Now Playing: TEKKEN REVOLUTION

Wait, what?

Developed & published by Namco Bandai.

Released June 2013.

Digital download only.

Formats: PlayStation3 exclusive.

Ordinarily, the wait for the next Tekken game around here at chez Craig is one of the most prolonged, soul-sapping ventures through misery ever undertaken in the history of mankind, something that would likely be true even if the last 2 main entries in the series hadn't both been the subject of excessive delays.  My brain simply cannot cope with the notion that there might be a 'new' Tekken game out in the world somewhere and it's not in my possession yet.  There is screaming, a lot of screaming.  Things get broken.  People get hurt.  The police are called.  And then run away.  It's just not a nice scene for everyone, at least until the game in question arrives and I calm down.

This time, though, the wait wasn't so bad, since I (and everyone else) only found out about Tekken Revolution 4 days, tops, before its release.  That Harada-san sure does work his team like hamsters in wheels, doesn't he?

Is that...Barry Allen?

Tekken Revolution comes to you as a 1400Mb-or-so download from the PSN Store (no XBLA - apparently Microsoft didn't want it, for some reason) and costs the same as breathing, i.e. nothing, except in communist territories, probably.  For that...price?...you get a significantly stripped-down roster, a not quite as stripped-down selection of stages, remixed BGM, a simple Arcade/vs. CPU ladder, online battles of both ranked and not-ranked variety, and a largely intact copy of the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 game engine.  As far as gameplay goes...it's a fighting game, you hit the other guy until his life bar hits zero and hope yours doesn't go first.  I imagine most of us are familiar with this concept.  And TK Rev isn't about to throw out the baby with the bathwater, handling by and large as this series always has since Tekken 3; one face button per limb, double-tap up or down to sidestep, high/mid/low attacks, hits interrupting opponent attacks cause more damage and so on.

There have been a few tweaks from the TTT2 norm, though.  First of all, holding backwards makes your character back-walk continuously.  This...does not make a huge difference that I can see, and I'm so dead-set in my playing style by now that I tend to just keep rapidly tapping back instead and forget walking is even an option.  Tagging on the whole is out, leaving the game as strictly 1-vs-1 - don't worry, TTT2 wasn't so dependent on its titular gimmick that it couldn't stand without it, and the fighting is still frantic as ever.  Additionally, the 'bound' system - where certain attacks on a mid-fall opponent would make them hit the ground hard and bounce back up, allowing for a low juggle combo - has been almost completely nixed (a few moves here and there still cause a bound, but the effect is much reduced).  I can't say I'll miss this, given that I've always found launcher juggles easier and only really learned the ins and outs of bound so I could pull off Tag Assaults, which are off the table here anyway.  Lastly, there are two new classes of 'arts', Critical Arts and Special Arts.  These aren't brand new moves, just new effects applied to old ones.  Special Arts (each character seems to only have one of these) grant the player a brief state of invulnerability while the animation is in progress, meaning the move can't be interrupted by a counter-strike or grab, although they can still be blocked or evaded, and usually result in an easily-punishable stall if blocked.  Critical Arts (at least five per character) can cause a 'critical hit' for inflated damage; I thought at first this was a fancy word for a counter but it's mostly up to random chance.  The 'arts' are given their own special section at the top of the command list and are highlighted on the character select screen, presumably as their new properties will make them helpful for beginners.  Me, I mostly consider them unnecessary, but they're not distracting in the way that the surplus of extraneous mechanics in Injustice dragged down what was otherwise an effective fighter.

Looking at all those numbers gets King PUMPED.

The real difference between Revolution and past Tekkens is the limit on how much you can play in one sitting.  Like with many free-to-play games, including this year's Tekken Card Tournament for iOS (bottled review: neat presentation, smart battle tactics and interface, simple but effective community tools, almost entirely broken balancing-wise), Revolution gives the player a fixed number of 'coins' to be used for an arcade run (max of 2) or an online fight (max of 5).  After one is used, it will eventually be refreshed, but only after a hefty time limit expires. (1 hour for arcade coins, 30 minutes for online ones) Why does this happen?  To annoy you!...seriously, that's kinda what it is.  See, you can get more play coins without needing to wait, BUT those will cost you real money for the privilege (at something like £1.70 for a regular pack).  Devious, isn't it?  The devs are relying on your impatience and fondness for grinding to make money, but since it's only optional they can still call this 'free'.  If that sounds critical, well, it is, a bit, but I do understand the practice and I've made my peace with it (read: I have blown prolly over £50 on the also-'free' Iron Man 3 game on my Kindle and now have no right to whine).

You might notice I said 'grinding' there.  Now, obviously, past Tekkens have given the player fair incentive to keep plugging away at the game beyond the point of boredom, usually in the form of fight money used for buying new clothes and silly accessories to dress up the cast in customize mode.  Revolution has no such feature (yet) but instead uses an even more tempting mechanic, RPG-style stat-modding.  In addition to the usual rankings, playing the game also causes you to garner experience points that gradually increase your 'level' (of what, I don't know) and unlocks skill points that can be used to enhance any of 3 different statistics for each character: Power (increases to base attack strength), Endurance (increase starting volume of health) and Vigor (increase odds of critical hits on Critical Arts...I think).  Obviously, anyone with a good stash of skill points can simply out-muscle or out-last many opponents, but unlike the card market in TCT (which lets anyone with cash simply buy the best possible cards for their character from the start and trample all opposition), skill points can't be bought directly, only earned by playing.  Yes, that does mean compulsive grinders with spare change to burn will have an advantage, but the gap between paying and non-paying isn't nearly as irritating as in other games, and that's great.

