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Ok, due to illness (of my PC) I haven't been submitting many contributions or reviews, but here's Tekken Tag Tournament, so if you'd like to read it (you better get some supplies now!), then I'd be most grateful if you tell me what you think!
Dan2K1
Tekken Tag Tournament would have been something to get excited about, but with the majority of the first wave of PlayStation 2 titles, it manages to do everything apart from satisfy. To say that Namco’s latest Tekken title in the long running series is a superb game, and the sort of thing PlayStation2 owners deserve, would be a grave exaggeration. When choosing the games to go with my PS2, recently purchased from a local, well-known branch store, I couldn’t really decide which 2 I’d go for. I’d heard that SSX was supposed to be the best game on Sony’s latest escapade, and so to accompany this I had to choose another game in the top 10range to be entitled to the £10 off. So, with a lot of people telling me that TTT was absolutely amazing, I went for this! Oh dear. Let me explain!
I never owned any of the Tekken games, so this is my first experience of Namco’s Tekken franchise, and although I’ve played other Namco games, nothing has been such a disappointment than this, with the possible exception of the pretty poor Ridge Racer 5. I have a Sega Dreamcast games console as well as a PlayStation 2, so obviously I have Soul Calibur in my collection – another Namco fighting game. Now, a lot of people compare Tekken Tag to Soul Calibur, and most PS2 owners will say Tekken is better, and Dreamcast owners will mostly say Soul Calibur is better. But in my honest opinion, the games cannot be compared with one another! Soul Calibur is at a higher level of game play and graphical realism (and surrealism) than TTT in my view. One of the main reasons for me getting a PS2 is that Soul Calibur 2 will be released on the format, and I can’t wait! Tekken fans will be sure to change their tune when that one arrives!
So anyway, moving on. Tekken Tag isn’t the worst fighting game, and fans of the series and owners of the previous games will probably feel instantly at home with the game thanks to a mostly unchanged control system, with very few new characters and similar graphics to Tekken 3. In fact, a lot of game reviewers say TTT is basically an update of Tekken 3. I really can’t judge that. What I can judge however is the game itself and how it plays. After around 5minutes play I found the game to be really slow. I mean Virtua Fighter 2 style slow. It’d be interesting if Soul Calibur and TTT had a race? Hmmm… I also don’t like the very static way the characters move around the arena, as there doesn’t seem to be a very 3D ‘8way run’ kind of game implementation here, so it’s very difficult to move away from an opponent other than jumping forward or backwards – I’d prefer to move from side to side more easily. The controls have to be learnt here, and the game isn’t as easy to pick up and play, as I would have liked.
Ok, Visuals. I’ve already criticised the graphics and character fluidity in TTT, and it seems as though the designers have spent more time on the dazzling lighting effects rather than the aspects that count – the arenas and characters. Ok, so everything looks ok, but you’ll soon notice that the arena floors start to jolt around and judder a bit, and the character animation and general polygon count is comparable to the relatively pathetic Mortal Kombat Gold on the Dreamcast and N64 (known as MK4 on N64). The lighting effects look excellent though, but in my view are just over the top. With every throw, punch or kick, even when your character moves, the most elaborate shining light effect takes place, and often looks pointless. However, the arena stage design is fairly good, and the various snowing effects and arena skies look decent enough. If only Sony could be bothered to enforce a 60hz rule for all PS2 games, like many DC games have been: this results in much smoother graphics and faster frame rate. Maybe Tekken 4 will surprise me in a better way.
The sound is good, and although the music can get very annoying (especially at Yoshimitsu’s snowing stage), the overall standard of clear sound is high. I’ve noticed that the PlayStation 2 is capable of very impressive sound effects, thanks to Dolby Digital sound (or something like this). Each character has a phrase or two that they say whenever the battle ends, but this sounds very muffled and is quite hard to make out – similarly to Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn (again!). This doesn’t really matter all that much though, but I think Namco could have made slightly better use of the PS2 superior sound capabilities.
The best thing about Tekken is the amount of characters to choose from, and with the hidden incentive to play through the game to unlock some more, sometimes very powerful or special, characters. There’re 20 characters to start with, and around 10 extra to unlock as you progress through various game modes. Everyone has a favourite character, so I’d say Yoshimitsu is mine – simply because his excellent flea move is about the only one I can master properly, and that aluminous sword looks really quite impressive, Gun Jack also seems to have very effective weapons (his arms), and is another one of the most used characters. Just in case you want know all the characters available, here’s a list: Heihachi Mishima, Bryan Fury, Ganryu, Armor King, Anna Williams, Michelle Chang, Baek Doo San, Jun Kazama, Gun Jack, Julia Chang, Eddy Gordo, Hwoarang, Ling Xiaoyu, Yoshimitsu, Nina Williams, King, Lei Wulong, Forest Law, Paul Phoenix and Jin Kazama. There is an additional 10 characters to unlock, so I won’t spoil it for you!
The game is all about Tag team fighting, and so you nearly always have to pick two characters in whatever game mode you’re playing. Now, if you’ve played Dead or Alive 2, which is both on PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, then you’ll know that this game features an excellent, really effective and easy to use Tag team mode, but in Tekken tag, you always have to select two players – in DoA2 there’s just one mode for Tag battles. This may seem good for some people, but I prefer the DoA2 method, as tagging gets really boring after a while, especially when Tekken Tag’s feature is actually quite poor in comparison. There’s the usual Arcade, versus, Survival and the single character (yeah!) One-on-One modes, but the action all seems to happen so very slowly. There are other modes available including a fairly pointless, but nonetheless, quite fun Tekken Bowl mode, which really does prove that this is not a true next generation game (you’ll be asking yourself ‘is this really PlayStation 2?’). The game box back cover states that Tekken tag has ‘the most advanced animation ever to be seen in a videogame’. They obviously didn’t see Dead or Alive 2.
