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Perhaps more than any other genre, fighting games have an unwritten duty to keep one foot in the past. While there’s always a demand for new mechanics and systems, fans also want their old characters to return with their iconic moves and strategies in tact. The developers of such games are therefore tasked with occupying an uneasy middle ground.
In recent iterations of Tekken, Namco has taken minor flack for being too conservative with their updates. With Tekken Tag Tournament 2, that’s unlikely to be a problem. In the series’ 18-year history this is only the second game to allow for 2 vs 2 battles, and even this framework is further subverted by the ability to setup 2-on-1 fights – an arrangement rarely explored by established fighters.
These “unbalanced” fights aren’t as unfair as you might imagine. While the solo player is clearly robbed of the ability to trade places with a partner, they get a notable boost to both their offence and defence – allowing them to hit slightly harder than the opposition, and to take less damage. While each member of the opposing Tag Team will be slightly weaker, this is offset by the range of co-operative moves that come into play working with a partner.
Put simply, if you’re good enough to use both your characters within a single combo, you’ll devastate your opponent. If you hit the Tag button while your opponent is in the Bound state (i.e. bouncing off a wall, as per Tekken 6) your partner will immediately come in and carry on the beatdown. On a similar level, by launching your rival and then quickly switching over, you can perform a Tag Combo; this is slightly harder to pull off, but it has the added impact of instantly draining your opponent’s red bar, which in turn stops them from gaining health when they’re resting off-screen.
Tag Assaults and Tag Combos are the mainstays of the new mechanics, but naturally they’re supplemented by other systems that can save your hide if you learn how to use them. If you’ve just taken a lot of damage and have been knocked down, for example, you might be able to perform a Tag Crash – a swift changeover move that sees your buddy leaping onscreen and attacking the aggressor, allowing the other character to escape.
Just to further complicate matters, Tag Crash can only be used if your partner has “Netsu” – essentially a Rage status that kicks in once your ally takes a certain amount of damage. In a neat twist, certain character team-ups will generate Netsu quicker than others: if you have a pair of fighters who historically get on well within Tekken’s labyrinthine storyline, they’ll be more eager to defend their wounded comrades.
As complex as this all sounds, the basics of the game’s systems seems easier to understand and execute than Street Fighter X Tekken’s various co-op manoeuvres. Tag throws, for example, can be performed with a simple two-button command. No doubt there’ll be a lot to appreciate in the fullness of time, but in immediate terms the game remains as accessible and user-friendly as it’s ever been. On top of that, Katsuhiro Harada has implemented a veiled tutorial-like mode called Fight Lab that helps newbies to learn the game. Where most fighters’ training modes invariably guide you towards complex combos that laymen won’t fully appreciate, the aim here is to provide a fun way to learn Tekken in an almost subconscious manner. (You can read more about Fight Lab here).
As we’ve come to expect now, the new game offers a vast visual improvement over its predecessor, both in the brawlers themselves (there are over 50 available) and in the typically insane backdrops – one finds you scrapping aboard the deck of a ship, amid the flapping bodies of expiring fish. There have been technical improvements behind the scenes too, resulting in load times that are supposedly half what we dealt with in Tekken 6.
But more than anything else, it’s the renewed sense of focus that makes Tekken Tag Tournament 2 seem so promising. The last game seemed to lack direction, one where the rather wonky Scenario Mode was billed as one of the main features. No doubt the final game will offer some new distraction to sit alongside the Bowling, Volleyball, and other oddities we’ve had in the past, but there’s no doubt that this time the core tag battles will be the star attraction. For the first time in a long while, Tekken looks to be a genuine contender.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will be released in September on PS3 and Xbox 360.
