Tekken Series

Like Need for Speed, any of the Tekken installments will do if you wish to get an intriguing gaming experience. If you're the type that enjoys good stories, then you may want to start with the first game. When it comes to select fighting games, I usually find myself selecting and playing characters that are easy to use; lazy I know.

Tekken was the first fighting game played where I didn't stick to a small group of characters. I also practiced with every character available for each installment played.

Tekken 2

This was played on the PlayStation console which was a jump up from the Super NES at the time. Before this, Killer Instinct (KI) and Mortal Kombat 4 (MK) were the only fighting games in my vocabulary. Jun Kazama was the first character I played and the others fell in after.

Much like KI, the background music always catches my attention and I would often find myself in practice listening to said music. The only difference this time around was the fact that my music listening spree was covered up by the training instructions.

Tekken 3

Tekken 3 received the same treatment as the second where all characters were used. Combo chains in this installment were simple for me to grasp which made combos a little easier to achieve; I had a hard time with them in 2. Practice mode was still a go-to for music listening, but quickly turned into a go-to for actually practicing.

This time around, your opponent could do more than just standing around taking hits. You could actually have a sparring match along with adjust the fight difficulty accordingly. Another favorite was Theater Mode.

I could listen to the game's music collection and watch character videos during breaks. Though I think one of my favorite modes was the one with the giant beach volleyball.

Tekken Tag Tournament

A nice change from the typical 1-on-1 match-ups. One of the things that I observed was the pairing of characters and how they reacted to the other. Some pairings were neutral while others were on the tense side.

Pairing Nina and Anna together was one of the more interesting combos even more so after a fight loss. Of the mini games I really enjoyed Tekken Bowl. It was a bowling game where your pair of fighters take turns bowling with the aim of getting a high score each round.

The addition of the crowd was nice but you had to be careful not to send the ball in their direction; which is possible by the way. Another bonus from this game was the ability to play the Arcade Mode of past Tekken games. This is how I was able to play Tekken 1 and there was a major difference between 1 and 2 in terms of fighter responsiveness after command inputs.

Tekken 4, 5 and TTT2

My only experience with Tekken 4 was on an arcade machine and it was played once. My first introduction to Tekken 5 was through a game trailer from the Holiday Demo Disc I received in the mail. I didn't have a PS2 yet at this time, but my brother loaned me his.

A couple of years later I was able to get my own PS2 and some years after that I started playing Tekken 5. This was the last installment of the series that I personally played. The cinematic from the demo disc was the opening for the game and it was interesting to watch especially when some familiar faces made an appearance.

One of my favorite features was the customization of characters. A second favorite was Practice Mode. This would be the first of all the installments where a bulk of my time is spent.

The picturesque fight stages were nice, and the training sequence was highly engaging. My fight combos in this game was better plus I could customize the controls to make the execution of each sequence seamless. As an added bonus, the music team never fails to deliver.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 hasn't been played; however, I have sampled the soundtrack online. Fontana di Trevi (video below) is one of my favorites from this installment followed by Heavenly/Fallen Garden.