Awful netcode prevents an otherwise fantastic fighter from curb-stomping its competition.
I was wrong.
I played many matches and only played against people with green latency indicators. Every reflex I had developed while playing Tekken since #1 was useless. I watched in confusion as I ducked to block predictable attack strings as I always have, and nothing happened. I watched as if my controller had to reach a satellite and back just to sidestep. And these were green games.
Beginners may not notice how game-changing the netcode is, but it changes Tekken from the reflex-intensive fisticuffs it is to mindlessly inputting "safe" attack strings. As a fighting game, online is somewhat playable. As Tekken, it is 100% unplayable.
This is all really too bad because it is definitely the best Tekken yet. You can see a surprising amount of care and balance tweaks go into each and every one of the 40 characters. The rage system is a nice, non-intrusive addition to an otherwise well-designed system. It's enough "more of the same" to really make you feel satisfied.
Reviewers have said enough about the Scenario Campaign mode. It's underwhelming, but sometimes a nice distraction and fun way to use your favorite character. The story shifts from cliched (amnesia, femmebots) to Mishima fratricidal goodness and back to cliched. I admit that I enjoyed enough cut scenes to not regret skipping all of them. If the Scenario Campaign were released as a stand-alone game, it would probably average in the 6.5-7.0 score range. We don't buy Tekken for scenario campaign mode, however, which makes all the work Namco has put into it all the more confusing.
Tekken is such a large package, its hard to say the Scenario Campaign brings it down. At its core, it's everything you would expect from the newest and biggest Tekken, but if you were expecting to finally take that experience to players across the world, you are going to be very disappointed.