‘Tekken’ things to another level
If you were one of the lucky people to own the original PlayStation when it first came out, chances are that you played your fair share of games on it. Granted, the graphics are nowhere close to what they are today, but still, you played for the thrill of the game .
One such game was Tekken
In case you’re not familiar with Tekken, it’s essentially an action video game that was created, developed and published by Namco. It was later handled by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Originally released in 1994, Tekken was also one of the first fighting games at the time to use 3D animation.
Players could choose a character from a lineup and carry out hand-to-hand combat with an opponent. What originally started off with 7 characters has now grown to more than 17, each with a unique move set and abilities as well.
Tekken goes Mobile
Recently, Bandai Namco games also released Tekken for both Android and iOS devices. Before downloading, it should be noted that Tekken Mobile is quite a large game and if you’re on a limited mobile data plan, it’s recommended to switch to a Wi-Fi connection. Once installed, Tekken Mobile takes around 800-900MB so if you don’t have enough storage on your phone, you might want to free up some space.
It was time to get ready for the next battle
The main screen gives you a dashboard where you can see all your statistics. From the top of the dashboard you have access to details such as current character level, Gems Cash, Achievements, an Inbox and also a Leaderboard. Located at the bottom of the Dashboard, you see a hexagonal gold button with the word “Fight”. On either side of the button are two buttons labelled “Fighters” and “Shop”.
Gearing up for a Fight
The “Fighter” button is your portal to access all your characters. Rather than having all characters available, you have to collect fragments and unlock characters. This is done by winning battles. In addition to collecting fragments for other characters, you are also awarded with experience or XP for your current character, gold, and elemental stones of Grass, Fire, Electric and Water.
Each element has its strengths and weaknesses against another element and as such affects the game play. If your opponent in the game is a Water element and you go with a Fire element, you will have some problems in defeating your opponent.
The characters also have their own power rating, tier and level, along with a breakdown of how much damage they do. If you’re willing to take the time and analyze all the details, then you can surely come up with a winning unbeatable combination of characters.
You can also heal your character after each battle. If you have collected enough elemental stones, you can proceed to power up your character which increases their power, tier and also the amount of strength they posses.
Character upgrades can be done by increasing their skills and upgrading Waza cards which are attacks that each character can use.
As you progress in the game, you will collect fighter fragments that can be used to unlock Waza cards. You can go all out with the heavy attacks, use a number of quick attack or use a combination of both. Lastly, the equipment deals with the cosmetic items that you can equip your character making them look good but has no bearing on their fighting skills.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
Fights in Tekken can take place in a number of methods. For starters, you can take part in the story. This is where you select 3 characters and then proceed to fight each character in Tekken Mobile through a series of battles.
When selecting an opponent, you will see their elemental type and how you match up against it. If you are strong against a particular element, then the scale will tip in your favour, else it will reverse. If both are equally matched, then the scale stays neutral.
Rather than button mashing as with regular Tekken games, you swipe to the right to move your character forward, swipe left to move backward, hold down to block and repeatedly press to attack. Health bars of both your character and the opponent are indicated at the top of the screen along with their name, and element type.
You can also use Waza cards for an added advantage.
Each battle that you win gives you XP, Gold and a certain amount of Elemental stones that can be used to level up your current character. As with the original game, there is also a small cut scene when you start the battle and end it as well, giving a sense of nostalgia to those who were fans of the original series.If the story mode isn’t compelling enough for you, you can opt to fight in a Dojo. This is a challenge that is set forth by other users in order to test your skills. There are also live events.
These are time based and usually have a number of valuable rewards at the end if you complete the event within the given time.
Overall, the game has its pros and cons. It has good graphics, but battles tend to be on the monotonous side. That being said though, it is certainly the perfect time killer if you’re travelling and you’re bored with nothing to do. While the game does have its flaws, it’s refreshing to see Bandai Namco bringing back a classic, making it available to everyone.
(The author is senior tech writer for readme.lk, a leading provider of technology news. Visit readme.lk for more information).