Tekken 2

"Better than the original"

The first Tekken was plagued with horrendously cheap AI but still manage to sell extremely well. I'm pleased to say that Tekken 2 is better than the original and the cheap CPU AI has been toned down tremendously.

Heihachi is a little ticked since his son, Kazuya threw him off a cliff after his defeat in the last Tournament. Kazuya is holding the second ''King of the Iron Fist'' tournament and Heihachi views this as a perfect opportunity to seek revenge on his son.

The game has a total of 23 fighters, many of which will have to be unlocked by beating the game with the selectable fighters. Some of the fighters like Angel and Devil, Roger and Alex, have the exact same moves, with the only distinguishing features being their appearance. However, the majority of the fighters have their own set of moves and every character has a linking 10 hit combo move. The fighting engine in Tekken 2 is very deep, but button mashers can have fun playing and finish the game with every character, but the fighting elite will crush them in no time flat. Some moves are easy to pull off while others take time and skill to execute. All of the fighters play some sort of roll in Tekken 2 and their stories are shown through FMVs that play out once you've finished the game with a particular character. All of the characters from the first Tekken return as well as some new characters who are making their first Tekken appearance. Depending on what buttons you use to select your fighter with determines what outfit they wear when they fight. The characters are respectable and end up being people you care about, unlike many other fighting games.

Aside from the standard Arcade mode, there's the Survival Mode, Vs. mode, Time Attack Mode, Team Battle Mode, and the Practice Mode. The Vs. mode puts you against a friend, Team Battle lets you select a maximum of eight fighters for your team to do battle against a friend or the CPU. Survival mode is an endurance test to see how many CPU opponents you can defeat before you're Knocked out. Time Attack puts you against the clock to see how fast you can complete the game and Practice mode lets you brush up on your fighting skills, by practicing moves and combos. You can pause the game to bring up a move list for your fighter and this can even be done in every other mode as well.

The sound effects are pretty good but its the soundtrack that really steals the show here. The game has an explosive soundtrack that you'll turn up the volume to listen to. Each fighter has there own musical track and some tunes from the original Tekken can be heard as well, which are a welcome addition. It has to be said the the arcade versions of the tunes don't fare too well when compared to the remixed tunes, so be sure you go into the option mode and make sure the tunes are set on the remixed version. (Michelle, Jack-2, King, and Yoshimitsu have some of my favorite musical themes.)

As mentioned before the CPU AI has been toned down a great deal. Heihachi isn't an overwhelming powerhouse this time and most CPU fighters don't result to staying on you so you can't get up. The CPU still blocks a little too much though.

Tekken 2 is a great PlayStation game that any Tekken fan should pick up. Unlocking characters is fun, the fighting engine is deep, and the game can be pretty challenging, especially on advanced difficulties. Tekken 2 belongs in any fighting fan's collection, but even non fighting fans can enjoy it.

VISUALS:8
AUDIO:9
FUN:9

FINAL SCORE: 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/09/01, Updated 06/09/01