It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of fighting games and 2009 has been a good year for fighting game fans. We’ve been treated to Street Fighter IV, King of Fighters XII, Blazblue, and more. One of the newest titles to arrive in my living room is Tekken 6. Rather than just getting the game on its own, I splurged on the Tekken 6 Limited Edition bundle for the Xbox 360. The biggest selling point here is the included arcade stick.
We got to get a good look at Tekken 6 during E3 Expo 2009 in the summer and it seems that not much has changed between then and now. You still get a huge roster of characters, some great 3D fighting, and more game modes than you can throw a fist at.
The King of the Iron Fist Tournament is Back
If you’ve ever played any of the other Tekken games in the past, then you’ll feel right at home with this sixth edition. It’s also notable that Tekken 6 has been in (some) arcades for a couple of years as well, so you may have already played it or the updated Bloodline Rebellion semi-sequel.
The home version of Tekken 6 includes everything from Bloodline Rebellion, as well as a few extras that weren’t included in the arcade game. To go along with the game itself, the Tekken 6 Limited Edition bundle also includes a special hardcover art book and the Hori Wireless FightStick.
The artbook shows the progression for many of the characters, including the final product that you see in the current game, as well as some preliminary artist sketches to show you their creative process. It’s a nice little bonus for buying this kit.
The Tekken 6 Limited Edition Bundle is available both for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and can be found for $79.99US or less.
Hori Cuts the Cords to Fighting
As nice as the art book may be, the main reason why I chose to spend the premium on the Limited Edition bundle was to get my hands on the Hori Wireless FightStick. The version shown here is for the Xbox 360 and it’s white; the PlayStation 3 version is much the same, except it’s black.
Many people continue to swear by the Mad Catz Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament Edition for its genuine Sanwa arcade components. That’s a solid stick, but the Hori Arcade Stick included here is the first wireless arcade stick to be made available for either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.
By and large, I’d say that the quality of the Tournament Edition FightStick from Mad Catz is still superior to the Hori version here. The Hori Wireless Fighting Stick is a little better than the “Special Edition” Mad Catz FightStick though. Either way, you’re getting a much more authentic arcade experience than with a modded Xbox 360 gamepad for sure.
I wouldn’t say that the Hori Stick is very heavy, but its got enough weight to stay put on your lap or on a table during your gaming sessions. I did find that the arcade stick started to shift when I tried to do too many multi-tap dashes on the joystick, however.
The Hori arcade stick has some Asian arcade-style elements, so players accustomed to North American arcades may need some transition time. For instance, the face buttons are convex rather than concave. They’re great quality, though, and I have no complaints on that front.
Where I did struggle a little is with the joystick; it uses a square gate rather than the octagonal gate found in North American arcade machines. This may frustrate some players during “hadouken” like motions, since the four cardinal directions aren’t quite as obvious as they could be.
Kicking Off With Forty Combatants
A fighting game isn’t very much fun when you only get to select from a small handful of characters. I thought that Street Fighter IV did a pretty good job with 25 quality fighters, but Tekken 6 goes so much further by offering no fewer than 40 original characters right off the bat.
All of your Tekken favorites back for another King of the Iron Fist Tournament. You’ve got Jin, Devil Jin, Paul, Heihachi, Law, King, Kuma, and Dragunov, as well as more recent additions like Raven (my favorite). Joining the cast are newcomers Alisa, Bob, Lars, Leo, Miguel, and Zafina, as well as boss characters Azazel and NANCY-MI847J.
The sheer variety of this cast is terribly impressive and will offer a near limitless level of replay value. It takes a long time to master a single character, so imagine how long it will take for you to get good with all 40 characters.
Plenty of Battle Arenas to Consider
To go along with the huge roster of fighters, you also get treated to a respectable number of game modes as well. There’s the “main” story mode, which I’ll discuss in greater depth in just a moment, as well as a variety of online and offline modes.
