![]() Marduk is a character clearly inspired by professional wrestler Bill Goldberg, even down to doing a version of his entrance taunt as part of his victory celebration. Combot is essentially a robot version of Mokujin (in that he steals other fighters’ move sets), whilst Christie is pretty much a palette swap of Eddy Gordo and uses most of his moves. Tekken 4 also features the debut of future recurring characters Craig, Steve and Christie, along with the only canon appearance to date of Combot. Tekken 4 at least makes a stab at explaining it by making the finale look like a big, worldwide media event, complete with glitzy entrance ways and pyrotechnics. It’s always confused me in regards to how people know who actually has won these tournaments in the Tekken universe, seeing as the finals tend to take place in isolated, clandestine areas, like ancient Aztec temples with nary a TV camera in sight. In addition, the fact that most of the characters do battle with Heihachi in a UFC-styled cage with thousands of fans in attendance makes The King of Iron Fist actually feel like a genuine tournament for once. All in all, the combat in Tekken 4 feels smoother and more impactful than any of the previous games, and each fighting stage having its own sense of identity means it’s rare for one fight to feel the same as the previous one. This comes especially handy if an opponent has you cornered as you can switch things around at the last moment and hoist them by their own petard. You also have the ability to push your opponent away or grab hold of them and switch positions. The controls have also changed slightly, with it now being easier to sidestep by just pressing up or down on the D-pad rather than double tapping it. You can even trap opposing fighters up against a wall and barrage them with constant attacks as they struggle to get away. It’s also now possible to destroy parts of the scenery, such as pillars in the car park and statues during a rooftop battle. On top of that, stages now include uneven terrain, with some like the jungle arena even having slopes and water hazards to slow you down. Fights can now take place in small, even claustrophobic areas, such as abandoned car parks, which give you little room to hide. That isn’t the case in Tekken 4 as the stages are a lot smaller, which adds a tactical nuance to the fighting that wasn’t previously present. In previous games in the series, the arenas where you did battle were vast 3D areas where it was basically impossible to reach the end of the level. One big change that will be immediately noticeable to those who have played the previous games will be the size of some of the fighting stages. This proceeds to make Tekken 4 feel more like the original game than any of the other Tekken sequels whilst also taking the series in a new direction at the same time. Kazuya is not the only Mishima family member to return to the game as his half-brother, Lee, and son, Jin, also make their way onto the roster once again, thus bringing the primary focus of the story mode back onto the family feud. Tekken 4 is a game that feels both familiar yet also very different, especially if you skipped out on Tekken Tag Tournament as I had done back in the day. There are exceptions to this, of course, (depending on who you choose to play as in the all new story mode), but for most of the roster, the path to all their hopes and dreams is blocked by a ridiculously overpowered elderly man with a highly questionable haircut, just as it was in the very first Tekken game way back in 1994.Īs if Heichahi’s return as the closing boss isn’t enough of a blast from the past, his son Kazuya also makes his return to the series after his supposed death in Tekken 2 to really amp up the nostalgia. Whereas you had to close out the game by fighting the literal Devil and a giant, fire-breathing moth creature in Tekken 2 and 3, respectively, Tekken 4 takes the series back to its roots by making you go one-on-one with the feared patriarch of the Mishima family in the King of Iron Fist Tournament Final. Tekken 4 was the last game in the Tekken series to ground its finale in some semblance of sanity before things started to get really silly in the latter titles. “Is it possible for Heihachi Mishima to wear a nappy and still look intimidating?”Īfter morosely inspecting the imprint of a geta sandal in their forehead, most players of Tekken 4 will respond with a despondent yet resounding “yes”. Just when humanity had begun to start losing hope, Tekken 4 came along to answer the question once and for all. Great, powerful super computers were built in order to break the mystery down, yet they all came up empty handed. For years, no person had truly been able to sufficiently answer it. ![]() There was once a very important philosophical query that had challenged mankind for eons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |