Tekken 6
Tags: humor

Plot synopsis:
Following Jin Kazama's victory against his great-grandfather, Jinpachi Mishima, in the previous tournament, he is now the new head of Mishima Zaibatsu. Mirroring his father's previous leadership, Jin uses the company's resources to become a global superpower, by severing its national ties and openly declaring war against all nations over the following year. This action plunges the world into an extremely chaotic spiral, with a huge-scale civil war erupting around the globe and even amidst the space colonies orbiting the planet. Meanwhile, Jin's father, Kazuya Mishima has risen as the leader of the Mishima Zaibatsu's rival company, G Corporation, after murdering the company's high officials for his attempted murder beforehand. Using G Corporation's vast resources, Kazuya becomes the only one who can only oppose Jin. In order to remove Jin from his own plans to take over the world, Kazuya places a bounty on his son's head. In retaliation, Jin announces the sixth King of Iron Fist Tournament in order to lure Kazuya out, at the same time sparking many people into entering the tournament to defeat him.
As the war continues to erupt, the field leader of Mishima Zaibatsu's Tekken Force, Lars Alexandersson, has rebelled from the army alongside several of his soldiers. However, Lars is rendered amnesiac during an attack and spends some time recovering his memories. Accompanied by an android, Alisa Bosconovitch, Lars ventures throughout the world, avoiding the Mishima Zaibatsu's manhunt on him while also trying to recover his memories. It is eventually revealed that Lars is actually the illegitimate son of Heihachi Mishima, who has gone into hiding ever since his supposed demise since the last tournament and has been trying to take the Mishima Zaibatsu from Jin's hands.
After coming into contact with several allies, including his adoptive brother, Lee Chaolan, Lars confronts the G Corporation and Mishima Zaibatsu's headquarters, where Jin in the latter's visit reveals that he had sent Alisa to spy on Lars' actions all along. Disabling Alisa's safe mode, Lars is forced to confront his former teammate, who leaves with Jin to Egypt. Helped by one of his allies, Raven, Lars goes to Egypt, meeting an astrologist, Zafina, who provides them with information about the clash of two evil stars that will awake an ancient evil who will destroy the world. This evil, Azazel, is responsible for giving birth to the Devil Gene and is currently bounded in an ancient temple. Lars confronts Kazuya in front of the door leading to Azazel's chamber and defeats him; Kazuya subsequently retreats. Lars and Raven enter the chamber and confront Azazel. They seemingly defeat Azazel. Outside the temple, Lars confronts Jin, who admits that his reason for launching the war was to awaken Azazel and destroy him, which would free the world from a greater threat than the war itself, as well as free himself from the Devil Gene, as he can only have a physical form through negative energies of the world. Revealing that Azazel can only be destroyed by someone with the Devil Gene, Jin confronts and punches the revived Azazel, sending them both plummeting to the desert.
Lars is reunited with a now-safe Alisa, who has been fixed by Lee since her previous destruction and goes on another mission, while Raven unearths Jin's body in the desert, noting that he still has the Devil mark on his arm.

Review: A slight mess...yet a mess that still excels, nonetheless. I have enjoyed the Tekken series since the third game. There's probably not a single Tekken game that I've credited while remaining unbiased. Tekken 6 is no exception.Here's MY review...Tekken 6 sees the return of ever lovable veterans, from the self-conflicted Jin Kazama to the ruthless yet miraculously honorable Nina Williams and her flirtatious sister Anna to the hot-blooded and bumbling Paul Phoenix, and the introduction of fresh and likable faces, Lars Alexandersson and Alisa Bosconovitch. With a roster spanning approximately 40 characters, this game surpasses Tekken Tag for the largest roster in the series. Each one has a distinct personality and separate reason for participating.Music for Tekken retains the "Big Beat" style starting from Tekken 3 while adding its blend of a range of rustic, orchestral, techno, trance, eurobeat or comic influences in the mix. No matter where you fight, or what mood the melody may set, you'll always be throwing out punches and kicks to a great beat. Some BGM may not be accepted by certain people (Hidden Retreat for example), but that's simply a matter of taste and fascination.Combat for Tekken 6 is classic Tekken combat; four buttons, with each one associated to a separate limb of the human body. But this game introduces the new (both interesting and unnecessary) "Bound" and "Rage" Systems. Tekken has always been known for a combatant trying to gain the upper hand and keeping his/her opponent airborne with a series of attacks. The Bound System forces a knocked down opponent to recoil violently on the ground, making the lower body lift upwards, thus presenting opportunities to further continue the assault. When at a 1/8 threshold of health, the character will glow red as if enraged, hence the Rage System, and increase in strength. As a last resort, this system can be very powerful, and has often led to many miraculous comebacks. That being said, the Bound and Rage Systems can and will often lead to repetitiveness and imbalance, respectively. With combos being the best way to victory, players will often develop the notion of trying to perform them as often as possible. Paired with the Rage system, this means unfair amounts of health lost per combo. In terms of learning curve, Tekken 6 remains true to the 'easy to learn, hard to master' mentality commonplace to fighting games.Being the very first Namco game to utilize the Octave Game Engine, Tekken has improved with its character model designs and visual presentation. While