Finally the Tekken series makes its long awaited debut on Microsoft's console..
Tekken 6 is the very first incarnation in the series to make it across to the Xbox 360, and its been a worthwhile wait.
With a roster of 42 characters which are selectable from the get go, with all teh classic characters, and for some people who have been away from the series for a while, a number of interesting new characters, which fit in nicely with the rest.
There are a number of modes available, firstly the Arcade mode, which is your classic fighting game fare, going through a number of opponents until you reach the final boss of the game, Azazel.
There is also a training mode, which allows you to perfect your combos and find which character best suits your style.
A new addition to the game is the Scenario Campaign mode, which is exclusive for the home versions, and plays much like tekken force from previous games in the series. This is a map based scrolling beat-em' up mode, which tells the story of Lars Alexanderson. As you go through each stage, you will uncover more of the plot, which is done through numerous cutscenes and narative pieces of text. The story seems rather light and does little to draw you in, but you will find yourself playing this mode more than any other.
Throughout the stages you are given rewards for taking out enemies, in the form of bags of money and chests which hold Items for customising your character, and these can be applied for anymode. In the scenario campaign mode however, these parts are invaluable as you get onto later stages, as they hold addition boosts such as health increases, damage and elemental damage.
The stages are fairly straightforward, and consist mainly of running from one end of the map to the other, then facing a boss before being able to move on.
And if you are finding the scrolling sections getting you frustrated, there is an arena on the map which allows you to use any characters you may have unlocked throughout the campaign in a shorter, sweeter version of the arcade mode.
Other modes include survival, where you have a single health bar and play an endless ammount of cpu controlled characters until you are defeated, and the ghost mode, where you can download ghost data online and play against virtual representations of real gamers. These fights are not much more difficult than playing against CPU controlled opponents, but the behaviour of the "ghost" can be erratic at times.
On top of these you also have the Time trial mode, where you go through the main arcade mode as quickly as possible.
The customisation aspect of the game works quite nicely as well, the money and items earned in scenario campaign mode allow you to purchase unique items for your characters to give them your own look, from trousers, jackets, even hair styles and colours can be customised to an extent.
The multiplayer modes of the game are your basic versus mode, where you go one on one with a friend, and the team battle mode where you can select up to eight pugilists to duke it out over a number of bouts.
The only thing regretably missing is a co-op scenario campaign mode, but as far as i know, Namco are working on a patch for this so it will be avialable in future.
At the moment you can only play the standard versus mode over xbox live, either ranked or in player matches. The online mode facilitates for up to four players at any time to play in a winner stays on format in a lobby, with bystanders being able to spectate what is happening between to the two active players.
Visually, the game is quite nice looking, with a clean visual design for the characters, who are animated smoothly. the backdrops are interesting, with a mixture of arenas featuring destructive parts, and even floors which you can break through under the right circumstances.
The one thing I personally decided i didnt like about the game visually was the sprites used on the special attacks, these seem very flat and pixellated, which takes the edge off an otherwise tight visual design.
The soundtrack has a mixture of the good, bad and downright bizzare, with your standard mix of rock and techno sounding pieces, and most peculiarly - a track filled with yodelling, which is infutatingly strange but for some reason remarkably catchy.
The one thing that can't be stressed enough is if you are not a fan of endgame bosses which cause headaches more often than anything else, you migth be in for a nightmare with Azazel - even on easy he seems to be an unorthodox character to have to come up against after seemingly straightforward fights, causing you to more often than not adopt a totally different strategy alltogether.
All in all, Tekken 6 is a solid game, with plenty of depth in its number of characters, modes and customisation options to keep you gripped for a long enough time, and can be a blast in multiplayer with friends.