To be fair though, this is a good game for those who like this kind of game, but if you want something that’s easy to pick up and start playing straight away, and something that’s a little bit faster, then I strongly recommend Dead or Alive 2 – it’s on the DC and the PS2 so you won’t have to get a whole new console. The game case is fairly ordinary, with one of the character’s faces covering most of it. I guess I prefer the weaponry fighting games as opposed to the mainly ‘non-weaponry’ games, like Tekken, and indeed Dead or Alive 2. Soul Calibur is a better game in my view, and is the only real reason for me getting another Namco game – if only Tekken had been as good!
Overall, if you’ve played through Tekken 3 so many times that you find yourself sleeping whilst playing it, then don’t get TTT, it’s basically the same game – so I’m told, of course, I don’t recommend the game based on it’s own merits, simply because of the reasons in my opinion. If you want to play a four player game then you’re going to have to get a few more pads and a multi tap, so think carefully whether you’re really getting Tekken Tag for the multiplayer features or not. In my view, and I don’t really care if you don’t agree (it’s my opinion!) this game should only get around 5/10, as it is an average fighting game, and if Dreamcast hadn’t been here for Tekken Tag to be compared to Soul Calibur, then maybe the generation jump would seem more impressive. It’s got to be 3 stars – 3 stars meaning average, but I don’t like it.
No wonder various online and offline stores are giving the game away free with every PS2. Look past the famous name, if you can, and see a game that doesn’t excel, as it should do, and one that deteriorates straight after the FMV start up intro. No 60hz…
Thanks for reading
Dan2K1
Tekken Tag Tournament would have been something to get excited about, but with the majority of the first wave of PlayStation 2 titles, it manages to do everything apart from satisfy. To say that Namco’s latest Tekken title in the long running series is a superb game, and the sort of thing PlayStation2 owners deserve, would be a grave exaggeration. When choosing the games to go with my PS2, recently purchased from a local, well-known branch store, I couldn’t really decide which 2 I’d go for. I’d heard that SSX was supposed to be the best game on Sony’s latest escapade, and so to accompany this I had to choose another game in the top 10range to be entitled to the £10 off. So, with a lot of people telling me that TTT was absolutely amazing, I went for this! Oh dear. Let me explain!
I never owned any of the Tekken games, so this is my first experience of Namco’s Tekken franchise, and although I’ve played other Namco games, nothing has been such a disappointment than this, with the possible exception of the pretty poor Ridge Racer 5. I have a Sega Dreamcast games console as well as a PlayStation 2, so obviously I have Soul Calibur in my collection – another Namco fighting game. Now, a lot of people compare Tekken Tag to Soul Calibur, and most PS2 owners will say Tekken is better, and Dreamcast owners will mostly say Soul Calibur is better. But in my honest opinion, the games cannot be compared with one another! Soul Calibur is at a higher level of game play and graphical realism (and surrealism) than TTT in my view. One of the main reasons for me getting a PS2 is that Soul Calibur 2 will be released on the format, and I can’t wait! Tekken fans will be sure to change their tune when that one arrives!
So anyway, moving on. Tekken Tag isn’t the worst fighting game, and fans of the series and owners of the previous games will probably feel instantly at home with the game thanks to a mostly unchanged control system, with very few new characters and similar graphics to Tekken 3. In fact, a lot of game reviewers say TTT is basically an update of Tekken 3. I really can’t judge that. What I can judge however is the game itself and how it plays. After around 5minutes play I found the game to be really slow. I mean Virtua Fighter 2 style slow. It’d be interesting if Soul Calibur and TTT had a race? Hmmm… I also don’t like the very static way the characters move around the arena, as there doesn’t seem to be a very 3D ‘8way run’ kind of game implementation here, so it’s very difficult to move away from an opponent other than jumping forward or backwards – I’d prefer to move from side to side more easily. The controls have to be learnt here, and the game isn’t as easy to pick up and play, as I would have liked.
Ok, Visuals. I’ve already criticised the graphics and character fluidity in TTT, and it seems as though the designers have spent more time on the dazzling lighting effects rather than the aspects that count – the arenas and characters. Ok, so everything looks ok, but you’ll soon notice that the arena floors start to jolt around and judder a bit, and the character animation and general polygon count is comparable to the relatively pathetic Mortal Kombat Gold on the Dreamcast and N64 (known as MK4 on N64). The lighting effects look excellent though, but in my view are just over the top. With every throw, punch or kick, even when your character moves, the most elaborate shining light effect takes place, and often looks pointless. However, the arena stage design is fairly good, and the various snowing effects and arena skies look decent enough. If only Sony could be bothered to enforce a 60hz rule for all PS2 games, like many DC games have been: this results in much smoother graphics and faster frame rate. Maybe Tekken 4 will surprise me in a better way.
The sound is good, and although the music can get very annoying (especially at Yoshimitsu’s snowing stage), the overall standard of clear sound is high. I’ve noticed that the PlayStation 2 is capable of very impressive sound effects, thanks to Dolby Digital sound (or something like this). Each character has a phrase or two that they say whenever the battle ends, but this sounds very muffled and is quite hard to make out – similarly to Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn (again!). This doesn’t really matter all that much though, but I think Namco could have made slightly better use of the PS2 superior sound capabilities.
The best thing about Tekken is the amount of characters to choose from, and with the hidden incentive to play through the game to unlock some more, sometimes very powerful or special, characters. There’re 20 characters to start with, and around 10 extra to unlock as you progress through various game modes. Everyone has a favourite character, so I’d say Yoshimitsu is mine – simply because his excellent flea move is about the only one I can master properly, and that aluminous sword looks really quite impressive, Gun Jack also seems to have very effective weapons (his arms), and is another one of the most used characters. Just in case you want know all the characters available, here’s a list: Heihachi Mishima, Bryan Fury, Ganryu, Armor King, Anna Williams, Michelle Chang, Baek Doo San, Jun Kazama, Gun Jack, Julia Chang, Eddy Gordo, Hwoarang, Ling Xiaoyu, Yoshimitsu, Nina Williams, King, Lei Wulong, Forest Law, Paul Phoenix and Jin Kazama. There is an additional 10 characters to unlock, so I won’t spoil it for you!
