This is my favorite fighting game ever, no lie. So, where to start from... Hmmm... There's 59 characters. Yup. There's only like 10 clones or so, and even then, they have different moves and different properties to some of the shared moves. Besides, some of these characters are here just to please the fans, and that's what this game is about, pleasing the fans and celebrating Tekken. Almost every character from previous games are in here, the few exceptions are Jack 1, Jack 2, Gunjack and Jack 4, however, Jack 6 takes their place. There's also missing Gon, for obvious copyright reasons, but then again, Gon is not really part of Tekken, so he's not a necessity. There's also Kuma 1, Armor King 1,King 1 and Roger missing, but King 2 , Armor King 2, Roger Jr. and Kuma 2 take their place, and they looked the same anyways.
Just as there are loads of characters, there are loads of modes. Arcade ladder, Ghost Battle, Time Attack, Survival... and then, you can also play in pair-play mode, with 2 players, each one playing as one character on the "Team". Customization returns, but I'll speak of it later. There's also Fight Lab, and while it was presented as a "great tutorial into all that is Tekken", that's an exageration. It teaches you some basics, but you are left to do most of the work. For example, it teaches you what a launcher is, but since each character has different launchers, it's up to you to find them out. Fight Lab will not make you a master at Tekken, it will just teach you rough fundamentals, with some funny missions.
Speaking of customization, it's a step back from Tekken 6. Now "Arms and chest" got grouped into Chest, "Legs and feet" into Legs, and creating hairstyles got a tad more cumbersome. The accesory department got expanded though, with lots of "in-hand" equipables, and most swords and knives are usable in battle! Most of them have a slow startup and deal little damage, so they won't affect a serious match, being there mostly just for show. It does feel like there are less pieces of clothing though, and some of them don't look too good on the characters. Luckily, most of previous alternate costumes from the characters are unlockable for equipping(You have to unlock both Chest and Legs pieces though, or just mix them with other clothings, who's judging?) and they do look good. Most of the unlocking is done in Ghost Battle, however what you unlock is random, so it could take a while before you complete your favorite character's wardrobe. It's worth noting that characters do have default alternate costumes, but most of them are really, really bad and feel completely uninspired, probably made in a couple of seconds just to have them. The game does provide around 10 slots per characters, so you can make up for them.
The game looks amazing. While I feel, but can't prove, that the bodies feel a bit more streamlined, characters are still impossibly detailed, I dare say the most realistic muscles in a videogame ever. Characters algo get dirty and/or wet as they fall into the various types of ground, it looks really good. One thing I disliked though, is that replays got shorter, now it only plays the last 3 seconds before the killing blow, which is quite dissapointing. The music is your usual Tekken Techno, it's a shame they also got rid of the "Play your own music at any time" from Tekken 6, but the music is good. Voice Acting is great, each character speaks in it's native language! Portuguese, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, German, Japanese, English.... it proves just how much attention to detail they payed. Oh, actually, Lars is half german, but still speaks Japanese, go figure. Another neat touch, is how endings(Yeah, endings! In a fighting game! Again! Finally! REAL ENDINGS, WITH ANIMATION AND NO TEXT!) use many and different styles. Some are in FMVs, some are handdrawn, some use different filters... there are loads of different ending styles, and it's so good!. And, obviously, they reek of Tekken's trademark humor.
Gameplay is your tried and true Tekken fighting system, forged in fire through over 7 iterations of the franchise, with the addition of tag mechanics. It's not just tagging, there's tag assaults and tag throws too, and a bunch of defensive tag additions. Wanna tag in safely? Just give up you red health and rage, and you can tag in while on the ground. Like the previous Tekken Tag Tournament, characters recover red health when they are not active, and rage is activated when you take damage... however, it's your partner character who gets enraged. There's a whole Allegation chart, based on character relationships, that can make your partner get enraged sooner, or take more time, depending on who's his partner. Wait, learning two characters is too hard? Well, characters do have at least 60 moves, some go beyond a 100, and all those stances... worry no longer, you can go 1 v 2(Or 1 v 1, if you are boring). Playing as one character limits your options, since you no longer have access to all those neat tag mechanics, but you do get more health, and get enraged sooner, still, fun people play as two characters.
Tekken Tag 2 is an extremely fun game, proof of that is that I spent over 10 hours fooling around in ghost mode before even going to Arcade mode and getting the endings, it's that good(Also, the fact that most of my friends dislike Tekken. If you are reading this, EFF YOU, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.). It's not totally perfect though, I dislike how Arcade Mode and Survival mode are littered with crappy looking custom characters instead of their default looks. Also, most oponents "pretend" to be players, so you'll be running against the same teams multiple times, I've had prefered random teams, like Tekken Tag 1!. Also, there are few victory poses and special victory poses, specially for a game as big as this one. Then there's the "free" dlc. Yes, it's free, but if you don't have Internet,or 10 years from now, when PSN and XLive are dead, you won't have access to around 10 characters. All of these are just nitpicks though, and hardly get in the way of your enjoyment with TTT2.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the best Tekken yet. If you don't like Tekken, this game won't change your mind. If you do, this is a no brainer.
10 out of 10.
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