Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Review

I've always been a sort of big fish in a small pond when it came to Tekken. Call me a "middle-tier user", or alternately, "that jerk at parties who happens to know a couple throw combos and won't let anyone forget it." TTT2 marks the first time that I've taken my talents to the internet proving grounds, and now I've got the sub-20% winning percentage to show for it. Indeed, there's a skill level beyond the old across-the-couch competition of my yesteryears. Probably another level or three beyond that, too. As it turns out, if you're not intimately acquainted with the series' more esoteric bodies of knowledge (many of which involve spreadsheets), then well, let's just say that you're probably on the wrong side of TTT2's predator/prey dynamic.

Now, I’d normally call that a mark in the game's favor. A fighting game should reward hard work and skill, after all, and there's certainly no bottom to Tekken's strategic depths. Yet the odds are still stacked a bit too heavily against new players in Namco’s latest. The sizeable roster already makes for a bit of barrier of entry on its own, as newcomers will have to contend with an endless barrage of new moves and styles that need to be internalized. Then there’s the juggle-heavy system, which often results in fights that end before you’ve even had a chance to throw a punch.

Those particular barriers will eventually fall before a concerted effort, so I won’t fault the game for them. But Tekken Tag Tournament 2 also has some grievous oversights that make online play needlessly intimidating for newcomers. Chief among these is a woefully inadequate ranking system, wherein players are sorted by the experience they’ve amassed as individual characters. The system only seems to account for the first character of a tag team, meaning newbies can find themselves going up against an opponent who’s pairing a new character with a mastered backup. But no matter the cause, my atrocious record and I were regularly pitted against elite competition, with predictable results.

To mitigate this some, neophytes should take their first steps in TTT2's new "Fight Lab" tutorial mode. It puts you in the shoes of Combot, a programmable fighting robot being put through its paces. The training starts innocuously, with drills on movement and basic striking. Then, without warning, sumo wrestlers begin soaring through the air about you like rotund cruise missiles. It only gets crazier from there: along the way you'll grapple with giant, loin-clothed kung fu masters, a human javelin event, and even a few spoofs of that 'other' fighting series. Accomplishing any of these tasks will net you some experience points, which you can use to cherry-pick moves from the rest of Tekken's roster for your Combot's use.

All the zany humor really helps you swallow the bitter pill of technique drilling. Before you know it, you'll have a serviceable understanding of much of Tekken's hard science, and a beefed up metal warrior who's equipped with the greatest hits of the game's move list. Unfortunately, Fight Lab ends rather abruptly, never imparting the sort of higher-end tactics that are really necessary to succeed online. You'll need to seek help online and do some real homework in TTT2's (admittedly robust) Practice Mode to hone your skills. Still, what's given is enjoyable, and that's no small accomplishment for a tutorial.