Tekken 6 (360)

After many years of waiting, Tekken 6 has finally come home. Originally released in Arcades in 2007 (Japan), Tekken fans have been waiting a long time to finally play this newest iteration in the Tekken Saga.

The home conversion is based on the updated version of Tekken 6, titled "Bloodline Revolution". This update added characters, tweaks and new moves among other things, resulting in a more polished and balanced game. The inclusion of this update is welcome to the faithful fans that have been denied a chance to play the game due to the decline of the arcade industry in the US.

So after all that waiting, does it deliver? Yes and no. The gameplay is very solid. Those familiar with the series will feel welcome as the staples of the gameplay have not changed. The game's cast of 40 characters includes many fan favorites from the past series, as well as new faces that bring new styles and techniques to the table.

The presentation is nice as well, with some of the benefits of High Definition (such as lighting effects) being apparent. However, the graphics are not as big a step up from its PS2 predecessors as many would have hoped. There are options to tweak the visuals, but in the end, the textures could have used more polish. The framerate is usually very solid for the most part, however.

Many of the complaints that have arisen in Tekken 6 come in the games many modes (and lack of useful ones). The online mode, a big draw and a staple in the resurge of fighting games right now, is a mess. Having played a few matches online, the lag makes it almost unbearable, even if the connection status is "green". Hopefully a patch can fix this in the future, but I found it to be unplayable at the moment.

The single player is hit and miss. The Arcade mode is fun, but the cheap end boss detracts from that. The new "Survival Campaign" (the spiritual successor to Tekken 3's Tekken Force mode) is the only way to follow the actual story of the game and earn character endings, but the repetition and lack of polish in this mode is disappointing. One omission is the lack of local co-op, which I would think would extend the life of this mode for many players.

One of the features of the game that is fun is the customization mode. You can earn money in the game's many modes and buy new equipment to customize your characters (for looks, not function). However, the biggest problem is that the only way to really earn enough money to buy the good items is to continuously grind for cash or items in the Survival Campaign. Perhaps if more money were earned by playing one-on-one matches, the customization would feel more rewarding.

In the end, Tekken 6 is a great game that falls a little flat in its home conversion. If you ignore the fluff, however, this game still strikes a chord with fighting fans, especially those who have stuck with the series from the beginning. Grab a few friends and pass the controller around, and its hard to have a bad time.