by Jay "THE FLEA" Wade
The hit arcade comes to a home console system. Tekken Tag Tournament (TTT) is most all the characters from the past Tekken games put into one. The only characters that are missing are Dr. B. and Gon. While I do miss Gon, Dr. B. was worthless and would only take up space.
Only one really new Character has joined the Tekken Family, a character called Unknown.
She’s possessed by a wolf spirit that follows her on the screen, a little creepy and distracting.
TTT plays like all the past Tekken’s but with of a push of a button you can change characters.
Each character has his/her own life bar and if one character is badly hurt, you can switch and let him/her rest up and regain life as you use a fresh character.
Four players can join the fun. You team up with a partner and when you switch characters your pal fights until he tags you back in.
Modes include, Arcade, Versus, Time Attack, Survival, Team Battle, Practice, Pair Play, and even Tekken Bowling. It’s silly but a lot of fun.
The Graphics are pretty much Arcade perfect. The characters look better then ever seen before.
Backgrounds have more life then ever. People running around, Helicopters buzzing above and more. The arenas are not as interactive as Dead or Alive 2 or Power Stone but beautiful just the same.
The control is basic Tekken, If you ever played the past Tekken’s you’ll pick up on TTT real fast.
And of course all the combos. Now with Tagging, you can start a combo and your partner can finish it. Most of the combo’s you learned in Tekken 3 will still work.
The sound feels as fast and powerful as the arcade, with the techno high intense music you can’t go wrong. The only real complaints I have with TTT are the endings, They are blah graphic cinematic’s instead of the visual stunning FMV Tekken 2 & 3 had. The only great FMV in TTT is the opening (which is some of the best FMV ever seen) and Unknown’s ending. The rest are a couple seconds of nothing. I would have been happy if they just had their endings from Tekken 3.
Overall, If you love the Tekken series and are tired of spending all your money at the Arcade playing TTT. Then save those quarters and buy Tekken Tag Tournament.
It will satisfy your hunger for a Tekken game til Tekken 4.
PUBLISHER: NAMCO
GRAPHICS: 9 MUSIC & SOUND: 10 CONTROL: 9.5
SECRETS: 10 ORIGINALITY: 7 FUN & REPLAY: 10
OVERALL: 9