The game is all about Tag team fighting, and so you nearly always have to pick two characters in whatever game mode you’re playing. Now, if you’ve played Dead or Alive 2, which is both on PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, then you’ll know that this game features an excellent, really effective and easy to use Tag team mode, but in Tekken tag, you always have to select two players – in DoA2 there’s just one mode for Tag battles. This may seem good for some people, but I prefer the DoA2 method, as tagging gets really boring after a while, especially when Tekken Tag’s feature is actually quite poor in comparison. There’s the usual Arcade, versus, Survival and the single character (yeah!) One-on-One modes, but the action all seems to happen so very slowly. There are other modes available including a fairly pointless, but nonetheless, quite fun Tekken Bowl mode, which really does prove that this is not a true next generation game (you’ll be asking yourself ‘is this really PlayStation 2?’). The game box back cover states that Tekken tag has ‘the most advanced animation ever to be seen in a videogame’. They obviously didn’t see Dead or Alive 2.
To be fair though, this is a good game for those who like this kind of game, but if you want something that’s easy to pick up and start playing straight away, and something that’s a little bit faster, then I strongly recommend Dead or Alive 2 – it’s on the DC and the PS2 so you won’t have to get a whole new console. The game case is fairly ordinary, with one of the character’s faces covering most of it. I guess I prefer the weaponry fighting games as opposed to the mainly ‘non-weaponry’ games, like Tekken, and indeed Dead or Alive 2. Soul Calibur is a better game in my view, and is the only real reason for me getting another Namco game – if only Tekken had been as good!
Overall, if you’ve played through Tekken 3 so many times that you find yourself sleeping whilst playing it, then don’t get TTT, it’s basically the same game – so I’m told, of course, I don’t recommend the game based on it’s own merits, simply because of the reasons in my opinion. If you want to play a four player game then you’re going to have to get a few more pads and a multi tap, so think carefully whether you’re really getting Tekken Tag for the multiplayer features or not. In my view, and I don’t really care if you don’t agree (it’s my opinion!) this game should only get around 5/10, as it is an average fighting game, and if Dreamcast hadn’t been here for Tekken Tag to be compared to Soul Calibur, then maybe the generation jump would seem more impressive. It’s got to be 3 stars – 3 stars meaning average, but I don’t like it.
No wonder various online and offline stores are giving the game away free with every PS2. Look past the famous name, if you can, and see a game that doesn’t excel, as it should do, and one that deteriorates straight after the FMV start up intro. No 60hz…
Thanks for reading
Page:
What about this one? (I agree)...
Okay, so you’ve just bought yourself a Playstation 2, and perhaps you’re feeling, like a lot of people, that there really aren’t many decent games available on the format. Well, aside from all the Playstation 1 classics that do actually work on PS2, there aren’t many games worth the full SRP in my opinion that you can get for Sony’s next generation console, but still, look past the obvious Tekken Tag (which isn’t very good really) and forget the appalling FIFA, and find yourself contemplating a game with a familiar face. You may not be the most fanatical athletics fan in the world, but the Track and Field games are definitely at the top of their genre in my view – Konami have created T&F1 & 2 as well as some winter games for the Playstation, but as I never had that console I thought I’d get myself ESPN Track & Field for the Playstation 2 – yes I now own a PS2, and you can expect a lot of PS2 gaming related opinions from me very shortly!
If you’ve played or own the original or number 2 on the Playstation then may I suggest you consider if you really need to buy the PS2 version (should you keep the old one and get a new PS2). I haven’t been incredibly impressed, but ESPN does offer some truly excellent multiplayer fun, and in terms of energetic involvement, this is definitely a game that will wear you out! ‘O’ ‘X’ ‘O’ ‘X’, repeat them as fast as you can!!! That’s the main idea behind this type of game. It’s where the phrase button bashing belongs and was probably derived from – but don’t worry there is a certain amount of skill involved, so it’s not always a case of survival of the quickest! Firstly, I have a slight discrepancy with the game – look on the back cover of the game case and read the brief blurb type text ‘With over a dozen authentic events all with super realistic graphics, animation and sound.’ Ok, so where they say over a dozen they must be talking like a different kind to the rest of us. I can only assume that Konami were under such pressure from Sony or someone to release the game that they forgot two of the events! And that isn’t something to be proud of! And ‘super realistic graphics’?? Err, yeah whatever! No it isn’t that bad a game, and there are 10 events, 3 more than Sega’s Virtua Athlete, but there you go.
100metre dash (meter dash, as they say): This is the easiest event of all, and so you should easily finish in the top 3 in nearly every race. The idea is to sprint by pressing ‘O’ then ‘X’ alternately as fast as possible in order to pick up speed and win! It’s easy when you get into it, so you could find yourself getting world records of about 8.9 seconds! Not the most complex sport of all, and with four of playing you won’t really notice what’s going on – you’ll be smashing the control pad to dust by the time you’ve finished! Don’t full start 3times, and get your ears in perceptive mode!
110metre hurdles: I’m glad they included this event because it’s one of my favourites I think. It requires a little more thought than the 100m, but you still have to sprint with the O and X buttons, but to jump the hurdles you have to press the L1 button. However, there is a blue bar with a target zone under your name at the lower screen with a target zone, so when you see a blue blip move across towards it hit the L1 button to jump – be warned though, don’t take your eye off the little blue bar or you’ll almost certainly miss the jump and lose time. The hurdles are a good event for people who can cope with pressing more than one button, but some people struggle with them! A great event in my view, and I’m glad they didn’t forget this one.
Long Jump: This is really hard to do well in, or maybe I just can’t jump! Try to get around 8 metres by pressing X and O as fast as you can (alternatively of course) and get ready to jump on the white line by holding down the L1 button to determine the angle at which you’ll be jumping at! I think you need around 15 degrees, but there will be instructions in the game to tell you the angle etc. Not the most exciting event, and infuriatingly difficult at first – I think I can only get around 7m!
