Tekken

"Some people call you father..."

Do you dislike your family? Come on, don't deny it. You may love them, but there's got to be a few things that you absolutely can't stand about them. Maybe your dad still believes he's twenty years old and tries to keep up with the latest trends. Maybe your mom is so overbearing that you can't get a word in without her giving you a disapproving glare. Perhaps you've got a bratty little sister that pretends to be good but smokes weed behind her parents' backs, or an older brother that treats you like his personal punching bag. Don't forget about that drunken uncle that makes an ass out of himself during the holidays, your nerdy cousin with the whiny voice and confidence issues, or that freaky great-aunt that smells like rotten mangoes and tartar sauce. Regardless of age and background, we've all got relatives that we wish weren't so…unlikable.

Meet Kazuya Mishima. When he was a kid, his father Heihachi threw him off a cliff. The heartless old bastard believed his son to be a weakling, and wanted to test his will to live; should Kazuya not return from the fall, it would mean that he truly was as pathetic as his father believed him to be. If the kid managed to make it back home, he'd become Heihachi's successor. How's that for family bonding time? Needless to say, Kazuya was in a sticky situation. In order to survive the ordeal, he made a deal with the Devil; he traded his soul for another chance at life. Fueled by his bitter hatred of his father and the Devil's incredible strength, Kazuya trained as a martial artist, developing his skills and powers in order to kill his father. His training came to and end at just the right time, too; Heihachi is sponsoring the King of the Iron Fist fighting tournament, with a billion dollars in prize money for the victor. Kazuya will have to fight his way through the competition before getting a shot at the father he hates so much.

Needless to say, this isn't your typical fighting game. Tekken hails from a time when series like Street Fighter and King of Fighters reigned supreme. This game doesn't revolve entirely quarter-circle-forward button commands, power gauged-based super moves, and all of that other stuff. Instead, Tekken takes the characters and designates each of their limbs to certain button on the controller. Tapping a single button will only result in a mere kick or punch, but things start to escalate once you start pressing multiple buttons in succession. A light punch can lead into a harder left hook, an uppercut, a double leg sweep, or tons of other potential combos. The trick is learning to get the rhythm down; there's just enough time after an attack to input your next command, which can make or break your success later in the game. Once you've gotten a feel for the characters' movements, you'll find that the unique control style of Tekken feels far more natural than those of other fighting games.

That's assuming of course, that you can get over a few of the game's nasty flaws. The controls of Tekken may have been a revolutionary step forward for the 3D fighting genre, but they lack the responsiveness and refinement necessary to make them truly great. Even if you manage to master the button commands effectively, you'll find that the game's characters are horribly unbalanced; Kazuya, Paul, and a few others can utterly decimate their opponents' health bars with four or five of the right moves while other characters have few decent combos at their disposal. An uppercut shouldn't be able to take out half your opponent's heath, and nor should a flurry of roundhouse kicks only take out a tiny sliver. The game tries to make up for its shortcomings by including a wide variety of characters and fighting styles in the lineup, but even that can't save the game from its crude gameplay.

The game doesn't just falter in the gameplay department, either. Tekken was one of the first 3D fighters ever created for the Playstation, but it makes a minimal amount of effort to use the system's power. The game may have been impressive at first, but its presentation pales in comparison to the likes of Soul Blade and other titles. The backgrounds are incredibly simplistic and grainy, offering glimpses (when the unreliable camera doesn't act up anyway) of the sun setting over an endless desert, empty baseball fields, and a poorly rendered version of the Parthenon. The characters aren't much better; their moves flow well enough, but everything else is in dire need of attention. All of the fighters look like horribly disfigured monstrosities, such as Jack's disproportioned limbs, Paul's gargantuan head, and Yoshimitsu's non-existent midsection. Kazuya may be a demonic badass, but his wooden win poses make him look like some idiot doing the Macarena. At least the sound effects are right on key; you'll get to enjoy plenty of thuds, grunts, and piercing death screams.

It's not that Tekken is a bad game. It's just nowhere near as refined or complete as the later titles in the series. You've still got a cast of strange and wonderful characters, a crazy plot unlike anything the Street Fighter series could ever muster, and a refreshingly original way to play the game. Being able to control your fighters' limbs and performing moves with timed button commands was a huge step forward for the 3D fighting genre. Sadly, these qualities are blended with a few nagging problems that utterly ruin the experience; the game's imbalance and utterly lacking presentation doom Tekken to be completely overshadowed by its sequels. It may be far from perfect, but it's a start.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/06