Tekken Tag Tournament

"Namco steals a little 'tag thunder' from Capcom...."

For those of you who have been jonesing for a some new Tekken, that wait is over, with Tekken Tag Tournament. Technically there is little 'new' about this incarnation of Tekken, save the nifty tag feature, very similar to Capcom's Vs series. A few new moves have been added, and every known character ever gracing the King of the Iron Fist Tournament is showing up this time. Some minor touching up to the poly count and some minor changes to the backgrounds were done, but in a sense this is just Tekken 3 on steroids.

First the tag system. This would seem to totally change the output of play to the game, much like the Vs games did to the X-Men engine. Unfortunately, it hasn't. Tagging in is far to easy, and with little consequence. Tagging in a character in Marvel/Cap with the opponent waiting was very costly. It is even much more offensive, with tag throws, and easy retaliations from the tag. This needed to be worked on more, it was rushed in my view.

Next characters. The single best idea they could have done was have all existing characters be available in this game. A wide span of playable characters makes Tekken a vastly enjoyable game, and may sway casual gamers to not use Eddy Gordo so much ^_~ New moves were given to each of the characters, and they seem to have out enough to keep things interesting.

Running on Namco's System 12 board, some of the older characters have recieved a nice face-lift, Ganryu looks especially good this time around, as will may of the other Tekken veterans. All of the characters have noticably higher poly counts and smoother textures. Good news for arcade fans, bad news for PSX fans. With troubles Tekken 3 gave Namco for teh PSX, it is doubtful that they could port this puppy over. Look for Namco to grace the Dreamcast with this gem.

Overall: Fans of Tekken rejoice, this is Tekken at it's finest. Tons o' characters, smoother looks, and nifty tag team action. Thoses looking for something new, or innovative: Beware, this is purely Tekken 3, and it comes with all it's downfalls like unbalanced characters, ridiculous damage counts, and silly combos that are downright stupid.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 02/20/03