Tekken Advance

"Tekken Advance, now hold the action in your hands!"

Tekken has been a popular Fighting game in the past. The first console it was made for was the Sony Playstation. As it comes to pass, different games are being made for the Gameboy Advance as it's power is getting noticed around the world. TEKKEN - ADVANCE is a simple fighting game, with good stuff included. The gameplay is easy, simple and fun. Watching your tiny character move around and perform moves around is really entertaining.

Because of space, there are 9 characters to start off with. these are (in order from left to right)
Xiaoyu - Yoshimitsu - Nina - Law - GunJack - Hwaorang - Paul - King - Jin.
Each charcter has their own special moves which they can perform in order to win the fight. Each character is played very differently as very few have the same abilities/moves.

Gameplay - 9/10

The game is really fun. The style is mainly an arcade fighting type. Because there's are only three buttons to use, A and B (which are the KICK and PUNCH buttons) and the R button which is a throw, it's easier to connect your moves in with the opponent. The blocking is an automatic feature which helps in most cases and doesn't work in the middle of an attack you are doing, but sometimes you can get your life saved from blocking.

Graphics - 10/10

Yes this is a surprise...a 10! The characters look detailed and well presented. The gameboy Advance can only handle graphics of the same 3D as STARFOX on the Super nintendo, so no further detail could be added. The characters are hard to tell which dimension they are in, the grounds are 3D and the characters move smoothly around.

Sound - 8/10

Yes, it's still the same music type out of nowhere. The sound is pretty good. The sound when hitting someone is still the typical comic type but still sounds good. The best part is how it all matches up when performing a combo with say Hawaorang when kicking continuously.

Control 8/10

This is very different to the arcade. It's way easier since there are buttons but combinations of the D' pad can improve damage inflicted and combos. If only there were an extra button to use, or at least the L had some kind of use. But it's fair enough.

Lasting Appeal 7/10

This game is great, but the lasting appeal doesn't help the game a lot. With 9 characters to start off with it's pretty hard to keep playing and playing. it won't last forever I can assure you that, but it will leave you playing for about 2 or 3 months. The game is still fun though, but not fun enough to make you play for a long time.

OVERALL: 42/50 (84%)

To wrap this up, the game is great! The thing that it lacks the most is in the lasting appeal area. However that won't stop you from kicking enemy butt with different styles, characters and range of combos, plus even a command list to test in PRACTICE MODE! If you're not a fighting fan. check this out first. If you are, BUY IT.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/01, Updated 12/30/01