tekken 6 |

Publisher: Namco Bandai

Developer: Namco Bandai

Release Date: 11/24/2009

Available On

Fighting games just seem to get less and less popular these days, with just the big guys coming out with new sequels every year, and Tekken is no exception. Probably the second most popular Japanese fighter (under Street Fighter), Tekken has some of the most memorable characters, and it caters to button mashers and combo memories. One thing that Tekken is famous for is how gorgeous it looks. Tekken 6 may not have the glitz that the PS3 versions do, but it is one of the best-looking PSP games made this year.

If you don’t know the story behind Tekken, I can’t really tell you since there are dozens of them. Everyone enters the Iron Fist Tournament to stop someone with a hand-drawn beginning story and your typical pre-rendered ending movie. Fighting games aren’t really famous for their stories (with Mortal Kombat probably having the most in-depth story of any fighter), so don’t come into this as a newbie and expect something spectacular. The story is just something to keep you playing in story mode, nothing more or less.

There are a lot of characters in Tekken 6, and if I’m correct, they pulled Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and included every Tekken character ever made. This should keep you real by unlocking all their stories and giving you gold to upgrade the characters. It takes a while to get enough gold to buy anything, but once you do, you get some pretty neat stuff. Each fight consists of four battles for each character, and they vary depending on their story. The main boss, Azazel, is a real bitch to beat since he is so big, and the game is so damn hard. I mean, really hard. I was on the easiest setting and still had my butt handed to me. I don’t suck either; the game is just based more on pure luck than skill, thanks to the ability to button-mash so much.

When you’re actually fighting, the controls are very tight and responsive. You block by backing away; you have high punches, low punches, high and low kicks, and grabs. It’s your bare-bones setup, but it works well on the PSP and feels natural and smooth. If the difficulty wasn’t so painstakingly difficult, I would be more forgiving of the game overall, but the hair-tearing difficulty drops points on this one.

Tekken is really just an arcadey, eye-candy fest with bare-bones combat. The whole setup is great, and it’s simple, so fans and newcomers will rejoice at how well the game is executed. All I wish for is more modes and online multiplayer, and it would be perfect.