Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Over the Christmas holiday, I finally got my copy of Tekken Tag Tournament 2. After playing a great amount of time on this game, I have to say, it's an improvement from Tekken 6. The first thing you will notice is how similar the main menu is compared to the last game. But that is only the beginning. There is much more to look at in this game.

Pros of the game

• First off, if you pre-order the game, you would have gotten a bonus stages and characters. Luckily, now with updates, you can have access with all the bonus material.

• Large assortment of characters. There are characters from EVERY Tekken game, making it the most epic roster of Tekken.

• More creative endings. The original Tekken Tag endings were bland. They were relatively short and had no meaning. This game has more developed endings. It makes you feel like these endings have a purpose and seem to relate previous Tekken games. Some endings are developed in many styles. Instead of the standard FMV, there are noir styles, comic book styles, watercolor styles, and much more.

• Since Characters are based on previous games, Their movesets carry over. If you have played Tekken 6 mostly, you will already have a feel to the characters in this game.

• The characters can have multiple customization costumes. As opposed to previous games that only allowed for two character changes per character, this game allows for up to 10 character changes.

• The new Fight Lab gamemode. More or less, this is a training mode for newcomers to the Tekken series. But instead of a simple instruction tutorial, this mode has a story, which I say is kind of entertaining.

• New Combot. Combot from Tekken 4 returns in this game. But instead of mimicking other players, you can customize Combot with moves from other characters. This is a good concept to try out different attacks and combos. You will unlock more moves as you progress in Fight Lab.

Cons of the game

• Online Pass. Unfortunately, this game is plagued by the Online Pass problem. If you bought the game used or renting the game, you will need to buy a pass to play online.

• Character Customization. Though there is character customization, it lacks simplicity. You can buy clothes and items in the menu, but you don't have much of a variety. It turns out to unlock weapons, panels, auras, and cooler costumes, you have to play ghost mode and fight against gold characters. This wouldn't be a problem if you can choose the items you wish to unlock. But you will randomly get items. Also fighting gold characters is also random further decreasing the chances.

• Useless DLC. Though there are no DLC characters or stages, they do have endings and soundtracks from EVERY Tekken game which you can buy. In my opinion, this is a waste. Having soundtracks from other games would be nice to incorporate in stages, but it's not enough to make me buy it. The endings are a blast from the past, but you can watch these endings free on Youtube.

With only minor faults, I find this game to be enjoyable and a great collection for any Tekken fan. Or even for gamers who want to start Tekken. It's easy to pick up and fight. There is a lot of replay value that will keep you coming back for more. Rating this, I would give this game an 8 out of 10.