Tekken 2

"The King of Iron Fist Tournament 2"

When I started doing some research for this review I thought: "Oh, man. Here comes another Tekken review." (as if there is nothing new to write about with the sequel). Although this is very similar to the original arcade game, its overall execution is slightly different. I think that the purpose of continuing a gaming franchise like the Tekken series is essential for our race as humans to develop our artistic skills as well as reap the harvest of good entertainment. I think, with that in mind, we can look at a game from the Tekken series not as perhaps a mere indulgence, but a realization of a dream we once had (deja vu).

Beginning with the game's sound. There are still some problems with the sound in this series. If you were to read my original Tekken review you'd see that I found some of the aspects of the sound to be downright awful (in my opinion). I don't see much of an improvement here. Some songs are good, and some vocal sounds are okay, but this more or less seems to be more of the same, which in this case isn't very good. Sometimes there are bad sound effects to an otherwise great game. I remember that sort of being the case with the original Tony Hawk game, but when the little amount of voice acting sounds like a car ran over the receiver, you know there needs to be reform.

Moving on to the graphics. The original Tekken game had modestly good graphics especially for 1994. After having looked at the sequel, I could tell that Namco was trying to take some risks, but in their attempt to wow the audience I think that they came up short. This is mainly why I gave this game a lower rating over the original. It also had to with my opinion that this game brought very little to the table so to speak or at least not as much as I had hoped. What it did bring to the table would be in its gameplay, which I'll get into later. Although both games are rendered well (especially on the PS2), I found some problems with texturing.

And now for some redemption, I think. Tekken 2 fortunately maintains its battle mechanics that won over many a nerdy gamer. Despite not being perfectly ironed out of flaw, there is still a very good game to be had here. There are quite a few more characters and subsequently more moves. You'll also notice more originality in certain characters.

Basically, is this game entertaining or not? I would say yes. In this review I sort of concentrated on mostly where this game came up short in my opinion--technically. However, one might argue that this is simply a fighting game (not a gestalt of art), but more of an entertainer. I would agree, but until they stop making Kuma look like a carving that a 15 year old did, I'm not changing it.

I've heard that this game received very good reviews, which somewhat surprises me. I would've been a little kid when this game came out so I don't really recall the impact it had, but I would hear of Tekken 3, which comes up in my next review I believe. I would rent this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/09

Game Release: Tekken 2 (US, 1996)