On the offline front, you get the traditional arcade battle for a sequence of one-on-one battles, but where I have more fun is with the Ghost Battle mode. This mimics the experience of having human challengers in the arcade, since each CPU-controlled character utilizes unique costumes and different AI quirks. This is far less predictable and far more enjoyable.
Online matches take on the usual ranked and unranked flavors. I can’t say exactly why it happened, but I found that I was getting a lot more lag playing online with Tekken 6 than I do playing other fighting games online. It’s possible I just have a poor luck of the draw for opponents, but the slowdown is nonetheless very frustrating.
What’s Your Fighting Style?
The core gameplay in Tekken 6 remains largely unchanged from previous iterations in the series. You get four main attack buttons, corresponding to each of your character’s four limbs. This is, simultaneously, remarkably simple and incredibly complex.
The great thing about the Tekken fighting engine is that newbies can have a ball just mashing on the buttons. With some decent mashing, you can pull off some killer combos and remain somewhat competitive against (up to) intermediate players.
The more experienced players will quickly tell you, however, that Tekken is easily one of the most technical fighting game franchises this planet has ever seen. There are so many moves, countermoves, combos, throws, strategies, tactics, sidesteps, and more.
To take your fighting prowess to the next level in Tekken 6, you’ll need to become intimately familiar with your character’s combos, as well as how to best counter the attacks from the other combatants. It’s incredibly intricate and richly rewarding.
I also appreciated how the attack buttons would automatically map themselves correctly for the regular Xbox controller and for the arcade stick. If you check the earlier image of the arcade stick, you’ll notice that the four buttons to the left are not the regular Xbox face buttons. The system will map the attack buttons accordingly.
Story Mode: Just a Distraction
Tekken 6 is a fighting game, first and foremost, so I thought that it was a little strange for Namco to include a story mode. The “Scenario Campaign” mode runs through the story as seen through the eyes of newcomers Lars Alexandersson and Alisa Boskonovitch.
Rather than straight one-on-one fighting, you navigate through a three-dimensional space with multiple enemies. This is not unlike a conventional 3D action-adventure title, except the controls are quite bad.
You lock onto an opponent and fight as if you were in a single battle. This includes all of your character’s special moves, so the directions can be quite confusing. In the screenshot above, I’d actually push “left” in order to walk forward toward the bad guy.
The “Scenario Campaign” mode can offer some convoluted story and a change of pace for your Tekken session, but the only reason why I’d really spend any time in here is to earn some virtual gold. The story mode seems to be the most lucrative on a time spent vs. money earned sense.
Earning Upgrades and Outfits
So, why would you want to earn that gold in the first place? As was the case with Soul Calibur IV, you have the opportunity to buy costume upgrades and customizations for all of your fighters.
This is broken down into several categories, including eyewear, headwear, upper body, tattoos, footwear, accessories, and more. Some people may really enjoy the ability to customize the look of Ganryu or Heihachi. Myself, I’m much more interested in the core one-on-one versus gameplay.
Closing Thoughts
Growing up, I was intimidated by the Tekken franchise. It seemed so much more technical than Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, since it seemed to involve so many well-timed combos, air juggles, and counter-moves.
That may still be very true in Tekken 6, but I’ve also come to realize that Tekken can be very approachable as well. When frustrated, you can resort to some mad button mashing and hope for the best. You might even win.
Any fan of fighting games will want to invest in the Tekken 6 Limited Edition bundle. The game itself is a heck of a lot of fun to play, even if you’re intimidated by Tekken, and the Hori Wireless Fighting Stick helps to complete the arcade experience. The arcade stick isn’t perfect, but given how much more the Mad Catz FightStick Tournament Edition costs, this is a deal.
Pros
- Seriously solid fighting game engine
- Impressive roster of 40 characters
- Hori Fighting Stick is wireless
- Incredible depth of gameplay
Cons
- Scenario Campaign mode is poorly executed
- Hori FightStick has square gate for joystick
- Learning curve gets steep beyond beginner’s level
- Graphics and textures could be a lot better
Overall Rating: 8.5/10.0
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Tekken 6 Limited Edition Bundle for Xbox 360 Photo Gallery
