Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Highly addictive"

The King of the Iron Fist entertains us from 1994 by now. When Tekken hit the arcades it showed us another way completely new of digital beating down. The perfect conversion for the first Playstation displayed the potentiality of the console closing (together with Toh Shin Den) once for all the 16 bit console era (SNES… mon amour!)

Several years passed and obviously we saw in this time a lot of sequel of this lucky brand. Each new episode was greeted on the arcades and consoles with enthusiasm. In the meantime something was happening allowing the saga to outstrip the simple status of mere videogame. Until Tekken 3 or Tag Tournament you could notice that some players was unbelievably strong, almost superhuman. Several years and some sequels later the diffusion of internet unveiled us a unimaginable truth: the framelist study. That secret, until then prerogative of few chosen ones, changed the way of Tekken playing (though still today the world is full of madcap daredevils button mashers) projecting it far beyond the mere connotation of pastime.

Today we greet Tekken 6, apotheosis of this way of play. Last and more refined example of a gameplay that several people consider by now almost like a religion, or a real job. Indeed studying the framelists of all the forty characters would keep busy probably an entire lifetime.

PS3 already saw the good Dark Resurrection, updated version of Tekken 5 available on PS2, but for the first time A Tekken game is published for a non Sony console. PS3 and 360 version are practically the same with a resolution slightly better on the Sony console. However the differences are minimal and on both system the action run smoothly while the general graphic achieves a very good result. Though an anti aliasing implementation improvable the look of the various fighters is astonishing creating a details level absolutely incredible, especially in minutiae like hair dress details, even blood veins for the more muscular characters.
Obviously the characters design don't shines in realism, but follows a precise style, entirely Japanese, similar to a comic or an animation movie with muscular man able to break wall with mere fists and women with supersexy bodies without any imperfection but strong like their male partners. We have even heavy characters unbelievably nimble, robots and even a kangaroo (!?).

Besides the usual 1 vs 1 gameplay, Tekken 6 starts with a big surprise. Story mode consists in a campaign that see your characters face several enemies inside 3D scenarios, just like a scrolling beat'em up. Yes, another version of the famous (or notorius) Tekken Force. I already imagine some of you ready to use the disk of the game like a frisbee, since the disastrous similar attempts saw during years. Well, take it easy… this time IT'S WORKS!!!
Incredible to say, but the campaign is playable, fun, and with a passable plot. This mode introduce two of the new entries of Tekken 6, the rebel Lars and the lovely robot Alisa. After the first stages you could choose to use every characters you want but you'd always count on the support of a second brawler moved by AI. With a little of training the campaign shows really entertaining with levels never too long where you can pick a little selection of weapons and boss battles with other main Tekken characters. Campaign gets some RPG feature: characters don't level up, but some enemies killed drop chests with customization items, the same you could buy on the profile screen. Items obtained during campaign always add new features to your characters making them more effective in battle. So, campaign is also a very good way to obtain items and money even after completed it once.

Unfortunately the creative mood of Namco designers in Tekken 6 seems to end here. Some lines ago I was talking about new entries in the character roster… well, besides the already quoted Lars and Alisa, that however have whole campaign to result nice to players eyes, others new characters are really terrible; not in their fighting possibilities, but in their's own design and characterization. Starting with Miguel and Leo: the anonymity fair, especially the ephebic and without expression boy. Zafina, first to work as a brawler was seen in the Land of Halloween singing "This is Halloween" with Jack Skellington and will make happy all the gothic videogamer girls in the world (and some male too); mismanaging a little with the customizations you can make her practically the same as Angelina Jolie (I'm serious). Terrible even the final boss, Azazel, maybe the worst boss of the entire saga surpassed only by Heiachi dressed with mawashi of Tekken 4. But the prize for the more ugly character of the game (and maybe of all beat'em ups history) goes to the fatty Bob. Really I can't not even imagine a single reason for the creation of a similar monstrosity. Unfortunately the lack of inspiration of designers touched even the other characters creating personal stories and final CG movies absolutely stupid, anonymous and flat. Overall the impression is that the entire saga lost in pure charisma.
Designers debacle did not touched the settings, showing stages inspired, graphically good and accompanied almost always by suitable BGMs.