Pole Vault: everyone’s favourite event? Yeah right! This is probably the one that catches most people out and makes there score drop right down, simply because it involves a sequence of button pressing. It’s not to difficult once you learn how to do it and the on screen instructions are worth watching, although sometimes they aren’t that helpful. The best height to start off with is the lowest, just to make sure you can jump it and get some points, and then attempt the 5.75 and 6m heights. Not the most adventurous event, but it offers something a bit more complex than the 100m for sure.
Javelin throw: Definitely a favourite among gamers, and quite easy to break the world record distance. Run as fast as you can whilst keeping the onscreen angle down until you reach the throwing hint line (a small white line before the fault line – don’t miss it!) and then press up to throw the javelin, making sure the angle is around 45degrees (the mark line on the onscreen display diagram). You should aim for around 80m plus to stand a chance of a medal in this event. Sprint as per usual (O & X) to build up speed, which effectively builds up your power.
100-m freestyle: an excellent event that left me bemused after failing to get anywhere on the first attempt – it’s very, very hard work for the control pad let me tell you! You’ll be quite exhausted after this one, as you have to simultaneously press the L1 and R1 buttons as close together and as fast as possible! Just use one hand, I find a chopping action underhand move repeatedly will be the best way to win. You may have to pause though, as this will shatter most people out – is it harder than the actual thing? I wouldn’t know, but at least you get some exercise! Slight fault. The water effects look ok, the replay splashes look awful, but the motion blur is quite good. There’s nothing wrong with the game play, but on a small note – turn to your instruction booklet to find that it says 110meter freestyle, when in fact it’s a 100m. Another rushed event? No, but they could get it right. Good event, something that VA2K and other athletic games never seem to include.
Weightlifting: another event that causes a few upsets and helps better players at this event to overtake their opponents. Its very complicated, so just read the instructions on the screen! It’s funny how the characters’ faces look really intense as they lift the weight and the real life player (you and me) actually resemble the facial expressions whilst tapping away furiously with the O & X buttons. Very funny indeed, you’ll know what I mean, possibly. Not one of my favourite events, but there you go.
Horizontal bar: a really fun and inventive event that requires a bit more skill than the rest. You have to use all four buttons here and follow the onscreen instructions to get good tricks. Firstly you have to stop the timer gauge the (square) button so try to get something like an E or D, the lower the better, as it’s more difficult to perform (less time) and so you get more points if you do it correctly. Unlike most other events you get a score out of 10 (just like the other gymnastic event), so try your best! The controls: O is right, X is down, (square) is left and triangle is up. Simple really. It’s a superb inclusion!
Trap shooting! Hooray! Something different, that I have never tried before in both real-life or in a video game. I don’t know if this was included in the previous games, but it’s actually really hard. Release the clay pigeon by pressing X, (start off with one on the first go – the amount increases per shoot), then move about the directional pad or the analogue pad and shoot by pressing O. You have to make sure the clay pigeon is in the aim range otherwise you won’t shoot it down. Very hard, but great fun!
Rhythmic Gymnastics: ok this may not be the most riveting sport ever, but it’s the easiest one to gain points on. First of all you have to select the music (which affects the level difficulty), and then watch the young sportswomen with the very dodgy looking arm (poor graphical representation of people’s arms here…) and press the buttons according to the arrows that appear on the screen. Same control method as the horizontal bar, but of course you can actually use the D-pad to perform the moves. Don’t though. This event has a flaw, and it’s a very rewarding, if not somewhat unjust and cheating flaw. Because the arrows move so fast and it’s difficult to keep up, you may not do so well. However, if you press all four buttons at the same time, keeping to the rhythm, you’ll not only get ‘perfect’ on every arrow, but you’ll get a 10/10 maximum point world record. Not bad eh? But surely this is cheating! Well, does it really matter? Do what you like, but maybe do the ‘cheating way’ whilst playing against a couple of mates, they won’t know how you did it! Does anyone else know about this?
That’s all the events! Yep, just 10, so they…err…lied. Never mind, maybe you could complain, write a letter and claim compensation – I suppose it’s well within your rights to take the game back, as the item didn’t match the product description. Oh well! I’ll be keeping this one, I also have Tekken Tag, SSX and Moto GP, and I have to say the most impressive are ESPN track and field and SSX, the others will not be in my collection for long I hope!
Konami have given the public a choice to buy this game, and some people will, some won’t but I do recommend it purely for the multiplayer activity. It’s a fun game, and although it isn’t perfect, far from it in fact, ESPN does actually provide some true gaming playability. It’s as fast as you want it to be, and the overall presentation is fairly good, with some truly superb sound – the Playstation 2 is capable of really impressive audio effects. The graphics are okay, nothing more nothing less than average. The animation is good, but the glitches, the frame rate and the background, crowd effects, detail and polygon count all could be improved, and I imagine they will be with the next instalment. I don’t really know if the game holds an official license, as far as I can tell, the only official person in the game is Maurice Greene, but of course, you can enter your own name, select your own country and break your own records. There’s a save game facility, but with no extras to unlock the game survives because of the multiplayer gaming.
Next time I’d like to play the promised amount of events, the number that it says on the cover! The graphics need improving, we don’t want white track lines jumping around, or rubbishy cut out crowds, and it’d be a good thing to make the game run at 60hz, have some features to unlock, and perhaps even some more official people. Overall it’s a 3 star game, it’s good, but not as good as it should be, as with so many games for the Playstation 2. Get it if you don’t have the originals (1 or 2) because basically, they’re better games with more events and even comparable graphics. There are only 2 game modes: Trial and a world circuit event kind of thing, so in trial you can compete for medals, and in world circuit (championship) you have to battle it out over all 10 events. Not bad, could be better!
Thanks for reading I hope my opinion was helpful to y’all.
