Tekken Advance

"Better than you'd expect"

OK, so I'm a fighting game nut. And a big Tekken nut, too.
So naturally, when I first saw pictures of Tekken on a Game
Boy in some American magazine, I just assumed it was some
kind of joke. Hey, they are famous for that kind of thing.

Then I checked the latest issue of Famitsu. It wasn't
just a joke.

I was shocked to say the least, and to be honest, I didn't
have very high hopes. I mean think of it: a 3-dimensional
fighter already bogged down by an immense move list re-
quiring some of the most complex maneuvering of joystick
and button combinations to date appears on a system that
can only support 2-dimensional image and has only a so-so
joypad with two half of Tekken's buttons. I was kind of
expecting something like the Game Boy Street Fighter II.

Well, the crew at Namco did impress me. They've done better
than I would have thought.

There are a few bad things about the game, of course. It
has the feel of the SNES port of Killer Instinct, for
instance (re-used, limited animation, etc). There are only
10 characters, too, making it the most limited Tekken to
date in that regard. And the music leaves a bit to be
desired, although the ones that simply mimic tracks from
Tekken 3 turned out pretty good.

The biggest barrier, of course, was crossing over from 3d
to 2d. I've often wondered how they could handle that,
say if a versus game was ever made between Namco and Capcom.
Now I know, I suppose. Like I said earlier, they re-use
certain animation frames to suggest certain moves. It
turns out alright, though; the hit zones are the same even
if the graphics don't match. In a standard 2d fighter, if
the pixels don't cross it's generally not a hit, which was
a problem with redrawing certain Killer Instinct moves.
For example, Gun Jack's ''Cherno'' (while crouching, down +
A+B, or in the standard Tekkens, while crouching down +
left punch + right punch) looks just like part of his
Double Hammer (while rising A+B or while rising left punch +
right punch in standard games). The move seems to have
the range of the original move in the standard Tekken games.

The only big problem with the switch to 2d was, of course,
the side stepping element. They would need to get an
almost infinite number of frames ported over into 2d to
display the characters facing different angles. The
solution? Allow a side step where the opponent automatic-
ally turns towards you. This does make certain strategies
much harder to escape, namely pressure play, and leaves
certain side step exploiting characters out of luck. No
''Crazy Legs'' Hwoarang, unfortunately.

But the moves list was much more full than I would have
expected. It takes a while to get used to the changed
inputs, but most key moves have been replicated. The
changed inputs do conflict with certain combos, however,
and I should note that the damage adjustment has been
adjusted for the Advance version, which means that your
favorite combos will be doing less damage.

All things considered, as I played it, I found myself
saying, ''Ohhh, *that's* in there too?'' or ''Oh, is *that*
how you do it'' over and over again. In short, the game
is very full, even if it is a primitive replica.

Graphics - 9 / 10
Control - 8 / 10
Sound - 8 / 10
Replayability - 6 / 10
Overall - 8 / 10

Unfortunately, it should be noted that there is not much
to unlock in the game, there are no endings, and there is
no opening. It still takes some time to unlock the secret
stuff, too. But after all, how much could you fit into
a tiny cartridge? Well...ask SNK. This game is still
behind SNK vs. Capcom on the Pocket Station. It'll get
better distribution, though, and it has vocals. So pick
it up, if you've got the money to spare, or if you're a
big Tekken fan like me, just go ahead and buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/02, Updated 09/03/02