Retro Review: Tekken 4

A new era of fighting.

 Tekken 4 was the first mainline game to release on PS2 way back in 2002. Namco's follow-up to its hit Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament games featured a sleeker, but moody style for the 21st century, along with gameplay revisions and new faces. During its release, it received complaints for being slower than past games and lacking the roster size of Tag Tournament. Still, I've always been interested in Tekken 4, especially after seeing how cool the urban levels looked compared to the new games. Anyway, since I've been in a Tekken mood lately, it's time to delve into the 4th King of Iron Fist Tournament. 

 The Story Mode picks up two years after the events of Tekken 3 and sees Kazuya Mishima back from the dead with a vengeance. His father, Heihachi, hosts the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4 in order to beat him and his grandson Jin Kazama and steal their devil powers for himself. It's the tried and true family drama we've come to expect from the series and this time, there's a few new faces with Christie Monteiro and Steve Fox, both with their unique stories. Other character stories like Xiaoyu's were light-hearted and on the fun side as well. The game will task you to replay the story mode multiple times to unlock characters like Heihachi and Jin, so you'll be sticking around here for a while.

 Tekken 4 is the same good old Tekken where you pick your favorite character and fight through a bunch of stages to reach the end boss. Each button is mapped to a characters limb, so it's pretty straightforward to play. New in Tekken 4 were stage bounds that restrict movements as you won't backtrack infinitely like in past games. Also, there's a new swap maneuver that lets you switch places between you and the opponent when executed correctly. The roster features 23 characters, which is smaller than Tag's but still good as Steve, Christie, and Marduck were fun to play. Other modes include Arcade, Survival, Time Attack, Team Battle, and Tekken Force, a 3D beat em up mode where you fight hordes of enemies in various stages and earn a high score.

 Tekken Force would later return in following games with how engaging it was. The game offers an amazing selection of stages to fight in such as the likes of a sunny beach, shopping mall, thick jungle and even an airport, which were a refreshing bunch. These are by far my favorite selection of stages in the series by far as I found myself replaying the mall and airport stages constantly. Replay-vale is high as you'd expect from replaying the story to unlock more characters and the abundance of game modes, so the game will last you quite a while.

 Tekken 4 was a fantastic-looking game for the time, having a stylish art-direction and darker atmosphere, which I was a fan of. The character models and backgrounds all have an urban, sleek look to them-- aside from Heihachi's story costume --that held up well by today's standards. The voicework was good, even though everyone talks in different languages. Seeing Jin speak English in Hworang's ending was funny though. One of the game's highlights has to be the soundtrack, as it's one of the series' best. Packing many upbeat, relaxing, and tense tracks, it's one that leaves an impression. My faves were "Touch and Go", "Kitsch", "Jet", "Didgerythm", "Authentic Sky", "Fear", and "Hex".

 All in all, Tekken 4 was a drastic-yet-memorable entry in the series that's getting its due praise in recent times. I enjoyed the stylish presentation, new characters, and Tekken Force mode. The gameplay is still just as fun to play, with a bunch of modes to keep you invested. While newer games have definitely improved upon it, Tekken 4 is still a must-play if you're a fan of the series.