Platform: Playstation 2

Genre: Fighting

Number of Players: 1 - 4

Peripherals: Multi-tap Adaptor

Fighting games hit the point where they were a dime a dozen. Everyone and their mother were producing games for the genre, and it hit the point where the sheer volume was worse than first person shooters. Even worse was the fact that every game used the same engine and little was done to improve the genre. Sega gave us a little tease with Virtua Fighter, but the use of polygon graphics wasn’t quite up to speed yet. Thankfully Namco stepped in with Tekken and a new franchise was born.

Tekken Tag marks the debut of the series on the Playstation 2. I was never a huge fan of the series personally, and I had done a bit of testing when Tekken Tag hit the arcades. It was pretty much what I had expected - sluggish controls, lacking graphics, and sub-par music, so I wasn’t expecting too much for the PS2 version. Unexpectedly however, this home version of the game ended up being greater than I had expected. Honestly, comparing the two games is as different as night and day.

The first thing that sets this apart from other fighting games is the tag option. Instead of just choosing one character to fight with, players are allowed two. Once the fight begins, simply tap any of the top shoulder buttons to bring in your other fighter. Off screen characters also will regenerate energy when not tagged in. The only real drawback is there are no special moves when tagging other characters in like we have seen previously with games such as Rival Schools, but that’s just a minor thing.

In comparison to the arcade version, the home version of Tekken is amazing. The black backgrounds are gone, replaced by brilliant and colorful skies and background. In the arcade, the snow stage looked like characters were fighting on a sheet of ice, but that’s all changed now and players are treated to some nicely textured snow. Remember that black sky looming above everything in the Eddie Gordo stage? A wonderfully designed coastal skyline has replaced that, giving the level some much-needed atmosphere. Tekken also features another of Namco’s high end, incredible CG intros. Although it may not be the animation that you’re used to seeing from a company such as Square, Tekken’s intro nonetheless is still quite amazing.

Whereas the arcade version features some slow, clunky controls, the PS2 version reacts quite smoothly. No more waiting for your character to react once you hit a button. Another great feature is that the game, much like other fighting games, has an option to teach you the different button combinations. This makes Tekken far less of a game about mashing buttons as quickly as possible, and more about timing and finesse. However, some characters do tend to be a bit more difficult to utilize than others, but that remains true with almost every fighting game.

Tekken has plenty of extras as well including hidden characters and some mini games. To open the extras, really it’s just a matter of beating the game with different characters. The bowling mini game is interesting, but it’s more or less a novelty. There’s also an option to capture frames to view later, but you definitely have to be quick in order to snap the picture at just the right moment.

Of course, many of the fan favorites make a return for the tag bout including Ling Xiaoyu, Yoshimitsu, and King. Being a “next gen” title however, expect to see plenty of enhancements to not only the character appearance, but to the moves as well. Combos flow incredibly smoothly into one another, making some characters appear incredibly graceful. However, the controls can be a bit touchy at times, but sometimes that ends up being more rewarding that hindering.

The sad thing, and the thing that in fact remains constant with the series, is that the endings are quite lacking. Most of them are a bit corny, although a few are a little humorous, but overall they aren’t too terribly exciting or interesting. However, bearing in mind that fighting games have little to no real emphasis on story line, for the most part anyway, the lack of endings is somewhat forgivable.

When it comes to fighting games, Namco is kind of like SquareSoft as they set the standard that the other companies strive for. In comparison to previous titles in the series, Tekken Tag is definitely an amazing game. It offers plenty of challenge, plenty of fun, especially when you get into the four-player mode. And with combos that are extremely easy to master, Tekken Tag is perfect for even the beginner.

 -mike-