Tekken 6 Review PS3 & PSP

Tekken has  been around since the original Playstation console and has endured many transformations in its history for better or worse. Tekken 6 for the Playstation3 and PSP consoles is a stable title that brings nothing new or innovative to itself as a series or to the fighting game genre as a whole. The series has become stale and it is very apparent in this iteration. The game tries hard to be not only a fighting game, but an action adventure game as well and fails to succeed in both. The story continues where it left off in Tekken 5 with Jin Kazama winning the previous tournament and declaring war on all nations. The story is forgettable at best.

Graphic and sound:

Visually, Tekken 6 looks decent on both the Playstation 3 and the PSP, but there are issues. Our major gripe is that there is massive clipping of between fighters and objects, such as the sheep level where the fighters interact with the sheep herd and models begin to cut into each other heavily. Also, in levels which have water, there are no splashes from the water interacting with the rest of the environment, such as rocks or the shore line. Some stages are multitier levels that allow players to fight between multiple floors similar to the Dead or Alive series. Load times are horrendous on the Playstation 3 even when the game is installed on the hard drive and UMD load times for the PSP are also slow and agonizing.

Voiceovers in this game are truly amateur and lead to many jokes on how little the voice actors must have been paid in order to create such horrible dialogue. Background music is another earache with tunes reminiscent of the early 90s Sega Genesis series, Streets of Rage. If the sounds and music are muted, the game is tolerable at best.

Gameplay and controls:

Tekken 6 on the Playstation 3 consists of several gameplay modes: Scenario Campaign, Online Mode, Offline, Gallery, and Profile. Scenario Campaign is story mode game in which the player peruses through an action adventure brawler of fighting grunts and boss characters in a convoluted plot. The gameplay is simple and quite boring. Online mode provides players ranked and unranked player matches, the ability to upload and download player match replay data, and a worldwide leader board. Offline Mode has an Arcade mode, Ghost Mode, which pits players against AI characters with varied statistics, Team matches, Time Attack, Survival, and Practice sessions. The Gallery consists of all the unlocked cinemas from the game including character movies and opening sequences. Also, replay data may be viewed using the Gallery. Profile Mode is where players can customize characters through costumes and view ranking statistics. The PSP version of Tekken 6 differs from the Playstation 3 version in the fact that it does not have a Scenario Campaign, Team battles are removed, and online play is limited to local Ad-Hoc network only. Controls are completely customizable to suit the player’s needs.

Overall thoughts:

Tekken 6 had the opportunity to reinvigorate a series that has become stale over the years and a genre that honestly needs new blue in order to continue. Instead, Namco chose to use the same strategies that have worked in the past and created a bland fighting game that tries to become an action adventure game at the same time. It is way past time to reevaluate the series and send it into a new direction or retire the series once and for all. Neither the Playstation 3 nor the PSP versions shine in any aspect of gameplay. This is a game that is doomed to forever be a brief rental or a bargain bin game within a few months. Here’s hoping that the next iteration is truly a revolution…