Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition (Wii U) Review

I will admit that the Tekken franchise is probably the only fighting franchise that I am not a huge fan of, nor one that I follow religiously. The style of gameplay has never appealed to me as much as those of others in the genre, and I was subsequently disappointed to see it announced for the Wii U as the only fighter in the launch line up. However, I enjoyed the 3DS edition of Tekken pretty well, so I gave Tekken Tag Tournament 2 a chance. While it’s still not totally my thing, there are many fantastic things about it, and a few glaring issues too. As a launch title though, it’s competent, very substantial and probably worth trying out. Hopefully by the end of this review you’ll see why.

For the uninitiated, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the second in the Tekken Tag series, a kind of sub series of the game that doesn’t really take series canon into account. Instead, players can enjoy playing as almost every single Tekken character up until that point. This probably means that you’re more than likely to find your favourite character within this game’s roster. Thankfully, those who might be missing some characters over the years will be happy to know that even those long lost, neglected characters throughout the series get their chance to shine too. To put a long story short – this is a “dream match” of Tekken, everyone you want is here to fight and most of them look absolutely fantastic, especially as they might not have seen updates since the Playstation 1 era. For this reason, it feels like a very complete iteration to the franchise and a great starting point for the franchise on the Wii U.

Thankfully, this port manages to perform rather admirably, running at a constant and silky smooth 60FPS with graphics and visuals at parity with its Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts. The models themselves look fantastic, with a lot of detail going into their clothing (and all the physics involved with the clothing) as well as the levels themselves which are alive and dynamic. Tekken Tag Tournament, whether you enjoy the game or the genre itself, is one of the better looking games available on the console at launch (despite being a port). It’s fantastic that the game runs at parity with the consoles it was previously available on, and even more so that it provides the top notch presentation (whether it be the cutscenes which are all beautifully rendered or the sleek user interface) that the franchise is well known for.

The general gist of Tekken’s gameplay is that each button is mapped to a limb – so two kicks and two punchs, with the ability to throw by combining commands and blocks by simply moving away from the opponent. It is an incredibly easy system to pick however it really lacks flow unless you practice your moves and tie them together. This “Dial-A-Combo” approach is a little bit controversial within the fighting game community, and it makes it a little bit less accessible to newcomers.  The main use of the Wii U Gamepad here is presumably to offset this issue – allowing players to assign up to four different moves or combos to buttons on the touchscreen that can be executed with just a tap. It’s simple, and it’s been done before, but it still works rather well. Of course, if you’re not a fan of these “watered down” approaches to the game, not only will the Wii U Pro Controller work with the game, but the official Tatsunoko Arcade Stick will work too. Giving the player all these options is encouraging and allows anyone to play, however they want.

When selecting your characters, players can choose to play either Solo or Tag (both require the KO of one character as a victory). Tag mode has been significantly expanded since the original Tekken Tag Tournament, with many characters being able to perform certain moves tailor made for the tag mechanic. Tag throws allow both players to cinematically beat down their opponent, while “tag assaults” can see both players on one team coming out at belting down their enemies at the same time. It’s a nice and simple system that doesn’t alienate players of a certain skill level, though to be quite blunt I am not sure if they are worth putting effort into pulling off when compared to other manoeuvres possible with the characters.

While the general gameplay mechanics are all intact, players will be happy to know that the Wii U Edition is easily one of the most feature complete editions of the game on the market. All characters are included, including the DLC ones, without an extra charge. Additionally, no online pass is required for players wanting to take their skills online. Finally, two additional modes are added – a mushroom battle mode, which is pretty weak and shallow, allowing players to grab mushrooms to increase or decrease their size; and Tekken Ball mode, a mini game of sorts that has been clamoured for from fans ever since it made its debut in Tekken 3. Finally, costumes for every single character are implemented, all of which hail from various iconic Nintendo franchises. The only real disappointment here is that the costumes are set in stone – only one character will wear one Nintendo costume, and these cannot be exchanged between characters. It’s not a huge deal breaker, but it’s something we thought was worth mentioning.

Of course, besides the exclusive modes you’ve still got a plethora of options available. The game allows players to choose between all kinds of different set ups, be it 2 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2 or good old fashioned 1 vs. 1 – there is definitely something for everyone on the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 disc. Your standard fighting games modes are thankfully all included – including Arcade/Story, Versus, Team Battles, Time Attack and Survival modes. Additionally, there is a comprehensive training mode available to players that allows them to practice their moves, assign them to the Gamepad’s touchscreen, as well as develop their own combos and test them out on an idle (or moving if you prefer) target. And of course, there are the online modes.

The online modes in Tekken Tag Tournament are easily the most puzzling inclusion in Wii U Edition. For one, players are not inevitable at all unless they are sitting in the multiplayer menu. This makes it rather hard to play a game with friends unless you’ve explicitly planned it in advance. A cool feature is that players can set a keyword while searching. This keyword would basically let other players join only people who are also searching using that keyword. The implications for this on community events are fantastic – you could theoretically make a group of people use the keyword “Vooks” and hold a mini pseudo-tournament for yourselves. It’s a cool idea. The worst thing, though, is that once you “begin a search”, you must select your characters and sit in a training room until someone joins.

Following this, players can rematch, but must use the same characters. There is no way to choose new characters without backing out, initiating a new search, and waiting for your opponent to join. It’s incredibly cumbersome and confusing as to why we couldn’t have a simple lobby system, and is probably one of the only things that brings down Tekken Tag Tournament 2 on the Wii U.

The online performance, thankfully, is largely competent. Players can enjoy matches with other Australians with little to no lag, although international matches were admittedly more hit and miss as you would expect. We did experience the occasional major lag spike every now and then, but otherwise everything else seemed to run silky smooth.

In terms of longevity, it really depends on how much you enjoy your fighters. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 boasts arguably one of the biggest rosters in the genre, nearly reaching a total of sixty characters to play around with, and a large majority of them have their own unique styles. Compound this with the fact that each has a unique ending video, the plethora of modes available, and the online functionality and you’ve got a very well rounded package that is bound to provide players with hours of fun. If you’re not a fan of the genre – I’ll be honest, it’s probably not going to woo you over, but the sheer variety of characters means you’ll probably be able to sit down and play it mindlessly with friends for a while before getting bored.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition is a fully competent port of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, but boasts extra features that almost make it the superior product. Unfortunately, a few weird choices with regards to a lack of online lobbies and cumbersome online setup prevent it from truly reaching its full potential. I’m really unsure as to why Namco Bandai didn’t bother to try to implement lobbies, given that other Wii U launch titles did it without hassle (and with voice chat too), but all things aside this is a very substantial package that any casual or professional player should consider investing in. The sheer amount of content ensures that you and your friends will have fun, and the unique extras are cool if not hilarious. Just make sure you’ve got someone else to play with (either online or offline) first.