What is this odd device I'm looking at?

Tekken is a series that has a long and rich history.  It was only recently that the franchise decided to go multiformat; in fact it is Tekken 6 that marks the first time that the series will appear on a console that is not made by Sony.  The story of Tekken 6 is, to be honest, complete filler in my opinion.  Nobody buys Tekken for the storyline.  Everyone buys it for the superb fighting mechanics and diverse range of characters so most people are probably wondering if Tekken 6 delivers on those two fronts.

To start with, as Namco did with Soul Calibur on the PSP, you are immediately granted access to the full character roster right from the off.  This is not like previous Tekken titles where you had to battle your way through arcade mode with every character to unlock every other character.  With all the characters open to begin with you may think that Tekken has immediately lost some of its appeal and you would be right.

Tekken 6 gives you the same game modes as previous Tekken games such as story mode, ghost mode, challenge battle and arcade mode as well as a decent training mode but not much else.  In terms of fighting it brings in new elements such as the ‘rage’ feature.  This is new to Tekken games and allows your character, when their health is really low, to hit harder as it gives them a temporary power boost so that they might be able to salvage victory.  This actually makes battles a much closer and tense affair.

The control system is still the same as previous Tekken titles so fans of the game can literally jump right in and I am sure most gamers know of the Tekken series and how its control system operates.  You can configure the controller settings to your own liking although I found out that you are unable to assign sidesteps to the PSP shoulder buttons which is what I used to do on the home console versions of Tekken.

As I said, the storyline is just bizarre, Heihachi Mishima is still alive and should probably be dead and the Mishima family continues to grow its lineage in equally bizarre ways.  Some of the new characters who have been added to the roster of existing characters are rather bizarre but great fun to play as such as Alina who has chainsaws for hands.  Only Tekken can allow a character as outrageous as this to fit in perfectly with their current characters.

Before you start arcade mode you are told the back story of your chosen character.  This uses plain text instead of a video and it would have been nice to have had this in video format also.  As I mentioned, at the end of story mode it would not be Tekken without having to face a huge boss and Tekken 6 is no exception and gives you Azazel.

The game itself is not that difficult until you meet this character.  Not only does it fill the entire screen but the entire difficulty level gets ramped up to overkill as you try just to stand up whilst it keeps pummeling you into submission.  It gets rather frustrating and just makes you wonder what Namco were thinking and also whether your PSP would survive being thrown out the nearest window.

The game features nothing in the way of a real multiplayer mode.  Gaming sharing and an online mode are strangely absent.  The arcade version of Tekken 6 is so popular because of the character creation system and whilst this has made it into the PSP version there just seems to be no outlet to show off your ranking or customized character except against a friend locally.  Tekken 6 does allow you to use the gold you accumulate through the game on new outfits and customizations for your selected character which means you have to win tons of fights to get some of the more elusive items.

This means that you can change how the character looks, including hairstyle but the items cost so much and give you so little that it seems a wasted opportunity.  Even the Gold Rush mode which awards you gold for every hit you land on your opponent does not help you earn gold any quicker and it soon gets tedious also.  Graphically though Tekken 6 is superb and it also offers the largest character roster in any Tekken game so that is something to be proud of and it still maintains the accessibility to newcomers and veterans alike.

Overall Tekken 6 is a bit of a hit and miss.  It is still Tekken 6 but it has been stripped down for the PSP.  If you can look past that you will find a solid fighting game that delivers where it matters most, the fighting experience, and this is what made Tekken so popular in the first place.

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