First things first. Scenario mode sucks. I couldn’t even play it for ten minutes without wanting to quit. In the end, I forced myself to play it. It’s riddled with bugs and seems like it was tacked on in the last minute, even though they were hyping it to be something great. It’s not. It looks like a PS2 game and it just doesn’t feel right taking on a bunch of enemies in third person mode with the same gameplay mechanics as the core fighting in Tekken 6. Ahh, the core fighting. If you’re a Tekken fan, you’ll love it. Everything feels just as good as the highlight of the series Tekken 3.

 

 

Each limb is assigned to one of the four face buttons. It works well and really balances out each character. Although, there still are some cheap characters, for example newcomer Zafina who is great to play with, but once you are playing against her you’ll feel very angry trying to get a hit on her. A brand new “Rage” system has been added which gives characters more damage per hit when their health is below a certain point. It’s a welcome feature and may help the newcomers out there. There are a variety of modes to choose from. Ranging from the standard Arcade mode, Time Attack mode, and Ghost mode to the horrendous Scenario mode, which you already know about. The Arcade mode is like any standard Arcade mode that you’ve seen in previous Tekken games and other beat ‘em ups. You battle a number of opponents across a number of varied stages, leading up to the final boss. And what a boss he is. The final boss, Azazel, who is un-playable, is very powerful and it can almost feel like a chore to defeat him. Prepare to be hitting the restart button numerous times to defeat him. There is also a bonus stage in Arcade mode against the elephantine robot NANCYMI847J. Like Azazel, Nancy is not an unlock able character, although, she is playable in Scenario mode.

 

 

There are a total of 42 characters which is the most characters ever seen in a Tekken game. The characters themselves are great. Even if their stories aren’t. By now, the story of Tekken 6 is completely confusing, even though there is a very bland run-down of each Tekken game before the scenario campaign. Old favorites return from older Tekken games, like Jin Kazama, Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law who is my favorite character, among others. There are also eight brand-new characters who are just great. I’ve not had a problem with any of them, and they all feel just as balanced as the returning characters. My favorite of the new characters is definitely Bob. His surprising speed and agility makes him great fun to play with. Characters can be customized with an enhanced character customization feature. It works fine if you want to make your favorite character your own, but falls short to Soul Calibur IV’s character creation feature, as in Tekken 6 you can only customize existing characters and not build new ones from scratch.