The arcade is a rapidly disappearing sight across America, but walk into one and beyond the bank of Dance Dance Revolution games you'll probably see someone playing Tekken. The Tekken series has been one of Namco’s crown jewels for years and a perennial favorite among fighting fans, but while Tekken 4 in the arcade is a masterpiece, a bare arcade translation doesn't quite stand up on home consoles where players have come to expect a deeper experience.
Tekken 4 is essentially an evolution, not a revolution. Little has been added to the core mechanics, and the character roster is similar to Tekken 3. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Tekken 3 was the pinnacle of fighting game goodness on the Playstation, but a lot of time has passed since then. Other games have hit the market, games with quest and story modes or expanded rosters, all of which are conspicuously absent in Tekken 4. Considering that Tekken Tag Tournament, an early PS2 release, had practically every character in the series to that point, the roster in Tekken 4 looks especially bare, and there’s really no single player game to speak of.
The game plays well, thankfully. Everything is smooth, with no major flaws anywhere. The most noticeable change is the addition of limited and destructible environments. Some rings, like the Fight Club-esque pit, limit character movement to only a few steps, forcing players to use different tactics. This becomes a complaint for new players though, as the addition of walls and corners makes a game that's full of juggles and complicated hit strings seem even more cheap when they're pinned and defenseless.
While there’s no quest or story play, there are several game modes including arcade, vs., practice, time trial and survival modes and the return of the Tekken Force sidescroller from Tekken 3. None of this really adds any kind of longevity to the game, however, and Tekken 4 ends up relying on vs. play to keep it going. Unlocking all the characters takes barely an hour, and single player beyond that is only good for practice.
As the series has always been, Tekken 4 is visually impressive. The environments are detailed, with terrain features like slopes or interactive elements like breakable windows. The characters are superbly modeled and animated and there are no graphical problems, but at the same time there is nothing particularly stunning either. Sounds are done well too, with hits and falls sounding substantial, but again nothing amazingly impressive.
In the end, there's just no staying power to Tekken 4. The single player game will quickly become boring, so only those with several friends who are into the game or practicing for the arcade have a reason to keep playing. Those who want a fighting game with a deeper single-player experience will probably be better off with something like Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution. Overall, Tekken 4 is not a bad game by any means; it's just a bit too narrow.
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