Okay, so you’ve just bought yourself a Playstation 2, and perhaps you’re feeling, like a lot of people, that there really aren’t many decent games available on the format. Well, aside from all the Playstation 1 classics that do actually work on PS2, there aren’t many games worth the full SRP in my opinion that you can get for Sony’s next generation console, but still, look past the obvious Tekken Tag (which isn’t very good really) and forget the appalling FIFA, and find yourself contemplating a game with a familiar face. You may not be the most fanatical athletics fan in the world, but the Track and Field games are definitely at the top of their genre in my view – Konami have created T&F1 & 2 as well as some winter games for the Playstation, but as I never had that console I thought I’d get myself ESPN Track & Field for the Playstation 2 – yes I now own a PS2, and you can expect a lot of PS2 gaming related opinions from me very shortly!
If you’ve played or own the original or number 2 on the Playstation then may I suggest you consider if you really need to buy the PS2 version (should you keep the old one and get a new PS2). I haven’t been incredibly impressed, but ESPN does offer some truly excellent multiplayer fun, and in terms of energetic involvement, this is definitely a game that will wear you out! ‘O’ ‘X’ ‘O’ ‘X’, repeat them as fast as you can!!! That’s the main idea behind this type of game. It’s where the phrase button bashing belongs and was probably derived from – but don’t worry there is a certain amount of skill involved, so it’s not always a case of survival of the quickest! Firstly, I have a slight discrepancy with the game – look on the back cover of the game case and read the brief blurb type text ‘With over a dozen authentic events all with super realistic graphics, animation and sound.’ Ok, so where they say over a dozen they must be talking like a different kind to the rest of us. I can only assume that Konami were under such pressure from Sony or someone to release the game that they forgot two of the events! And that isn’t something to be proud of! And ‘super realistic graphics’?? Err, yeah whatever! No it isn’t that bad a game, and there are 10 events, 3 more than Sega’s Virtua Athlete, but there you go.
100metre dash (meter dash, as they say): This is the easiest event of all, and so you should easily finish in the top 3 in nearly every race. The idea is to sprint by pressing ‘O’ then ‘X’ alternately as fast as possible in order to pick up speed and win! It’s easy when you get into it, so you could find yourself getting world records of about 8.9 seconds! Not the most complex sport of all, and with four of playing you won’t really notice what’s going on – you’ll be smashing the control pad to dust by the time you’ve finished! Don’t full start 3times, and get your ears in perceptive mode!
110metre hurdles: I’m glad they included this event because it’s one of my favourites I think. It requires a little more thought than the 100m, but you still have to sprint with the O and X buttons, but to jump the hurdles you have to press the L1 button. However, there is a blue bar with a target zone under your name at the lower screen with a target zone, so when you see a blue blip move across towards it hit the L1 button to jump – be warned though, don’t take your eye off the little blue bar or you’ll almost certainly miss the jump and lose time. The hurdles are a good event for people who can cope with pressing more than one button, but some people struggle with them! A great event in my view, and I’m glad they didn’t forget this one.
Long Jump: This is really hard to do well in, or maybe I just can’t jump! Try to get around 8 metres by pressing X and O as fast as you can (alternatively of course) and get ready to jump on the white line by holding down the L1 button to determine the angle at which you’ll be jumping at! I think you need around 15 degrees, but there will be instructions in the game to tell you the angle etc. Not the most exciting event, and infuriatingly difficult at first – I think I can only get around 7m!
Pole Vault: everyone’s favourite event? Yeah right! This is probably the one that catches most people out and makes there score drop right down, simply because it involves a sequence of button pressing. It’s not to difficult once you learn how to do it and the on screen instructions are worth watching, although sometimes they aren’t that helpful. The best height to start off with is the lowest, just to make sure you can jump it and get some points, and then attempt the 5.75 and 6m heights. Not the most adventurous event, but it offers something a bit more complex than the 100m for sure.
Javelin throw: Definitely a favourite among gamers, and quite easy to break the world record distance. Run as fast as you can whilst keeping the onscreen angle down until you reach the throwing hint line (a small white line before the fault line – don’t miss it!) and then press up to throw the javelin, making sure the angle is around 45degrees (the mark line on the onscreen display diagram). You should aim for around 80m plus to stand a chance of a medal in this event. Sprint as per usual (O & X) to build up speed, which effectively builds up your power.
100-m freestyle: an excellent event that left me bemused after failing to get anywhere on the first attempt – it’s very, very hard work for the control pad let me tell you! You’ll be quite exhausted after this one, as you have to simultaneously press the L1 and R1 buttons as close together and as fast as possible! Just use one hand, I find a chopping action underhand move repeatedly will be the best way to win. You may have to pause though, as this will shatter most people out – is it harder than the actual thing? I wouldn’t know, but at least you get some exercise! Slight fault. The water effects look ok, the replay splashes look awful, but the motion blur is quite good. There’s nothing wrong with the game play, but on a small note – turn to your instruction booklet to find that it says 110meter freestyle, when in fact it’s a 100m. Another rushed event? No, but they could get it right. Good event, something that VA2K and other athletic games never seem to include.
Weightlifting: another event that causes a few upsets and helps better players at this event to overtake their opponents. Its very complicated, so just read the instructions on the screen! It’s funny how the characters’ faces look really intense as they lift the weight and the real life player (you and me) actually resemble the facial expressions whilst tapping away furiously with the O & X buttons. Very funny indeed, you’ll know what I mean, possibly. Not one of my favourite events, but there you go.
Horizontal bar: a really fun and inventive event that requires a bit more skill than the rest. You have to use all four buttons here and follow the onscreen instructions to get good tricks. Firstly you have to stop the timer gauge the (square) button so try to get something like an E or D, the lower the better, as it’s more difficult to perform (less time) and so you get more points if you do it correctly. Unlike most other events you get a score out of 10 (just like the other gymnastic event), so try your best! The controls: O is right, X is down, (square) is left and triangle is up. Simple really. It’s a superb inclusion!
