Tekken is back (as if you ever really thought it was gone) and better than ever. Just released in Japan on March 30, roughly a month after the release of the PlayStation 2, Tekken Tag Tournament (along with Ridge Racer V) is arguably the most anticipated title in the PS2's first-generation salvo of software. Much like Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast, Tekken Tag Tournament was originally developed on Namco's PlayStation-based System-12 hardware. What this has enabled Namco to do is hone the gameplay on the technologically dated arcade hardware, then subsequently jack up the graphics 'to eleven' on the PS2's infinitely more powerful hardware.
Tekken Tag Tournament a pair of is that the fourth installment within the fashionable Tekken fighting game series. It, however, isn't canonical to the Tekken plot line. The sport was originally offered as AN update kit for Tekken three.Tekken Tag Tournament was originally free as AN arcade game before it had been ported to thePlayStation a pair of. Tekken Tag Tournament is a fun fighting game that you can enjoy alone, or with a friend thanks to its versus mode. This is certainly not the best version of Tekken Tag Tournament out there, but it is one of the most accessible. Tekken Tag Tournament (鉄拳タッグトーナメント, Tekken Taggu Tōnamento) is a spin-off of the Namco's Tekken fighting game series. Tekken Tag Tournament was released as an arcade game in 1999 before becoming a North American and European launch title for the PlayStation 2 in 2000.The arcade version operated similarly, but ran on a 32-bit graphics engine like Tekken 3. Players new to the Tekken universe will want to make their way directly to the Fight Lab to learn the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 basics. Acting as a tutorial of sorts (and a replacement to the traditional Story Mode), Fight Lab drops you into the role of the Combot, a creation of Violet Industries that can learn any Tekken fighter’s techniques and use them in training exercises.
So what does that mean for Johnny Gamer? For starters, just about every character that's ever appeared in a Tekken game (a total of 38 if you include 'body-doubles' like Kuma/Panda and Alex/Roger) is assembled here. Kazuya is back from the bottomless chasm that Heihachi dumped him in at the end of Tekken 2, but novelty manga-character Gon the dinosaur has been jack-booted to the great unknown. Doctor Boskonovitch is also on hiatus, presumably lying down on his back somewhere.
As the title indicates, this is Tekken, with the ability to tag a partner in and out of action at the press of a button. This makes for some interesting strategies and intriguing match-ups. Combine power and speed? A defensive expert with an offensive powerhouse? TTT offers a multitude of possibilities, but it's all up to you to decide. It's not a fight to the finish as in games like Marvel vs. Capcom; instead, the match is decided by the first player to knock out any one of his opponent's characters.
As you'd expect, the graphics in TTT take a huge leap over what the PlayStation is capable of. While the arcade setup had loads of RAM to store the four characters, the original PlayStation could never handle this much data. The PS2 obviously is a different matter. Higher polygon-count character models, 3D backgrounds (no 2D wrap-arounds like the PS version of T3) and hi-res, 60FPS graphics are all part of the basic package. In addition to the usual versus, survival and training modes, there is also a 'secret' mode called Tekken Bowl, which lets you take to the lanes with your favorite Tekken characters. Expect this to be a launch title when the PS2 arrives in the U.S. this fall.