This screenshot was edited by the Craig T. Destroyer Board of Gaming Standards.

You're welcome.

Graphically, the TTT2 engine is still the best that fighting games can get right now, so the character models are lovingly detailed and excellently animated, the backgrounds are crisp and colourful, and everything moves at the perfect 60fps unless you're playing online against a numpty with terrible internet, which is beyond the game's control.  Most of the backgrounds have some sort of new colour filter applied to them, which makes them seem that bit more summery and sun-kissed, not a bad thing by any means.  Additionally, character models in-game are now surrounded by a black 'pencil' outline, because...because?  I don't know what it's for, really, although combined with the new particle effects for the various 'arts' moves - going beyond the usual ki flashes and into big, bold roaring waves of flaming energy - the claim that this is a covert beta for features to be used in the still-apparently-happening Tekken X Street Fighter is pretty believable.  There's also some talk that certain characters, specifically the masked pair above, have had their face models changed, but I can't bring myself to care enough to check.  And thus we dovetail into my main issue with the game.

Look, I get that putting the full, 50-or-so-strong TTT2 roster into a free-to-play game would be silly, as it basically erases any reason any normal person might have for buying said full game instead.  So, yes, sure, by all means, give us a compacted fighter selection.  But if there's a particular shred of logic as to why these characters made the cut and others didn't, I can't explain it.  For the record, my version of the game started with Kazuya, Paul, Marshall Law, King, Lars, Sexy Teen Jun and Paris Hilton; after racking up enough 'gift points' from fights it's also unlocked Alisa and Steve. (another niggle: the game never tells exactly how many gift points are needed before the next unlockable opens)  Beyond that, I've heard talk that Bryan is in there too, and I'm going to assume Jin as well because the game's announce trailer had his voiceover and he's Mister Coverboy for the series.  Much of the roster seems skewed towards the debuting cast from the more recent games...but then we also have Paul and Law, who are super old and never struck me as being especially popular nowadays.  Obviously, me being me I am beyond peeved that Nina, my main, isn't here (and nor is Feng, my sub-main), and on a more neutral level the fact is that there are 4 characters who have been in every Tekken game and Revolution only has 1 of them, so it feels unfinished. (Heihachi does appear as a sub-boss every so often, but I've not heard of him being playable yet) So why did the roster take this shape?  My one working theory at this point is it's based on arcade usage stats, which invariably side towards Paris and her girlfriend in Japan because...well, Japan...but if so, that wasn't a smart decision.  The arcade demographic is 99% hardcore, long-term fans of the franchise, and Revolution was clearly designed to appeal to newbies who more than likely don't share the same tastes.  Why deny them, say, the chance to play as a bear?  You know that's more eye-catching and fun for a first-timer even if Kuma isn't 'high tier' or whatever...

Tired of the jokes about his haircut and cardboard personality,

Lars silences his critics by bringing a laser whip to a fistfight.

Ordinarily, this is the part of the post where I'd be building up to delivering a simple 'out of 10' verdict, but this time...this time I'm not going to.  A little bit of that is because I have every confidence the TK devs will expand on Revolution in future, and really, all they need to do to completely silence every criticism I have is put Nina in the damn game already.  BUT, more importantly, my opinion doesn't matter here.  And  if you, like me, have been following the Tekken series for years now, and own various entries in the series already, then your opinion doesn't matter either, honestly.

Because this isn't my Tekken, or your Tekken.  This isn't the arcade audience's Tekken and it sure isn't the EVO-tourney-attendee's Tekken.  It's everybody else in the world's Tekken.  It's for everyone who's seen a Tekken title lying on a shop shelf and balked at the notion of dropping £40 or more on something that's 'just' 2 guys hitting each other until one can't get up.  That pricetag might scare them off, but show them (on the surface) the same game for 'free' and suddenly they're interested, and maybe interested enough to start dropping cash just to keep playing...and maybe, just maybe, next time a full Tekken hits shelves, they'll get their wallet out.

You might have heard this before, but the console gaming market is not in good shape right now.  Full-fledged AAA titles are getting more and more expensive to make as technology becomes more and more needlessly complex, and the promotional markets are dominated completely by two or three huge publishers while all the others pray for a few scraps of interest to fall from the table.  If Tekken wants to thrive - or even survive - in this climate, it needs to get clever.  Yes, there will still be full-fat TK games on disc, but Revolution shows a new way of thinking, taking existing assets and recycling them in a way that can potentially spread the series to whole new audiences.  Side note: I'm a near-life-long Nintendo dork.  I stuck by them during the Wii years even while so many others whined on and on and on about how they were abandoning their fans to chase those thrice-cursed 'casuals'.  And guess what?  I got 2 Mario Galaxies, 2 Zeldas, a Metroid Prime, a Smash Bros., even a sequel to ****ing Sin & Punishment of all things.  Nintendo didn't leave me in the lurch, and at the same time they made a damn fortune shilling sports games and fitness software to other people.  You can have it both ways.  Harada-san and his boys aren't 'betraying' you with Revolution - have a little patience, learn to share your toys, and it'll all turn out to be a win-win scenario.

...yes, I am asking the internet not to complain about things.  I am clearly a crazy person.  Bah boo bah bah glerkump warbledingdong.