Video game arcades are all but dead here in America, but in a magical place called Japan not only do they still exist, they are still the place to check out the newest games before they hit the console market. Tekken 6 for instance was released in Japanese arcades November 2007, and was later revised in 2008 as Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion. Tekken 6 was originally scheduled for a 2008 PS3 console debut, but was delayed an entire year with a very controversial announcement at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show: that this would be the first installment of Tekken NOT to be exclusive to the Playstation hardware. As far back as I can remember, Tekken was Sony’s flagship fighter much like DOA for the Xbox hardware. This all just seemed weird to me, like the first time I saw Sonic in a Nintendo game.

Tekken 6, which combines both Japanese arcade versions, was released in the US on October 26th for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and later this month drops on the Sony PSP. For this review I will be covering the PS3 version exclusively, and I will tell you how to win a copy of the Xbox 360 version later in my review.

The first thing you notice when you put in your disc is the gorgeous intro, which as an old-school Tekken fan, it was great to see my favorite characters updated for the current console generation. It’s been 3 years since Tekken 5 graced the PS2 and a lot has changed. This game looks beautiful to say the least. I remember seeing screenshots and thinking it can’t look that good, but it does indeed. The backgrounds are amazingly rendered and at times, very interactive.

There are 3 main modes of play in Tekken 6. Scenario campaign (Similar to Tekken Force) which is a story mode beat-em-up style fighter that not only manages recap every Tekken game’s storyline but makes it coherent and make sense as well, which is a feat in and within itself. Then there are 2 arcade modes online and offline, which should be familiar to anyone that has played Street Fighter 4. The online play I found really smooth and the load times were pretty good even if you didn’t have the game installed on your HD. The matching system is based on a very well instituted ranking system so you don’t get in a match you have no chance of winning.

The offline play is what you would expect from a Tekken game, with your normal Arcade and practice modes. I am a huge fighter fan and I think it’s great all these older franchises aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Tekken 6 starts you off with an insane roster of 40 characters to choose from, 10 years worth of characters. Most are returning characters with the exception of Alisa Boskonovitch, Bob, Lars Alexanderson, Leo, Miguel Caballero Rojo, Zafina, Azazel and NANCY-MI847J. Of note is Alisa Boskonovitch who is a little pink haired robot girl who has chainsaws that come out of her arms and  jets that come out of her back, how cool is that?

The game play and fighting engine is classic Tekken and there is not a huge learning curve, where Tekken 5 was a return to the roots of the franchise Tekken 6 just irons out the game play a little bit making it better. That’s why I love fighting games so much, its the ability to be able to easily pick it up the game and put it down when your done, and Tekken 6 does that beautifully. Additions to the Tekken fighting engine I did notice were some enhancements with stringing together of combos within the game, and a rage mode which allows you to do more damage as your vitality gets lower which can cause quite few upsets when you think you have a match won.

One thing they have added to Tekken 6 as a completely new feature is a very elaborate character customization mode, nowadays you can’t seem to have a successful fighter these days without one. It’s very much in line with Soul Calibur IV where you the more you fight the more you earn, and the more you can customize. But unlike Soul Calibur IV you really have to put in sometime to even begin to customize your character, so that really helps replay value even if you’re just into the arcade mode.But I honestly felt the prices were just a little high, like 240,000 gold for a pair of glasses and 640,00 for a pair of colored battle shorts(i.e. underwear) you can also buy tatoos and new hairstyles as well.

Overall I have to say if you’re a fan of the franchise like me you need this game and if you’ve played through Street Fighter 4 or a fan of fighting games and your looking for something new, you should really give this a try. The character customization and scenario campaign modes really help this title giving it a bit more replay value than your typical fighter, and the online modes don’t hurt either. If I had to rate Tekken 6 it would be a 4.5 out of 5, the only reason its not a solid 5 out of 5 is I felt the character animations weren’t quite as fluid as they could be, they were beautiful but they seemed a bit wooden at times. Other than that I can’t recommend this game highly enough I mean its Tekken.

Now the great people over at Namco Bandai were nice enough to give us a copy of Tekken 6 for the Xbox 360 to give away to a lucky reader. To qualify, simply leave a comment with your favorite Tekken character and why, and if you already have a copy – this would make a great Christmas present and they would totally thank you for it. Winners will be chosen next Friday the 20th! Good Luck!

Other Stuff You Might Wanna Know:
Available for: Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3
Price: 59.99
Rating (Buy It, Don’t Buy It, Rent It): Buy It