Please login to submit a screenshot

"Good game? You bet! Best Tekken? No."

Wow! My first review! You may be asking 'why are you writing a review about Tekken? MANY others have!' Well, that's because some things that are pretty important, in my humble opinion, have not even been TOUCHED by the other Tekken reviewers. So I figured I was the one to do it. Also, you'll see that my review is a lot longer then the other Tekken reviews.

Also, I'm planning to review the whole Tekken series, since I owe all the Tekken episodes: Tekken, Tekken II, Tekken III and Tekken Tag Tournament. So my next review will be about Tekken II, then Tekken III and finally I will review the awesome PS2 game Tekken Tag Tournament. Well, enough of that serious stuff, on with the review!

Well, first I like to clarify (just for the record), that I own the Platinum version of Tekken, and tested it on a PS2. This last thing is pretty important, since the graphics of Tekken on a PS2 look quite a bit better then on a PSone.

Onto the game...

PACKAGING - 10/10

The box-art is pretty good, it's kind of a montage of all the key players in Tekken.

On the backside are some screenshots of the game, and a little talking about the game. No problems there either.

Inside the box is the standard guide, and (gasp) THE ACTUAL DISC! Since I own the Platinum version, my disc doesn't have any disc-art, so I can't give any comments about that.

So anyway, I didn't find any problems at all in the packaging, but then again, who's interested in the packaging. Let's just continue with the important stuff: THE ACTUAL CONTENT OF THE DISC!

LOGO - 10/10

Well, the appearing Namco logo looks REALLY great in this Tekken version! It's well animated, and has sound effects to go with it. A lot better than in the upcoming versions, actually. But heck, the logo is such a small part of the game, why I am I even TALKING about it? Oh well, let's just continue...

EXTRAS - 9/10

This game's got only one extra feature, but it is a cool one. In all old Namco Playstation games, you are allowed to play a little old Namco mini-game in the loading time. They stopped doing this in their later games. Why they suddenly stopped doing it is beyond me, it was a really cool feature. Oh well.

Anyway, in this game you're allowed to play the old Namco shooter classic ''Galaga'' in the loading time. It's a pretty neat game. I heared that if you beat the whole mini-game, you are allowed to play with some guy named ''Devil Kazuya''. I never completed the game, it's actually pretty hard, so I can't tell you if it's true. I doubt it, since I've never seen a screenshot of this Devil Kazuya fellow, but I can't be certain...

Overall, Galaga is an extremely cool little extra feature, but since it's the ONLY extra feature in the entire game, I'm not giving it a 10/10.

MENU - 8/10

The design for the menu was okay, although a bit different than the other Tekken episodes. But it was fine. There are three options: ''Arcade'', ''Versus'' and ''Options''. This was all fine, so why did I give it a 8/10 and not a 10/10? Because (and this is problem that ALL the Tekken episodes have) there was no background music! Most games I played have some cool, up-beat track playing on the background, but this menu has no music at all! And it is too silent that way.

MOVIES - 6/10

This is a part were points are lost. Let me discuss al of the movies.

First, we have the opening movie. This isn't bad, but it's a bit too short. I believe the movies of the other Tekken episodes are WAY longer. Also, none of the sub-characters are seen in the opening movie. Sure, we do see Yoshimitsu, King, Paul etc., but we don't see characters like Ganryu, P-Jack or Wang in the movie. Wich I don't really like.

Next, we have the ending movies for the characters, and there's a heck of a lot wrong with them:

The music is the same in EACH AND EVERY movie. I REALLY don't like this. The music really adds something to the movies, and a movie of Paul training should obviously have different music then a heartbreaking scene of King going to the church. But with the same music in each movie, it's like each movie is exactly the same emotional-wise. Wich is extremely uncool. Might I add that the theme isn't so great, so hearing it over and over again may get a bit on your nerves.
Also, there aren't any movies for the sub-characters (Kuma, Wang, etc.), so there aren't too many movies either. Wich kinda sucks too.

And last we have the credits, wich are fine. The song playing along with the credits isn't the best credits song, but it's okay.

So why do I give it a 6/10? Well, that's because the movies are really good graphical-wise. The animation in the movies is really smooth, and this especially incredible when you realize how old Tekken is. It was actually one of the first PSone games available, so for a game that old, the graphics of the game are gorgeous. Also, there are sound effects in the movies, and that's a plus too. So that's why I give them a 6/10. If the graphics were awful and there were no sound effects, I would have given it a 0,5/10.

MODES - 5/10

This is were most points are lost. There really are only three modes, like I said: Arcade, Versus and Options. You see, if you have beaten the game with every main character in Arcade, there isn't much left to do. You've got every movie, you've got (almost) every character, and the sub-characters don't have movies, so what's left to accomplish? In two-player-mode, you can play against a friend. In options are things such as difficultly, memory card, etc. and that's it. No Practice mode, no Time Attack mode, no Survival mode, no Team Battle mode, nothing. I find this absolutely inexcusable. WHY AREN'T THOSE COOL MODES INSERTED? With only Arcade and Versus, the game gets pretty boring after a while. The only things left are getting Heihaci and completing Galaga (and so getting Devil-Kazuya), but that really is it. Wich is extremely uncool.

So. Phew. Now I will actually BEGIN THE ACTUAL REVIEW with comments about THE ACTUAL GAME...

GRAPHICS - 9/10

The graphics are really good in this game. The animation is very smooth. I personally think Tekken is beter animated than Toshinden III! Especially the replays are always kick-ass.

I liked the background designs. I also liked that at the right bottom stands were you are fighting. A cool little extra, too bad they stopped doing it in the later Tekken parts. My favourites are Chicago and Kioto, those backgrounds are beautiful. Stadium is cool too, I liked seeing the fight on a screen behind you.

I also liked the character designs, and the fact that there are two different outfits for each character. There aren't as many outfits as in Dead Or Alive though. But I still liked the outfits. Yoshimitsu looks way cool in this game. Kuma looks monsterous. And Prototype-Jack's cyborg-arm looks totally awesome! Too bad he doesn't have it any of the other Tekken games.

So overall, the graphics are kinda good in this game. Especially when you look at the age of the game. Like I said it was one of the first PSone games available.

MUSIC & SOUND - 9/10

Like the graphics, pretty well. The music is kinda good. There are some really good tracks in here, my favourites being the King George Island and Kyoto tracks. They are all kinda upbeat, and you van choose too different forms: Arcade tracks or BMG tracks. The sound effects and voices are okay as well. I really like the voice of the announcer, I think he is the best announcer in the whole Tekken series so far. He hasn't got a worhty replacer yet.

GAMEPLAY - 10/10

Like in all Tekken games, the gameplay is absolutely fantastic. I have never played a fighting game with such a smooth gameplay and so many totally awesome moves. I don't have much more to say about it, it's clear.

OVERALL - 8/10

Overall, I liked this game. It isn't as good as the following parts (were most of the problems I mentioned are fixed), but it certainly has more pros then cons. I quite enjoyed it.

BUY? - I recommend to only buy this if you want to have the whole Tekken series complete, want to see the ending movies of Tekken, or want to play with Devil Kazuya. Otherwise, buy Tekken II, III or TTT.

RENT? - If you get the chance of renting the game, I would certainly do it! It doesn't take much time to beat the entire game, and it's fun to do.

AVOID? - How could you avoid such a cool game! I would only avoid it when you really hate fighting games.

So that's it. Finally. This review became a lot longer than I tought, and believe it or not, but I have actually MUCH MORE to say about Tekken II! Oh well.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/02, Updated 07/03/02