But let’s talk about each separate feature first. If you haven’t guessed from our introduction, the real meat and potatoes of Hybrid is Tekken Tag Tournament and is probably the main reason why gamers will be purchasing the package. As mentioned previously, Tekken Tag Tournament’s selling point is that unlike previous Tekken games, you can form a team of two characters and tag them in and out when the need arises. This tagging feature is still pretty relevant today; unlike games such as Marvel vs Capcom 3, which uses a similar system, Tekken Tag Tournament’s quite strategic as having either of your characters KO’d causes you to lose a round. Nostalgia is probably why fans will want to replay the game and not so much because of the shiny, high-def coat that’s been slapped on. The HD reworking doesn’t exactly do wonders for the game’s graphics and they still pale in comparison to Tekken 6, but considering that this is a PlayStation 2 launch title we’re talking about, it is a nice facelift nevertheless.
The least painful way to get attacked by a bear.
If you’ve played the PS2 version, you’ll know what to expect – this is a direct port of everything on that little disc, game modes and all. In addition to arcade mode, team battle mode and the standard one-on-one mode, Tekken Tag Tournament also offers the infamous ‘Tekken Bowl’ mode. To those uninitiated this may sound like a crappy bowling mini-game with a Tekken skin, but it’s actually quite a neat concept. The game’s huge roster lends itself well to various bowling strengths and weaknesses (such as bowling speed and ball control) and thus there’s a lot of choice when it comes to selecting a bowling team that suits your style of play. Curiously though, Tekken Tag Tournament is missing an online mode, which in this day and age could have done wonders for such a game.
Next in the package is Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Prologue. There isn’t much to be said here as it’s essentially just a taste of the upcoming game. With only four playable characters picked to tie in with the movie Blood Vengeance (Xiaoyu, Alisa, Devil Jin and Devil Kazuya), the arcade mode on offer is extremely short. Adding to this limitation is the fact that there are no command lists to speak of, so unless you are extremely proficient with the characters listed above, expect to be mashing buttons like there’s no tomorrow. But the game looks great, and don’t the developers know it. There’s an amazing amount of detail in the character models, from costumes down to muscle definition. Jin and Kazuya’s new devil forms look like they’ve stepped straight out of the live-action Devilman movie. There’s even a model viewer if you want to whet your appetite for eye-candy.
That attack is still pretty cool.
The third thing on the disc is Blood Vengeance, a full-length CG film with visuals similar to what you may expect from the cinematics in the series. Some may recall that the film was given an exclusive screening in Sydney a few months back; luckily for fans who missed out, this is a (legal) chance to see the film. The story takes place between the events of Tekken 5 and 6 and follows Alisa and Xiaoyu as they investigate a student named Shin Kamiya. It’s actually not a bad film, especially when you compare it to the dismal live-action Tekken film that was released last year – the story adds a fair bit to the game’s mythos and the fight scenes are pretty cool to watch too. If you’ve got the technology for it, there’s also the option to watch the film in 3D, which we hear gives it a lot of kick.
For all of the decent things that are a part of Hybrid (the graphical improvements, the ‘tagging’ gameplay that is still relevant today, Tekken Bowl, the movie), there are lots of problems with it as well (lack of online play, separate and mandatory installations for each of the game components, no command lists). For the amount that is being charged in stores (approximately AUD$60), Tekken Hybrid really isn’t a big deal, nor does it offer substantial value for anyone except the most dedicated of Tekken fans. Trust us, we examined the contents of that disc for longer than we should have, trying to see if we missed anything to no avail. Oh well, back to Tekken Bowl.
Available for 20 bucks at Jb.
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