Archview #40: Tekken 3D Prime Edition

 Most disappointing Tekken game ever? Probably( Hey, I didn't expect much of Advance Edition)

 Tekken Prime can  be summed up as a very barebones Tekken 6 port. Y'see, this game is very much based on Tekken 6, from the character roster and their movesets, to the stages and music. It also has the same balancing, although not the same modes...
 As soon as you pop up the game, you'll come up with the first flaw of this game: The menus are boring. It's very minor, yes, but when you add it up to other shortcomings(More on this later), it just shows that the game was rushed. Then the next flaw hits you: There's not much to do. You have Survival, which would be the main "Single Player" mode, Versus, Quick Battle and Practice. The first mode, Survival, comes in many varieties: 5-man survival, 10-man survival, 20-man survival, 40-man survival(With two EX variations) and 100-man survival. Clearing this mode grants the player Tekken Cards and Card Points.

 Versus Mode is, as it implies, multiplayer, it can be played either localy or online. Quick Battle has you battling 10 oponents and rewards you with Card Points, it's also the only Single Player Mode in which you can raise your rank, although mostly cosmetic, is the only way to unlock colors(There is no customization mode). As for the Practice Mode, it's pretty standard stuff. One of the most disappointing things you'll notice is that there are no endings. They probably meant to make up for it with the Tekken Cards, but they are a pretty sad excuse, even if the art is really good and there's over 700 of them.
 The game plays just like any other Tekken game, and while the buttons response is spot-on, neither analog nor digital pad are suited for Tekken. You can set up 4 short cuts in the Touch Screen, eight if you use the L and/or R button as "modifier". Call me a purist, but I just deactivated L and R buttons and comepletely ignored the touchscreen.

 The graphics are pretty good, if jaggy. Models look like downgraded Tekken 6 models, and I don't mean that in a bad way. The animation is as smooth as you would expect of Tekken, and all the pretty sparks made it in. Playing in 3D is just a gimmick, it neither enhances nor hinders the experience. Most Stages from Tekken 6 are in, plus a bunch of new ones. As for the characters, all 40 characters from Tekken 6 are in, altough Heihachi has his Tekken Tag 2 moveset and looks, and for a while, it was, for fans like me, the best selling point of the game: A sneak peak at Heihachi from TTT2. Just like Tekken 6, most characters speak in their native languages, although coming from TTT2, where every characters speaks his own language, is a bit of a downer. The music is your usual Techno stuff, and even if you are not a fan, it's pretty nice.
 Sadly, there's not much else to say about the game. There are no notable unlockables, unless colors are your thing, and it takes a long time to unlock every color for each character. Tekken Cards are barely rewarding, but if you want, there's like 700 of them. Tekken Prime also comes bundled with Tekken: Blood Vengeance, as a movie it's pretty bad(But the fight scenes are amazing, specially the Heihachi-Jin-Kazuya threeway) but it's probably the best Tekken movie.
 There's something odd about Tekken Prime, it lacks content and it's probably the most barebones Tekken game out there... however, Tekken gameplay is pretty excellent, so I found myself playing it. A lot. So all in all, as a Tekken game, it's a let down. As a game itself, it's passable.
 6 out of 10.