Trap shooting! Hooray! Something different, that I have never tried before in both real-life or in a video game. I don’t know if this was included in the previous games, but it’s actually really hard. Release the clay pigeon by pressing X, (start off with one on the first go – the amount increases per shoot), then move about the directional pad or the analogue pad and shoot by pressing O. You have to make sure the clay pigeon is in the aim range otherwise you won’t shoot it down. Very hard, but great fun!
Rhythmic Gymnastics: ok this may not be the most riveting sport ever, but it’s the easiest one to gain points on. First of all you have to select the music (which affects the level difficulty), and then watch the young sportswomen with the very dodgy looking arm (poor graphical representation of people’s arms here…) and press the buttons according to the arrows that appear on the screen. Same control method as the horizontal bar, but of course you can actually use the D-pad to perform the moves. Don’t though. This event has a flaw, and it’s a very rewarding, if not somewhat unjust and cheating flaw. Because the arrows move so fast and it’s difficult to keep up, you may not do so well. However, if you press all four buttons at the same time, keeping to the rhythm, you’ll not only get ‘perfect’ on every arrow, but you’ll get a 10/10 maximum point world record. Not bad eh? But surely this is cheating! Well, does it really matter? Do what you like, but maybe do the ‘cheating way’ whilst playing against a couple of mates, they won’t know how you did it! Does anyone else know about this?
That’s all the events! Yep, just 10, so they…err…lied. Never mind, maybe you could complain, write a letter and claim compensation – I suppose it’s well within your rights to take the game back, as the item didn’t match the product description. Oh well! I’ll be keeping this one, I also have Tekken Tag, SSX and Moto GP, and I have to say the most impressive are ESPN track and field and SSX, the others will not be in my collection for long I hope!
Konami have given the public a choice to buy this game, and some people will, some won’t but I do recommend it purely for the multiplayer activity. It’s a fun game, and although it isn’t perfect, far from it in fact, ESPN does actually provide some true gaming playability. It’s as fast as you want it to be, and the overall presentation is fairly good, with some truly superb sound – the Playstation 2 is capable of really impressive audio effects. The graphics are okay, nothing more nothing less than average. The animation is good, but the glitches, the frame rate and the background, crowd effects, detail and polygon count all could be improved, and I imagine they will be with the next instalment. I don’t really know if the game holds an official license, as far as I can tell, the only official person in the game is Maurice Greene, but of course, you can enter your own name, select your own country and break your own records. There’s a save game facility, but with no extras to unlock the game survives because of the multiplayer gaming.
Next time I’d like to play the promised amount of events, the number that it says on the cover! The graphics need improving, we don’t want white track lines jumping around, or rubbishy cut out crowds, and it’d be a good thing to make the game run at 60hz, have some features to unlock, and perhaps even some more official people. Overall it’s a 3 star game, it’s good, but not as good as it should be, as with so many games for the Playstation 2. Get it if you don’t have the originals (1 or 2) because basically, they’re better games with more events and even comparable graphics. There are only 2 game modes: Trial and a world circuit event kind of thing, so in trial you can compete for medals, and in world circuit (championship) you have to battle it out over all 10 events. Not bad, could be better!
Thanks for reading I hope my opinion was helpful to y’all.
worse
They've certainly got shorter, so that's a good start.
Soul Caliber 2 is coming to Gamecube as well... :)
Soul Caliber 2 is coming to Gamecube as well... :)
Ok, due to illness (of my PC) I haven't been submitting many contributions or reviews, but here's Tekken Tag Tournament, so if you'd like to read it (you better get some supplies now!), then I'd be most grateful if you tell me what you think!
Dan2K1
Tekken Tag Tournament would have been something to get excited about, but with the majority of the first wave of PlayStation 2 titles, it manages to do everything apart from satisfy. To say that Namco’s latest Tekken title in the long running series is a superb game, and the sort of thing PlayStation2 owners deserve, would be a grave exaggeration. When choosing the games to go with my PS2, recently purchased from a local, well-known branch store, I couldn’t really decide which 2 I’d go for. I’d heard that SSX was supposed to be the best game on Sony’s latest escapade, and so to accompany this I had to choose another game in the top 10range to be entitled to the £10 off. So, with a lot of people telling me that TTT was absolutely amazing, I went for this! Oh dear. Let me explain!
I never owned any of the Tekken games, so this is my first experience of Namco’s Tekken franchise, and although I’ve played other Namco games, nothing has been such a disappointment than this, with the possible exception of the pretty poor Ridge Racer 5. I have a Sega Dreamcast games console as well as a PlayStation 2, so obviously I have Soul Calibur in my collection – another Namco fighting game. Now, a lot of people compare Tekken Tag to Soul Calibur, and most PS2 owners will say Tekken is better, and Dreamcast owners will mostly say Soul Calibur is better. But in my honest opinion, the games cannot be compared with one another! Soul Calibur is at a higher level of game play and graphical realism (and surrealism) than TTT in my view. One of the main reasons for me getting a PS2 is that Soul Calibur 2 will be released on the format, and I can’t wait! Tekken fans will be sure to change their tune when that one arrives!
So anyway, moving on. Tekken Tag isn’t the worst fighting game, and fans of the series and owners of the previous games will probably feel instantly at home with the game thanks to a mostly unchanged control system, with very few new characters and similar graphics to Tekken 3. In fact, a lot of game reviewers say TTT is basically an update of Tekken 3. I really can’t judge that. What I can judge however is the game itself and how it plays. After around 5minutes play I found the game to be really slow. I mean Virtua Fighter 2 style slow. It’d be interesting if Soul Calibur and TTT had a race? Hmmm… I also don’t like the very static way the characters move around the arena, as there doesn’t seem to be a very 3D ‘8way run’ kind of game implementation here, so it’s very difficult to move away from an opponent other than jumping forward or backwards – I’d prefer to move from side to side more easily. The controls have to be learnt here, and the game isn’t as easy to pick up and play, as I would have liked.
