Tekken
3 was without a doubt the best beat em up on any system, the graphics were superb,
a pumping soundtrack and fantastic cut scenes made for a brilliant beat em up,
so it is not suprising that the next Tekken continues the serie's proud tradition.
Tekken Tag Tournament is the fourth in a wonderous series that has captivated
audiences worldwide. The latest installment features everybody from the past
three games and teams them up to create this marvellous game.
The first thing that will strike you as you put the game in your machine are
the graphics. It simply blows you away, with nearly 3000 polygons put on the
face of a charactor alone. Every thing about the games graphics screams class,
Yoshimitsu' snow stage is superbly done and the only thing missing is the prints
of the fighters in the snow. The background looks identical to the foreground
so you actually feel as if your charactor is there in the backdrop. Speaking
of backgrounds, the animation in them is awesome, at Marshall Laws arena, warrior
monks train in the background in perfect choreography while in Paul Phoinex'
level there are street punks and yobs running about having fights of there own.
The level of detail on each charactor is brilliant from the shiny armour of
Armour King and the fur on the back of Alex, fighting games have never looked
so good.
The gameplay is (Suprisingly enough) arcade perfect and easy to get into. The
range of charactors is unbeleivable with nearly 40 charactors to choose from
(20 at the start) each of them with there own charactoristics and different
backgrounds which slightly resembles the old street fighter days.
The charactors moves are also nicly varied from the easy to use Nina Williams
to the insanely difficult Eddy Gordo. The combos that can be pulled of are also
superb to look at as they represent real kung fu and ninjitsu moves.
The cut scenes are another story, even though there are'nt as many as in the
previous Tekkens the few that do appear are absolutely stunning, in fact the
two opening cut scenes from the Arcade and the PS2 one both , together, took
just over six months to finish.
There was only three faults that I managed to pick up after a week of solid
gaming and they were the music, the endings and the lastability.
Unlike the previous Tekkens the music was way below par, with annoying high
pitched sounds constantly P*****G you off all the way through the game, fortunatly
though you can turn the music off in toptions and keep the bone crunching sound
effects.
The endings were a huge let down as only Unknowns ending was in FMV, all the
rest used in game graphics which, although superb, are not the reward you want
after facing 8 fight s in a row.
And finally the lastability, to any newcomer to games this game will take a
few months to go through but if you put it in the hands of a hardened Playstation
veteran the game will be shortly completed. I personally got all the charactors
in one night.
NOTE: By the way if you never got the whole street fighter craze, avoid at all
costs.
