Product Description

MODEL- 02103 VENDOR- NAMCO FEATURES- Tekken Tag Tournament The console version of Tekken Tag Tournament features at least 20 fighters who have appeared throughout the Tekken series since the first arcade game debuted in December 1994. In the true Namco tradition of bringing arcade games into the home you will find that the console version includes all the excitement of the original arcade game plus plenty of all-new surprises.ESRB Rating : E for EveryoneGenre/Category : FightingSystem : PlayStation 2Number of Players : 12Compatible Peripheral Features: Vibration Function Memory Card (for PS2) Multitap MANUFACTURER WARRANTY: 90 DAYS

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3889 in Video Games
• Brand: Namco
• Released on: 2000-10-17
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Number of items: 1

Features

• Platform: PlayStation 2
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Genre: Fighting

GameSpot Review
The Tekken series has always stood as a set of console games that went above and beyond their arcade counterparts. From additional characters to completely new modes, the series has always tried to add something that the arcade games lacked. Tekken Tag Tournament, at first glance, is the most dramatic upgrade over an arcade Tekken game to date. The graphics have been given a huge boost, similar to the upgrade that Namco's weapon-based fighter, Soul Calibur, received when it hit the Dreamcast last year. Plus, new modes have been added. But does the series capture the same magical feeling that made the previous Tekken games such smash hits? Most definitely.

Tekken Tag Tournament serves as an upgrade to Tekken 3, adding a few new moves along the way. Fighters that had appeared in Tekken 2 but were missing from Tekken 3 have been brought back as well, and most of them have lots of new moves to help balance them with the more powerful Tekken 3 fighters. Finally, the game is now fought in the same tag-team style as Capcom's versus series of fighters, so you can switch between two different characters at any time. Much like Street Fighter EX3 and Dead or Alive 2, you can have up to four players, with each player controlling a different fighter in the tag battle. However, unlike most other tag-battle fighters, Tekken Tag rounds end after only one of the two fighters have been defeated, rather than letting the battle continue as a one-on-two affair. An option that let you configure this would have been nice. Aside from the standard tag-battle arcade mode, there is also a one-on-one game that makes Tekken Tag Tournament more like the previous Tekken games, as well as the standard team battle (though it is now a tag-team battle), time attack, and survival modes. Unlockable modes include a theater mode, where you can watch all of the game's endings; a gallery mode, which lets you pause the game at any time and snap a screenshot of the action that is saved to your memory card for later viewing; and Tekken bowl mode, a bowling minigame that lets you hit the lanes and toss glimmer globes at Heihachi-headed bowling pins. Each character has a different bowling style that affects speed and control. The character endings, with the exception of the game's final boss, are rendered using the game engine. This presumably saved time during the game's development. As a result, they're short, mostly meaningless, and decidedly less than impressive. By comparison, the prerendered intro and the final boss' prerendered ending are simply incredible pieces of footage. In Japan, the TV commercial for the game is simply an abridged version of the game's new intro movie. Very striking stuff.

Graphically, the game has taken a very large leap, and the arcade version of the game looks downright ugly by comparison. The characters are very, very smooth, and the backgrounds are amazing and filled with lots of movement, from helicopters to crowds of spectators. Some stages are well lit, showing off some really excellent lens-flare techniques. There are also some nice little touches, such as grass being crushed down by falling fighters then slowly springing up afterward. However, the game suffers from one particular problem that has in fact been seen throughout the series, but with the power of the PlayStation2 behind it, you'd expect it to be a thing of the past. The problem is the same one that showed up in Street Fighter EX3. While the backdrops of the fights and the ground on which you fight look great separately, they don't mesh very well. The result is two different types of scrolling, making it look as if the battle is occurring on a small, circular spinning platform surrounded by a nearly stationary background. It's easy to miss while you're actually playing, but it sticks out like a sore thumb on watching the game closely. Also, the game uses much of the same animation and motion-capture data from Tekken 3. Sure, the characters look pretty incredible, but with the identical animation quality, even as good as that animation was, the game looks and feels a little on the stale side. The soundtrack is full of techno and vocoder robot voices that will either endear you to the soundtrack or drive you up the wall.

