Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Preview

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Gamers of the Fighting genre rejoice. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is within our grasp. About nine short days here in America. As I'm sure you've been keeping up with the latest news and gossip, there's a lot to talk about and look forward to with Tekken Tag Tournament 2. People are scrambling to pre-order the game, while others are still on the fence about it, worried it's just a generic arcade game slapped on the console. These are some legitimate concerns as many people felt the original Tekken Tag Tournament lacked what made the other Tekken games so great. In this preview I'll be talking about some of the features everyone is raving about and looking forward to.

Tekken Tag Tournment 2 Trailer Youtube vid by Namco Bandai Games

Visuals

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 looks like it received some much needed polish visually. In my Tekken 6 review, I mentioned how the characters could look a bit off, doey, plastic-like one second and then fairly good the next, and then doey again. While Tekken Tag Tournamnet 2 may not have the best visuals of a fighting game, you can't deny the improvement overall. Not only does the characters look more real and organic, but the combos themselves look crisp and clear. There is very little to no chop, as far as I can see, and one move flows into the next beautifully. But enough on that, let me talk about what most of you are really interested in.

Fight Lab

Fight Lab acts as a mix of a tutorial for beginning and experienced players as well as a customizable move set for the character Combot, who the players will use during those mode in during matches. Players can string together combos that transition from one character to another for some lethal combinations. Think Jack+Paul+Jin+Raven+Xiaoyu+Nina+Heihachi. You choose their moves, Combot executes them in a combo.

Some moves must be unlocked and can't be purchased in Fight Lab. For example, executing a flawless "S" ranking when executing a certain move you're practicing, for example Paul's Phoenix Smash, will reward players with the move. Other moves may be unlockable through other methods and means.

Tekken Tag Tournament 3D

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will support 3D. Players will have the power to tweak the settings to their liking by adjusting the depth. Also, players will be able to mess with the display settings, how high they are, change the size of the damage bars, etc.

Tekken Tunes

Another cool feature of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will be Tekken Tunes. Tekken Tunes will allow players to choose their favorate music from the game and make their own tracks. This will explode on Youtube, just watch. It's been reported you can even import your own songs and customize the tracks as well.

Tekken World Federation

Tekken Tag Tournament 2's Tekken World Federation, which is like Bungie.net or Call of Duty Elite, will be available to all players upon launch. What is Tekken World Federation? Basically, it's like a stat checker. You can see who's the best of the best, what kind of combos you and others are using, manage your teams, get competitions going, get in touch with other members, and get ready for the next battle in general. This will either explode with the online community, or fall dead if it can't deliver. A big risk, but if it works, players, like you, will wonder how you ever played Tekken without i

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Story Mode

Unlike the original, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will actually have a story mode. And if you've read my other reviews, you know I love me a good story. However, the story isn't canon, and probably will have nothing to do with or have any true influence on Tekken 7. Still, it's something to look forward to.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2   50 Character Roster

There are roughly 50 characters in the game's roster. That's right, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 brings back old favorites, dead, or assumed dead, and those who have just been left out for whatever reason. For extra characters, you will have to preorder the game. Extra characters include Ogre, Angle, Michelle, and Kunimitsu. However, as of now, there will be no paid DLC characters (ARE YOU LISTENING CAPCOM???) But, there are some characters only available on console: Alex, Forest, Prototype Jack, and Tiger. So Tekken giveth and Tekken taketh away.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Gameplay Youtube by Gamespot

Tekken Tag Tournaments 2 Game Modes

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Modes include:

Fight Lab, mentioned above.

Tekken Tunes, also mentioned above.

Arcade Battle, standard fair with bosses, Heihachi, Jinpachi, Jun, True Ogre, and an Unknown Boss. Ghost Battle from Tekken 6, endless AI, beat em up, you know the drill.

VS Battle, play against another person.

Team Battle, okay, know we're getting somewhere. Team battle supports up to EIGHT fighters on the team against another eight fighters. Nice.

Time Attack, race through Arcade as fast as you are able.

Survival: Exactly what is sounds like. Take down as many characters one after another as you can before your face gets smashed into be pavement. Each round you win, you gain back a little health.

Other Cool Features

There's also Tag Assault, which takes g\from the Bound System of Tekken 6 and Tag Launch. The result? multiple tags in jungles, walls, bounds, wall breaks, and all possible combinations. Smack a guy, bounce em, tag out, smack the guy around with the second player, tag back in, finish him off with the first character.

Tekken Tag Tournament has tiered stages, similar to Tekken 6. The difference? Knock an opponent off one level, and your second player is waiting on the level below to continue the fight.

What you get for Pre-Ordering the game

Four characters Kunimitsu, Ogre, Angle, and Michelle

The Bikini Bundle. Guys will have fun with that

A Snoop Dogg stage

Snoop Dogg's music for the game: Knocc Em Down which apparently will also be customizable through Tekken Tunes. Developers have stated Snoop Dogg is a big fan of the franchise. That was news to me, and if so, it does have a humanizing effect. Even big celebs can and do enjoy the things you and I enjoy.

And if you're interested, it seems GameStop has even more bonuses such as a documentary, avatars, posters, things like that. I'm not affiliated with GameStop or anything like that. In fact, I haven't purchased a game from them in a very long time. But, I saw they are offering extra stuff, so I thought it's worth mentioning to you.

My Prediction

Alright, so there you have it. A quick rundown of what the game has to offer. I know I left out a few things here and there but I covered most of the important elements. The rest you'll have to look into other previews or discover them for yourself when you play the game. The next few months ie Sept- the beginning of 2013, there are some heavy hitters coming. Expect to see more previews. in addition to my reviews. I'll try something I don't normally do, and make a prediction for how I would rate the game after playing it. Of course, my actual review may be different, but I thought it would be fun to compare what predict my score will be just based on limited information to the score I actually give the game upon playing it. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 gets a PREDICTED score of 8 out of 10