About the battles gameplay and mechanics. We can surely say that we are on the top of the fighting model created long ago. Newness respect Dark Resurrection are few, besides another tradeoff of old and new moves, some aspect of the saga was better calibrated while unfortunately still persist some historical flaws like the imprecise management of wall impacts and the excessive vulnerability of a character lying on ground. Totally new the bound and rage systems.
Bounds will allow during a juggle combo to slam an opponent character on the ground making him recoil briefly for a new branch of hits. Connect a juggle powered by a bound can change the outcome of a round in a bunch of seconds, but obviously taking advantage effectively of this feature require a skill and a precision even greater than past Tekken games, especially online, where a lag of some frame could easily disturbs and make fail the string of attacks. Bounds have another important result, until the last installment Tekken was even homeland of tons of gamers playing simply mashing button randomly: bound system and the incredible damage it can deliver move the gameplay toward the pure skill, taking from casual gamers that this time will really have hard times.
To balance the maybe excessive power of the bounds we have the rage, a state of strengthening the character enters when his life gauge is very very (very) low. During rage each hit will cause more damage than normal allowing to go up even a round practically lost. More important is the psychological impact this system has on both the player, creating a situation of uncertainty until the last bit of a round.
Another matter is the accessibility of the game even for professional player. Study the full movelist and framelist just for a single character requires a great amount of time; a time that not everyone can spare on a videogame. Master the full roster could easily require an entire lifetime, so several people choose to dedicate themselves to a single or a two characters; however, the variety of the fighting is guaranteed by the uncountable approaching style to every characters and by an online community simply gigantic. Practically is nearly impossible not find some sparring partners, regardless the clock.

Coming to the online play, real fulcrum of the experience, you can play ranked battles achieving ranks on the same ladder already saw in Dark Resurrection, fight in quick games not ranked or create rooms for up to four player only for sparring. Respect Dark Resurrection some scoundrel move really difficult to parry and abused by lamer players was rebalanced, however the little delay in command answer, typical of the online, still tends to favor characters with combos medium-low, high-low or low-medium.
About the functioning of the online system. When you find a sparring partner the game give him a number to his connection quality (from 1 to 5); generally you can play decently with a 3, but don't expect however the same speed of a normal vs, reason therefore so some really strong player simply chose to don't use online cause the response time slightly different from the normal console fights. However the possibility to fight with people worldwide is really stimulating, but be prepared to suffer awfully when in the mid of a battle the synchronization will fall from 4 to 1 making the rest of the game an hell. Other online problems are not connected to the quality of the synchronization, but to the community itself. Is not unusual that a high ranked player cut off manually the connection before lose a fight so don't risk to retrograde on the ladder, while the rudeness of part of the online players (especially in Italy) is proverbial. Really is not unusual win a fight and receive immediately message full of insults.

Final Line
It's finally time to give this title a judgment and a final score. Just to be clear, in terms of gameplay Tekken 6 is surely the best installment in the saga proponing a refinement of the mechanics really close to perfection (I've said only "close", there are still a couple of elements that simply made me crazy when I see them). Unfortunately, together with the good battle system we have a series of side elements that show like this saga is becoming old. One on all the lack of inspiration of programmers and designer permeating almost whole game starting with the new characters (absolutely inapt respect the old roster) ending with CG movies absolutely flat (and often not well drew) and a boss simply ridiculous. Adding that the gameplay, though at its best, is pretty old by now there are palpable risks that next Tekken game could be a sounding fiasco (like Tekken 4). In my opinion Namco should take the chance to change partially the formula of the saga before Tekken ends like Street Fighter or King of Fighters.
In the end Tekken 6 is probably the best game of a saga that beginning to show her limits. Tekken fans will find it extraordinary; Tekken detractors could find it endurable, and surely will like even to buttons mashers and casual gamers though a less accessibility respect the prequels.
Recommended, but maybe it's time for something new.

Final Score: 8