Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (2012)

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is an amazing game which has all the elements I like so much in the series, making it my all-time favorite entry.

In terms of story, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is, along with the original Tag Tournament game, the only game that does not have a direct link with the past events of the previous six games. All the characters however, have their own mini stories that unfold when you beat the game with that character. The story and endings of each character is carried over to Tekken 7. If you look at it this way, in the end, everything is connected again to the main story line when continuing the events of the latest game in the series.

The game plays in the same style as the previous Tag Tournament game. Play as one or two characters and clear the arcade mode to unlock the piece of story for the first character that you choose. The rage system from the sixth game is also present, in which you or the opponent receive a damage boost when low on health. This can be a little frustrating sometimes as you can get pummeled from full health to K.O. in seconds, but it gives everyone a fair chance, even when on low health and makes for some good comebacks.

In Tekken Tag Tournament 2, everything from the previous games is present, and improved. You got all the characters ever made in the series, making this installment the most complete of them all. You got Forest Law and Marshall Law at the same time now, All of the Jack robots, and even Alex the raptor is back.

You got the Team Battle mode from the previous games, a Ghost mode, in which you try to make it as far as possible with one or two characters in an endless stream of fights, and a Gold Rush mode, in which you do the same thing as the Ghost mode, but with the sole aim to collect as many gold as possible, to spend on cosmetic items for your characters. After each fight, a random slot machine gives so some bonus cash.

The ranking system from Tekken 6 is also present in which you start at the bottom of the ladder and fight your way up to become the strongest. You go through several Kyu ranks, then the Dan rankings and, eventually, earn some fancy titles like “Warlord”, “Destroyer” and many more. This is especially helpful in the online play, in which you are matched against someone with similar rankings, making the game balanced (as far as it can go). The only problem is, that the rankings are per character, so leveling them all to the highest rank takes days, maybe even months.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 looks amazing. The game runs on a new engine that improved the visuals, backgrounds and detail immensely. It also allows for displaying four characters on the screen at the same time. It is just great to see a Tag Team Combo being performed, with both of your characters on the screen to execute it. The shading and lighting effects are beautiful and every character has its own “aura” with different shapes and colors when you hit your opponents. Kazuya, for example, has his blue lightening when hitting foes, Bryan Fury has little flashes of light and Jack 6 has burning exhaust fumes when smashing his opponents to pulp.

The music is excellent and the sound effects solid. Besides from the good sound design, the best new improvement is that almost every character now speaks his or her own native language, which was so cool to hear. I have to admit that some of the voices sound a little crappier than their voiced over English counterparts, but this is mainly because I did not know any better.

The controls work better then ever in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. They were always fine to play, but with the improved Tag Team Mechanics, you just feel more in control with this installment. You can make various Tag combo’s, requiring you to press certain buttons in a quick order to execute them. They are hard, but so satisfying when pulled off.

In the end, I can only praise Tekken Tag Tournament 2. It is an excellent game with so much stuff to do, so many characters to use and a nice unlocking system for cosmetic gear.

Definitely recommend this game.

My wife and I are fans of the Tekken series (to the point where we rented and watched the god-awful live action movie). The first Tag Tournament, then, was a perfect game for us. We could team up (and get into arguments over who wasn't tagging in the other player fast enough). We could pick our team of 8 and pit our skills against each other (and get into arguments over who was using cheap, stale moves), and we could....go bowling (no arguments there).

The thing is, the second game makes everything to come before it (and almost certainly everything after it, for those of us who don't care a whit about the Mishima family's rather convoluted and obtuse narrative) obsolete. The environments are beautiful (and interactive!), the fighters are gorgeous, and almost all of the features that a person could want are right there (no bowling. ah, well. I'm not booting up the PS2 for that).

Thank you, Namco. I'll never need another Tekken game.