Tekken Advance

"Definitly Worth It."

Tekken is worth getting, if you are looking for a fun fighter to take with you on your travels. I FOUND this game lying on the ground in the middle of a shopping center a few days ago, and I have not put it down since.

Tekken is a standard 2D fighting game, with many plusses and very few minuses. There is however, a small 3D element, where you sidestep and the backround kind of follows. It is as if you are fighting in a courtyard, and you can not corner people. You can choose from ten diverse characters, and there is an eleventh unlockable one. Each character has a pretty standard punch, kick, grab move, and block. On addition, there are character-specific moves(each one has about 30-35), and they include transitions, monster combos, various magic abillities, power hits, running atacks, etc. The characters are fairly stereotypical (fire-mage girl, creature-hybrid, ninja, fat strong slow guy, and evil looking sword carrying dude are among them), but each one has a unique feel to it when used. Special moves all also follow a certain trend that fits in with the character, and with a little practice, nearly all of them are fairly easy to pull off. They act more as a reflex instead of the impossibe to pull off, slow, forign feel that many other fighters have. In tekken, I did not find myself relying completly on punch and kick, because the specials were fun, easy, and they fit right into what you are doing.

To practice specials, there is a handy practice mode that you can use. It measures total damage done to your opponet in a numerical value, it tallies up hits in a combo, and it shows you weather your hit was a high, medium or low blow. (not low blow like THAT!). You can pull up a list during practice and it tells you how to pull off each special for a character.

Other modes in Tekken are fun, and suprisingly not repetive. You have an arcade mode, which is a standard mode where you pick one character and you fight through the other ones, in a level format. Time Attack Mode is like arcade, except you have a timer that times how long it takes for you to beat each opponet, and at the end of all of the levels, it adds up your time and you may get into the High Score list if you have a low time. Another mode with a high-score list is Survivor. In survivor, you go through as many opponets as possible with a health bar that does not recharge after a match. If you go through all of the characters without dying, then you start going backwards to level one again. If you go through a large number of enemies before dieng, you get onto the high-score list.

Personaly, I find the team battles most fun. Team Battle is a mode where you pick three characters, and you go against three characters. One person fights another until one dies. Then the victor, without recharging health, goes onto the next fight where he fights the opposing team's second person. Similar to this mode is the Tag mode. In tag, you pick three people and start fighting. Whenever you want, you can switch one of your characters with another. It is a 3 on 3, with only one person fighting. When one of the people on the opposite team dies, you win.

Where would a fighter be without a two player mode? If you have 2 game packs, game boys, and a link cable, you can access 3 2P modes. You can do a standard 1-on-1 Vs. mode, and you can also do 2P tag and 2P Team. This is great fun. Also, the High-Score mode that I previously mentioned give a chance for competiveness without a Link Cable. Who doesnt want to beat thier friend's high score? I do, and I did.

The sound in Tekken is clear, and although some songs are better the music is overall pretty good. You have standard grunt, thud, pow, and whack sound effects, which is to be expected in a fighter, but unlike many fighters, you have a LOT of them. This is good, and not repetitive.

Tekken is also pretty colorful. While the graphics are not the sharpest I have seen, you can easily tell what is what, who is who, and you can see detail. The characters are unique and detailed sprites, nothing even RESEMBLING a palete swap here. Each character also has 2 or 3 different costumes, and if necessary, the game is capable of changing tints on a character. One thing I really like is that you do get a sence of space in each of the many backrounds. Look at some screenshots, you will see what I mean.

I only have a few gripes about this game. First of all, I would have liked more projectiles and/or weapons. The only projectile is weak, slow, and short-ranged. One character carries a sword, and one carries a fan, and that is the extent of weapons in the game. They are not necessary, just nice to have. Other specials make up for them, I guess. Also, the graphics could have been sharper, but that is the GBA, not the game.

If you want a fighter to take with you on your travels, take this one. It has not gotten old yet for me, and it shows no sign of doing so. You will not be dissapointed!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/03, Updated 04/17/03