Compete In The: Tekken Tag Tournament! (Tekken Tag Tournament (PS2))

Member Name: hackersuprciao

Product:	Tekken Tag Tournament (PS2)
Date:	13/03/08 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Loads of characters to master, Excellent graphics, Tons of modes!

Disadvantages: Not for you if you dont like fighting games.

Tekken Tag Tournament is a fighting game from Namco, this is the series debut on the PlayStation 2 and it has been available since the system was launched.

Tekken Tag Tournament
Once you load up the game you will be treated to an incredible CG movie which Namco are famed for and the elaborate CG work is wonderful to watch. Once you have enjoyed that you will be taken to the games menu screen. This hasn't changed much over the years and if you have played any previous Tekken games you will feel right at home. The modes you can select from are, Arcade, VS Battle,Team Battle, Time Attack, Survival, 1 on 1, 1 on 1 VS, Practice, Theatre, Gallery and Options. A slightly annoying thing here is that if you don't choose your option in around 3 seconds the game will load a demo fight, as it is a direct port of the arcade game.

The fighting mechanics are very Tekken, each character has his or her own unique move set which you will have to learn, basic moves like your standard punch and kick are mapped to the same button for every character but to truly succeed at Tekken you will have to master combo moves which involve multiple button presses and these are unique to each character, the game is Tekken Tag Tournament so naturally the focus is on Tag team battles, because you now have two players you can call upon your other player at any time with a tap of the shoulder button and out he comes, some players even have Tag moves where both characters will attack at the same time. Tag battles make the fights more strategic as if you player is hurt you can call him back and use the other, the player not on screen will slowly regenerate health so he can be useable once again after a short period of time.

Your first stop in Tekken Tag will be the arcade mode; this is your basic story mode. Here you will be able to choose from your roster of Tekken characters, at first not all will be available to you and you will have to complete the arcade mode to unlock new ones. In this mode you will have to beat a few fighters and then finally face off against the boss to complete the game, if you happen to lose a fight you don't have to go back to the start. You can simply continue your fight by pressing start, in the arcades you would have to insert more money at this point! Upon completion you will be rewarded with a new character to play as and a gorgeous CG ending movie. This mode will take you possibly half an hour to beat but with over 30 characters to play as you will have to beat it multiple times to fully complete the game.

In the mode VS battle you can battle against a friend, to do this you must have a second controller. You can pick from your roster of unlocked characters and if your friend is not as good as you, you can give him a handicap so he has more health, to slightly even the playing field!

Team Battle is another great mode but you can play against either a friend or the computer. You can choose your ideal team which can consist of up to 8 players. If your opponent isn't so good and you want a challenge you can select a smaller team or even a single character if you are really a Tekken master! The fights take place are 2 vs 2 brawls, when one of either players character is knocked out he will be out, unable to fight again. When all a players characters are defeated they have lost.

Time attack is your standard Arcade time attack mode; you will rush through the games arcade mode as fast as you can, once you have completed your run you will get placed on the game leader board, which is displayed in the Record section. Survival is also an arcade fighter mode and you must beat as many rounds as you can without dying, at the end of each round you get a small health boost but you have to be really exceptional at the game to get far in Survival mode!

The 1 on 1 mode is for Tekken traditionalists, here you will fight through the games story mode but through a traditional 1 on 1 fighting mode, I really enjoy the new Tag tournament rules so I haven't really played this mode much, the 1 on 1 VS mode is the same as VS Battle but again you have one on one fights as opposed to the Tag fights. It's nice they left it in but unless I really want some traditional Tekken fighting I usually play the regular Tag mode.

If you are new to Tekken you will probably get destroyed by even stage 1 opponents! If this is so head to the Tekken Practice mode, here you can pick a team of two characters that you want to master. Here you can fight against anyone you choose and have them do whatever you want, stand still, crouch or even let another player control him if two people want to practice at once. In practice mode you cannot die so feel free to attempt any move you want, if you go to the combo list the game will even show you what the move should look like, so when you've done it correctly you know you have.

In theatre mode you can view all the ending movies you have collected by completing the Arcade mode, there are upto four variations on the ending cinematic per character, which gives you multiple reasons to go through the game. You can also view the games intro movies. If you are a fan of the music you will be pleased to know that you can listen to the games music here. The Gallery mode is for viewing screens you have captured during fights. The Options mode is where you will set basic game options such as, time limit, round limit, difficulty and view your records.

Graphics & Sound
Tekken Tag Tournament was the best looking game at the launch of the PlayStation 2 and even holds up well today, the character models are very detailed and the animations are very clean and never jerky. Once you beat a fight the camera pans around your opponent replaying the move that defeated them which is really fun to watch and very satisfying! The stages you fight on are varied, from military bases and temples to tropical islands, there is always something going on in the background too like in the military base there is a helicopter flying around, in the temple there is a man sweeping the floor and on the islands there are a group of tribes people drumming away! The CG movies are also excellent rivalling the master CG work of Square Enix. There are many CG sequences to collect which is good. The sound is your basic fighting noises, grunts and shrieks as your characters battle as well as agonizing gasps of pain, wonderful! There is also some fast paced arcade music that plays in the background to keep you fighting at your best.

Price & Conclusion
Tekken Tag Tournament was the best PlayStation 2 launch game and a good Tekken game, it has a large roster of characters to collect, great graphics, brilliant CG movie sequences, solid fighting mechanics which will keep you coming back for ages, here I am playing it 8 years after its launch and it's still great! Like all the best games it has gone Platinum so the most you will fork out for your own copy is £19.99, not bad but if you dig around the used bin at Game you will probably find it for a lot less. I just had a look on amazon and you can get it brand new from the marketplace for £4.75, a bargain by anyones standards! Overall this is a great fighting game and if you are a fan of the genre why haven't you got a copy, go and get one now! 5/5

Developer: Namco
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Rating: ELSPA 11
Price: £19.99 PLATINUM (£4.75 Amazon marketplace)

Summary: One of the best fighting games on the PS2.