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Profile
General: After Tekken Tag Tournament, Namco decided to return to the story of Tekken, and thus released The King of Iron Fist 4. The gameplay was enhanced, with the latest tweaks and updates to the fan-loved gameplay engine: including the position change, side walking, and more realistic 3D environments now with walls and obstacles, as well as un-leveled floors unlike the previous "free roaming" stages of all previous versions of Tekken.
Among the new characters and fighting styles comes Steve Fox, a boxer, whom adds a well needed touch to the series... Finally, "a boxer" in Tekken. Marduk takes the place of Jack, as the "powerhouse," but with a completely different move set and aggressive Vale Tudo fighting style. And the last newcomer, Christie fights nearly exactly the same as Eddy Gordo (only a few new moves), although she's maybe just a bit much more fun to look at. However, most fans would have appreciated a few MORE new characters... Even considering that Jin Kazama has a completely new move set, there are only 3 new characters (movesets) in this game. Maybe Namco could have done more, but us fans took it and enjoyed it.
Some people enjoyed the newly introduced "wall game," others hated it (because they couldn't run away)... Ha Ha!!! The wall game definitely needed some work, but overall, Tekken 4's gameplay is still fast and furious. The addition of interactive environments changed a lot about the once "linear" gameplay, and involved a lot more moving around. The new side walk is a great addition which makes for smoother (but slower) sidestepping. Fighting on "slanted" and uneven ground also had a big impact on the gameplay, allowing for much longer combo possibilities when paired with a wall; but also allowed for some cheap tactics to be used. Because of the big gameplay change, infinite combos did pop up which pretty much "broke" the game at high level play.
The home version of Tekken 4 (PS2) was a good package. It included an update to the Tekken Force mode found in Tekken 3, featuring an over-the-shoulder view style beat-em-up game, where you could use any character to beat down hoards of enemies. Along with Theater Mode, and a cool and stylish VS mode, Tekken 4 was a great game to be playing for the time at when it released for the PS2. The graphics also translated perfectly, and the game of course still ran at a smooth 60 fps with minimal slowdown.
In Tekken
4, characters still don't really "talk" that much. And while they've never
really been "the talkative bunch," people have still loved the characters.
However, if Namco wishes to enhance the series further, the Tekken characters
are going to need to learn how to speak... More. And some personalized
intros between rival characters wouldn't hurt either. Why not? Tekken 3,
is hard to rival in presentation, so Tekken 4 really needed to step up
with the intro and endings. In my opinion, Tekken 3's intro and endings
blow Tekken 4's out of the water. Actually, Tekken 4's endings sucked for
the most part, except for a few (like Kuma's... Or Marduk's). 
Manufacturer: Namco
Platforms: Arcade,
Playstation 2
Release: 2001
Characters:
Kazuya,
Law,
Hwoarang,
King,
Christie,
Steve,
Marduk,
Nina,
Jin,
Xiaoyu,
Bryan,
Lei,
Paul,
Yoshimitsu,
Lee,
Julia,
Combot,
Kuma,
Panda,
Eddy,
Heihachi
Related Games:
Tekken,
Tekken 2,
Tekken 3, Tekken
Advance, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken
5, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Tekken:
Dark Resurrection, Tekken 5: Dark
Resurrection Online, Tekken 6
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Closing Comment: While the series took a nice step forward with the addition of some new gameplay elements, many fans were still enjoying Tekken Tag Tournament, and in some ways, getting more enjoyment out of the previous installment... The gameplay in Tekken 4 was different (yet fun for some), even though it was considered "broken" by many in high level play. Either way, Tekken 4 was a quality and fun fighting game engine that casual fans enjoyed at the time, although many "Tekken Lords" despised Tekken 4's nasty glitches and infinites. Even so, I still played the hell out of this game... Then came Tekken 5. ~F.Yagami, Webmaster of TFG
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