"In the days when fighting games ruled, there were basically two classes of fighters. 2-D fighters such as; Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter and 3-D fighters such as Virtua Fighter and Tekken. I chose 2-D fighters primarily, but still fed hundreds of quarters to the Tekken machine."

The port
Porting fighting games to handheld consoles are nothing new, but porting 3-D fighters has always been a challenge. Since most portables can't fully handle the rendering of 3-D graphics, it has always been a vain attempt in recreating a popular series of games.

2-D fighters on handhelds have always fared well. Street Fighter Alpha for the GameBoy Color, and other Capcom titles have always been very successful and a blast to play. At first I was hesitant at best when it came time to play Tekken Advance. Could the GameBoy Advance handle the high polygon count and 3-D graphics? If so, how smooth would it be?

Tekken Advance is the porting of the arcade and console success of Tekken 3. Tekken 3 was moderately successful in the arcades, and even more successful on a console front. Sporting high-resolution 3-D graphics, along with brilliant textured rotating battle floors. In the conversion of the console to the GBA it had to be dumbed down a bit in order to make up for the lack of muscle. Fortunately, most of the goodies are here; including the nice rotating floor.

The most significant (and obvious) change is the conversion of the controls. While most stand-alone consoles offer six buttons, the GBA is limited to two primary buttons and two trigger buttons. This presented not only a challenge for the developers, but gamers as well. The "A" button is your punch button, the "B" button is your kick and the "Right Shoulder" button is used to throw your opponent. The "Left Shoulder" is used only for "tagging" out when playing a tag-team match. Needless to say, it took me some time to get used to the controls, and kept reaching for buttons that weren't there. Unlike other fighting games (namingly 2-D fighters), 3-D fighting games usually only consist of a few button presses to execute a combo. These combos usually end up being a combination of A, A, B, A type moves, similar to Dead or Alive.

My lunch hour goes by way too fast
If this game could have another name, it would be called Tekken Light. It is a stripped down, bare-bones version of Tekken 3. All of the favorite characters are here, totaling nine playable fighters. Unlike the console version, there are no unlockable hidden characters. The only other noticeable let down, is some of the "counter" moves that have been eliminated, simply because of the lack of buttons. These few stripped down options, will soon be forgotten once into the addicting gameplay.

To be fair, the gameplay is increasingly fun and challenging. With modes-galore, this should give any gamer hours of replay value. Your primary gaming mode is the Arcade Mode, where you fight through the ranks (without movie cut scenes or plot) to fight the head honcho "Heihachi". To get your skills up to par, there is a nice Practice Mode which allows you to try your combos out taking your dear sweet time. There is also a Time Attack and Survival mode to keep the game fresh and new. While somewhat secondary, it is a nice break from the Arcade Mode.

One of the best features is the multiplayer aspect. You can have up to three people playing at once using the link capabilities, but you need to have a cartridge for each GBA. It was a bit of a downer for my other lunch-gaming buddies, but after they played my copy they ran out the same day to Toys-R-Us and picked up a copy themselves. The multiplayer consists of two types: a Versus mode or 3 on 3. Both modes are equally fun, and having up to three players is a total blast. I noticed little to no performance issues when we had three players going at once.

As expected, the 3-D graphics were played down a bit. The characters are closer to a 2-D image rather than the original 3-D fighters. The fighters are pre-rendered instead of the dynamic polygon textured 3-D characters. Luckily for us, we still get the nice rotating floors and colorful backgrounds. The performance is amazingly smooth considering the high resolution. I noticed a few times when action was intense and playing with another player the timing was a bit off because of a slight hesitation that would go unnoticed by most. Overall, a visually outstanding experience and these minor gripes effected gameplay little to none.

Those familiar with the Tekken series will welcome the soundtrack and effects within Tekken Advance. All of the classic grunts and muffled blocks are all here. The background music, although a bit too Nintendo-esque, is still well done. You really can't complain about the quality of the effects, because fighting games never had a soapbox to stand on, especially Tekken.

Tekken fans will rejoice in the porting of their favorite fighter, and those who weren't fans will be now. I never preferred the fighting system of Tekken before, and even though the graphics were impressive, I never could choose it over Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Honestly, the lack of buttons actually improve the quality of the fighting structure. My biggest gripe with the console platform of Tekken was that it was trying to be something it was not. Now, it strips the console bare and leaves us with button pressing, combo blasting fun.




-gameplay- eight out of ten
once you get past the "multi-button" experience, it is a blast
-graphics- seven out of ten
a bit of hesitation because of the high graphics, but still great
-audio- six out of ten
classic sound effects, and perky music
-replay- nine out of ten
i keep playing... and playing... and playing...
-overall- eight out of ten
own a gameboy advance and love fighters? go get it!


Recommended: Yes