Namco’s Tekken 4 has to rank as one of the most-anticipated PS2 titles of the year. While it doesn’t radically change the formula, fighting game fans should love all the changes such as walled arenas and graded floors that keep things interesting. Typically manic gameplay has returned, with the massive combos and crushing speed players have come to expect. Tekken 4 also sports an improved graphics engine that marks huge improvement from the previous games. This is a solid step forward for Tekken, but is it enough? The Laser finds out if these changes enough to keep up with the advances the other major fighing series have made.

Even though it’s been one of the longest-running and most popular fighting series on the market, Tekken has never received the respect that other series get. The knock against Tekken is that it’s just a mindless button masher, with little in the way of depth in its gameplay. This was true to some degree with the earliest installments, but the last few installments were really excellent. Namco has worked hard to change this perception, so while on the surface, it may seem to be more of the same, major changes, tweaks and new features have been added to make Tekken 4 easily the deepest and most satisfying in the series to date. Featuring both minor and significant changes, the gameplay is still familiar enough that veterans can jump right in. Set 20 years after the original, it’s surprising that most of the cast from the original games returns, though they look a little older now. For example, Law has grown facial hair, while Paul looks a little older. Unfortunately, Heihachi also returns, as do some of the lamer characters. Luckily, the giant pandas seem to be a thing of the past this time around. Surprisingly, it’s the new characters who seem to be the weakest entrants in the latest King of Iron Fist Tournament because they lack the style and pizzazz of the original cast.

Tekken 4’s gameplay and controls feel very familiar. In fact, the game plays a lot like the previous titles in the series, though there are some subtle differences that should shift your strategies a little bit. Despite featuring 9 modes of play, 4 new characters, and improved graphics, the biggest change comes in the structure of the levels, which now have breakable objects, graded floors and walls, which significantly changes the strategy behind the game. This makes it possible to block in an opponent and finish them off, as in Dead or Alive while the graded floors and makes the high, medium and low attacks much more important. This definitely keeps the gameplay fresh, while retaining many of the classic Tekken moves.

Contrary to the series’ reputation as a mindless button masher, Tekken 4 has a surprising amount of depth and strategy. While some players will find the standard four-button layout limiting, you can configure the buttons to your liking, adding single touch combos to your arsenal. As always, the game play is much improved if you’ve invested in arcade joystick, but Tekken 4 still plays well with the d-pad. It’s still easy to get into, but there’s a lot more underneath, especially when you factor in the combos, throws, chains each character’s unique attack styles. These strengths and weaknesses, differing attack styles and combos makes things interesting. Playing as different characters really helps you appreciate these differences, with some characters having stronger kicks, and some who are better at punching.

There are also innovative moves implemented for the returning characters, which should please veterans such as new kicks and throws, though there’s still an excellent balance between the characters. As usual, when you’re knocked down, you can perform a quick attack when you get up, which is pretty cool. You can also put an opponent off guard by changing your position, a process which has been vastly improved since Tekken Tag Tournament. Most attacking moves remain tied to the series famous multi-string combos. Tekken 4’s depth really becomes evident when you factor in throwing a and blocking maneuvers as well, which makes mastering the game require more than hitting buttons at random. Tekken’s trademark fast & frenetic gameplay remains largely intact with this new installment, which means most battles are over quickly. As is the tradition of the series, most matches are games of momentum. Once you string together a devastating series of attacks you seriously deplete the opponents’ energy bar, leaving them little room to recover.

While it’s not as deep as other fighting games in terms of moves, there’s still plenty to like abou the game. There are nine different modes of play including Story, Time Attack, Arcade, Team and Vs. modes. Story mode is the most interesting and provides the player with a strong motiviation to keep playing. Time Attack challenges you to off a series of opponents as quickly as possible. There is also a straight-forward Arcade mode which is cool when you want to blow off steam in a quick match. These modes are all nicely tied together and add more to the experience. Tekken 4 also has some quite useful training and practice modes, which allow you to refine your strategies in a safe environment. This single player modes is excellent and allows you to concentrate on your timing, skill and overall technique and should make you a better player overall. A big help is that these modes display the name of the move and the damage percent on screen when you perform them, which is a cool feature other games have utilized.

One area where the series has never taken much criticism is in its interface, which makes the game easy to play for novice and elite players alike. Tekken 4’s controls are excellent, and have been so fine tuned at this point that you’d expect nothing less than tight and responsive inputs that make performing moves a breeze. There’s a good flow to each battle as you gain and lose the edge with each attack. You can adjust the difficulty, but the opponents’ AI is puts up a surprisingly difficult challenge. A new version of the classic Tekken Force mode where you attack opponents in a scrolling adventure reminiscent of Final Fight, then face a final boss. While you only start with a few characters, more become available as you win complete various modes, with more than 20 available in all. There are also other cool features and you can unlock other hidden surprises such as extra costumes later on. While this is cool, it’s not as clever as Virtua Fighter’s Kumite mode and once again Namco is following the leaders, instead of coming up with new ideas. Still, it’s a decent game that should satisfy most fans of the genre with solid action and fighting.