Tekken 4

Pros • You can have success just bashing buttons, but have to actually learn characters' moves and combos to really do well at the game • Lots of characters, costumes, movies and arenas to unlock • Juggling your opponent in 10 hit combos • Tekken is the one fighting series that doesn't fall into the attack-two-three, block-two-three, attack-two-three pattern • Wide range of fighting styles • Some interesting add-in game modes • Tekken's controls are perfectly planned for a PS2 Dualshock controller • Mix of popular old characters and new ones	Cons • Because of the fact that you can keep attacking, Tekken can feel cheap to newcomers when an opponent stays right on top of them punching and kicking until they are KOd, with never a chance to fight back • Still that jerky, backwards and sideways movement • Only two players? And scant multiplayer modes. We expected, at least the tag-tournament mode to be included • You'll usually just find a combo that works with each character and stick to it • Story mode intro movies aren't movies, they are just sketched stills with voice-over • Training isn't as good as it is in other fighting games
Bottom Line The fastest, funnest, and most favoured series of fighters finally arrives in full force for PlayStation 2. The best thing about the Tekken fighting games is that, unlike most of their competition, they do not degenerate into the attack-two-three, block-two-three, attack-two-three pattern. In Tekken, you can quite easily throw punches and kicks in huge ten-move combinations, juggling your hapless opponent in the air with the force of your blows. This results in the fastest, most-exciting virtual brawling possible. Just blocking won't do; you have got to find a way to get a quick punch in and break your opponent's rhythm, or step aside of an attack and counterattack. Otherwise, you'll quickly find yourself knocked cold out. The quick pace, huge combos, and great characters have made this, with reason, the most popular PlayStation series of fighting games. Tekken 4 is exactly the PlayStation 2 game that the fans have been waiting for.

The disputes over which are the best fighting games are very contentious and I definitely don't want to find myself in the middle of that fractious mob; so let's just try to get through this peaceably:

Tecmo's Dead or Alive 3 on the Xbox, with its smashing characters through windows and over cliffs has the most interaction with the fighting environments, and Virtua Fighter 4, does a great job of modeling foot and body imprints in sand and snow. Tekken 4, while not perhaps as interactive as these other games, has added some breakable elements to their fighting environments, and if you punch someone in the face, it will hurt them even more if their head smacks into the wall behind them, which is a nice touch. The point still goes to Tecmo though.

Sega's Virtua Fighter 4 does a really fabulous job with their training mode, where they teach you, besides the moves that each character has, the subtleties of the complex fighting system, which Tekken 4's training modes fail to do. Point Sega.

When the new Mortal Kombat game ships, there is no doubt that it will be the bloodiest, most vicious and goriest. You have to decide for yourself, just as you do with the issue of Dead or Alive offering the most cleavage, breast bouncing, and sexual objectification (Though Tekken 4 does have some very exaggerated cleavage of its own), whether that is a point in or against their favour.

Namco's Soul Calibur 2 will have weapons, and it is likely to be the only other fighting game to match the number of cool unlockables such as hidden characters, costumes, fighting arenas, movies and other artwork that Tekken 4 has. Double point for Namco.

Tekken 4 drops back to supporting only 2 players, whereas there are games like Barbarian out there that neatly enable four-player brawling (with even the extra chaos of four more AI characters if you can stand it). Point--oh never mind, we're not actually going to tally these points up in the end anyway.

There is nothing really to choose between the character design and animation of these games which all provide glorious graphics, smooth animations and replays. Virtua Fighter 4 probably has the most characters and fighting styles, but only Tekken 4 has a panda bear.

The fighting systems of these various games are all a little different, but one of the reasons that Tekken is so popular is that it is the one fighting game series that completely avoids the trap of patterned attacks: three attacks, at which point your character is finished his or her combo and pauses for the counterattack: attack-two-three, block-two-three. These patterned fighting systems are great, and force you to learn to vary your attacks, use better ones, and to vary your combos. Tekken on the other hand, makes it very easy to swamp your opponent with extensive, rapid, nearly never-ending attack patterns. You can string together full ten-move combinations, or endlessly tie together quick combos that give your opponent no obvious opportunity to counterattack. You can simply mash buttons and throw wild attacks like a typical grade 8 boy in a playground dust-up. In fact, Tekken 4 appears to lend itself to this sort of wild button mashing, especially if you can figure out a good combination that continuously works. You can easily bash your way through the game modes just with one good combo. Let me tell you, there is nothing more infuriating than finding yourself at the mercy of a cocky twelve-year old who presses you continually and won't even let you get up, just beating you continually with huge combos (King's death roll being the absolute worst of the worst). But, it's not that simple, and if you spend the time (which you'll want to do, because it is fun) to learn your own combos, learn how to snap a quick interrupting attack into someone's big power move, and how to step aside, soon the speed and quality of the fighting system comes through.

Tekken 4 also adds something called Tekken Force Mode, which sees you fighting against multiple opponents through a little story. It's not great since Tekken 4's slow side and back-steps make it a little awkward to maneuver around the maps, but it's nearly as good as The Bouncer, and a welcome addition to the package.

Some people might argue that Tekken 4 rests a little on the series' laurels, sticking always with the same characters and making only small changes. They have a point, but you absolutely must know that the legions of Tekken-heads would have a complete conniption if Namco changed much of what's not broke or left their favourite character(s) out of the game.

And there is certainly no danger of Tekken fans, or fight-game fans in general being disappointed by the great, glossy, fast-paced brawler that Tekken 4 is. In fact, absolutely anyone can enjoy a few rounds of Tekken 4. So, let the tournament begin.

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