How much you enjoy the game will directly relate to one factor: If you played so much Tekken 2 and 3 that you couldn't possibly play another match, Tekken Tag doesn't offer enough new features to draw you back in. But if you've stayed away from the Tekken series for a long time, Tekken Tag is a very warm homecoming, delivering the same solid gameplay that Tekken fans crave in large doses. Still, you won't be able to stop yourself from wondering what Namco could have done with the game if it had been designed on the PS2 (or comparable arcade hardware) from the start. Guess we'll all have to wait for Tekken 4 to find that out.--Jeff Gerstmann--Copyright © 2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Great Game with improvements on the Japanese version
Tekken Tag Tournament has both pros and cons, but it is the best fighting game out now.

Graphics 4.999999 out of 5

Pro- Great Graphics, with the background being some of the best that I have seen. The jaggies that plagued the Japanese version has all been anti-aliased and the characters look as smooth as hell.

Con- The characters look good, but they also look like plastic G.I.JOES and loses the good anime-ish quality of the arcade characters.

Gameplay 5 out of 5

Pro- massive number of characters with unique styles for everyone. Tag juggles have almost infinite possibilities. Very deep system of play with different stamina for characters, reversals, the ability to reverse reversals, parries, universal low parries, and sidesteps that can actually avoid moves offer a lot of fun and practice. Very few characters that a beginner can mash and win against an intermediate player.

Con- Basically, it has the same engine as tekken 3, except for the tag. Some Tekken2 characters lost out in the transition from T2 to TTT. aka Jun and Wang

Music 4.3 out of 5

Pro and con- the music fits with the stages, but nothing memorable or horrible. Namco should have kept the arcade tracks or made it so that you can select them as an option.

Sound 4.8 out of 5

Pro and Con- Sounds are all great, and fits with everything.

Features 4.9 out of 5

Pros- has practice mode, 1 on 1 arcade, 2 vs 2, bowling mode, Survival mode, time attack, and team battle.

New features for US TTT include 1 on 1 vs mode, fixed damage counter in practice mode, and a very easy to use moves recording mode. Endings look very good.

Cons-Endings at a bit short and throws the tekken storyline out of wack(even though Namco said TTT had no storyline).

Overall 5 out of 5

Get this game if you like fighters and isn't sick of Tekken 3. It is simply the best out there right now. DOA2 and Soul Caliber are good, but TTT is the GOD of fighting games.

Tekken 1, 2 and 3 put together with a 2000 paint-job.
I believe that Tekken has always been one of the best fighting series on any platform and that Namco (the publisher & developer) makes some of the best games around including Ridge Racer, Soul Caliber and Time Crisis series. Tekken Tag Tournament (TTT) is the combination of all 3 Tekken games with a nice look.

The game starts out with a very nice CG (computer generated) intro. Namco has some of the world's best CG animators and you can see that in a lot of Namco's games like R4. Just like you were first blown away by the powerful Tekken 3 intro, you'll get the same effect by this one.

The gameplay remains the same as in Tekken 3, except for some new moves. The main feature in TTT is that there is now a 'tag' option. You pick your two characters and then you tag in and out while fighting your other 2 opponents. It's really nice because you can perform double-combos with the two characters together. In total, there are over 30 characters to choose from. They are all gathered from the series' 3 games. Each has their own, unique 3 to 2 types of clothing, and LOTS of moves and combos to be creative with. The graphics are what you'd expect from PlayStation2. But this is only the beginning. I'm sure Tekken 4 will be much better. The backgrounds are very nice with moving people and objects like flangs and plants. There is even an area where you fight on grass and you can step on it and see the effect of how it's smashed.

Overall, Tekken Tag Tournamet is only a sort of a 'preview' of what we can expect from PlayStation2 and Namco in the years to come.

TTT is a very good fighting game
Many have said that this game falls short because one could press random buttons and win. I have found that this doesn't really apply. I have played this game extensively, including in games against novice players. A player who blocks, uses the special moves and combos efficiently, and has a fighting strategy will almost always win. I find that this game is fairly challenging, and is actually difficult on very hard. This game has awesome graphics combined with all of your favorite characters from the Tekken series and very cool special moves and combos. Although you can get lucky and hit some special moves by just pressing buttons, many of the moves are difficult to perform and do a lot more damage than the previously mentioned moves. An experienced player can string together moves and beat any novice pressing buttons, contrary to what some people say. Tekken Tag Tournament is a great game, and all fighting game fans with a PS2 should own and love this game.