Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

Well, being a Soul Calibur fan since SC2, I decided to buy Tekken 6, after all, they are both created by Bandai Namco. I've been waiting for this game for quite a while, so my expectations were pretty high. To sum it up, they were almost all met. First, the fighting is fast, cool, impressive, and all-in-all excellent. The character selection has quite a number of characters, however the level selection is pretty small with no more than 8-10 levels.

Now here's a little break down of the fight system: First, there is the awesome 10 his combo system which, if executed quickly and correctly (which is WAY harder than it seems), can bring your opponent's health meter to less than half, more closer to ¼ of full. Also, unlike SC4, but like SC2, after every round/K.O there is a replay, unlike after every battle. You can also save replays (which are really cool) and the replays go really slow which can be like an action movie, or can be more like a comedy movie. Bouncing has been added which is also hard to do, but can be devastating. (However, when computers bounce your seemingly lifeless body off the ground, it becomes VERY frustrating)

However, not all is perfect (or at least near it). The boss of arcade mode and time attack is the most frustrating boss in the history of gaming. You can push him and he'll automatically block it, then you do the exact same attack and it will go right through. He can even block while attacking!!! His attacks are repetitive and clumsily executed. Overall, he's a broken character that you can't play as. Scenario mode is alright, but no comparison to the actual fighting gameplay. To show you how it works, it's like the story mode from Mortal Kombat Armageddon (but a little better) and is like the Weapons Master mode from SC2. Also, to much of my disappointment, you can't create your own character!!! You can only customize your character with over-priced items (to make your character have an aura, it costs 7-10 MILLION GOLD). The clothes you buy have standard colors that you can't change and you can only choose from around 10 colors for the hair. The coolest thing you can do, is choose a hair base, left bangs, right bangs (or choose both at once), and a back (however, there still is not that much to choose from). Also the number of clothing items seems extremely high, but is only high because of different color combinations. Overall, the customization is more than a few steps backward from SC. I just hope they don't do the same with SC's, which was by the way nearly perfect in every way.

Aside from a struggling scenario mode (which isn't a big deal considering it's Tekken, in which all you need to know it to beak your opponent to a red pulp) and a more than disappointing character customization (and a cheap boss), the fighting is excellent. Nice graphics, voice actors, music, and modes which include arcade, ghost mode, survival, and time attack all contribute to a game that easily deserves an 8/10 to a 9.