tttreview

Everything you've ever wanted in the world of Tekken,
all in one place. Who could resist that?

Tekken Tag Tournament had a rather undignified and
possibly undeserved reputation as the poster child
for anti-aliasing difficulties. The graphics were
undoubtedly brilliant, but many expected the Sony
powerhouse to perform, well, better. The stair-stepping jaggies apparently horrified many, and were the talk of Usenet groups for months.
Amazingly, incredibly, Namco has taken the care and
time to fix the problem and the result is a beautiful,
brilliantly animated and classic fighting game.

Tekken's reliance on flashy, almost Mortal Kombat special move overkill may be off-putting to some, but the balanced grabbing, throwing and striking are a great deal deeper than initial impressions demonstrate. It's true, even now, that a newbie can win a match or two just by button mashing (with some characters more than others), but over an average it becomes clear that this is a detailed and rich fighting game.

The sheer wealth of characters is almost absurd. As in any good fighting game, only a portion are available from the outset, but eventually different heroes and villains from every Tekken game become available.
And with seven different game modes available, including an all-new Tag battle mode for the US release, the feature list is almost epic in scope.

Many of the characters are simply re-costumed and retooled folks from other Tekken games, but that does mean we get to see an older Heihachi Mishima and a growed-up Jin Kazama. And yes, the somewhat
random Tekken "plot" moves forward a little bit here - but the juicy story is presumably being saved up for Tekken 4.

The Tag battle system is simple enough -- choose two characters and tag in or out when strategy or life bar demand it -- and it's now possible to revert to simple one-on-one fighting, a feature weirdly absent from the first Japanese release of the game. Each character has a massive, almost comical range of moves; the game features 2000 moves in all, but the different styles of martial art employed by each fighter make for
vivid and intricate combinations.

As with any Tekken game, there are tons of hidden secrets - characters and moves, of course, but there's even a hidden Bowling game in here that's actually fun to play. Seriously, pick a Tekken character and bowl
away - for one or two players.

Graphically resplendent in every sense, this is a dramatic and compelling fighter. The new, smooth look enhances the character builds, which are leaps ahead of the arcade version. The opening and ending cinemas are of that incomparable Namco quality - these guys could really teach Square a thing or two about drama.

It's not perfect. The disconnect between the 'infinite' floor tile and the backdrops can be very disconcerting - especially since it's possible to move a character in 3D -- and the occasionally staccato rhythm of the play style seems to rankle both Street Fighter and (especially) Virtua Fighter fans alike. But throw in the four-player mode (if you have a multitap) and everything comes up rosy once more. This may not be
the killer app to show off your new system to your buddies, but it is a game that'll have you coming back time and time again, and a beautiful taste of what's to come.