Having a chance to site down for a closer look at Tekken 6 over the past couple of days we have come to one conclusion :  We missed you Tekken don’t you ever go away for that long again….ever.  Having been a Playstation exclusive for as long as I can remember Tekken 6 has probably been off a lot of gamers radars.  Especially if you have been an exclusive player of the Xbox consoles.  In the last 8 years with the box, I kind of forgot about my old buddy Tekken.  The countless hours we spent together, the careful studying of juggle combos and counters, all came back to me in a flash when I popped in Tekken 6 for the first time on my Xbox 360.  I think Tekken 6 is going to gain a great foothold with the Xbox community and its Xbox Live community in the coming weeks once the game is released on the 27th.  This is going to be a 2 part review as I have mainly focused on the offline aspects of the game up until this point.  I think that it isn’t fair to judge a fighting games online capabilities until there is a large enough sample of players on Xbox Live to rate the experience. So that will be following in the coming days but for now we will just focus on the Offline aspects of the game.

Tekken 6 was released in Japanese arcades almost two years ago, so this content that will be coming to the Xbox 360 is not entirely new altogether.  Combining the Tekken 6, and its updated version Tekken 6 : Bloodline Revolution you get what is going to be released on the major consoles shortly.  While the game had been intended to be released in 2008 Namco Bandai announced to much the PS3 fanboy’s dismay that Xbox 360 users would be getting a version as well.  Staying pretty true to the roots of the franchise the Tekken series is one which has basically stayed with the exact same successful formula for as many years as the franchise has been around.

Though you may not be able to tell these console versions apart from their arcade siblings, Tekken 6 has many features that you will not find in an arcade.  The Scenario Campaign which will be the story mode component of Tekken.  This mode is a side scrolling/3d brawler style game within the Tekken fighting framework.  Fighting waves of enemies to get to a stage boss, this mode can be played solo or with the addition of a patch due by release completed co-op via xbox live. I instantly thought of Final Fight in 3D with alot of boss battles.   I personally got really bored, really fast playing this part of the game. I found it not only half assed, but redundant to say the least.  For the most part the levels look like crap, the controls are sloppy, the story is almost impossible to follow, and unless you are absolutely hardcore you will probably want to skip this….. that is if  you don’t want the ungodly amount of points and items that you will earn for completing this mode.  See Tekken 6 works on a points based system to earn new items for your character, with literally 100’s of items to unlock you just may find your self grin and bearing this mode just for the points, and unlockables.  The mode wouldn’t be so bad if the story was easier to get a grasp of.  As long the series of Tekken is, the story is equally long and twisted.  Tekken 6 doesn’t make this any easier by making the player read subtitles for most of the foreign dialouge, and then mixing in English also at points, depending on which character is speaking.  There are times, when English is being spoken by one character on screen and Japanese is being spoken by another and they are supposed to be having a conversation with each other.  Something definately gets lost in translation.  Though this is not the meat and potatoes of the game, the game does shine in what its famous for.

Going from the Scenario Campaign to the Arcade mode in Tekken 6 is night and day.  Where Scenario Campaign fails at alot of things, Arcade and Versus mode bring things back into perspective and shows off the real strengths of the franchise.  Rich realistic graphics and some semi destructible fighting arenas, Tekken 6 is full of win here.  Attacking the arcade mode you will have your choice of 40 characters, some new, and many old an familiar faces Tekken 6 has a lot of choices.  Each character is fully customizable as well, with options for outfits, colors, hairstyles, glasses, gloves, hats, and numerous other accessories.  These unlockables can be bought or earned in the game through leveling up or completing the scenario mode.  The gameplay in Tekken is still very intuitive.  A very basic control system with which each button the face of the xbox controller is used for controlling a limb of the fighter.  With the bumper and trigger buttons to be customized for double button presses that can perform throws, counters, and other more advanced moves.  The basic gameplay in Tekken 6, can be caught on to rather quickly by the noobish player.  Yet, Tekken 6 can be a tactical fighters dream game once all of the controls for a fighter are put to memory.  New to the fighting in this installment of Tekken is a Rage system.  When your characters health is low in a fight a red energy glow will surround the character and this will be signaled by your health bar flashing red as well.  This means its time to doll out extra damage in an attempt to steal a match.  These rage energies can be customized as well and effects such as fire, electricity, and ice.  Multilayered environments a la Dead or Alive are found in Tekken 6 is also, these are triggered by broken walls and floors which will give way as forceful moves are executed.  The arcade mode and versus modes are identical twins minus the ridiculously smart AI fighters.  I assume these features will all be carried forward into multiplayer as well.

Playing offline you will also have some other ways to earn points and skill levels, but most importantly learn the nuances of the game.  Ghost battle, is an area where you can download ghost fighters with particular styles to practice against. Survival modes and Team Battle modes are also found offline as well.  Each earning you points to increase your characters level and customization options available.  With winning also comes a great gallery of movies and extra content that is unlocked along the way which would be great if any of it was coherent.  Tekken 6 has a good amount of unlockables to keep you trying new modes, and characters to master.  All of the faces of the franchise are back in Tekken 6, as well as some new faces.  Returning are Paul, King, Jack, Bryan Fury, Anna,  Jin, Law, Ganryu, Hworang, Kuma, Lei, Law, Roger, to name just a few and I’m sure I missed some important ones.  The new characters are equally well done which are 8 in all two of which are not playable in versus mode. Alisa Bosconovitch – a robot with chainsaw arms and a detachable head was one of my favorites, and she is one of the main characters in the Scenario mode.  The new characters all have some uniqueness to them, and an equally disorienting part in the already convoluted story.

Overall, Tekken 6 is a must have for any fighting game fan.  With the exclusivity to Playstation consoles ending now is a great time to get introduced to an outstanding franchise.  Hopefully, once the online is up I can post back that the fighting it is as equally impressive online as it is offline. So check back in the beginning of the week for more on the online modes.  With my exposure to the game I have to give the Scenario mode a big two thumbs down with a frowny face but what the Scenario mode lacks the impressive versus and arcade modes make up for hugely.  If the online is done right with the framework that looks to be in place, the game should offer obscene amounts of replay value.  Even with the sub par story mode Tekken 6 is a keeper and a definite buy.  Being not one hundred percent sold on the graphics for this game, I am giving the game a 4/5 barring no crazy surprises once we get a good look at multiplayer.