This winter Tekken 6 is hitting a home cinema near you – so you will be pleased to know that I have checked it out and it seems pretty spangly. The producer, Katsuhiro Harada, firmly believes that the arcades are what make Tekken so special and its fan base keeps it alive and kicking. The arcade action is now ready for your front room and with lots of input gleaned from networked fans across Korea and Japan it has evolved into something quite special.
New wall and bounce combos pull this game out of the dark ages. Players can finally continue to fight opponents that have fallen to the floor by picking them up with a bounce combo and then maybe throwing them against a wall. Destructible environments let you kick some ass and open out the arenas. Harada San hopes that this will draw out more skill in the gamer by forcing them to fight in varying spaces. If you get bored of the one on one there is also a brand new scenario mode. It’s ‘large in volume’ creating a whole new element to the console’s Tekken experience.
The game has many aesthetic novelties to offer and Harada San seemed particularly excited by the wonders of the blur effect which is available at normal game-play rate of 60 frames per second. The blur is a new feature that can be applied to the screen to make the character movements seem instantly more fluid and create a feeling of real action. New depth of environment also gives the game a proper 3D feel with golden sun rays disrupting the shadows and all that next gen processing power ensuring a sparkle in the air.
Tekken is extremely popular in Europe with 6 million copies of number five sold worldwide and a staggering 4 million of those sitting right here in the European continent. The sixth installment of Tekken carries on the trend of European characters gracing the game and is set to deliver individuals from Germany, Spain and Sweden. Harada San is committed to keeping this fan base happy by integrating European culture and fighting styles into the game. He also feels that increasing the character choice allows players to find a character that they can fully connect with. All the characters are awesome of course but each has a flaw and finding this out is all part of becoming fully integrated into the gaming experience.
Apparently games like Tekken are always best when produced in Japan due to their development culture. Harada San was at pains to point out that we are great in the West too with our shooters and movie style stories, but for fighters Japan is where it’s all at. They enjoy developing games that require gamers to learn the subtleties of their chosen character and slowly build them into an amazing fighter.
It was great to meet Katsuhiro Harada in the flesh and I had this opportunity through a recent Namco Bandi event. I met up with fellow Ready Upper Loz and we went to see the Namco Bandi full range and find out a little more about each game. We saw no less then 12 new titles, played the free arcade consoles, drank the free beer and got the chance to interview some pretty cool people all the way from Japan.
Loz and I started the night by locating Namco station on London’s south bank. I tried my hand (and foot) at Family Trainer using the Wii mat and discovered playing whilst holding a wii mote, large handbag and bottle of beer is a recipe for failure. All too soon we were ushered behind the dark curtains sectioning off the mini presentation area. Each seat was adorned with goodies and we greedily ravaged our Bandai bags finding a figurine and more info then seemed necessary. Until this point I had not fully realised how much we would be shown and was secretly glad to have the reference material.
The techno started and we were blasted through a treat of gamey snippets ranging vastly in style, platform and genre. David Miller, the UK marketing director, stepped forward as the visuals and noise faded away and he introduced us to an evening of entertainment.
First up was Imre Jele the project director for Volatile games. Imre was the supporting act for Dead to Rights Retribution. I was initially put off by the Batman style gruff hero voice over and corny looking bad guys, but as Imre talked us through it my opinions started change… but I won’t go into that because I would be here all night and the lovely Loz has decided to give you a personal update on that one.
Next we got to see Family Trainer Extreme Challenge and my pitiful attempt to play the game earlier was sorely over shadowed by the tiny Japanese rep who gleefully pranced all over the mat getting top scores. Ryo Mito took the stage next as producer for Dragonball and I discovered that Dragonball and I were born in the same year. Three titles are coming up in the UK this year: Dragonball Raging Blast (PS3 and 360), Dragonball Revenge of King Piccolo (Wii) and Dragonball Z Attack of the Saiyans (DS). They covered the full range with 3D gameplay on the next gen consoles, side scrolling action on the Wii and role playing on the DS. So if you’re a bit of a Dragonball fan then this could be a good autumn.
At this point David Miller stepped back up to get things moving a little faster and whizzed us through a set of trailers for Go Go Cosmo Cops (DS, Aug 09), Katamari Forever (PS3, Sep 09), One Piece Unlimited Cruise 2 (Wii, Sep 09), Naruto Legends, (PSP, Sep 09), Magna Carta II (360, Oct 09) and Tales of Symphonia (Wii, Nov 09). I can’t tell you any more about these titles that you couldn’t find out from You tubing the latest trailer so to all you Cosmo Cops fans out there I do apologise for not having any dirt to dish.
The mood in the room shifted slightly as Katsuhiro Harada took the floor and brought tears to our eyes with the stunning graphics of Tekken 6. He then brought more tears to our eyes with the high price of a bundle pack (arcade stick and game) coming in at almost £150. It was fun to watch him painstakingly drag his translator into various fighting arenas to throw him through walls, floors and strange glass canopies. He then beat him down to within an inch of his life to demonstrate the rage mode a character could invoke in their last living moments before he finished him off. He also mentioned the highly anticipated online versus mode allowing characters to compete around the globe.
The demonstration ended with two new titles: Cities XL and Easy Piano. Cities XL was really quite stunning and if I had a computer that could run it I most certainly would be in there creating beautifully ornate sewage systems and integrated industrial sectors. Easy Piano allows a piano to be stuck onto the front of your DS so you can learn the tiny one hand piano. Just like playing the miniature violin I imagine it may be just a little bit sad.
When I was released from my seat the pretty ‘indigo pole’ PR lady swanned us off to meet Kazahito Udetso the producer for Katamari Forever. Udetso San sat us down and played through various elements of the game showing off the features this one has to offer.
Katamari nuts will be pleased to know that there are about 12 hours of forever mode available on the first play through. It is fully 1080p compatible and you can pick your filters for each environment to make them look more slick, or hand drawn or colourful. Of course you have to unlock the level before you can fiddle with them, the King has not eased up on you that much! But he has eased up a little as you get features such as magnetism mode where you can magnetise stuff to your katamari from a distance. Getting a big Katamairi can be a breeze, as long as you can find the magnetism pick up.
The developers wanted to do something totally different for this game, but still keep the fans happy. So they have some of the old levels from previous games available in black and white that you can roll the colour back into. Another mode allows you to use a sponge katamari so instead of picking things up you water the land and flowers grow. The concept is the anti Katamari that doesn’t grow itself but makes the landscape grow around it. If you make enough plants animals will begin to appear and apparently they carry presents, yay!
More new stuff includes ‘Katamari drive’ so you can roll with speed; more height to levels and jumping your katamari to reach them. There is even a sumo mode where you roll a super sumo before fighting the awaiting super sumo in the centre of the village.
The most refreshing thing about meeting Udetso San was his joy at our delight in the game. He seemed beside himself that we wanted to keep playing and try out some of the new features. He was also very impressed with Loz’s leet skillz controlling the Katamari. She had never played the game before yet picked it straight up on super fast ‘drive’ mode and made a pretty impressive Katamari.
I dragged myself home at the end of it all trying to remember everything that I had seen. For a one off event in a pretty small venue they certainly stuffed it all in. We jumped, punched, rolled and shot – and that’s enough to send me away smiling.
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