Tekken Tag Tournament

This is one of the best "press all the buttons" one-on-one action games for the PS2. The reason it's "Tekken Tag" and not just "Tekken", is because you can tag in another fighter in each round to help you out which actually makes the game a lot more interesting.


Modes

Practice: New to the game and want to get warmed up before you start kicking ass? Well practice has got what you need. Like all practice modes, you can go freestyle and try out different combos in an empty room and get used to some of the character's skills. But unlike most practice modes, you can fight against the CPU and adjust the difficulty to fit your skill. This CPU training consists of Chain Training and Combo Training. Chain training has different moves that pop up and shows you the buttons you need to push to execute them. Combo training allows you to practice different types of combinations, and see if you can get a ten hit combo on your opponent a.k.a. the computer. Also vice-versa, you can choose for the computer to take the ten hit combo on you, and you must try to block off the hits.  

V.S. Battle: There are a few different modes, but I'll start off with my favorite, VS battle. In this mode you can go against the computer or against another player, and you both players can choose 1-8 characters to use throughout the whole battle. Say one player has more experience than the other and they want to make the game fair, so the better player would choose 5 players and the new player would pick 8. Health rolls-over instead of filling all the way to the top at the beginning of each new round. Also if you win a match your fighters gain more health at the end.

1 vs 1 Battle: Just a regular battle between you/pc or you/player 2, only you get to play with one fighter each, no tag teaming. I would say this is the mode where you can put your true skills to the test and see if your character is the best. Battle it out in a 2 out of 3 match either against all the other characters or against another player who thinks he's better than you, with a specific character.

Arcade: Exactly the same as 1 vs 1 battle (if your playing with another person), except you CAN tag team in this one. Basically just a quick start game.  If your playing alone, you will go through a series of rounds and eventually come to a boss. But there is one upside to this mode. In this mode you can unlock extra characters, and only this mode. Keep in mind though, when you turn off the game, the unlocked characters are not saved and you will have to start over next time you turn on the system; just like a word document that crashes with your computer.

Tournament: The big mode of the game, tournament. This is a 1 player mode only, where you try to beat 8 rounds of characters and a boss with just using 2 characters yourself. Every round you get a new tag team to defeat, and if you lose you may switch 1 or both of the characters in your team and continue from the round you lost. In shorter words, this is the marathon mode to beat the game.

Survival: Here you will have to battle out to the death. You choose two characters and fight through several rounds that keep getting harder and harder, until one of your characters is dead. Unlike tournament mode, you can't continue from the same round; when your dead, your dead.
Think you have what it takes??

Time Attack: Just like tournament and arcade, you will fight 8 rounds of characters and come to a boss. But there is a catch, now you are measured for time to see how quick you can beat the game, and the record is stored in your memory card. For some reason these records get saved but not the unlocked characters.




Characters

 Here i'll just name a few of the characters that i'm more familiar with, though there are 20 characters originally and 19 that are unlock-able, making a total of 39 characters.

Anna Williams: The only reason I am writing about her is because I am familiar with this girl, and I had to include at least one so here she is. I have tried using her a few times and she sucks. It is very hard to adapt to any good moves with her, and she is the definition having to press all the buttons on the controller to save your butt. Sorry Anna, but your just not that great.....

Armour King: This guy is tall, either looks like or is a tiger, and has medium to bad maneuverability. An up side though is that he is big, and does a lot of damage. There are two ways you can use him.
1. Press all the buttons
2. Find the one move that constantly keeps your opponent away and does damage to them when they get near. I believe it's either a front kick, or a back flip in the their face. I have won several times with him, just doing this. In VS battle I would choose him in my list of 8.

Gun Jack and Jack 2: Gun Jack can be used from the beginning and Jack 2 must be unlocked. I only unlocked Jack 2 once, but there was not much of a difference between the 2 except for maybe a few moves and damage amount. Both Jack's are androids that are very powerful because of their bionic engineering. Being more stiff than Armour King, these two characters would be useless if it were not for their incredible power and damage that they can inflict. I'll take either on my list.

Jin Kazama: Being the son of Kazuya and the grandson of Heihachi, Jin is main character of the story of Tekken. Supposedly he is supposed to be the best fighter in Tekken, according to the story, but it's really about how you play. He's a good player, moves well, attacks strong and makes it on my list, but not my best player. I do admire his character though after watching the movie Tekken.

Kazuya Mishima: Although I don't remember playing with him in earlier years because I never unlocked him, I'd just like to state that this is the son of Heihachi Mishima, of who I will explain later.

Eddy Gordo: My favorite character of all time, because of his tight style. This fighter uses capoeria, a Brazilian  fighting style of elegance, therefore making him either one of, or the most maneuverable players making him my favorite. If I ever have problems getting the swiftness of his style down, he has an awesome round about kick that will hit anyone in the face coming towards him a.k.a. his cheep move. He is without a doubt number one on my 8 list.

Forest Law: When I play this game, he reminds me so much of Bruce Lee with his face, his moves, and his "no-shirt". Play the game yourself and you'll see. But yes, he moves very well, has great attacks with good damage and easily makes it to my list of 8.

Heihachi Meishima: The father of the guy I told you about (3 characters above) and a very old Asian guy (in the game looks white) who has very good fighting skills. He is short which makes it good when fighting most players because they can not hit him as easily. Also he can produce sparks and do some really crazy meditating stuff. Oh I almost forgot, he has the coolest hair-cut ever, with two spiked back wings on the side of his head and a bald spot in the middle. Medium to good maneuverability, good moves, and medium damage; he makes it on my list.

King: Basically exactly the same as armour king, except without the armour. Despite the fact that it's dorky, I think i'll stick with the armour for more protection. King or Armour King? You know the answer.

Yoshimitsu: This is the Samurai of complete epicness. I'll admit it's hard to get used to his moves and combos, but MAN, I promise when you know what your doing with him you will destroy. He is dressed in a complete body armour suit and has a vicious samurai sword which he can sit on and send different sparks from. My memory is a bit dull so I can't bring up anything else but definitely has what it takes to bring you down. He wins for the coolest character in the game, in my opinion. On my list.

   

 So hope you liked the long review and check out the movie Tekken, it's much newer than the game and it will help you understand more about the story and characters. Also there are newer versions of Tekken, the newest being "Tekken 6", which you can get for PS3 and Xbox 360. Well thanks for reading, and i'm sure you have questions, so ask below.