This will basically be my general thoughts going forward in my gaming hobby.

First of all, I'm glad to be done with the Tekken reviews for now. Reviewing a bunch of games from the same series in order was a decent idea I think, but it was kinda time consuming. I did it for Smackdown and then for Tekken, and I'm not sure if I'll ever do it again for a franchise with a lot of games. I might do it for the Max Payne games when Max Payne 3 is close to release, but that would be much easier considering there's only two of them.

Anyway, I did get to play Tekken 6, at my friend's house, briefly. Not long enough to give detailed thoughts, I'm just going to run through a few thoughts. I didn't play it online but it is nice that the series went online. As for what I did play, I have a few gripes. First of all, Rage. When you drop down to 10% health your attacks suddenly get more powerful, making come from behind victories slightly easier to pull off. I'm not a big fan of that, to be honest. Come from behind victories happen in the older Tekken games as well, but because of skill only. Rage kinda takes a bit away from the skill-based nature of the game.

The other gripe I have is with the load times. They're pretty long, which strikes me as odd. The PS2 which was a console that was known for having some long load times. Even on the PS2, the Tekken games had load times that were pretty much non-existent. So, I find it strange, for the first Tekken game on the PS3 and Xbox 360, suddenly the load times are super long, when these consoles are supposed to be more powerful.

But other than that, it still plays like Tekken and it's still a great game. I'd recommend it. I'll definitely buy it when I get a PS3 or 360.

Speaking of which, I'm still considering getting a PS3 or a 360 when my tax returns come in. Right now, I'm heavily leaning toward the PS3. Not necessarily because of brand loyalty, more like it just strikes me as the better console at the moment. The PS3's exclusives appeal to me more than the 360's exclusives. Plus, I just don't like the idea of paying an extra monthly fee for online play after shelling out $300 for a console and anywhere from $30 to $60 for a game. Online isn't the most important feature to me anyway. So right now I'm strongly leaning toward the PS3 but I might opt for a Wii, partly because of the backward compatibility with Gamecube games. Then again, I might not buy any new console at all.

Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier comes out in 2 days for the PS2. I preordered my copy on Amazon. My first new release game in 2 years. I'm so glad that this series is continuing, but even more glad that it's continuing on the PS2. Next, we need Sly Cooper 4!

After a 4-year wait, the newest Tekken game will finally hit store shelves tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm excited. Those who have been following my posts for this past month know I've posted reviews for every single Tekken game (with the exception of the handheld ones). This has become, in a way, Tekken month. I've played more hours of Tekken this month than I've probably played for the 9 months prior. I'm so psyched.

Trying to sum up my love for this series has been difficult to put into words. Back in 1995 and 96, I was still trying to master Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. I had played Virtua Fighter but I wasn't the biggest fan of it at the time. When I played Tekken for the first time, it really blew me away. Before long, Tekken became my fighting game of choice. I think it had something to do with the learning curve. Tekken always struck me as a more accessible kind of game than Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter. It was a challenging game (especially the early ones), but it was easy to get into at the same time.

I always loved playing Tekken with my brother or my friends. I would always destroy them. Seriously, I completely dominated. I loved it. The AI was generally pretty good, but playing against friends was the most fun. I firmly believe that Tekken has the most crisp, fluid and fun fighting system on the market today. Beating the crap out of your opponents is satisfying on a level unmatched by its competitors.

Single player is great too, in no small part because of the storylines. Tekken has built such a mythology around their characters, particularly the main story characters (the Mishima clan), that you legitimately care about these characters, and it adds such a great dynamic to the fights. The only other fighting series that's really done that in my eyes is Mortal Kombat, but I haven't been nearly as impressed with the gameplay in the 3D Mortal Kombat games, especially when compared to Tekken.

A common criticism I've heard many times about Tekken is the lack of change in the series. I admit, Tekken 5 still plays an awful lot like the original Tekken. Sometimes, the changes can be subtle, but the series has been slowly refined and improved over the years. The characters have gotten better (and we've gotten more of them), increasingly powerful combos have been added, and plenty of small refinements have made the game more fun to play. In all honestly, this series doesn't need to change.

Another thing I love about Tekken is the fact that the developers go above and beyond the call of duty when porting the game to home consoles. Unlike most fighting franchises, Tekken is known for having minigames, most notably beat-em-ups like Tekken Force and Devil Within. Tekken Tag Tournament even has a bowling minigame. This stuff adds a lot of replay value to their respective games, even if the quality of these minigames can be hit or miss. But really, it always comes back to the fighting.

All in all, I've probably played Tekken games for, thousands of hours of my life. It's a staple franchise for me. It would probably be in my Top 10 franchises of all time. I've loved every game in the series, except for the lone blemish on the series, spin-off game Death By Degrees. As for the actual fighting games in the series, though, I've racked up hundreds of hours on each of them, and had a great time trying to master this series.

We've waited a long time for Tekken 6. Whether it's going to end up as the best game in the series, is up for debate. But in the end, I'm very happy to see this franchise continue, and I hope they continue to improve and expand on this, my favorite 3D fighting franchise.

My Tekken Reviews:

Tekken (ARC)
Tekken 2 (ARC)
Tekken 3 (PS)
Tekken Tag Tournament (PS2)
Tekken 4 (PS2)
Death By Degrees (PS2)
Tekken 5 (PS2)

I wasn't planning on posting a blog to promote this review (at least until my Tekken series blog, which I'll post in a few days). But I so enjoyed this review, I wanted to make sure people knew about it. Usually, when I post blogs advertising my reviews, a lot more people read them and comment. Of all the reviews I've written, this one might be my favorite. My favorite review, that is, not my favorite game (not by a long shot!).

Death By Degrees review

I did it in the same sort of way I did my A Bug's Life review a while back. That one was pretty well-received so I hope this one will be too. Please read the review and post your comments here. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. I can handle criticism.