Ok, Visuals. I’ve already criticised the graphics and character fluidity in TTT, and it seems as though the designers have spent more time on the dazzling lighting effects rather than the aspects that count – the arenas and characters. Ok, so everything looks ok, but you’ll soon notice that the arena floors start to jolt around and judder a bit, and the character animation and general polygon count is comparable to the relatively pathetic Mortal Kombat Gold on the Dreamcast and N64 (known as MK4 on N64). The lighting effects look excellent though, but in my view are just over the top. With every throw, punch or kick, even when your character moves, the most elaborate shining light effect takes place, and often looks pointless. However, the arena stage design is fairly good, and the various snowing effects and arena skies look decent enough. If only Sony could be bothered to enforce a 60hz rule for all PS2 games, like many DC games have been: this results in much smoother graphics and faster frame rate. Maybe Tekken 4 will surprise me in a better way.
The sound is good, and although the music can get very annoying (especially at Yoshimitsu’s snowing stage), the overall standard of clear sound is high. I’ve noticed that the PlayStation 2 is capable of very impressive sound effects, thanks to Dolby Digital sound (or something like this). Each character has a phrase or two that they say whenever the battle ends, but this sounds very muffled and is quite hard to make out – similarly to Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn (again!). This doesn’t really matter all that much though, but I think Namco could have made slightly better use of the PS2 superior sound capabilities.
The best thing about Tekken is the amount of characters to choose from, and with the hidden incentive to play through the game to unlock some more, sometimes very powerful or special, characters. There’re 20 characters to start with, and around 10 extra to unlock as you progress through various game modes. Everyone has a favourite character, so I’d say Yoshimitsu is mine – simply because his excellent flea move is about the only one I can master properly, and that aluminous sword looks really quite impressive, Gun Jack also seems to have very effective weapons (his arms), and is another one of the most used characters. Just in case you want know all the characters available, here’s a list: Heihachi Mishima, Bryan Fury, Ganryu, Armor King, Anna Williams, Michelle Chang, Baek Doo San, Jun Kazama, Gun Jack, Julia Chang, Eddy Gordo, Hwoarang, Ling Xiaoyu, Yoshimitsu, Nina Williams, King, Lei Wulong, Forest Law, Paul Phoenix and Jin Kazama. There is an additional 10 characters to unlock, so I won’t spoil it for you!
The game is all about Tag team fighting, and so you nearly always have to pick two characters in whatever game mode you’re playing. Now, if you’ve played Dead or Alive 2, which is both on PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, then you’ll know that this game features an excellent, really effective and easy to use Tag team mode, but in Tekken tag, you always have to select two players – in DoA2 there’s just one mode for Tag battles. This may seem good for some people, but I prefer the DoA2 method, as tagging gets really boring after a while, especially when Tekken Tag’s feature is actually quite poor in comparison. There’s the usual Arcade, versus, Survival and the single character (yeah!) One-on-One modes, but the action all seems to happen so very slowly. There are other modes available including a fairly pointless, but nonetheless, quite fun Tekken Bowl mode, which really does prove that this is not a true next generation game (you’ll be asking yourself ‘is this really PlayStation 2?’). The game box back cover states that Tekken tag has ‘the most advanced animation ever to be seen in a videogame’. They obviously didn’t see Dead or Alive 2.
To be fair though, this is a good game for those who like this kind of game, but if you want something that’s easy to pick up and start playing straight away, and something that’s a little bit faster, then I strongly recommend Dead or Alive 2 – it’s on the DC and the PS2 so you won’t have to get a whole new console. The game case is fairly ordinary, with one of the character’s faces covering most of it. I guess I prefer the weaponry fighting games as opposed to the mainly ‘non-weaponry’ games, like Tekken, and indeed Dead or Alive 2. Soul Calibur is a better game in my view, and is the only real reason for me getting another Namco game – if only Tekken had been as good!
Overall, if you’ve played through Tekken 3 so many times that you find yourself sleeping whilst playing it, then don’t get TTT, it’s basically the same game – so I’m told, of course, I don’t recommend the game based on it’s own merits, simply because of the reasons in my opinion. If you want to play a four player game then you’re going to have to get a few more pads and a multi tap, so think carefully whether you’re really getting Tekken Tag for the multiplayer features or not. In my view, and I don’t really care if you don’t agree (it’s my opinion!) this game should only get around 5/10, as it is an average fighting game, and if Dreamcast hadn’t been here for Tekken Tag to be compared to Soul Calibur, then maybe the generation jump would seem more impressive. It’s got to be 3 stars – 3 stars meaning average, but I don’t like it.
No wonder various online and offline stores are giving the game away free with every PS2. Look past the famous name, if you can, and see a game that doesn’t excel, as it should do, and one that deteriorates straight after the FMV start up intro. No 60hz…
Thanks for reading
Dan2K1
Tekken Tag Tournament would have been something to get excited about, but with the majority of the first wave of PlayStation 2 titles, it manages to do everything apart from satisfy. To say that Namco’s latest Tekken title in the long running series is a superb game, and the sort of thing PlayStation2 owners deserve, would be a grave exaggeration. When choosing the games to go with my PS2, recently purchased from a local, well-known branch store, I couldn’t really decide which 2 I’d go for. I’d heard that SSX was supposed to be the best game on Sony’s latest escapade, and so to accompany this I had to choose another game in the top 10range to be entitled to the £10 off. So, with a lot of people telling me that TTT was absolutely amazing, I went for this! Oh dear. Let me explain!
I never owned any of the Tekken games, so this is my first experience of Namco’s Tekken franchise, and although I’ve played other Namco games, nothing has been such a disappointment than this, with the possible exception of the pretty poor Ridge Racer 5. I have a Sega Dreamcast games console as well as a PlayStation 2, so obviously I have Soul Calibur in my collection – another Namco fighting game. Now, a lot of people compare Tekken Tag to Soul Calibur, and most PS2 owners will say Tekken is better, and Dreamcast owners will mostly say Soul Calibur is better. But in my honest opinion, the games cannot be compared with one another! Soul Calibur is at a higher level of game play and graphical realism (and surrealism) than TTT in my view. One of the main reasons for me getting a PS2 is that Soul Calibur 2 will be released on the format, and I can’t wait! Tekken fans will be sure to change their tune when that one arrives!
