Tekken 6

Tekken 6 Limited Edition Wireless Fight Stick Bundle
$149.99
I am a street fighter tournament player. Comming from me, If the lag in SFIV online bothers you Tekken 6 will sicken you!!

Tekken 6 Limited Edition Wireless Fight Stick Bundle
$149.99
Tekken had once been a favorite of mine back in the PS1 days. I played Tekken 2 and Tekken 3 religously with a group of friends. I then skipped out on Tekken 4 and 5. With the hype of Street Fighter IV rekindling my interest in fighting games, I decided to go with the LE Version of Tekken 6 to get the fight stick to play it with.

Tekken 6:
+ Easy for the inexperienced button-mashers to play
+ A very large roster of characters with great depth in the fighting engine.
+ No time need be wasted unlocking fighters, but plenty of unlockable costumes
+ Fun Co-op play in the story mode

- Gameplay is slower and stiffer than Soul Calibur IV and Street Fighter IV
- Graphics are really not very impressive.
- Load times seem to be long even after installing.
- Online is ruined by lag.

LE bundle contents:
+ The fight stick is very easy to sync and set up
+ The fight stick has a good solid feel
+ No discernable input lag
+ High quality, hardcover art book is interesting to page through.
+ Fighting Stick can be used on PC games
+ Multiple wireless fighting sticks can be used at once

- No bluetooth, requires dongle
- Wireless Makes Fight Stick useless for tournaments
- Stock Hori parts can feel vague, buttons can be mushy.
- Fight Stick is not easily modified.
- Questionable Value at $150


THE GAME: 8/10

Tekken 6 gave no trouble for me to get into after abandoning the Tekken series for the last several iterations. The gameplay felt familiar and I was pulling off some old staple moves and combos with Paul and Heihachi in no time.

Tekken is unique in that it uses more directional taps and button+direction type moves rather the all the directional charges, half circle and quarter circle of SF. It also is different in that blocking is achieved by standing or crouching in a neutral direction. additionally, The game plays more like a 2D/3D hybrid rather than using full free 3D movement like Soul Calibur, primarily reserving 3D movements for quick sidesteps and evasion rolls.

Combos are still easy enough for beginners to pull off. Tekken allows liberal juggeling of airborne opponents, which further sets it apart from it's competition. You can easily get 2-3 juggle hits on your opponent nearly every time you strike them or bounce them up in the air.

The online mode is not all that I would have hoped for in regard to performance. I have noticed games to be very laggy, only getting one good game out of maybe 10 at this point. It is frustrating, as I am a decent tekken player, but I lose to people using stale moves because my timing is blown from the latency maing it difficult to use counter and parrying. Essentially, this ruins the complexity of the game online and dumbs it down to just timing simple button-press combos. When I do get a good connection, it's great, but at this point I plan to do most of my vs. matching locally.

The online also allows you to save replays, which I am surprised it took this long for a fighting game to add. occassionally you will fight a laggy opponent, but when you both have good connections the game feels good. Perhaps not quite as good as SF IV's online feels, but on par with Soul Calibur's if not better.

Tekken online is just as good as if not better than Soul Calibur, but does not hold up to the performance of SF IV.unlike SF IV, however, you have a chance at winning without having to be a professional gamer.

I won't be giving up SF IV for this, but Soul calbur IV will be gathering dust for a bit. Overall I would give Tekken a solid 8/10 due to the robust content.

LIMITED EDITION: 7/10

So, I'll get this gripe off my chest first. It is utterly ridiculous to use bluetooth if no accessories can use it. Sony needs to start allowing licensed products to use Bluetooth. That would have made this the perfect wireless stick. Since it uses a dongle, the stick will not work with PS2 games currently if you have a BC PS3. I was hoping to be able to play R-Type and Contra with this, but it is just not possible currently.

That being as it may, The dongle is only a slight annoyance. Hori at least made synchronizing it as simple as pushing the X button. The arcade stick uses 2 AAs which may seem bad at first, but it does allow a longer battery life than were it to use Lithium Ion like the Dual Shock 3. I have not noticed a hint of controller lag either.

Make no mistake though, this is closer to the Fighting Stick 3 than an HRAP3.
The buttons have a decent feel, but can be a bit mushy at times. Replacing with high quality parts would be no simple task. The internal parts are not readily accessable since hori used a tri-wing screw type. Buttons are soldered to the PCB and the stick is not easily replaced due to the battery location.

This stick emphasizes convenience, and really it does quite well with that. To most gamers this will be far better than the control pad. I personally am happy with it, even with it's shortcomings.

The Art book really looks nice and is a Hardcover. It has some info on the characters and how they were conceived. A nice compliment to the game for Tekken fans.

The added price of the LE bundle is worth it if you are looking to get an arcade stick and don't plan on entering tournaments or, if like me, you simply wanted the convenience of wireless stick. Otherwise, choose the Hori HRAP3 SA or Madcatz TE sticks if you don't mind the wire. As with all arcade sticks, transitioning from a control pad will be akward at first, but it will allow you much higher potential for fighting games.

Tekken 6
$59.99
Tekken 6 has a lot of content, gameplay and feature wise, but there are a number of design flaws that hold it back as a game.

-Gameplay is good, although some of the animations seem stiff.
-40 Fighters to choose from. Each fighter has a large move set.
-Stages are very active, but 2 of the stages are ONLY selectable through random select
-There is alot to unlock, but most items are pallete swaps and expense, compared to the money get in scenario mode.
-I would've liked a Costume system, more simliar to Soul Calibur 4. Being able to change colors of all outfits, instead of buying from 10 different colors, would have been nice. Also, would have been nice to allow the customized outfits have their own slot, rather than overriding the existing outfits.
-Scenario mode is addictive and frustrating at same time. You can unlock items without having to purchase, but you get a lot of duplicate items, with just different stats.
-Team Vs mode should have been made to load all of the fighters at once, instead of have to sit through loading screens after each team mate(or opposing team member) loses. Not sure why there isn't a Tag mode this time.

Assassin's Creed II
$59.99
Impressive production values and a well designed sandbox atmosphere with a critically flawed control system that, combined with timed scenarios, completely ruined my experience. The jumping scheme is so poorly implemented for an analog controller that it is literally a dice role what direction the character will end up moving in far too often. Of course the game has nothing but positive feedback, so maybe I am supposed to find this kind of thing fun. If you love stressful reflex oriented mechanisms seasoned with graphic violence and convoluted drama then ignore this review. Its all far too masochistic for my taste. Cheers.