Tekken 2

"A major improvement from its prequel in many ways!"

If you have read my review of the first Tekken, you will know that I thought it was fun, but it had some major flaws. You also know I said I would review every Tekken game. And I'm keeping that promise; here is my review of the great Tekken 2. Well, when I played this, it was great to see most of the problems fixed, while all the good things stayed intact. Admittedly, when I brought this game, I only did it to complete my collection, since it was the only Tekken game I did not have (this was before Tekken 5 was released). I did not expect it to be much fun at all. Boy, how wrong I was! How wrong I was!

Story: 6/10
Well, it's slightly more interesting than the first one, that's for sure. Kazuya throws his father, Heihachi, down a cliff for revenge and immediately takes over his father's company. He becomes corrupt and starts to take over the world. As his father recovers from his injury and trains, Kazuya announces the King of Iron Fist Tournament 2. A bunch of people enter for whatever reason. It also appears that the good and bad parts of his soul are fighting over who controls it. Nothing very special, but it's alright. Not like anyone cares about the storyline anyway.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are a major step up from the previous game. The characters are still blocky, but they look much crisper and fresher than ever before. The backgrounds are still flat, but they are much more vibrant and interesting (I particularly like Anna's stage with the Taj Mahal). Also, it is no longer possible to count the number of pixels used. The animation is smooth, with a consistent framerate of 60 frames per second (incredible by 1996 standards). Once again, the CGI endings are magnificent. Much better than last time, for sure.

Sound: 9/10
The music in this game is absolutely fantastic! In fact, it's the best in the Tekken series, which is definitely saying something. They re-used music from the first Tekken for some stages, and used new music for others. Either way, it's brilliant! The sound effects are the same as from the last game. Granted, they were fine the first time round, so it did not necessarily need changing, but some new sound effects would have been nice. The voices are better, now that each character has their own voice, instead of sharing with someone else. I particularly like Alex's (the dinosaur's) voice, which can be compared to a tortured alley cat. It just makes me laugh so much!

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay, at its core, remains similar to its predecessor. There is still the same fighting system as before, and the fights go in a similar fashion. Similarly, the game's infinite playing field has stayed intact, which is a relief to those who hate the ring outs in Virtua Fighter, or the walls in DOA, for instance. But overall, it has been improved greatly in many ways. Almost every character from the first game returns, with a whole bunch of new characters joining in. This brings a total of 24 characters. Not too shabby. Amongst the characters you can play are Lei, a policeman from Hong Kong, Nina, an Irish assassin, and Law, a martial artist resembling Bruce Lee. There are also a bunch of stupid characters, such as a boxing kangaroo, a boxing dinosaur, a devil, an angel and a grizzly bear. Once again, the character you unlock depends on who you played as. So Namco did well on the character design.

There have been a number of new things implemented into the game which make it more interesting. These include: reversals, back throws and tackling, among others. The A.I. also shows an improvement. In the previous game, although usually it was just right, sometimes it got very frustrating. This frustration has been removed, without making it too easy at the same time.

But the best improvement is with the game modes. Rather than just arcade and versus mode, you can now play survival (beat as many opponent as possible), time attack (get through the opponents as quickly as possible), team battle (fight multiple fighters against each other) and a practice mode (self-explanatory) as well. It is all bog standard stuff nowadays, but it certainly was not back then. This greatly increases the fun factor of the game, as well as its lasting appeal.

But there are still a couple of problems. Once you've unlocked everyone, there are about 24 or so characters, a highly respectable total. However, once again many of the characters are ‘clones' of other characters, having almost exactly the same movelist. There are a couple of exceptions, but it is still too prevalent. Another problem, one which the other game didn't include, is the really low health bar. In most matches, you can do two punches, two kicks and a throw, and the match is almost over! It ultimately means matches don't last all that long, only about 10 to 15 seconds. Of course, if you have a small attention span, this might well be a blessing! For everyone else, this isn't a massive flaw, but it's just enough to stop it from being a perfect ten.

Replay Value: 9/10
With the large amount of new modes, you will be able to keep yourself and your friends entertained for months and months, longer than the first one for sure. Couple this with all the characters you can choose (clones or not), it will definitely last you a while. In fact, I still play this occasionally for nostalgia, even though it's now over 11 years old.

Pros:
Improved graphics.
Unrivalled music.
Characters no longer share voices.
Great framerate (and no slowdown!)
Lots of new modes.
Lots of new characters.
Lots of fun!
Will last a long time.
Lots of new additions to make matches more interesting.
Great character design.
Better storyline.

Cons:
Still too many ‘clone' characters.
Very low health bar means matches are too quick.
Some new sound effects would have been good.


Buy, rent or avoid: If you can find this game cheap, then I would highly recommend that you buy it; you may not get another chance. Sure, its sequels are better in almost every way, but you can still have good fun with this game, if only for something stupid like laughing at Roger's (the kangaroo's) voice. If you can't find it, that's a shame, but it's not the end of the world.

Well, that's the end of the review. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Sorry if you thought I babbled on too much. Believe it or not, I'll probably have even more to say about Tekken 3. But that's for another time. Goodbye for now.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/08, Updated 07/07/08

Game Release: Tekken 2 (EU, October 1996)