Tekken 6 Review (PS3)

The drill remains pretty familiar in Tekken 6: corporations rule the world, with many clashing along their relevant paths. With the bad blood already flowing through the Mishima family from previous games, the Scenario Campaign - a sub-set brawler mode - introduces newcomers Alisha and Lars, who're to embark on an epic quest introducing them to pretty much the entire Tekken legacy.

And a huge legacy there is with 40 selectable characters and a wide range of modes. Aside from the afore mentioned Scenario Campaign, there are also the typical Arcade modes, Ghost fights (which allow you to play against specific AI types), stat tracking, galleries, character customisation and tons more. Rest assured, seeing everything in Tekken 6 will take a fair few hours as the blu-ray is packed with content. Of course, to boot there's also a fully featured online mode and leaderboards.

You'll be hard pushed to find crisper fighting mechanics than in Tekken 6. In fact, this is the first Tekken game in a while that has been so well balanced — an outstanding feat for a game with such a huge player roster. Once again the fighting relies on the use of 3D environments and "juggling" the opponents while in the air. Juggling is the act of attacking your opponent while they are vulnerable off the ground. Newcomers such as Bob and Alisha have interesting attack patterns and complement the existing roster. The Arcade mode is also pleasing with a few set pieces against giant robot Nancy-MI847J and the typically cheap final boss Azazel.

To compliment the often ridiculous nature of the Tekken universe, some of the fights in Tekken 6 take place in some outrageous settings. The La Tomatina Valencia festival makes an appearance, while another stage is backed by a field full of a sheep. Namco often honour the bonkers nature of the Tekken universe, and it makes the game all the more enjoyable for that reason.

Virtually everything you do in Tekken gives you an opportunity to earn Gold. Earning Gold allows you to buy costumes for your characters, of which there are literally thousands of bits and pieces to choose from. These can then be taken online and shown off to other players. The constant sense of achievement keeps you engrossed in the game.

Tekken 6's Ghost mode alone could last you for 6-8 hours. Whilst playing Tekken 6, the game constantly captures your playing style as "Ghosts". Ghosts are AI equivalents of the way you play. These Ghosts can then be uploaded to the Playstation Store and downloaded by other players. Downloading other players' Ghosts means you have an infinite pool of varying AI types to play against in the Ghost mode - a never ending stream of opponents. Couple that mode with all the Arcade events (Survival, Time Attack) and local and online multiplayer and you have a beefy package. That's not to mention the 5 hour Scenario Campaign and all the CGI cutscenes.

Tekken's familiar glitch-rock makes a return in Tekken 6 with some less catchy tunes, but still totally apt mixes.

Scenario campaign kinda sucks but... We were still compelled to play lots of it. There's something strange going on in Scenario Campaign. As reviewers we can write a huge list of flaws to it - the voice acting is crummy, the stages are basic, the combat is poor, the pacing is slow, the cut-scenes are too long - yet, we still found ourselves wanting to play Tekken 6's 3D re-imagining of Streets Of Rage; if only to enjoy the whole ridiculous plot holding everything together. From an analysts stance, Scenario Campaign kinda sucks. But we urge you to try it, because like us, you might come away knowing it sucks, but still kinda enjoying it in a guilty way.

Honestly, we kinda expected Tekken 6 to look better. The stages are well designed and the character models chunky, but the game just lacks a level of fidelity that would bring it into the next-generation, rather than looking like a beefy Playstation 2-era game.

Even after a hefty install, Tekken 6 takes a fairly long time to load. If you don't install, you may aswell not even bother. That's how long it takes.

Tekken 6 has a complete online component which we'll cover in more detail at a later date.