So anyway, moving on. Tekken Tag isn’t the worst fighting game, and fans of the series and owners of the previous games will probably feel instantly at home with the game thanks to a mostly unchanged control system, with very few new characters and similar graphics to Tekken 3. In fact, a lot of game reviewers say TTT is basically an update of Tekken 3. I really can’t judge that. What I can judge however is the game itself and how it plays. After around 5minutes play I found the game to be really slow. I mean Virtua Fighter 2 style slow. It’d be interesting if Soul Calibur and TTT had a race? Hmmm… I also don’t like the very static way the characters move around the arena, as there doesn’t seem to be a very 3D ‘8way run’ kind of game implementation here, so it’s very difficult to move away from an opponent other than jumping forward or backwards – I’d prefer to move from side to side more easily. The controls have to be learnt here, and the game isn’t as easy to pick up and play, as I would have liked.
Ok, Visuals. I’ve already criticised the graphics and character fluidity in TTT, and it seems as though the designers have spent more time on the dazzling lighting effects rather than the aspects that count – the arenas and characters. Ok, so everything looks ok, but you’ll soon notice that the arena floors start to jolt around and judder a bit, and the character animation and general polygon count is comparable to the relatively pathetic Mortal Kombat Gold on the Dreamcast and N64 (known as MK4 on N64). The lighting effects look excellent though, but in my view are just over the top. With every throw, punch or kick, even when your character moves, the most elaborate shining light effect takes place, and often looks pointless. However, the arena stage design is fairly good, and the various snowing effects and arena skies look decent enough. If only Sony could be bothered to enforce a 60hz rule for all PS2 games, like many DC games have been: this results in much smoother graphics and faster frame rate. Maybe Tekken 4 will surprise me in a better way.
The sound is good, and although the music can get very annoying (especially at Yoshimitsu’s snowing stage), the overall standard of clear sound is high. I’ve noticed that the PlayStation 2 is capable of very impressive sound effects, thanks to Dolby Digital sound (or something like this). Each character has a phrase or two that they say whenever the battle ends, but this sounds very muffled and is quite hard to make out – similarly to Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn (again!). This doesn’t really matter all that much though, but I think Namco could have made slightly better use of the PS2 superior sound capabilities.
The best thing about Tekken is the amount of characters to choose from, and with the hidden incentive to play through the game to unlock some more, sometimes very powerful or special, characters. There’re 20 characters to start with, and around 10 extra to unlock as you progress through various game modes. Everyone has a favourite character, so I’d say Yoshimitsu is mine – simply because his excellent flea move is about the only one I can master properly, and that aluminous sword looks really quite impressive, Gun Jack also seems to have very effective weapons (his arms), and is another one of the most used characters. Just in case you want know all the characters available, here’s a list: Heihachi Mishima, Bryan Fury, Ganryu, Armor King, Anna Williams, Michelle Chang, Baek Doo San, Jun Kazama, Gun Jack, Julia Chang, Eddy Gordo, Hwoarang, Ling Xiaoyu, Yoshimitsu, Nina Williams, King, Lei Wulong, Forest Law, Paul Phoenix and Jin Kazama. There is an additional 10 characters to unlock, so I won’t spoil it for you!
The game is all about Tag team fighting, and so you nearly always have to pick two characters in whatever game mode you’re playing. Now, if you’ve played Dead or Alive 2, which is both on PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, then you’ll know that this game features an excellent, really effective and easy to use Tag team mode, but in Tekken tag, you always have to select two players – in DoA2 there’s just one mode for Tag battles. This may seem good for some people, but I prefer the DoA2 method, as tagging gets really boring after a while, especially when Tekken Tag’s feature is actually quite poor in comparison. There’s the usual Arcade, versus, Survival and the single character (yeah!) One-on-One modes, but the action all seems to happen so very slowly. There are other modes available including a fairly pointless, but nonetheless, quite fun Tekken Bowl mode, which really does prove that this is not a true next generation game (you’ll be asking yourself ‘is this really PlayStation 2?’). The game box back cover states that Tekken tag has ‘the most advanced animation ever to be seen in a videogame’. They obviously didn’t see Dead or Alive 2.
To be fair though, this is a good game for those who like this kind of game, but if you want something that’s easy to pick up and start playing straight away, and something that’s a little bit faster, then I strongly recommend Dead or Alive 2 – it’s on the DC and the PS2 so you won’t have to get a whole new console. The game case is fairly ordinary, with one of the character’s faces covering most of it. I guess I prefer the weaponry fighting games as opposed to the mainly ‘non-weaponry’ games, like Tekken, and indeed Dead or Alive 2. Soul Calibur is a better game in my view, and is the only real reason for me getting another Namco game – if only Tekken had been as good!
Overall, if you’ve played through Tekken 3 so many times that you find yourself sleeping whilst playing it, then don’t get TTT, it’s basically the same game – so I’m told, of course, I don’t recommend the game based on it’s own merits, simply because of the reasons in my opinion. If you want to play a four player game then you’re going to have to get a few more pads and a multi tap, so think carefully whether you’re really getting Tekken Tag for the multiplayer features or not. In my view, and I don’t really care if you don’t agree (it’s my opinion!) this game should only get around 5/10, as it is an average fighting game, and if Dreamcast hadn’t been here for Tekken Tag to be compared to Soul Calibur, then maybe the generation jump would seem more impressive. It’s got to be 3 stars – 3 stars meaning average, but I don’t like it.
No wonder various online and offline stores are giving the game away free with every PS2. Look past the famous name, if you can, and see a game that doesn’t excel, as it should do, and one that deteriorates straight after the FMV start up intro. No 60hz…
Thanks for reading
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