there are others that surpass this game in said department, the backgrounds, character designs and elaborate menu are still a treat to stare at.Many modes are available on the fly for the player. These include the New Scenario Campaign beat 'em up and the classics: Arcade, Versus, Time Attack, Team Battle, Survival, Ghost Battle, Practice, Customize (under the Profile option) and Gallery. All modes will give you a feel for the mechanics of Tekken, plus the opportunity to witness CGI cut scenes after clearing certain conditions and gain an insight on each combatant's life outside the arena. Not to mention give your favorite fighters a dazzling look (from sunglasses to wristbands to swords to name a few, some of which are even usable) when they DO enter the arena.The story continues on from Tekken 5. Emerging victorious at the last tournament, Jin Kazama sits on the Mishima Zaibatsu throne and declares an all-out war against the entire world! Many of the combatants have a personal agenda with Jin, and drives them to clench their fists. The story remains decent and gripping, with its recurring theme being family matters and conflict taken to extremes. Some areas will be convoluted and confusing, but are all presented very well thanks to informative cut scenes and above average dialog.Speaking of the story...The only real disappointment I have is in the Scenario Campaign. Following Lars and Alisa, this mode replaces Arcade Mode as the main storyteller. Stage designs for the most part are bland and uninspired, as are the enemies encountered on your adventure. Regular enemies and bosses tend to be infuriatingly difficult. Camera controls can feel clumsy; you might not be able to find scattered items or an enemy approaching you. What's more, the combat controls overlap. Until you actually encounter an enemy, only then will the regular combat controls apply. Otherwise, it's a just-as-badly executed exploration experience.Online mode is another issue. Often a typical online fun fight turns into a hellish slide show presentation; games can and most definitely will lag back and forth, making combos, let alone single commands, difficult to do. Thus they shouldn't be treated the same way as a typical 1-on-1 battle.While the loading may be an issue, this is easily bypassed simply by installing the game into the console.Overall...Tekken 6 shines. Several factors hold it back from being one of the best 3D fighting game experiences ever. As usual, it's best to rent a copy before making a purchase.. Amazing combat. Awful story. Some flaws. Japan. Japan has brought us incredible games such as Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. Both those games have something in common. Their story sucks. Well maybe I'm being harsh and a s a fan of Japanese culture I may be betraying my fandom. Metal Gear Solid has a truly baffling story mode yet amazing gameplay. Resident Evil's story is easier to follow but has started to get a bit stupid now, again combat is brilliant.I bought Tekken 6. I've never really gotten into the Tekken series but have played most of the games briefly. I put the disc in and straight away was shown a great cut-scene then I decided to go onto the Scenario Campaign. The cut scenes were really well done. Something I didn't expect Namco to be able to do. In fact they were quite impressive. Visuals aside I found myself thinking "What is going on?". The story has the unfortunate Japanese touch. Meaning WTF? Yet it holds up sort of. Now here is my awful summary of what I interpreted. You play as Lars, a well ranked soldier in some kind of army. You activate some robot android who, I think is made to resemble the daughter of a well known scientist. You both team up and your army sends a hit out on you.The combat for SC mode is between good and bad. You move with the control stick but when you go into combat you have to use the D-pad. That can get very annoying as the camera is constantly shifting and you have to change your stances all the time. SC mode rewards you well though so the annoyances can become worth it.Other modes are your standard fighting affair. Arcade mode is kind of like story mode where enemies get harder as you go along, at the end reaching a boss. Ghost mode is battle after battle where you get a choice of your next opponent, this is useful for ranking up. Then you get practise and online battles. I'm not online yet but I've heard there is minor lagging.The ranking system is brilliant but unfair. I'm talking to the people offline. You can only rank up to 1st Dan which is, I think about 6-7 ranks. You have to be online to progress higher. Namco should of done separate ranking systems but it is only a minor gripe.Combat is absolutely amazing. You have a button assigned to each limb for your combos. One thing that may put you off is that you have to use the D-pad. Blocking is also more difficult because there is no button. You have to stand idle, crouch or aim high respectively to block.The graphics are a mix. The CGI cut scenes are very well done and a lot of care has gone into it. Battles look great and no matter how far you zoom in the characters are scaled really impressively. SC mode feels like it was added at the last minute with merely meh visuals. But nothing stops Tekken being a great game One gripe is the fact that you can equip weapons onto your characters. This is optional but it turns itself into Soul Caliber (Not a bad thing). Also including flamethrowers and Gatling guns into SC mode was stupid. SC mode is tough but still, naughty Namco In short. If your a fan of Tekken, you already have it. Graphics are good and hold up at all times. Offline players be ready for a unfair cap. A huge roster of characters available from the get go is a good idea. Tons of clothing items to unlock. If you haven't really gotten into fighting games, Tekken 6 is a good game and it has some great flashy moves but don't worry you can still be effective with using more realistic combos.