TTT’s visuals have been cleaned up
quite a bit from its original Japanese counterpart. As one of the flagship carriers of the
initial "Early PS2 Jaggy Games" which featured zero anti-alaising at all (and in
turn gave the game an edgy, stair-stepping effect), Namco’s prolific fighter was
frowned upon by fans and press alike for its inability to harness the PlayStation 2’s
power. Not to be one that will accept a bad image, Namco went ahead and worked on
addressing this jaggy effect by implementing a fine case of AA, of which has seamlessly
ridden the past Japanese problems. Now the characters have smooth, shaped bodies without a
pointy triangle in site. The AA isn’t the only great claim to Tekken Tag’s
graphics, though – TTT also features some of the clearest, most detailed textures
seen on the PS2 yet. From Eddy Gordo’s ripped abs to the stone tablets of Heihachi
Mishima’s stage, Namco capitalized on the bar-setting textures seen in their own Soul
Calibur on Dreamcast. TTT also exploits the PS2’s particle and special effect system
by giving off extraordinary lighting and shading effects on many of the stages. Not even
the un-aligned backgrounds, which seem to never quite attach themselves to the ground
planes, can bring down Tekken Tag’s wonderful graphics in the end.
The aural presentation, though, is a mixed bag at best. On one hand, the background
music, is a grand experience from Namco. Using synthesized techno beats, the catchy fast
paced tunes are perfect for fighting grounds. Like the sweeping scores found in Soul
Calibur, Tekken Tag’s compositions are dead on with the mood of the fighting.
In spite of the grand tunes, the sound effects knock the grade down a few notches.
While there isn’t anything particularly wrong with what type of noises are
played during kicks, punches and falls (hell, I’ve endured five years of the series),
the little auditory outputs seem to get lost in the scheme of things. Contact cues and
grunts have a muffled, behind-a-pillow sense of tone for the most part. The music blankets
them, even with the sliders turned all the way down. Stereo and mono settings didn’t
make any difference to TTT – the effects just sounded a bit too garbled.
I know I came off this review with TTT in a negative light, but in all honesty the good
and positive things about this game can be found in past Tekken reviews. We all know what
to expect from this game – the same tried and true gameplay, plus updated visuals and
sounds to boot. What it all comes down to is that TTT is a polished and slicked up version
of Tekken 3. True, Tekken Tag’s gameplay doesn’t honestly attempt to develop the
fighting genre, but yet the core design behind TTT is the tightest and most tweaked Tekken
you’ll ever see... that is, until Tekken 4 arrives.
Navigation
menu
