Rock_On's Full Review: Tekken Tag Tournament for PlayStation 2
After having a fairly nice night last Friday and getting to see my ex by seeing a movie, I had some extra cash, so I went up to Hollywood Video after dropping off my “friend” off and decided to rent some kind of fighting game. So I got Tekken Tag Tournament.
Characters
Every game genre has to have a base; whether it be better control, good amount of weapons, or in a fighter’s case, good characters. Tekken Tag Tournament is basically Tekken 1, 2, and 3 combined together. All the characters are back including the hidden ones. Although I’m not sure if the Angel and Devil are back cause’ I’ve not unlocked them yet if they are.
Each character has his/her own back story(they did in the previous Tekkens), and my favorites such as Lei and King are back.
Game Modes
Instead of using one person to fight with, Tekken Tag Tournament is focused on Tag Team matches and mainly on Multi-Player. It’s not really a sequel to the Tekken series, but is sort of a half sequel or an expansion to Tekken 3, and was released to hold people over until Tekken 4 is released.
In the main arcade mode, you pick two fighters, and then fight through 8 or 9 different stages, fighting other Tag Teams. The Tag Team is pretty cool, but you only have to beat one of the fighters to win that round(there are 3 rounds by the way, best 2 out of 3). They should have done it like DOA2:Hardcore in that you had to beat both of the fighters to win. This really sucks because it doesn’t add a rush to the fighting when you have one person left and you can’t lose.
When you do lose the best out of three rounds, you’ll have the chance to pick another character and continue from where you left off.
There are plenty of other modes to play including a couple more single-player only features and lots of Multi-Player ones. But the main battle of any fighting game is in the Arcade mode, or for some it’s story mode.
Punch, Block, Kick...Repeat!!
Like most basic fighters pushing buttons by themselves gives you punches and kicks, but with combinations of different buttons, you get a whole heap load of crap to pull off. Using different fighting combos is the key to winning matches in the later stages because they do get kind of challenging on the way up there.
There’s not much new to the fighting system, it’s basically the same as the first three Tekkens, only the attacks are a little more responsive in Tag Tournament than the previous installments. The attack list is also back, but for those who are fairly new to the Tekken series, in the pause menu, there’s an option there to see a list of all your character’s moves, and the button or button combinations that you have to execute in order to see the move on screen. Depending on how fast your character is, you can also link together several combos that whoever you’re fighting won’t be able to stop very well.
When it comes to fighting games(well, since I first started playing them), I always like to experiment with the different combination attacks and taking the time to learn a certain character’s special combos and how to use them effectively(OK so that sounds corny, but who cares?).
One last thing, a fighting game isn’t a fighting game unless you have a good fighting system. A game could have awesome graphics and cool characters, but if it didn’t have a good fighting system, the game is trash. Who’s going to pay 50 bucks for a game that it’s sole purpose is on fighting, yet it sucks? For example, take Dead or Alive 3 for the X-Box. I’ve seen commercials, read magazines, and looked at websites; and almost every single one focuses on the graphics. I’ve not played DOA3 yet, but I’ve heard no one say whether it has a good fighting system or not. When the first Tekken was brought to the Play Station a while back, it had a good everything at that point in the Tekken series’ life.
And every Tekken after the first one has improved from the last, and the old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” comes into play as the Tekken series has always had a good fighting system, so why change it? Well they’re not and they probably have the best pure fighting system I’ve played(of course I do like Mortal Kombat’s a lot).
=====================================
Graphics
It’s been a while since I’ve played Tekken 3 on the Play Station, but I’m sure that the graphics in this half sequel(or expansion) are 10 steps above the last. With the PS2’s graphical powers, Tag Tournament’s characters all look exceptionally nice with smooth character models that have most likely been stepped up since Tekken 3.
The fighting stages or arenas are basic and the fighting is done in the basic 2-D format, although the characters are fully 3-D. I really wish they had added in rotating arenas like in Soul Calibur, but since it was 99% expansion and 1% sequel(it would be 100% expansion, but the name “Tekken” is in the title, so that leaves it to be 1% sequel), they didn’t do much new except for updated graphics(but don’t worry, Tekken 4 is coming soon and it will be the official fourth installment in the widely successful Tekken series).
Control
Tag Tournament makes use of all the buttons on the Analog Controller, except for the right Analog I think. You an move using either D-Pad, or I think you can use the left analog stick also. The diamond buttons(“square”, “circle”, “triangle” and “X”) are used for kicking and punching and by stringing different combos of those buttons together for a variety of attacks. The “R-1” is used as a block and when used effectively, can mean the difference between getting beat or beating whoever you’re fighting.
The controls are the basic simple layout as is any other fighter on the PS2. Controlling each character varied from character as the smaller and lighter are faster and more agile, while the bigger and heavier fighters are a little slow at executing moves.
Sound
Once again, I have still yet to find a fighter that incorporates a nice sound track into the fighting mood. Like most of the other fighters, the only sounds you’ll be hearin’ is the joyous sound effects of “omphs” and grunts. I’m sorry this section is so small, but there’s not much to write about, but of course I could just keep writing little non-sense like this to take up space(just kiddin’).
Overall
Until Tekken 4 comes out in the Spring, unless it gets pushed back even, Tekken Tag Tournament is a good expansion to play with until T4 comes out. But I personally wouldn’t put out 50 bucks for this, but it’s definitely worth a 5 dollar rental(or however much your video stores charge).
The new console version of Tekken Tag Tournament will feature at least 20 fighters who have appeared throughout the Tekken series since the first arca...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Music Listings Store | Payments | Shipping | Contact Us | About Us | FAQs We offer a wide selection of Movies, Games and Music titles at great prices....More at eBay
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.