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Review:

4th August 2002:
Tekken Advance
The King of the Iron Fist Tournament returns for a portable outing.
Posted by Wasabi - GameBoy Advance - UK and Europe

With its 32-bit technology, who would have ever thought the GBA would bring back such delights as Final Fight, Doom, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Street Fighter in all its glory. Well, It was only a matter of time before another popular franchise made its way to the GBA. Welcome to the King of Iron Fist Tournament.

There are nine characters to choose from and a secret character to unlock. The favourites from Tekken 3/Tekken Tag are mostly here including Nina, Jack, Law, Yoshimitsu, etc. But how can they have forgotten Eddy? He must be the most used button mashing character in the arcades! He was bound to always pull off some spectacular legwork and a favourite among beginners. Ah well, it is a small cartridge after all and what we lose, we gain in another form. In this instance we gain variety, there are plenty of game modes including arcade, link up battle, time attack, survival, tag battles and practice to immerse yourself in as the hours go by.

Namco have really outdone themselves in replicating Tekken from the arcades and consoles. This little cartridge really captures the essence and fighting spirit of Tekken, but be warned, it is far from perfect and no substitute for the real thing but who cares? No one in his or her right mind should expect a perfect conversion to begin with. Not only is it impossible but also unfair in every sense to compare the GBA version the arcades or consoles in terms of technical ability.

The GBA as most of you are familiar with has two front mounted buttons and two shoulder buttons. Tekken utilizes the two front buttons as punch and kick, while the shoulder buttons is used for throws and tagging partners. So naturally, there are fewer moves as an end result, however once you get used to the arrangement, it becomes unexpectedly instinctive. In fact, the fights soon remind you of something that you would expect from the early Tekken series, with deadly combos, bone cracking throws and fiery explosions.

The tag modes are brilliant, not only does there seem to be no glaring trace of slowdown or jerky movements the addition of side-step moves in the game gives the impression of a simulated 3D fighter when in fact it is 2D. The visuals of the character models look primarily blocky; but there are plenty of good animations that show off the movement and attacks superbly with the exception of some of the grapple moves (especially King's). Stages are nicely decorated and easily recognizable from the Tekken Universe, however, what happened to the victory celebrations? There's nothing better than to gloat like an egoistical lunatic over your victories. At least Namco have compensated the gloating poses by allowing you to control your fighter after your win as you take pleasure in some sadistic body bashing of your fallen opponent.

Tekken Advance length is greatly shortened in single player mode, it just doesn't do enough to make the player want to play over and over again as you don't have anything considerable to unlock other than a playable Heihachi and the Team Battle mode which is not anything to shout home about as you already have available the 3-on-3 battles which is just as good if not better. Don't despair though, it is link cable compatible and that's where new life is bred into Tekken, especially if you have friends. After continually challenging the computer AI, you soon grow weary as their predictable pattern of puny combos and techniques. Playing against a human opponent opens up a whole new world to Tekken as techniques and strategies change. No two Tekken games against a human opponent will ever be the same (even if it was, it would be statistically low� very low) as fighting styles are evolved constantly to outwit each other. My only gripe is that you need 2 cartridges for a link up and at the suggested retail price of �35 one has to wonder if Namco planned this intentionally or was it down to technical issues.

Taking shots at Tekken Advance for not being a re-creation of the original series is unfair and unrealistic. Tekken Advance is an astonishing feat for the GBA and deserves to do well, now where did that link cable go? I have an Iron Fist challenge in half an hour.

Wasabi

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Review Summary:

Portable Gaming has come a long way and can only get better. Forget your Marios and Puzzle games, beat em ups are finally getting the treatment they deserve on the GBA.

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Tekken Advance
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