Tekken 6 – of female-looking brawlers and shotgun-toting fighters

We just came across an article over at CVG discussing the upcoming PS3 title, Tekken 6. They made some pretty scathing comments about the game’s trailer (vid’s below for the benefit of those who haven’t seen it yet) which offered a glimpse of new fighters and features. They also noted the addition of two interesting newcomers to the Iron Fist mix, Zafina, a break-dancing female brawler, and Leo, who according to the site is more feminine than Metal Gear Solid’s Raiden.

The site also berated the developers for adding in a shotgun to the combat, saying “How’s that going to work? Rubbish – that’s how…. Is this the best the 3D beat-em-up genre has to offer?”

Some of the factors mentioned do make sense; however, the article did not tackle some other elements of the series such as fire-breathing ogres, biblical entities who shoot beans out of their eyes and other shadowy fiends that did make Tekken the successful franchise that it is now. For instance, Devil wasn’t exactly a typical martial artist, but he was a force in Tekken Tag. It should be noted that the franchise was never an absolutist on realistic fighting. The new characters and the shotgun may have been judged prematurely as a playable demo of the game is yet to be seen.

Bottom line, stranger things have been added in the Tekken evolution and most of the new concepts have actually helped revolutionize the genre. This is, after all, the same series that took an entire generation of weary Street Fighter veterans away from rhythmic button-slapping into the world of combos, counters and parries. It made fighting games deep and exciting again, and that’s saying something. So we say, let’s give it the benefit of the bout, err, doubt.

We just came across an article over at CVG discussing the upcoming PS3 title, Tekken 6. They made some pretty scathing comments about the game’s trailer (vid’s below for the benefit of those who haven’t seen it yet) which offered a glimpse of new fighters and features. They also noted the addition of two interesting newcomers to the Iron Fist mix, Zafina, a break-dancing female brawler, and Leo, who according to the site is more feminine than Metal Gear Solid’s Raiden.

The site also berated the developers for adding in a shotgun to the combat, saying “How’s that going to work? Rubbish – that’s how…. Is this the best the 3D beat-em-up genre has to offer?”

Some of the factors mentioned do make sense; however, the article did not tackle some other elements of the series such as fire-breathing ogres, biblical entities who shoot beans out of their eyes and other shadowy fiends that did make Tekken the successful franchise that it is now. For instance, Devil wasn’t exactly a typical martial artist, but he was a force in Tekken Tag. It should be noted that the franchise was never an absolutist on realistic fighting. The new characters and the shotgun may have been judged prematurely as a playable demo of the game is yet to be seen.

Bottom line, stranger things have been added in the Tekken evolution and most of the new concepts have actually helped revolutionize the genre. This is, after all, the same series that took an entire generation of weary Street Fighter veterans away from rhythmic button-slapping into the world of combos, counters and parries. It made fighting games deep and exciting again, and that’s saying something. So we say, let’s give it the benefit of the bout, err, doubt.