
You can lock onto
targets which helps a lot, allowing you to unleash you're fists of fury
in a focussed and less haphazard fashion. After dispatching the easy
foes by their dozens, you'll usually come across various end bosses
which take the form of one of the more than 40 characters.
These
fights are always fun as the boss's health bars are abnormally massive,
allowing you to really crank up the multi-hit combo attacks.
After
each level you'll be ranked on your ability, kill count and plenty of
other exciting statistics, then you'll be met with the map screen which
often gives you choices as to your next move. The haunted forest or the
abandoned science lab...? Always pick the forest...
During your
travels through the Scenario campaign, in which your amnesia is a
convenient but unoriginal and somewhat banal plot mechanism to add
intrigue, you'll come across various 'drops', items and the like which
range from health packs to equipment and even weapons. Oh yes, the
weapons...
The first time you discover a minigun is very
cool,
kinda like the time when your smoking hot cousin *this text has been
removed for legal reasons* but when cops arrived they tazered the hobo
and joked about the organised crime. Good times.
As well as
the limited use weapons, the equipment drops are very cool,
as
most of the pieces of armour or clothing – such as trousers, arm
bracers, vests and so on – have some sort of modifier, such as
increases in damage, more hit points or improved rage
effectiveness (rage happens when you have low health and
increases the potency of your attacks).
Customising your
characters is a very welcome aspect of the game and is one of the
things that kept me playing through the Scenario campaign – that and
drop dead gorgeous rendered cut-scenes. Humanna humanna...
For
mine, this story-based mode where you get to move around freely is the
icing on the cake. Tekken is a proven fighting game with a core
audience that will lap up the new characters, the moves, the online and
local 1v1 fights and of course the frenetic fights in Tekken 6.
But
with all the goodies available in the single-player mode, those without
Internet access and even gamers who are not usually drawn to fighting
games will still find a lot to keep them playing.
While the
online mode is always a nice extra and improves the game's longevity
immeasurably, I preferred local 1 on 1 fights, mainly because I would
actually score a few wins. Mainly against my new step brother Radek.
He's 39.
You just need two controllers and a mouth guard
and
Bob's yer mum's brother. Newbs will find that button mashing works to a
point, and blocking system is fairly easy to grasp too. Mastering the
big combos and special moves takes more time, but one of the more
appealing aspects of the game is that you don't need to be an expert to
have fun.
Visually the game is very appealing, with
excellent
character models that move fluidly, detailed and colourful and varied
artwork in both the backdrops and characters, plus a frame rate that'll
keep you from blinking for hours.
I don't think that it pushes
the boundaries of the console's hardware but it does look nice. It
animates very smoothly and it looks good and while Tekken 6 doesn't
have quite as many busty female characters as the Dead or Alive series,
which is a bit crap, the new femme fatales will warrant a (very) close
inspection by any self respecting gamer.
Negatives? Not many.
Sometimes switching targets in Scenario campaign can be hackneyed and
the story is fairly forgettable. There's also a lot of loading screens
and some people will not find the controls to their liking, and it
could be argued that the online mode isn't ideal for Australian gamers
(it will improve as more people get the game though).
The audio,
however, is good and there are simply so many game modes, features,
unlockable content, tonnes of characters, special moves, combos, and
grapples that even down-and-out cops with heavy drinking problems and
Maria Sharapova might find something to like here.
Tekken 6 is a triumph of next generation gaming
and adds a lot more depth to what could have been a cut-and-dry
fighting game.
And
if nothing else, it shows us that half-naked robo-babes and skirmishes
with wharfies can be a suitable substitute for the (sometimes exotic)
psychotropic treatment of amnesia.
Scenario campaign
