Tekken 6 Review- 4/5 Stars

The sixth iteration in the popular Namco fighting franchise continues in the vein laid out by it's predecessors, with tight arcade action backed with great presentation and a new, console only story mode. With a roster of 40 varied characters, this game has all the depth you want it to have, and is enjoyable for all, from button mashers to experienced fighters.

Although Tekken 6 has been out in arcades for a while now, the game still looks great, and as ever the presentation, from the menus, the music to the well defined characters, is excellent, bringing a sense of a really well designed product. The fights are flashy but tight, with responsive controls and a myriad of ways to rain the pain on your opponent.

New for the home versions is the scenario mode, allowing you to take newcomers Lars and Alisa through a series of Streets of Rage style brawler levels, earning money and new costume items to beef up your characters. As you go through you learn their stories and unlock the other characters for use in this mode, and therefore unlock their costume items, giving this mode a decent amount of replayability. However this mode suffers a little as the game mechanics from a one on one fighter don't transfer so well to a full 3d brawler situation, and it is easy to get overwhelmed if you don't get rid of the enemies fast enough- especially in the harder modes. That said though, this is a fun addition and a good alternative to the main mode for unlocking the items, even if the story is rather standard.

The main meat of the game is the one on one fights, with everything you would expect from a current gen Tekken, the range of modes from previous Tekken games, Time attack, Survival and Team Battle are all here, as well as the ability to play through a series of opponents based on other player's 'Ghost data'. This mode encourages you to keep practicing as you will earn money and level up your characters rank. You can also download other players’ Ghost data to fight against. The practice mode is also useful allowing you to practice with each fighter and with a range of settings and great move lists. You can also use this mode to work out combos and juggles which are not listed, and set the computer opponent to attack you to replicate the feeling of a real fight.

The online mode of the game also has decent options, ranked and unranked matches and the ability to watch other players saved replay data. Unfortunately at the time of writing the online fights were quite laggy, with a noticeable wait inbetween button presses and onscreen action. However Namco have announced they will be patching this in the near future, so we can hope this will improve things.

The real stars of the game are the characters, with a wide selection covering a range of fighting styles. From wizened old kung fu masters to a kangaroo, complete with joey in pouch, there is a lot of personality in each combatant. There are 6 new characters in Tekken 6, each with thier own backstory and fighting style. Each fighter has a huge move list and extensive costume customisation options. There is real depth in the movesets, allowing a dedicated player to really take on the deeper nuances of the game with counters, throws and juggles.

Speaking as a fan of the series, this game has me really excited and looking forward to playing more each time. It is a shame the online mode is not quite what it could be, and I hold hope that this gets cleaned up in the upcoming patch. Overall this is a fun fighting game with a wide appeal, with a decent range of options and excellent presentation. Highly recommended if you are interested in the genre, or just fancy using a panda to beat up a schoolgirl.

I’d love to hear what you think about the game, leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading! Andrew