+ Huge roster of over 40 well balanced characters with huge and unique move-sets
+ Solid online play (as of the latest patch)
+ Beautiful computer generated FMV's for character endings and in the scenario campaign
+ Easy to pick up and play for beginners but incredibly deep and difficult to master
+ Packed with loads of modes and extras including Scenario mode

- Scenario mode can be ridiculously frustrating and uninteresting at times
- The story may be hard to follow for those who haven't been keeping up with the series
- Some long load times

Tekken 6's easy to pick

up/tough to master gameplay leaves it as a great addition to the

collection of any fan of fighting games while remaining welcoming to

newcomers. The gameplay, while similar to previous installments has been

tweaked for balance and fluidity and seen the inclusion of a couple of

new features namely the Bound and Rage systems. Bound lets your smash a

downed opponent into the air to continue an aerial juggle while Rage

gives a large increase in damage once your health falls below a certain

point. For new and intermediate players this is a great addition that

gives hope even the most dire of situations but in the hands of an

experienced player, Rage can easily lead to an insta-death combo.

With

over 40 varied characters, you'll always feel like there's no way

you'll have trouble finding a character you like and you'll always feel

like there are new characters to master. Each character is extensively

customizable through the in-game item shop where you can use the "Fight

Money" you've earned from winning matches or through the scenario mode.

With the amount of customization, it's no surprise that there was no

need for character creation, though some items can be pricey and take

some time to accumulate the wealth required for a purchase. Even so,

Tekken 6 provides a neat way to personalize your character. Considering

some other recent releases such as Street Fighter 4 where you had to pay

real money for alternate costumes it becomes clear that Tekken really

makes the effort to provide a large package in a single purchase.

All

40+ characters have their own story with their own CG ending, though

the endings are somewhat short and in some cases utterly pointless, a

good example would be Bryan Fury's ending which does nothing to further

his story or character but just shows him doing the exact same thing he

has been for the past few games, destroying stuff. Some endings however

are really interesting and all of them are rendered beautifully.

Though

each character has his or her own story, the main focus of the game's

story are the characters Lars and Alisa. The scenario campaign follows

these two characters through the backbone of Tekken 6's story. The story

is pretty interesting if you let it pull you in but it can be confusing

especially if you haven't played previous games. The structure of

scenario mode in general is kind of wishy washy and tacked on. It plays

like a brawler with RPG elements in the sense that you can improve on

your scenario character with items dropped form enemies. Scenario mode

has some really annoying instances and levels and becomes repetitive

fairly quickly, however some players may like it. For those that don't

however, you're out of luck since unlocking characters for single player

revolves around Scenario mode, however for any mode based around versus

all characters are unlocked off the bat. I feel that scenario mode

could seriously have used some polish, instead of making all the

characters available for scenario mode, it should have only integrated

Lars and Alisa but spent a lot of time tweaking it to make it different

and interesting by possible throwing in platforming, a better fixed

camera and more varied enemies and bosses. I also feel like a lot of

characters are kind of just throw into scenario mode whereas it would

probably be a lot better if they would added into the story with a

smoother transition. I hope for better in future games campaigns.

The

graphics in Tekken 6 are the best in series by far though there are a

couple of nicer looking fighters out there, the underlying engine is 2

years old and this doesn't really stick out except for in the cutscene

in scenario mode. The console versions of the game do however run at

576p whereas I feel like they should have set the resolution to 720p to

make everything look a little crisper.

The online play in Tekken

6, though a little wonky on release is now solid, with decent

matchmaking and minimal lag. The game runs smoothly and online play is

fun and addicting. The load times throughout are a little less than

ideal though this is nothing game breaking, only a couple more seconds

than you may be used to.

All in all, Tekken 6 is a brilliant

addition to the series and a probably one of, if not the best fighting

game of the current generation. With the number of modes, features and

customization options this is definitely a game worth the purchase.