![]() Though some characters can do so more effectively than others (and you Jaguar fans know of whom I speak), it's no longer a one-sided issue. So while Tekken Tag may have let King, Armor King, Jin, and Paul dominate the playing field with their anti-tactics, everyone can defend themselves in such a manner here. ![]() Similarly, counters have become much more important than in previous installments. With the exception of the powerful (and sometimes cheap) Jin Kazuya, skilled and not-so skilled players should be able to hang with each other rather effectively and the days of dominating Ogre/True Ogre combinations are long gone. On the whole however, gameplay is more balanced as it has ever been. The best advice really, is to try and not get pinned against anything in the jungle and laboratory stages, but that's easier said than done. While there are certainly a couple ways out of these wall traps, it¿s a technique that comes best through experience with no right or wrong way to escape via simple button presses. In the smaller less roomy levels, it's very easy to get caught against a wall in a combo, and because hitting the wall temporarily stuns your fighter and then bounces him back towards the attacking opponent, matches can end far too quickly. That's not to say that the enclosed arenas don't pose a certain problem. So while pummeling your opponent down a ramp can swing the momentum in your favor, it won't tilt the balance to your advantage as drastically as VF3. One of the keys to more advanced combat in Virtua Fighter 3 and to a lesser extent DOA 3, the Tekken 4 philosophy falls somewhere in the middle. There's even some multi-plane sectioning in certain stages that will elevate one character above another for additional food for thought. And unlike other obstacle-based fighters like Power Stone or Barbarian, the items that get in your way don't appear at ridiculous levels (then again, you can't pick up and use items against another player like you could in those games either). Guardrails, concrete pillars, jungle tree stumps, and even automobiles are but a few of the many objects blocking the path to the enemy. That ability has still made it into the forth edition, but it's practicality and commonality has been greatly reduced and the emphasis on straight-ahead fighting is encouraged because of the room-based stages. It was a technique used primarily by arcade scrubs who couldn't memorize their ten-strings or cheap hits, and more times than I like to remember I'd watch many a Tekken newbie get picked apart by some crazy Jin and Ogre slide action. In the past, one player could back up until the camera pans into a far view before dashing at their opponent full speed. Probably Namco's wisest decision, the tighter fighting arenas discourage the run and gun tactics we found in Tag and Tekken 3. No longer free to roam the field in a never-ending parallel line, players are now required to fight within the spaces given to them and use the obstacles around them as part of their strategy. Gameplay The most drastic change this year is the inclusion of walls and confined spaces. This installment was the best in the series I thought, it had to be. Impressed with the translation from arcade to console, I found myself caught up in the hype of playing a brand new Tekken adventure and reveled in the glory of all the extra features and modes. When we received our import copies in May, I was the first one to rip into the cellophane and pound the buttons until I could pound them no more. An admitted fan boy, I had mixed emotions about the differences on several levels: Though I loved the fact that you could now fight within enclosed arenas instead of infinitely open areas, I was dismayed when I learned that tagging a partner had been nixed. A near-drastic change from the previous four games, Tekken 4 has made more alterations to its fighting engine than we have previously seen. Implementing the 'sidestep' and tag features for the third installment and Tekken Tag respectfully, the designers at Namco continued to wow us with their innovation and dedication to improvement and left us to imagine what Tekken 4 would bring. Humbly planting its roots as "that other" 3D fighter in the wake of Virtua Fighter and Battle Arena Toshinden, and then rising to prominence with the follow-up (still considered by many an old-school masher to be the greatest "3D" fighter of all time), Tekken has always raised the bar a notch higher than what the rest of the world was expecting. Consistently improving in all aspects, the journey from Tekken 1 to Tekken Tag Tournament has been the perfect example of digital evolution. The once mighty king among all PlayStation fighters, the slick Namco fighter has been sitting triumphantly on its roost for years.
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