What attracts people to the Tekken series?

[Silvergun X]

This is something that's been on my mind for a while. Now i've only owned Tekken 3, and Tekken 5, and i've actually put an order through for Dark Resurrection on PSP. However, i'm still trying to find out exactly what the tekken series has, that other fighting games don't.

What do Tekken fans see in the Tekken series, when there are, in my opinion, much more 'flowing' fighters? It's only just occured to me how frustrating I find the series in that it feels very slow, very clunky.

Yet with a game that's spawned this many sequels and has it's fans, I can't help but get the feeling i'm playing it wrong, or really missing something.

[J0e Musashi]

This is something that's been on my mind for a while. Now i've only owned Tekken 3, and Tekken 5, and i've actually put an order through for Dark Resurrection on PSP. However, i'm still trying to find out exactly what the tekken series has, that other fighting games don't.

What do Tekken fans see in the Tekken series, when there are, in my opinion, much more 'flowing' fighters? It's only just occured to me how frustrating I find the series in that it feels very slow, very clunky.

Yet with a game that's spawned this many sequels and has it's fans, I can't help but get the feeling i'm playing it wrong, or really missing something.

I ain't played Tekken since 2, but the PSP one rocks. Properly rocks. I'm not sure of the attraction though, perhaps the storylines?

[marcus]

Ive never really enjoyed 3d fighters that much as it seems as much a memory test as a battle of skill and reaction to me. I liked Tekken though up until the 2nd game, it seemed tremendous in its time, now they all seem much of a muchness to me.

[Dogg Thang]

I'd say history has a lot to do with it - it was one of the first good 3D fighters. With each new character added, they have advanced and improved.

What I think is criminal is that, on the older characters, they are still using 12 year old motion capture and it shows. Put Nina Williams against any of the newer characters and she looks total crap. Updating models without updating animation is laziness in my opinion.

[Silvergun X]

That's understandable - I remember looking at screenshots of Tekken 2 ages ago in CVG magazine and really wanting to play the game.

But I just can't understand the play mechanics. Is it a case of DoA syndrome in that it's a Vs game only? I'm trying to play the AI and it's absolutely rinsing me out on stage 2. I'm not this crap on any other fighting game and I'm just wondering exactly how I should be thinking while playing.

It's obvious you can't button bash, should I be aiming for one or two hit combos? Or should I be blocking, waiting for them to hit, then juggling them in the air?

Little things like that - Because the way that even if I block, the cpu just manages to completely lay into me, knock me down, and continue hitting me on the ground, then before I can even launch another attack by the time i've gotten up... Well, it's doing my nut in.

[Silvergun X]

Wow, ok. Something just clicked.

So I actually thought i'd check out some character FAQs and get used to Lee, whom i'd dabbled with before and rather liked. I have absolutely no idea how I did it, but I managed to go through the whole of story mode without continuing, beat Devil Jin, and only continue once on Jinpachi. o_o;

Probably something I won't be able to repeat with any other character.

[Kongster]

Tekken 3 was the game that really attracted me to the series. The music was awesome, the animation was amazing, the characters were great (most of them anyway) and it had an excellent combat system. Back in the days, Tekken 3 was even more popular than Virtua Fighter 3!

[Kubrick]

I really liked the Tekken series on the PlayStation, T2 and T3 specifically, but ever since the advent of SoulCalibur, I haven't given the newer games much attention as they still seem horribly stiff and limited by comparison.

[Dogg Thang]

They are stiff and limited sometimes, yes. But that really is where the newer characters excel. Raven, for example, can string such a beautiful set of moves together that he never fails to impress once you learn even just a few basic moves. Steve too. There are some really impressive mechanics going on behind the aging tappety-tap-tap predetermined combo system that are being brought out in the newer characters.

But, when you think about it, Tekken was one of the earliest of 3D fighters. It has added, evolved and built on those original mecahnics but has not entirely moved on and I feel that is holding the series back. It's like putting SF3 characters amongst Yi-Ar Kung Fu characters and hoping the Yi-Ar characters still hold up.

[SubparMario]

Yoshimitsu. That guy's a badass.

[NekoFever]

I haven't really enjoyed one since Tekken 2 but I must admit I'm tempted by the PSP one and will probably pick it up in Japan. They've always felt clunky to me and a bit too easy to win by button-bashing, but to be honest for a portable game it could be great for a quick blast now and again. The full games have struggled to hold my attention so that might make the handheld format ideal.

[Crisp_Rapper]

T - Because the way that even if I block, the cpu just manages to completely lay into me, knock me down, and continue hitting me on the ground, then before I can even launch another attack by the time i've gotten up... Well, it's doing my nut in.

i feel exactly the same way about the doa series, 4 especially... never really had it that bad with tekken if i'm honest, the ai wasn't exactly easy but never as cunty as the ai on doa4 which is unbelievably unfair, even on the lowest difficulty.

i spent a few hours yesterday playing streetfighter 2 with davefallows at a pinball show, it was ****ing fantastic... enjoyed it so much as every time i got hit it was because i made a mistake and not the ai just blanking and going "no, you've hit me enough now, my turn to do some unblockable damage".



soul calibur was pretty much spot on though, again, if i got hit it was my fault and my fault alone, not some dodgy ai.

[Dogg Thang]

SC3 was a bit on the nasty side, I felt. The AI had the reflexes of some sort of man-spider, if such a thing could exist.

[Kongster]

Dreamcast Soul Calibur is my favourite of the series - everything about it felt so perfect.

[Crisp_Rapper]

Dreamcast Soul Calibur is my favourite of the series - everything about it felt so perfect.

yup. still looks pretty damn fine even today.