Tekken Tag Tournament

Tekken Tag Tournament.
The Ultimate Tekken Compilation
Protagonist(s): Various Genre(s): Fighting Game Platform(s): Arcade, Playstation 2, Playstation 3 (As part of Tekken Hybrid) Release Date: Arcade JP: July 1999 WW: 1999 PlayStation 2 JP: March 30, 2000 NA: October 26, 2000 EU: November 24, 2000 Tekken Hybrid NA: November 22, 2011 AU: November 24, 2011 EU: November 25, 2011 JP: December 1, 2011 Developer(s): Namco Publisher(s): Namco Country: Japan Series: Tekken Predecessor: Tekken 3 Successor: Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Tekken Tag Tournament (鉄拳タッグトーナメント, Tekken Taggu Tōnamento) is the fourth installment in the Tekken fighting game series. It's a Spin off to the main series as the game doesn't have a story and the main focus is to bring as much characters from the previous installments as possible while also focusing more on the Tag mechanic.

A remastered version of the game titled Tekken Tag Tournament HD was released for the PlayStation 3 in November 2011, as part of Tekken Hybrid.

Why it Rocks

1. With some very minor exceptions such as Gon (due to licensing issues), Doctor B., Jack 1 and Marshall Law, the game brings almost every playable character in the series, that along with two new characters (Testujin and Unknown) the game has 35 playable characters which was huge for the time:
   • Characters that appeared only in Tekken 1 and/or 2 were modified to be on par with Tekken 3's gameplay
   • Characters that were successors to other characters in Tekken 3 (Ex: Kazuya and Jin) have been altered a little to be different from each other.
   • Introducing Unknown, a character exclusive to the Tekken Tag Tournament sub-series, who's a character that can mimic the gameplay of other characters like Mokujin except you can switch to other gameplay anytime you want during the match.
2. The gameplay is based on Tekken 3 but adding the tag mechanic where at any point during the match you can swap with a different character to play which adds a great combination in gameplay.
3. When you tag your character, the character you switched will keep healing for a little until you switch the character back.
4. Selecting different tag partners can have unique features and intros depending on the characters, for example, selecting Kazuya and Devil will only show you Kazuya/Devil when the match starts (depending on who you select first) and when you tag your character, instead of switching, Kazuya/Devil transform to the other.
5. Another cool feature is the Netsu rating, a gameplay mimic that affect gameplay, and whether a character 'liked', was indifferent to, or 'disliked' another, would result in faster or slower ability to gain a damage boost when their partner was damaged, for example, selecting Kazuya and Heihatchi together will make the tag combos weaker.
6. The game has solo mode as well for those who just want to Play without the tag feature.
7. Theatre mode can be unlocked by defeating Arcade mode once now and with the exception of Unknown's ending, all endings can be seen with different skins depending on the one you choose.
8. Introduces a mode called Tekken Bowl, you play Bowling with any character you choose.
9. Amazing soundtrack.
10. Great graphics at the time for a PS2 launch game.

Bad Qualities

1. Outside of the returning characters and the tag mechanic, the game doesn't improve upon Tekken 3
2. Unlike previous Tekken game, there's no story this time (Though it was dropped in favor of adding as many characters as possible)
3. All characters' endings except Unknown share the same music which gets tiresome.
4. Aside from Unknown, the endings feel like gameplay footage.
5. The Tekken Hybrid Remaster was weak and unnecessary, as the graphics barely improved and made some changes like removing solo mode and having all characters unlocked from the beginning and it was coming so close to Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Reception

The game received positive reviews with praise for its content and graphics but was criticized for its lack of innovation compared to previous games.

Trivia

1. This is the first fighting game in the series to not be on the Playstation 1, however it's not the first game in the series to not be on the Playstation 1, as Tekken Card Challenge was released for the Wonderswan.
2. The PS2 version was one of the launch games for the Playstation 2
3. This is one of the three (four if you count Street Fighter X Tekken) games in the series where Yoshimitsu doesn't have a new design, the others being Tekken Advance and Tekken 3D prime edition.
4. A compilation called Tekken Hybrid was released in 2011 for the Playstation 3, it contains an HD port of Tekken Tag Tournament, a Prologue of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 which is a beefed demo of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and a 3D version of the movie Tekken Blood Vengeance.
5. This game has the mount variations of Jack Robots so far, with it having Jack 2, Gun Jack and Prototype Jack
6. This is the only game to feature a licensed car; in this case, the Honda S2000 which is driven by Lee Chaolan in the first arcade intro cutscene.

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