Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

The Tekken franchise is to 3D fighters what Street Fighter is to the 2D genre: the game that all others in the genre look up to as the definitive title and try to compete with at the same time. Tekken 3 is 3D fighting's Street Fighter II. However, where Street Fighter II solidified a place for the fighting genre in gaming with it's complicated, intricate combos, Tekken 3 made fighting games accessible for the masses but at the same time had all the precision fighting and big combos a fighting fan could want. Tekken 3 was followed by another great entry in Tekken Tag Tournament, but the series was plagued by various missteps that hurt the next few games and left the series somewhat under the radar. Tekken 6 has brought the franchise back and once again shows the gaming world why it's considered one of the all time best in its genre. The gameplay is as tight as ever, but still accessible, making it an easy recommendation for parties. The cast of characters is also still very diverse, adding a few new characters this time including a female android named Alisa who sports arm-mounted chainsaws and a jetpack, a young named Lars who is yet another member of the dysfunctional Mishima family, and Bob, an obese American man who's deceptively quick despite his size. The characters are made even more diverse this time thanks to the deep customization system in this game. The quantity of customization options is truly staggering and all but guarantees that you'll never see a character dressed the same way twice. The two biggest new features in this game, though, are the huge campaign mode and the addition of online play. Tekken 6 boasts what is quite possibly the biggest story mode in fighting game history. The Scenario Campaign mode is a lengthy, brawler-style adventure that tells the stories of new characters Lars and Alisa, as well as introducing the other new characters and bringing the player up to date on the series's returning characters. For the online play, Namco used a strategy similar to the one they used for Soul Calibur IV: simple, easy to use and effective. The only real misstep for this game is that nearly all the unlockables come in the form of gear for the characters. However, this isn't a big enough problem to drag this game down. Tekken 6 continues the recent resurgence of the fighting game genre and easily ranks as one of the best fighters in the last few years.